Manapa pegmatite Field, Betafo District, Vakinankaratra Region, Antananarivo Province, Madagascar
An excellent tourmaline example from the Manapa pegmatite field. Tourmalines from this area have a distinctive purplish-red color, though are typically only seen as crystal sections frozen in matrix (often associated with rhodizite.) This one is unusually rich and the crystals are actually freestanding, making for an unusually good example from the locality
On my previous trip I was able to get a several good examples of smaller crystals, but nothing quite this rich. This is certainly one of the better examples that I have seen from the area, and this area produces a very distinct style of tourmaline that is not found anywhere else in the world.