Schorl: The Dark Variety of Tourmaline
Schorl is a type of mineral that’s part of the tourmaline group, which is a large family of minerals known for their wide range of colors and forms. Specifically, schorl is the name given to black tourmaline, which is the most common variety in the tourmaline family.
Its color ranges from deep black to bluish-black or even deep brown, and it gets these colors mainly from the high amount of iron in its composition.
Schorl is interesting because it forms in a variety of geological environments. You can find it in granite, which is a very hard, crystalline type of rock formed from cooled magma; in metamorphic rocks, which are rocks that have been transformed by heat and pressure; and in veins within other rocks where hot fluids have deposited minerals as they cool down.
Schorl has some interesting properties, too. It’s known to be piezoelectric and pyroelectric, which means it can generate an electric charge in response to applied pressure or changes in temperature. This isn’t something you can easily see with the naked eye, but it’s a property that makes schorl and other tourmalines interesting for scientific and industrial uses, as well as in jewelry and as collector’s items for their beauty and unique properties.
