Atlantis Stone

Larimar & the legend of Atlantis Stone

Larimar (Blue pectolite) known widely as Atlantis Stone is an extremely rare gemstone. It has been found only in one location: a mountainous, relatively inaccessible area in the province of Barahona in the Dominican Republic. The first mention of the stone was a request to mine Larimar in 1916; however, it was not until 1974 that the stone really made a grand entrance.

The word Larimar was created by Miguel Mendez, who combined his daughter's name Larissa with the Spanish world for sea, Mar.

Larimar, also known as Atlantis Stone was formed when hot gases pushed crystallized minerals up though volcanic tubes. In order to mine and excavate the stone, miners must identify these tubes and dig deep into old volcanoes. Atlantis Stone is used most often to make jewelry but has also been used to make beads, decorative objects and even handles on cabinets.

Larimar is considered a healing stone, and said to be finely tuned to the human body particularly to the throat area. It is said that it increases speech and communication skills and supports the body's natural healing process. Persons believing in this have been known to wear Larimar jewelry or to put pieces of Larimar in their pockets or under their pillows. Today, there are thousands of people practicing alternative and holistic healing methods, who use Larimar to assist and reinforce in the healing process.

Atlantis Stone’s vibrant blue embodies the beautiful blue colors of the sea and sky found in the Caribbean. Its origin and appearance have made it popular throughout the world and found here on AtlantisStone.com direct from the source.

The Amazing Larimar

Nuggets look exceptionally magnificent with the Larimar a brilliant blue stone. Larimar is a variety of the pectolite found only in a small inaccessible region in the Dominican Republic. When properly shaped, cut, and polished, Larimar produces a brilliant turquoise glow, which adds to it splendor.

Larimar is an extremely rare gemstone that is found in only in an inaccessible, mountainous, volcanic region of the Dominican Republic that overlooks the Caribbean Sea. Dominicans have long been aware of this wonderful stone, which they have been using in jewelry since centuries, but it is only after 1974 when Larimar got its due respect and recognition.

Larimar is currently one of the newest and the most demanded gemstones in demand. Its popularity is attributed to the implausible Caribbean Blue color and its rarity. This is the reason why only handful of jewelers are found offering Larimar jewelry.

Hemimorphite is a look-alike of the Larimar but is available at a fraction of Larimar’s cost. There are plenty of instances of Hemimorphite being offered to customers in the name of Larimar. Hence, the authenticity of any online shop offering Larimar should be tested before going for a purchase.

WholesaleLarimar is a leading online store offering Larimar at its best. Be it Larimar nuggets, Larimar sterling silver jewelry, Larimar golden jewelry, or simple Larimar stone, you wouldn’t find a more elaborate collection elsewhere.

Ryan Smith is an associated editor with the website wholesalelarimar.com - Larimar Wholesale Supplier, and many other informative as well as shopping or business websites.

Spiritual Properties of Larimer

LARIMAR
Metaphysical Properties- Opens creativity in the throat area, helps soul mates to find one another while healing negative karma between soul mates and lovers.  Allows for open communication between soul mates.   This is an exciting healing stone which I feel should be worked with on a continual basis.  I find Larimar to not only aid communication in relationships, but it also gives me a strong sense of peace.   It is very calming, which is no surprise, since Larimar is from the Caribbean. Brings tranquility of water/sea and air to heart and mind. Soothes and uplifts hurt, fear, depression, pain of life, changes with love. Self-expression, patience, acceptingness, simplicity, creativity, artwork. With red spots: helps gentle people be assertive. Cools, draws out inflammation, fevers, sunburn heat. Especially helps the creativity and throat CTR. (shoulder, thyroid, nose). Pleasantly uplifts the heart and eases stress.

Numerology- Larimar vibrates to the master number 55. Has to do with accessing Higher Mind (55) and channeling it through your individuality (1). 55 is a direct line to the mind of God or as some call it, the akashic records. It is calling upon you to responsibly harness and direct the knowledge that is attainable now. There are also changes taking place and many choices ahead. Responsible choices must be made and the route to these is through the Higher Mind. Melody describes it as: The extension of occurrences to facilitate knowledge with ease is advanced such that approach to each event/condition/experience is with absolute precision and beneficial construction.  The concept of approach via strategic techniques is reflected in 55.

