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Color of Minerals

The color of minerals is determined by three main factors: 1) Idiochromatic minerals have color intrinsic to their composition, such as the blue color of azurite from copper content. 2) Allochromatic minerals derive color from impurities or defects, making color unpredictable, such as the blue of amazonite from aluminum impurities. 3) Pseudochromatic minerals exhibit structural color effects like labradorite's iridescence or opal's diffraction-based hues. Mineral color provides clues to composition and origins and aids in identification, geology, and gemstone evaluation.

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Rafael Antonio Bernal Vergara
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348 views3 pages

Color of Minerals

The color of minerals is determined by three main factors: 1) Idiochromatic minerals have color intrinsic to their composition, such as the blue color of azurite from copper content. 2) Allochromatic minerals derive color from impurities or defects, making color unpredictable, such as the blue of amazonite from aluminum impurities. 3) Pseudochromatic minerals exhibit structural color effects like labradorite's iridescence or opal's diffraction-based hues. Mineral color provides clues to composition and origins and aids in identification, geology, and gemstone evaluation.

Uploaded by

Rafael Antonio Bernal Vergara
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Color of Minerals

Colorful Garnet Family: Almandite, Blue Garnet, Demantoid, Hessonite, Malaia Garnet, Mali Garnet, Pyrope,
Rhodolite, Spessartite, Tsavorite.: Garnet Gemstone, Stones Gems, Gem Stones, Jewels Gems Minerals, Gems
Stones, Gemstones New, Colorful Garnet, Gems

one of the most important physical properties of minerals, reflecting the nature of
the interaction of the electromagnetic radiation of the visible region with the
electrons of the atoms, molecules, and ions of the crystals and with the electron
system of the crystal as a whole. In mineralogy, color is one of the primary diagnostic
properties of natural compounds, of great importance in geological prospecting for
the identification of minerals.

The color of gems and semiprecious stones is one of their main qualitative (gem)
characteristics. A distinction is made between the color of minerals in individual
crystals and lumps of ore, the color of minerals in transparent thin sections (under
the microscope), the color of minerals in polished sections (in reflected light), and
the color of a mineral’s streak (the color of the fine powder of the mineral).

A comparative evaluation is usually used in describing the color of minerals; the


mineral’s color is compared to the color of some commonly known object or
substance (indigo blue, apple green, lemon yellow, and blood red) or to mineral
“color standards,” such as vermilion red and emerald green.
The colors of metals or alloys are used as standards for describing the color of ore
minerals: tin white (arsenopyrite), steel gray (molybdenite), brass yellow
(chalcopyrite), and copper red (native copper). Methods are being developed for an
objective evaluation of the color of minerals, especially of gems, using standard
colorimetric characteristics. Many minerals have the property of exhibiting different
colors in different crystallographic directions, especially in polarized light, or
changing their color with the color temperature of the radiative source illuminating
them.

Three main groups of minerals are identified on the basis of the property of color:
idiochromatic, allochromatic, and pseudochro-matic.

 Idiochromatic minerals are "self colored" due to their composition. The


color is a constant and predictable component of the mineral. Examples are
blue Azurite, red Cinnabar, and green Malachite.
 Allochromatic minerals are "other colored" due to trace impurities in their
composition or defects in their structure. In this case, the color is a variable
and unpredictable property of the mineral. Examples are the blue in
Amazonite (orthoclase), yellow in Heliodor (spodumene) and the rose in rose
quartz.
 Pseudochromatic minerals are "false colored" due to tricks in light
diffraction. In these cases, color is variable but a unique property of the
mineral. Examples are the colors produced by precious opal and the shiller
reflections of labradorite.

The color of metallic and covalent compounds, such as native metals and sulfides
and their analogs, is due to interzonal optical transfers of electrons and the related
maximums of reflection (for example, the metallic colors of pyrite and gold) or is
due to the fundamental absorption band (cinnabar, orpiment, cuprite).

In another type of idiochromatic mineral, the color is due to electron transfers


between different ions, namely, charge transfers. This includes the transfer between
a metal ion and ligands and the transfer between differently charged metal ions.
Examples are minerals of trivalent iron (the charge transfer O2 → Fe3+); the
chromates, vanadates, and molybdates, such as crocoite, vanadinite, and wulfenite
(the transfer O2 → Cr6+, V5+, Mo6+); and minerals that at the same time contain
the differently charged ions Fe2+ and Fe3+, such as cordierite, vivianite, and
aquamarine.

 Beryl and Fe++ = Aquamarine (blue)


 Beryl and Fe+++ = Heliodor (yellow)
 Beryl and Mn++ = Morganite (pink)
 Beryl and Cr+++ = Emerald (green)

Color associated with ions of the transition metals—Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, and
Cu—is typical of emerald, ruby, rubellite, rhodonite, chrysolite, and malachite. The
lanthanides and actinides are chromophores of minerals of the rare-earth elements
and uranyl. Their color is due to the transfers of electrons between the d- and f-
levels of the chromophore ions.

Color caused by radioactivity is related to the formation of electron-hole color centers


by the action of natural ionizing radiation, for example, the dark blue and purple
color of halite and fluorite and the yellow and smoky color of quartz and calcite.

In allochromatic minerals the color is due to the presence of impurities, usually


inclusions of colored minerals but occasionally bubbles of liquids or gases. For
example, the reddish orange color of carnelian is caused by inclusions of iron
hydroxides, while the green color of prase, a variety of quartz, is linked to inclusions
of spicules of actinolite or chlorite.

In pseudochromatic minerals the color is due to the diffraction and interference of


light, as well as to the dispersion, refraction, and total internal reflection of incident
white light. These phenomena are related to the structural features of mineral
formations (regular alternation of phases of different composition in iridescent
labradorites and peristerites and in sunstone [aventurine feldspar] and moonstone;
the globular structure of opals) or to the structure of the surface layer of crystals
(various types of tarnish, such as the iridiscent film on bornite, chalcopyrite, pyrite,
and covellite).

The study of the color of minerals provides information about the crystallochemical
and genetic characteristics of minerals and is useful in the synthesis of high-quality
analogs of natural gems.

REFERENCES
Marfunin, A. S. Vvedenie v fiziku mineralov. Moscow, 1974.
Platonov, A. N. Priroda okraski mineralov. Kiev, 1976.

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