Peridot : The stone of Evening

By StMicheal

Peridot is also known as evening or poor man’s emerald and these names are given to it because of its greening yellow colors that boosts it beauty and luster manifold especially at the time of evening. This gemstone was quite popular in the past but now with the passage of time it has lost the popularity that it used to enjoy in the past. Now this stone is not as widely used in different jewelry items and it used to be in the past and its use is on decrease with every passing day. There are several reasons for this decrease in use and one of them is that now this gemstone is not as frequently found as it used to be in the past. In short, the stone is getting rare and people are forgetting its use.

For a quite long time this gemstone was only found in an island which was known as Zabargad in Egypt. These days almost 10% of peridots are found in China, Burma, Pakistan and Zambia and the rest of 90% come from the reserves of the North American reserves. Peridot is considered that the very first gemstone that is found on another planet as the astronomers have found it on the planet Mars. Peridots along with diamonds form in the magma that is found in the mantle of the earth and very similar to diamond peridot pop up from the surface of the earth with the explosion of the magma.

Peridot is one of the softest translucent gemstones that is ranked 6.5 on Moth’s scale of relative hardness. It is even softer than garnet, quartz and emeralds. And its softness is another reason of its less popularity in the world. While its other counterparts like garnet, emeralds and quartz are considered semi-precious gemstones and widely use in jewelry and other decorative items. Iron is an essential part of peridot’s chemical formula and its vibrant green color is because of this iron texture in it. Unlike many other gemstones, peridot doesn’t pick just the traces of incidental chemicals and its green color is only always green.

Peridot is considered the birthstone for the month of August but it is not found in those popular gemstones that are used for anniversary gift stones. In past this stone was also considered sacred by many people and different seers and saints used this stone for its associated healing powers but now the things have changed and people don’t like to believe in such things.

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