Gemological Properties- Pectolite (trade name Larimar) is a mineral species.  It belongs to the triclinic crystal system and offers a chemical composition of NaCa20si3O8(OH).  The refractive index is 1.599-1.628 with a specific gravity of 2.81.  It is a fairly soft stone being a 4.5-5.  It is mainly found in the Dominican Republic, however reports have been made from Canada and the US.

Angelina Jolie and Wears Larimar

People Magazine - January 19, 2006
Ever wonder when Brad Pitt will get around to giving Angelina Jolie a ring? Well, quit wondering. Visiting Angel Gemas, a shop in the Dominican Republic capital of Santo Domingo on Jan. 10, the couple perused cigars (him) and jewelry (her) with a playful Maddox, 4, and baby Zahara, 12 months, in tow.

When a pregnant Jolie – "she looked radiant," says clerk Victoria Salcé – spied a gold ring made with larimar, a local blue volcanic stone, "[Pitt] said, 'It's very pretty – do you want it?' " recalls Salcé. Jolie said yes, and Pitt plunked down $48 for the bauble, which she quickly slipped on.

Larimar / Blue Pectolite Origins

Larimar is a blue pectolite, and a result of vulcanic activity, which ocurred many million years ago on the island of la "La Hispañola". Its crystallization took place when the volcanic lava was cooling off as columns in the tubular "chimneys", in which these pectolites, andesites, basalts and other minerals formed.

The pectolite, formerly denominated "ratholite", is an acid silicate hydrate of calcium and sodium. Of ample diffusion in the world, we can find deposits of this mineral, known as outcrop, at very distant places of the planet: The United States (Michigan, Arkansas, New Jersey, California), Canada, England (Scotland), India, Austria (Tyrolia), among others. All have in fact been results and consequences of this volcanic Earth activity, many million years ago

The only locality where Larimar or blue pectolite appears on the terrestrial crust, is the province of Barahona, in the south-western region of the Dominican Republic.

Romancing the stone - Larimar

IT'S NOT EVERY DAY that two beachcombers unexpectedly stumble across a cache of buried treasure, but that's just what happened to Miguel Mendez and Norman Rilling back in 1974. While strolling along the Dominican Republic's sandy southwestern coast near the town of Barahona, the Santo Domingo resident and US Peace Corps volunteer became intrigued by clusters of shiny blue pebbles scattered in the shallow Caribbean waters beneath their feet. The duo soon turned their attention to the mouth of the nearby Bahoruco River where the trail of stones led them upstream into the rugged, rain-forested interior.

A couple of days and several wrong turns later, they came upon the world's only known deposits of what would later be identified by Smithsonian geologists as a blue-colored incarnation of the common gray-white mineral, pectolite. Not long after, commercial open pit mining of the site was undertaken.

Today, more than 30 years later, this appealing semi-precious gemstone has gained international fame as "larimar" (a combination of Mendez' daughter's name, Larissa, and mar, the Spanish word for sea) and is considered to be one of the Dominican Republic's most coveted luxury exports, second only to amber in its appeal to local and foreign jewelry buyers.

Larimar also boasts its own small promotional showcase, the Larimar Museum, headquartered in a restored 17th-century building at the heart of Santo Domingo's colonial zone. Its second floor, reached by way of a mahogany staircase embellished with an extravagant larimar handrail, features a dozen well-designed exhibits recounting almost everything any visitor might want to know about this increasingly sought-after mineral.

A number of displays, for example, track larimar's fiery geological genesis of 100 million years ago when fierce volcanic eruptions crystallized blue pectolite and other minerals, forcing them into naturally occurring shafts within the earth's crust. To excavate these ancient deposits, miners must tunnel hundreds of feet into the spent volcano. Once extracted, the rough pieces are cut and graded according to color, patterning, and luminosity. All three factors play a role in determining a stone's value, but in general, the deepest "volcanic" blue hues are given highest marks.

The history of larimar's earliest human connections is sketchy, but it is believed that the Taino Indians, among the Dominican Republic's first inhabitants, were aware of the smooth-textured gemstones. No official mention of blue pectolite appears until 1916 when Barahona's parish priest applied for government permission to exploit the nearby mine. That request apparently fell through the cracks and with it, all memory of the valuable deposits. Still, the striking azure pebbles continued to catch the eye of local inhabitants.

