History Of Peridot

Peridot is the birthstone for August.

Peridot had the power to drive away evil spirits and the power was considered to be even more intense when the stone was set in gold. Peridot was also said to strengthen the power of any medicine drunk from goblets carved from the gemstone.

Small crystals of Peridot are often found in the rocks created by volcanoes and also can be found in meteors that fall to earth! A few samples of extraterrestrial Peridot have even been faceted into gems!

Peridot is the gem form of the mineral olivine. Because the iron which creates the color is an integral part of its structure, it is found only in green, ranging from a summery light yellowish green to a 7-up bottle green.

In 1994, an exciting new deposit of Peridot was discovered in Kashmir, and these stones are among the finest ever seen. The new mine is located 15,000 feet above sea level in the Nanga Parvat region in the far west of the Himalayas Mountains in the Kashmir. Beautiful large crystals of Peridot were found, some that cut magnificent large gemstones. One stone was more than 300 carats! This new discovery, combined with fashion's passion for lime green, has revived interest in Peridot and increased the popularity of this gemstone.
Today most Peridot is mined by Native Americans in Arizona on the San Carlos Reservation. Fine large Peridot are found in Myanmar (formerly Burma) and Peridot is also mined in China and Sri Lanka.

Although Peridot is treasured in Hawaii as the goddess Pele's tears, almost all of the Peridot sold in Hawaii today is from Arizona, even though Peridot is produced by Hawaii's volcanoes. The island of Oahu even has beaches made out of olivine grains but unfortunately they are much too small to cut into Peridot!