What Causes Labradorescence?


Labradorescence is not a display of colors reflected from the surface of a specimen. Instead, light enters the stone, strikes a twinning surface within the stone, and reflects from it. The color seen by the observer is the color of light reflected from that twinning surface. Different twinning surfaces within the stone reflect different colors of light. Light reflecting from different twinning surfaces in various parts of the stone can give the stone a multi-colored appearance.

Madagascar labradorite
Tumbled labradorite: A tumbled stone of labradorite with very strong twinning (the parallel lines of color within the stone). The material used to make this stone was produced in Madagascar.

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