Larimar

Larimar is one of the rarest gemstones in the world. Found in only one place on earth: a single mountain in the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean. It's a blue variety of pectolite, and it gets its stunning color from trace amounts of copper in the crystal structure. The color ranges from pale sky blue and white to rich volcanic blue, with that characteristic hazy, cloud-like quality that makes it look like the Caribbean Sea captured in stone. Its name is a combination of "Lari" — the daughter of Miguel Méndez who rediscovered it in 1974 — and "mar," the Spanish word for sea. Mining records show that there was a request to explore and mine Larimar as early as 1916, but it was rejected. Only in 1974 was it rediscovered on a beach. The highest quality Larimar shows deep volcanic blue with minimal white — the paler and whiter the stone, the lower the quality.