Peridot Polished Stones
These polished peridot stones are currently the only pieces we have available. Lightly tumbled from material mined in Pakistan.
Peridot is one of the very few stones to occur in just one colour. Shades can very from a brownish green to yellowish green depending on the amount of iron present. The finest peridot tends to have more magnesium than iron.
Inclusions are common and where present in abundance will cause the stone to become opaque. The chromium rich mineral chromite is the most common inclusion.
Whilst most gemstones occur in Earth's crust, peridot and diamond occur in the upper mantle. Olivine is believed to make up as much as 50% of the upper mantle. Peridot is the gemstone variety of olivine. The mantle is the mostly solid bulk of Earth's interior.
Peridot crystallises at very high temperatures so is one of the first minerals to crystalise as magma cools. Due to the distance it has travel to get to the surface flawless stones are exceptionally rare.
Peridot is estimated to be somewhere in the region of 4.5 billion years old.
These rich green coloured stones all have minor flaws. This is very common in peridot because of the way it's forced up to the surface from the core of the earth. This is also the reason why most peridot gemstones are very small.
