Turquoise
An ancient gemstone prized for its blue hue and cultural significance.
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Turquoise is a hydrated phosphate of copper and aluminium that is opaque and bluish-to-green in color.[1] Its Mohs hardness is between 5 and 6, making it easily carved but not as hard as diamond.[2]
Key facts and history
The word turquoise dates to the 16th century and comes from Old French turquois meaning "Turkish" because the mineral first reached Europe through the Ottoman Empire from mines in Iran.[3] Several turquoise artifacts from the Mycenaean era (1500 BC) have been found in Greece.[4] The mineral was called "callais" by Pliny the Elder, while the Aztecs used the term "chalchihuitl" for it.[5] For at least two millennia, Iran has served as a significant source of turquoise.[6]
A typical formation process for turquoise deposits begins when hydrothermal fluids remove copper from a host rock, most often a calc-alkaline intrusion.[7]
What the research sources say
The Travel article notes that turquoise occurs where acidic water contacts copper, forming veins or nuggets.[2] The Travel article reports that researchers have used isotope tracing to prove that ancient Chaco stones came from Los Cerrillos, New Mexico.[2] The Turquoise Museum curator Joe Don Lowry is quoted saying more turquoise comes from Mexico and China today than from New Mexico.[2] The Navajo jewelry maker Morris Muskett is quoted saying that in Navajo ways, turquoise is for spiritual protection and blessings.[2]
The Watson source describes turquoise as an opaque, crystalline material that is a hydrated phosphate of copper and aluminum, with a color ranging from bluish to green.[1]
References
- Watson, "Turquoise – The Gemstone of Tibet". facts only, no text reused. dharamsalanet.com
- "How turquoise became synonymous with New Mexico", Travel, 2022-02-03. facts only, no text reused. nationalgeographic.com
- Wikipedia, "Turquoise" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Beale, "Early trade in highland Iran: A view from a source area", World Archaeology, October 1973, p. 133–148; "Turquoise: Turquoise mineral information and data"; "Handbook of Mineralogy", Mineralogical Society of America, 2000; Palache, "Dana's System of Mineralogy", Wiley, 1951, p. 946–951; Turquoise . minerals.usgs.gov; Lowry, "Turquoise", Gibbs Smith, 2010, p. 43; Mi, "The Information Visualization Design Research on Turquoise Along the Silk Road", HCI International 2024 Posters, 2024, p. 285–291; Maerz and Paul (1930). A Dictionary of C en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Turquoise" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Karampelas, "Gems and Gemmology: An Introduction for Archaeologists, Art-Historians and Conservators", Springer International Publishing, 2020, p. 5–38; Karampelas, "Gems and Gemmology: An Introduction for Archaeologists, Art-Historians and Conservators", Springer International Publishing, 2020, p. 5–38; Henderson, "Isotopic evidence for the primary production, provenance and trade of Late Bronze Age glass in the Mediterranean", Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry, 2010, p. 1–1 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Turquoise" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Palache, "Dana's System of Mineralogy", Wiley, 1951, p. 946–951 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Turquoise" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Beale, "Early trade in highland Iran: A view from a source area", World Archaeology, October 1973, p. 133–148; Farmani, Anousheh (2015) "Precious and semi-precious minerals and their roots in ancient Persian texts", Second International Congress of Science and Earth, Teh; Zawush, "Mineralogy in Ancient Iran", Institute of Humanities and Cultural Studies, 1996, p. 156; Zhetpisbayeva, "The symbolic meaning of turquoise in Iranian culture", Journal of Oriental Studies, June 2021, p. 73–81 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Turquoise" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Handbook of Mineralogy", Mineralogical Society of America, 2000; Watanabe, "Role of Potassic Alteration for Porphyry Cu Mineralization: Implication for the Absence of Porphyry Cu Deposits in Japan: Role of potassic alteration in porphyry system", Resource Geology, April 2018, p. 195–2; "Hydrothermal Alteration", Geology Science, 2020 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Turquoise (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Turquoise (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Word definitions: the , each quoted from its Wikipedia article.
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