Turquoise doesn’t originate deep in the Earth as many precious minerals and gems do. It forms when certain chemical reactions take place during the weathering of surface minerals. Water is a necessary component of the formation of turquoise—no wonder indigenous people of the deserts connected turquoise with water and rain—it wasn’t just the color of blue or green—turquoise meant water had been there.
The surface minerals necessary for the formation of turquoise are: Copper, aluminum and phosphates.
Turquoise is a hydrous hydrate of copper.
Hydrate of copper indicates water in the latticework of the turquoise molecule.
Iron can substitute for aluminum and results in a color variation toward green.
In my research I learned the turquoise stones I’d found were technically not turquoise but chrysocolla which is a minor copper ore, a hydrated copper silicate restricted to a shallow depth of less than twenty meters. Volcanic disturbance is required to make the cracks and fissures that allow water to reach the aluminum and iron ores in feldspars. Turquoise, malachite and chrysocolla are often found with one another so they all were called “turquoise” in the old days. Some turquoise was harder and shinier while some was chalky and soft. “Chalky turquoise” was the term for chrysocolla. It is not as easy as one might think to tell the difference between the two without a chemical analysis in a laboratory.
I prefer the lovely sound of the word “turquoise” and even “malachite” to the sound of “chrysocolla.” Chrysocolla sounds like the name of a soft drink—”Chrissy Cola.” Turquoise comes from the sixteenth century French word for “Turkish.”
So I will use the word “turquoise.”
Book Recommendation – The Turquoise Ledge
Time for my next book recommendation! This little memoir, The Turquoise Ledge, is by Leslie Marmon Silko, a Native American author. I had not previously read any of her books, but I checked it out because the book jacket describes her memoir so magically (“combines memoir with family history and reflections on the creatures and beings that command her attention and inform her vision of the world”), and because I really like the books of Louise Erdrich, another Native American author, whose works of fiction weave in mystical elements in a way that makes me wish I was a part of her magical world.
I was hooked on The Turquoise Ledge as soon as I read the second page, where she talks about and describes my favorite stone, turquoise, at length. Synchronous events, meaningful coincidences, have been surprising me daily with their hints at meaning ever since I decided to start selling my handmade jewelry, and here’s another to add to the pile! In addition to the fabulous passage about turquoise, it’s really a great book, very worthy of book recommendation status. It’s, at once, a personal history, a glimpse of the historic struggles of Native Americans in the southwestern U.S. and a mystical journey into a worldview that I wish was mine.
I’ll share with you the passage from The Turquoise Ledge about that magical stone, turquoise, which she searches for and finds on her daily walks and which holds the stories in the book, and my imagination together:
This was some interesting information about turquoise that I didn’t know, (despite my research of turquoise for a previous blog post) or that I didn’t fully comprehend until reading it written in such poetic prose. Sometimes art is needed to make it possible to really see something.
Thank you Leslie Marmon Silko, I was moved by this story of your life. You can be sure that I’ll be reading all the rest of your books, just as soon as I can get my hands on them.
Nuri Leigh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . says
Fascinating discussion about turquoise. Thanks. Good job of research and writing! blessings 2 U !