October's birthstones, Opal and Tourmaline
Congratulations and happy birthday to all our friends and readers with October birthdays! Besides being your birth month, you also have Halloween celebrations and fall fashion to love. To add to your exciting day, we are sharing with you 10 amazing facts about your birthstones.
1. Tourmalines are mined everywhere in the world including Africa, Afghanistan, Africa, Australia, Brazil, Kenya, Madagascar, and other counties. It’s even mined in Southern California.
2. Tourmaline occurs in every color of the rainbow and in combinations of two or three colors, like watermelon tourmaline.
3. Ancient legend says that tourmaline is found in all colors because it traveled along a rainbow and gathered all the rainbow's colors.
4. The Egyptians used tourmaline for both physical and emotional remedies. They firmly believed that tourmaline could heal the nervous system, blood diseases and lymph glands.
5. The last Empress of China, Empress Dowager Tzu Hsi was in love with pink tourmaline. So much so that most of the pink tourmaline that was ever mined in Southern California belonged to her collection.
6. Opal has been found on Mars! It is one of only a handful of gemstones that have ever been discovered outside of our planet
7. Australia produces around 95% of the world's opals. Most of this Opal is white Opal from the fields of Coober Pedy in South Australia.
8. The ancient Romans considered it a symbol of hope and good fortune.
9. Opals were Queen Victoria’s favorite gemstone.
10. Opals take approximately 5-6 million years to form in the Earth.
Sources:
https://www.opalauctions.com/learn/did-you-know/10-awesome-facts-about-opals
https://blog.ice.com/2014/10/01/october-birthstone-opals/
http://www.bernardine.com/gemstones/tourmaline.htm
http://www.gemsbrokers.org/gemstone/gems_and_gemology/tourmaline_myths.htm
https://www.leaf.tv/articles/interesting-facts-about-tourmaline/