With demand for the gemstone on the rise, larimar bracelets, rings, and necklaces can be seen in shops across the Dominican Republic, including the Larimar Museum, where the entire first floor is given over to eye-catching jewelry displays. This is not surprising given that the museum is owned by Ambar Nacional, a prominent producer of both larimar and Dominican amber. But unlike amber, which is found in abundance at several island sites, the big question mark in the larimar success story hinges on its long-term availability. To date, the Barahona deposit constitutes its one and only source and the extent of it has yet to be determined; theoretically speaking, supplies could be exhausted at any moment. "Yes," confesses guide Pierre Gustin, "it's a big question mark, all right. Then again, you can also consider it a part of larimar's cachet."

Larimar - The Precious Gemstone

Gemstones - The rarest minerals, crystalline rocks or petrified materials of nature. These are highly valuable for their beauty, rarity, durability, hardness and amazing colors. Mostly gemstones is used in jewelry produced with gold and sterling silver jewelry and really has become the soul of jewelry. Even in prehistoric times, people were attracted to pretty pebbles, and when combined with translucency or even transparency with color, they were highly prized. Some high quality of these stones known as precious gemstone like diamonds, sapphires, emeralds & rubies, LARIMAR is one of them.

COLOR is one of the most important and individual characteristic to gemstones. The color should be rich - not as light as to give the stone an anemic appearance, nor as deep as to make it look dark or even black, particularly in artificial light. Too dark color reduces transparency and stone's lively look, which can be achieved by skillful cutting and faceting by making it a bit sparkle. The blending of the various colors or tints of the same color and the various designs and patterns produced as they are by nature, give such stone an individual appeal that makes each one unique.

Another character that makes a difference in the available gemstone is quality, a high luster. Larimar, amber and some other garnets have a resinous luster, while turquoise is sometimes described as "waxy". Luster does not give a stone brilliance. In certain gemstones brilliance is produced by the skillful cutting of the stone's facets in such a way that they reflect light like mirrors, making the whole stone bright and shining when viewed from the top.

These Gemstone characteristics distinguish them and their unique appearance from the entire available sets of other precious and rare minerals. There is, however, a most important attribute which gemstones should posses: permanence.

Some of the popular gemstones are:

a. Agate
b. Amber
c. Ametrine
d. Aquamarine
e. Black Onyx/Black Agate
f. Carnelian
g. Chrysoprase
h. Coral
i. Fluorite
j. Jasper
k. Labradorite Stone
l. Larimar Gemstone
m. Miscellaneous
n. Moonstone Bead
o. Obsidian
p. Orange Sunstone
q. Peridot Semi Precious Stone Bead
r. Pink Tourmaline, Watermelon Tourmaline or Green Tourmaline Bead
s. Red and Green Garnet Gem Stone Beads
t. Rose Quartz
u. Sodalite

Ryan Smith, Independent writer, presently associated with wholesalelarimar.com

History & Geology of Larimar (Blue Pectolite)

History
On 22 November 1916 Father Miguel Domingo Fuertes Loren of the Barahona Parish requested permission at the Dominican Republic's Ministry of Mining to explore and exploit the mine of a certain blue rock he had discovered. Since nobody knew what the priest was talking about the request fell through and the blue stone discovery was delayed.

It was not until 1974 when at the foot of the Bahoruco Range, the coastal province of Barahona, a flash of blue in the beach sand caught the attention of Miguel Méndez and Peace Corps volunteer Norman Rilling and they scooped down to rediscover larimar. Natives, who believed the stone came from the sea, called the gem Blue Stone. Miguel promptly took his young daughter's name Larissa and the Spanish word for the sea (mar) and formed Larimar, by the colors of the water of the Caribbean Sea, where it was found. As it turns out, the few stones they found were alluvial sediment, washed into the sea by the Bahoruco River. An upstream search revealed the in situ outcrops in the range and before long the Los Chupaderos mine tapped the only known larimar outcropping in the world.

Geology
Larimar is a variety of pectolite, or a rock composed largely of pectolite, an acid silicate hydrate of calcium and sodium. Although pectolite is found in many locations, none have the unique volcanic blue coloration of larimar. This blue color, distinct from that of other pectolites, is the result of cobalt substitution for calcium. Larimar is Blue Pectolite.

