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Aventurine

Last updated: April 2026

A macrocrystalline quartz aggregate with flat platy inclusions (typically fuchsite mica for green; hematite/goethite for red-brown; dumortierite for blue) that produce aventurescence — a spangled glitter when rotated. Green aventurine is the most common and is frequently sold as 'Indian jade.' It is NOT microcrystalline quartz (chalcedony) — it is granular crystalline quartz.

Aventurine has a specific gravity of 2.65 and a refractive index of 1.544–1.553, with a Mohs hardness of 7. It is aggregate.

Physical & Optical Properties

RI Range1.544–1.553
SG Range2.64–2.69
SG Typical2.65
Hardness (Mohs)7
Crystal SystemTrigonal
Optic CharacterAggregate
Dispersion0.013
Fluorescence LWInert
Fluorescence SWInert
Chelsea FilterInert
PleochroismNone
ColorsGreen, Blue Violet, Red Pink, Yellow Orange, Brown
SpeciesQuartz
GreenBlue VioletRed PinkYellow OrangeBrown

Measured with a polariscope, a refractometer, a hydrostatic balance, a Chelsea filter, a UV torch, a loupe, a darkfield loupe and a spectroscope — step-by-step for each.

Through the refractometer

Aventurine reads 1.548 1.40 1.45 1.50 1.55 1.60 1.65 1.70 1.75 1.80 REFRACTIVE INDEX DORotate the stone through a full 360°, watching the boundary. SEEOne boundary, at 1.548, and it does not move as you rotate. MEANSThis is an aggregate — a mass of microscopic crystals — andon this instrument it looks exactly like a singly refractivestone. The refractometer cannot tell the two apart. Thepolariscope can: an aggregate stays light through a fullrotation, where a singly refractive stone stays dark. Computed from gems.json — edge positions are arithmetic, not drawn. RI increases upward; the field above the boundary is the dark one.

Drawn from the refractive index above, on a 1.40–1.81 scale. How to take this reading.

AgateAmethystAmetrineBloodstoneCarnelianChalcedonyChrysopraseCitrineHawk's EyeOnyxPrasioliteRock CrystalRose QuartzSmoky QuartzTiger's EyeChrysocolla Chalcedony

Key Differentiators

Common Simulants

Commonly Confused With

Commonly confused with: Jadeite, Nephrite, Chrysoberyl.

Treatments

Measurement Guides

How to Identify a GemstoneHow to Measure Specific GravityHow to Use a RefractometerUV Fluorescence Testing

Identifying an aventurine? Loupewise walks through these tests in order — RI, SG, fluorescence, and more.

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Studying for the GIA, FGA, or FEEG practical? Aventurine is one of the 132 species in Loupewise’s drill and exam pool — practice identifying it from its measured properties under timed exam conditions.

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