Violet Tourmaline Identification Guide
A field guide to identifying Violet Tourmaline, the purple variety of elbaite, and telling it from amethyst, scapolite and glass.
Read the full Violet Tourmaline encyclopedia entry →
What Violet Tourmaline Looks Like
Violet Tourmaline is a purple-to-violet variety of elbaite tourmaline, colored chiefly by manganese (overlapping into the pink/rubellite range).
- Color: violet, purple, lilac to reddish-purple; often strongly pleochroic.
- Luster: vitreous.
- Transparency: transparent to translucent.
- Crystal habit: long trigonal prisms, rounded-triangular cross-section, heavy lengthwise striations.
Step-by-Step Field Checklist
- Inspect the cross-section for the rounded triangular tourmaline outline.
- Find vertical striations on prism faces, a near-certain tourmaline sign.
- Test pleochroism: rotate the stone in light; violet tourmaline shifts tone with viewing angle, often more strongly than amethyst.
- Check hardness: scratches glass cleanly (Mohs 7-7.5).
- Look for color zoning to pink, blue or colorless within the same crystal.
Key Diagnostic Tests
- Mohs hardness: 7-7.5.
- Streak: white.
- Cleavage: none/poor; uneven to conchoidal fracture (unlike many purple minerals).
- Density: ~3.0-3.1 g/cm3.
- Pyro-/piezoelectric: warmed or rubbed crystals attract dust, diagnostic of tourmaline.
- No acid reaction.
Common Look-Alikes
- Amethyst (purple quartz): hexagonal prisms with rhombohedral terminations, weaker pleochroism, density ~2.65 (lower than tourmaline). Amethyst shows angular color zoning; tourmaline shows striations and triangular sections.
- Purple scapolite: lower hardness (~6), good cleavage (tourmaline has none).
- Purple sapphire/spinel: much harder/denser; spinel is singly refractive (no pleochroism).
- Glass imitations: gas bubbles, no pleochroism, no striations.
- Kunzite (spodumene): strong cleavage and a more lilac-pink pleochroism; tourmaline lacks cleavage.
Where It Is Found
Violet and purple elbaite comes from granite pegmatites in Brazil, Nigeria, Mozambique, Madagascar, Afghanistan and Pakistan, often associated with pink (rubellite) and bicolor tourmaline.
Frequently asked questions
How can you tell if it's real Violet Tourmaline?
Look for trigonal striated prisms with a rounded-triangular cross-section, strong pleochroism, Mohs 7-7.5, no cleavage, and the pyroelectric dust-attraction effect when warmed.
Violet Tourmaline vs amethyst, how do they differ?
Amethyst is quartz with six-sided crystals, lower density (~2.65), and weaker pleochroism, while violet tourmaline is denser (~3.05), shows lengthwise striations and triangular sections, and a stronger color shift.
What causes the purple color in Violet Tourmaline?
It is manganese-bearing elbaite; manganese and color-center effects produce the violet-to-purple hues, overlapping the pink rubellite range.
Does Violet Tourmaline have cleavage?
No, tourmaline lacks cleavage and breaks with an uneven to conchoidal fracture, which helps distinguish it from cleaving purple minerals like scapolite or spodumene.