Aventurine

Quartz sparkling with tiny reflective mica flakes, most often green from chromium-rich fuchsite.

Aventurine specimen — Photo: Doobuzz at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

How to identify aventurine

Even green body with a fine glittery sparkle.
Granular, sugary texture in rough pieces.
Hard — scratches glass.

Often confused with

Jadeite
Jade is tougher, waxier and has no glitter.
Compare side by side
Amazonite
Amazonite is blue-green with white streaks and flat cleavage faces.
Compare side by side

Where it's found

India
Brazil
Russia
Tanzania

Uses

Tumbled stones, beads and carvings.

Rock tumbling

Great for tumbling.

Did you know?

The name comes from a sparkly Venetian glass made 'a ventura' — Italian for 'by chance'.

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