Miocene volcanic rocks, andesites and basalts, erupted within the limestones of the south coast of the island. These rocks contained cavities or vugs which were later filled with a variety of minerals including the blue pectolite. These pectolite cavity fillings are a secondary occurrence within the volcanic flows, dikes and plugs. When these rocks erode the pectolite fillings are carried downslope to end up in the alluvium and the beach gravels. The Bahoruco River carried the pectolite bearing sediments to the sea. The tumbling action along the streambed provided the natural polishing to the blue larimar which makes them stand out in contrast to the dark gravels of the streambed.

Larimar - Semi-Precious Stone Of The Caribbean

Larimar

Found only in one remote area of the Dominican Republic, the same volcanic forces which created the island itself forged this exquisite gem. When scorching gases pushed molten material into the volcano's chimneys, its minerals crystallized, creating the stone's unique properties. Over the eons, erosion broke off bits of stone, washing them into the Bahoruco River where they tumbled against rocks and other debris. By the time the stones reached the river's end at the beach, this polishing action revealed the marbled sea-blue, green, and white hues Larimar is now prized for.

We can only speculate when people first saw Larimar, but more than a century ago, the area's inhabitants likely came across the blue stones washed up on the beach. They may have later traced its origins to the mountains. By 1916, at least one person knew where to find it - a priest in Barahona parish, who applied for the right to set up a mining operation. His application was never approved, however, and Larimar remained shrouded in mystery for years to come.

In fact, it continued to go unnoticed by the world at large until 1974, when geologist Miguel Méndez and Peace Corps volunteer Norman Rilling found some of the stones on the beach. By following the river up the mountain, they eventually arrived at Los Chupaderos, where most Larimar is mined today. Miguel Méndez named the stone by combining his daughter's name, “Larissa,” with “mar,” the Spanish word for sea.

Unique to the lush Bahoruco mountain range, Larimar's scientific classification is blue pectolite. Although other types of pectolite exist in locations around the world, none are quite like Larimar. Copper gives it its characteristic blues and greens, with blue stones considered more valuable. In addition, some stones contain red, brown, or gray shades. Due to its coloring, it's sometimes mistaken for turquoise or blue jade.

According to folklore, Larimar helps relieve stress, radiates healing energy, aids communication, and enlightens the mind. Because of claims that the Dominican Republic was the ancient site of Atlantis, symbolized by dolphins, some people call Larimar “the Atlantis Stone” or “the Dolphin Stone.”

With all the excitement about Larimar, there's even a Larimar Museum in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic's capital city. Located in a well-restored historic building, the museum contains exhibits about the gem and a store with hand-made Larimar jewelry.

Only buy jewelry from reputable stores because blue glass has occasionally been passed off as Larimar. Stores in the Dominican Republic carry the widest selection, of course, but Larimar can also be found in a small number of shops in other countries. In addition to jewelry, Larimar is also available in sculptures and polished slabs.

Travelers can take home a true piece of the islands with Larimar and Caymanite items. And those lucky enough to find Larimar elsewhere can enjoy its soothing, ocean hues without a trip to the Caribbean.

About the Author - Karen Joslin writes for Anguilla-Guide.info

Larimar Specifications

Name: Larimar.
Family: Pectolite.
Variety of: Pectolite, NaCa2Si3O8(OH), Sodium Calcium Silicate Hydroxide.
Composition: Hydrated sodium calcium silicate with manganese.
Origin: Caribbean
Hardness: 4.5-5.
Color: varies between white, light blue, sky blue, green-blue, and deep blue (aka "volcanic blue")
Uses: ornamental stone and semi-precious stone.
Cleavage: perfect in two directions, but not seen in this compact form.
Crystal System: triclinic

Larimar Jewelry

Larimar jewelry is available in the Dominican Republic, and elsewhere in the Caribbean. Most jewelry produced is set in silver, but high grade stones are often set in gold.

Quality grading is according to coloration: white is low quality, volcanic blue high quality. High quality jewelry utilizes stones between sky-blue and volcanic blue, often in combinations of both. Greenish colorations are also known but not well regarded, unless the green is intense. Red colored inclusions in Larimar indicate traces of iron. It should be noted that pectolites are photosensitive, which causes the larimar to lose its blue coloration over the years.