Research History of Amazonite

The rich blue-green colors of amazonite have been the object of mineralogists’ and geologists’ investigations for over 200 years. Among the many hypotheses attempting to explain the cause of this specific color, none takes into account all of the crystal-chemical features of amazonitic K-feldspar. It is clear that the color of amazonite is affected by a number of parameters, which reflect the great variation in the chemical and structural peculiarities of this variety of potassium feldspar. During the last few decades, geologists and mineralogists have discussed the use of amazonite in the exploration for deposits of rare metals and rare-earth elements, and there are differing positive and negative opinions regarding this problem.