Opaque mineral, composed mainly of hydrated aluminum phosphate, and prized throughout the world as a gemstone. It has a hardness of 5 to 6, a specific gravity of 2.6 to 2.83. The color ranges from blue and blue-green to greenish-gray, according to the various amounts of copper usually present. It occurs almost exclusively in arid lands. In North America, it is most abundant in dry, copper-rich regions of the Southwestern United States Nevada, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico.

The blue-green mineral also occurs in Mexico in the states of Sonora and Zacatecas, California's Mojave Desert, western Texas and Utah. And, rare deposits are found in the humid climates of Alabama and in southern Virginia, site of the world's only known turquoise crystals. Elsewhere around the World, deposits of turquoise are found in Peru, Australia, Turkestan, Iran, Siberia, China, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Australia and the Sinai Peninsula.

Pueblo Indian legend says that turquoise steals its blue color from the sky.	Zuni inlayed ring

	In Iran and elsewhere in the Middle East the most treasured turquoise is Persian turquoise, it is a solid robin egg blue color.

Here in the Southwest the bolder the matrix, which might be red, white, black, brown, golden or even lavender and is usually part of the mother rock that surrounds turquoise mineral deposits, the better.	Turquoise nugget

"Number Eight Mine" Eureka county, Nevada. (spider web turquoise)	Today, the most highly-desired matrix pattern is the spiderweb, which resembles highly detailed netting that envelopes the mineral, inside and Out.