MARCH BIRTHSTONE : AQUAMARINE

It is a known fact that a huge range of people all over the world believe in the birthstones and what these stones have to tell about the personality of an individual.

For the lucky individuals born in March, Aquamarine birthstone is associated with this early spring month.

If you happen to be one such individual, then you have landed on the right page.

The name Aquamarine speaks for itself, meaning seawater. Aquamarine immediately brings to mind its stunning pastel sky blue or the bright color of the sea.

For centuries, this timeless gemstone has been a symbol of youth, hope, health and fidelity. Since this gemstone is the color of water and the sky, it is said to embody eternal life. It was long thought that Aquamarine has a soothing influence on married couples, making it a good anniversary gift.

Aquamarines are found in a range of blues; from a pale pastel to a greenish-blue to a deep color. Darker shades of blue are increasingly rare and in turn, make the value increase. Aquamarine is frequently a pastel gemstone but the color can be more intense in larger gemstones, smaller aquamarines tend to be less vivid.

Aquamarine: A cool breeze on a warm day

By Carol Besler

Cool and warm

Aquamarine, the color of the sea on a warm tropical holiday or a cool iceberg in the Antarctic.

It is the color of earth’s life-giving forces, and surely one of the cheeriest on the colored gemstone palette.

It is most commonly associated with the sea; the name is Latin for seawater (aqua means water and marine means “of the sea”). Blue is a cool color, but there is something warm and breezy about aquamarine that makes it as perfect for a summer day as for a winter evening.

As the birthstone for March, it is the ideal color to usher in spring. This year, aquamarine is also the color of fall fashions: Marine Blue is one of the top ten Pantone Fall Fashion colors this year, and it made a splash on the runways of the fall ready-to-wear shows.

As a gem, aquamarine is accessible, beautiful and wearable – it can take a few knocks without chipping or scratching. Aquamarine is a greenish blue to blue green variety of the mineral species beryl. Emerald is also a beryl, but with trace amounts of chromium (and sometimes vanadium) which make green to bluish green in color.

AQUAMARINE BIRTHSTONE MEANING & HISTORY

Aquamarine’s name comes from the Latin for seawater, and ancient mariners claimed the gem would calm waves and keep sailors safe at sea. This March birthstone was also thought to bring happiness in marriage. Beryl was believed to give the wearer protection against foes in battle and litigation. It was also thought to make the wearer unconquerable and amiable, and to quicken the intellect.

Aquamarine is not only the birthstone for March, but the gem is also given as a present on the 19th wedding anniversary. As for famous ones, in 1936 the government of Brazil gave First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt a dark blue rectangular step cut aquamarine that weighed 1,298 carats (ct). It was the larger of two stones faceted from a piece of aquamarine rough that itself weighed an impressive 2.9 pounds (1.3 kilograms). It is now housed at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park, New York. A celebrated attraction at the Smithsonian Institution is the 10,363 ct (about 4.6 pounds) Dom Pedro Aquamarine – believed to be the largest faceted aquamarine in the world. The approximately 14 inch (36 centimeter) high obelisk was fashioned by acclaimed German lapidary Berndt Munsteiner using the fantasy cut technique.

WHERE IS AQUAMARINE FOUND?

The Brazilian state of Minas Gerais has been an important source of aquamarine for the past two centuries. Travel there and you’ll find a changing panorama of landscapes: rocky hills, rivers and scrub brush dominate the central and eastern regions; savannahs, forests and streams checker the west; and lush green hills roll southward. Aquamarines are found in primary (hard rock) and secondary (weathered) pegmatite deposits in the eastern portion of the state, near the gem center of Teófilo Otoni.

Aquamarine is also found high in the Karakorum foothills of Pakistan. To reach the deposits, miners must climb steep paths to elevations of 9,800 to 13,000+ feet (3,000 to more than 4,000 meters) and work the sides of forbidding cliffs. Below this inhospitable rocky world lie fertile valleys, rushing rivers and small towns. Aquamarine from this area has been described as “water clear.”