Description

Rhodochrosite is the Argentine National Stone, its name derives from two Greek words: Rose and color. Also known as Inca´s Rose, because it was part of the Inca empire. During the Inca empire, this pink stone was discovered. Even today the natives of the Andes believe that the blood of their ancestors became this red stone. Its pink coloration is one of the most striking in the world.

It is preferably found in layers or scabs of banded structure, with superimposition of pink bands of different shades, from light to dark, of fibrous texture, and separated from each other by a white-gray material (mixture of various carbonates of Calcium, Magnesium, Iron, and with a very low concentration of Manganese). These pink bands, are commonly wavy or straight, and sometimes they appear in memory form. It is also worth highlighting the presentation in the form of stalactites, in which the different layers are observed in fibro-radial and concentric form. A stalactite can be formed by several growth centersrectilinear or curved, of a development of up to 30 cm and a diameter of 2 to 8 cm and more. The mineralization is volcanic origin, and is located in a volcanic chimney, composed of rhyolite, tuffs and breccias.