AMAZING AMAZONITE

摘要

Like the elements of the Periodic Table, nearly all minerals derive their namesakes from words of many languages, people who discovered them, or possibly after the location of discovery. If one is new to the mineral amazonite, a common first guess is that it was initially identified in the Amazon rainforest of South America. As logical as this inference is, there has never been any amazonite reported from the namesake river region. A strong possibility is that early Spanish explorers confused amazonite with another similarly colored mineral they found in the area. Still, it was an attractive stone to them, so much so the thought focused on use in costume jewelry.