Tanzanite's name came from the place it was discovered: Tanzania, Africa.
Keyword:
Mineral
Layman's explanation:
Tanzanite was discovered in Tanzania, Africa in1967, which is still the only place it can be found. It is a variety of zoisite, which is a calcium aluminum silicate. Due to its rarity and beautiful color, tanzanite is mainly used as a gemstone for jewelry. Tanzanite is trichroic, meaning it shows three different colors depending on the angle viewed; the colors seen are blue, purple or bronze. However the blue color is attributed vanadium impurities.
Citation of a publication:
Zeitschrift fuer
Kristallographie (149,1979-). 179 (1987)
p305-321.Smith,J.
V. Pluth,J.J. Richardson,J.W.
IUPAC name:
Dicalcium Trialuminium Tris(silicate)Hydroxide
Lab name:
Common molecules
Sample provider:
Obtained from the Inorganic Crystal Structure Database
Reciprocal Net site software 0.9.1-50,
copyright (c) 2002-2009, The Trustees of Indiana University
Files and data presented via this software are property of their
respective owners.
Reciprocal Net is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation as part of
the National Science Digital Library project.
