Tourmalinated quartz is the comingling of two geological formations to create a new gemstone, pale quartz stones shot through with striking inclusions of black tourmaline.

Quartz is one of the most abundant minerals on Earth, composed of the two most common elements, oxygen and silicon. As a silicate, quartz often forms alongside other silicates, like black tourmaline. Under the correct tectonic pressures, the two minerals can liquify and mix together.

As the minerals cool, the tourmaline reforms into long strands within the quartz matrix, creating the unique crystal-within-crystal structure you see here.

This pendant is a piece of tourmalinated quartz, which shows streaks of the black mineral within. Each holds a unique web of black mineral strands, which have been frozen within the quartz structure.

The tourmalinated quartz crystal is backed by a sterling silver prong and includes an 18" chain as well. Each item is shipped in a padded black jewelry box, along with an informational authenticity card.

Every pendant is a unique crystal formation and all have been photographed and listed individually by size. See all available tourmalinated quartz pendants in the collection below!

Tourmaline was first imported by the Dutch from Sri Lanka in 1703; its name comes from “turamali” which has been translated either as “stone with mixed colors” or simply to refer to mixed precious stones. Tourmaline comes in a variety of colors, from pinkish purples to muddy yellows, but in tourmalinated quartz the gem is in its most common form, called schörl. In this black form, the gem was often used for mourning jewelry.

The Dutch found that tourmaline has a unique property: when the gem is heated, it becomes electrically charged, attracting dust and other small particles. This feature owes itself to the gem’s atomic structure, which produces positive and negative electrical charges at the structure's opposite ends. In Holland, this property was apparently discovered by children playing with the rocks—later, the material’s pyroelectricity was used to clean smoking pipes, getting the name “aschentrekker” or ash puller.

Tourmalinated quartz can be found the world over, from California and Maine in the United States, to Brazil in South America, and across Asia and Africa. The stone has been popular for quite some time, being collected by our hominid ancestors in Africa as a precious stone.

Today, tourmalinated quartz is used in jewelry for bracelets and necklaces and collected by rockhounds attracted to the stone’s striking demonstration of the tectonic forces shifting under our feet.