Occurence:
Madagascar, North America, Brazil, Myanmar (Burma), Africa, Siberia, Australia, Sri Lanka (Ceylon) Tourmaline is the national gemstone of the United States.

Appearance:
There are more colors of tourmaline than any other known gemstone. The lighter colored stones are more valuable. Tourmaline crystals grow in the hexagonal shape and tend to be long, pencil shape crystals. This crystal shape is the reason why long rectangular cuts are so frequently seen in Tourmaline.

All Tourmaline crystals begin as Colorless. Colors are absorbed when trace elements of seeping
liquids replace the normally present atoms. Tourmaline takes a wider variety of colors from these
trace elements than any other Gem.

Something Extra:
Tourmaline's name comes from the Sinhalese word "turmali," which means "mixed." Bright rainbow
collections of gemstone varieties were called "turmali" parcels. Tourmaline, occurring in more colors
and combinations of colors than any other gemstone variety, lives up to its name. There is a
tourmaline that looks like almost any other gemstone! Many stones in the Russian Crown jewels
from the 17th Century once thought to be rubies are actually tourmalines.

The Empress Dowager Tz'u Hsi, the last Empress of China, loved pink tourmaline and bought almost a ton of it from the new Himalaya Mine, located a long way from the Middle Country in California. The Himalaya Mine is still producing tourmaline today but the Dowager went to rest eternally on a carved tourmaline pillow.

Tourmaline is also of interest to scientists because it changes its electrical charge when heated. It
becomes a polarized crystalline magnet and can attract light objects. This property was noticed long
ago before science could explain it: in the Netherlands, tourmalines were called "aschentrekkers"
because they attracted ashes and could be used to clean pipes!

Tourmalines were also attributed the ability to build valuable friendships and business contacts, to enrich knowledge and intuition and to create harmony and social popularity.

The following are different colour of Toumaline
-    Bi-color Tourmaline
-    Cat's Eye Tourmaline
-    Chrome Tourmaline
-    Colorless Tourmaline
-    Green Tourmaline
-    Indicolite
-    Orange Tourmaline
-    Paraiba Tourmaline
-    Pink Tourmaline
-    Rubellite
-    Watermelon Tourmaline
-    Yellow Tourmaline