Why does peridot only come in one colour?

Because its green is intrinsic to the mineral rather than caused by a trace impurity. Iron in olivine's own structure produces the colour, so the only variation is in intensity and in how yellow or olive the stone looks. Almost every other gem gets its colour from a trace element that could have been something else.

Does peridot come from space?

Some does. Pallasite meteorites are iron-nickel masses with olivine crystals embedded, thought to come from the core-mantle boundary of destroyed planetesimals, and clean crystals from them are occasionally cut as gems. They are expensive and should come with documentation of the meteorite of origin.

Was ancient topaz actually peridot?

Much of it, yes. Classical topazos referred to material from Topazios, now identified as Zabargad in the Red Sea, which produced peridot rather than the mineral we call topaz. The names later migrated, and several medieval European treasury stones described as topaz or emerald have turned out to be peridot.

Can I wear peridot every day?

With care. At hardness 6.5 it scratches, and it is sensitive to acids and to sudden temperature change. It is fine in earrings and pendants; in a ring worn daily it will abrade, and it must not be steam or ultrasonically cleaned.

How do I identify real peridot?

Look through the table with a loupe at the opposite facet edges: peridot has high double refraction and the back facets appear visibly doubled. Glass shows no doubling and warms quickly in the hand. That single test separates it from nearly all its imitations.

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The gem silicates · Green ray

Peridot

Peridot is gem-quality olivine, and it comes from the earth's mantle rather than the crust. It occurs in only one colour, a yellowish green whose intensity depends on iron content, which makes it unusual among gems. It also arrives from space: pallasite meteorites contain olivine crystals, and some have been cut as gems.

At a glance

Olivine from the mantle, mined on a Red Sea island for three and a half thousand years, and found in meteorites.

Composition: (Mg,Fe)₂SiO₄
Crystal system: Orthorhombic
Hardness: Mohs 6.5
Family: The gem silicates
Colour ray: The green ray
Main sources: Pakistan, Myanmar, Arizona, China, Egypt (Zabargad)
Care: Hardness 6.5 and sensitive to acid and thermal shock. No steam cleaning.

Themes

brightness the mantle the single colour clarity what comes from below

What it actually is

Olivine, (Mg,Fe)2SiO4, orthorhombic, hardness 6.5.

Its green is intrinsic rather than caused by a trace impurity: iron in the mineral's own structure produces the colour, which is why peridot occurs in only one hue and varies only in intensity and in how yellow or olive it looks. Almost every other gem takes its colour from a trace element that could have been something else.

Olivine is a major constituent of the upper mantle, so peridot is genuinely mantle material brought to the surface by basaltic volcanism.

It has high double refraction, strong enough that facet edges appear doubled when you look through the table of a larger stone, which is a quick identification test.

Peridot is comparatively soft, sensitive to acids and prone to thermal shock, which makes it more demanding than its appearance suggests.

Where it comes from

Zabargad, an island in the Red Sea, was worked for at least three and a half thousand years and supplied Egypt and the classical Mediterranean. The deposit is largely exhausted.

Pakistan's Kashmir region produces exceptional large clean stones from high-altitude deposits found in the 1990s. Myanmar, China, Vietnam and Arizona in the United States are significant sources, with Arizona material coming from the San Carlos Apache reservation.

Hawaii's beaches contain olivine grains, and the green sand at Papakolea is largely olivine weathered out of basalt.

Pallasite meteorites, which are iron-nickel with olivine crystals embedded, occasionally yield material clean enough to facet, making peridot one of the very few gems available in an extraterrestrial version.

What the traditions claimed

Egypt worked Zabargad and called its stone the gem of the sun, and much of what the classical world called topazos was peridot from that island rather than the mineral now called topaz.

Medieval Europe inherited the confusion. A great deal of what was described as emerald or topaz in medieval treasuries turned out on modern examination to be peridot, including some of the stones in the shrine of the Three Kings at Cologne cathedral.

The lapidaries credit peridot with dispelling night terrors and, when set in gold, with protecting against evil spirits. Marbode gives it power over illusions.

Hawaiian tradition connects the olivine crystals in its beach sands with Pele, the volcano deity, and there is a widely respected local convention against removing volcanic material from the islands.

Modern practice reads peridot as a stone of renewal and of release from resentment, which is twentieth-century.

How it is worked with

Peridot's brightness is its character: it is one of very few gems that looks lively in poor light, because its yellowish green does not go dark the way deep red and blue stones do.

That suits questions about lifting something rather than resolving it, and the modern reading about letting go of resentment is a reasonable fit.

For wear, be careful. At hardness 6.5 it scratches, and it is sensitive to acids and to sudden temperature change. No steam cleaning, no ultrasonic, and keep it away from household acids.

Its mantle origin is worth sitting with. A peridot in your hand was, geologically speaking, part of the layer beneath the crust, and pallasite material was part of the core-mantle boundary of a destroyed planetesimal.

Buying it honestly

Peridot is comparatively little treated, which is another point in its favour. There is no standard heating or irradiation practice.

Green glass is the most common imitation and the temperature test separates it, as does the doubling of facet edges visible in genuine peridot through the table.

Synthetic forsterite, a magnesium olivine, is grown and appears occasionally.

Green tourmaline, green sapphire, chrysoberyl and green cubic zirconia are all sold as peridot at various price points.

Pallasite peridot is genuine but expensive and heavily marketed; ask for documentation of the meteorite it came from.

Fracture filling occasionally appears in included material and should be disclosed.

Handle with care

Hardness 6.5 and sensitive to acids and thermal shock. No steam cleaning, no ultrasonic cleaning, and keep it away from household acids and sudden temperature changes.

Küsimused järelemõtlemiseks

What am I still carrying that I could put down?
What in my life came from much deeper than I usually look?
Where would lifting something serve me better than solving it?

Follow the thread

🟢

Emerald

The other green gem, and the fragile one

🟢

Chrysoprase

Green at hardness 7 for far less

🗓️

August

Peridot is the month's main birthstone

🪨

The gem silicates

The family this stone belongs to

🟢

The green ray

The ray it carries

Frequently asked questions

: Because its green is intrinsic to the mineral rather than caused by a trace impurity. Iron in olivine's own structure produces the colour, so the only variation is in intensity and in how yellow or olive the stone looks. Almost every other gem gets its colour from a trace element that could have been something else.
: Some does. Pallasite meteorites are iron-nickel masses with olivine crystals embedded, thought to come from the core-mantle boundary of destroyed planetesimals, and clean crystals from them are occasionally cut as gems. They are expensive and should come with documentation of the meteorite of origin.
: Much of it, yes. Classical topazos referred to material from Topazios, now identified as Zabargad in the Red Sea, which produced peridot rather than the mineral we call topaz. The names later migrated, and several medieval European treasury stones described as topaz or emerald have turned out to be peridot.
: With care. At hardness 6.5 it scratches, and it is sensitive to acids and to sudden temperature change. It is fine in earrings and pendants; in a ring worn daily it will abrade, and it must not be steam or ultrasonically cleaned.
: Look through the table with a loupe at the opposite facet edges: peridot has high double refraction and the back facets appear visibly doubled. Glass shows no doubling and warms quickly in the hand. That single test separates it from nearly all its imitations.

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