Pink Tourmaline Identification Guide

What Pink Tourmaline Looks Like

Pink tourmaline is the pink-to-red variety of elbaite, colored by manganese. Deeper red examples are called rubellite.

• Color: Pale pink to hot pink, rose, and red; can be slightly purplish.
• Luster: Vitreous.
• Transparency: Transparent to translucent.
• Habit: Long prismatic crystals with a rounded-triangular cross-section and strong lengthwise striations on the prism faces.

Step-by-Step Field ID Checklist

1. Check the cross-section. A rounded triangle (trigonal) with curved faces is highly diagnostic.
2. Look for striations. Prominent parallel grooves run along the crystal length.
3. Test pleochroism. Rotate the stone — pink tourmaline shows two distinct shades (lighter and darker), strong dichroism.
4. Hardness test. Scratches glass; about 7–7.5.
5. Look for doubling of back facets through the table (double refraction).

Key Diagnostic Tests

• Mohs hardness: ~7–7.5.
• Streak: White.
• Cleavage: Indistinct/poor — fracture is uneven to conchoidal.
• Density: ~3.0–3.1 g/cm³.
• Optical: Strongly doubly refractive and pleochroic; may be pyroelectric/piezoelectric (attracts dust when warmed/rubbed).

Common Look-Alikes and How to Tell Them Apart

• Pink garnet (rhodolite): Isotropic (no pleochroism, no doubling), denser (~3.8), equant dodecahedral crystals; tourmaline is doubly refractive with prismatic striated crystals.
• Morganite (pink beryl): Hexagonal, weaker pleochroism, density ~2.8, harder (7.5–8).
• Kunzite: Perfect cleavage and very strong pleochroism; cleaves where tourmaline does not.
• Pink sapphire: Much harder (9), denser (~4.0).
• Rose quartz/pink glass: Quartz lacks striated trigonal prisms; glass is singly refractive with bubbles.

Where Pink Tourmaline Is Found

Major sources include Brazil, Madagascar, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Mozambique, Nigeria, and the USA (California's Pala district, Maine). It crystallizes in granitic pegmatites with quartz, feldspar, and lepidolite.