gems, beryl, emerald, India

In the mid-1990s, emeralds were discovered embedded in the wall of a well at the village of Sankari Taluka, in southern India’s state of Tamil Nadu. Gemmological research into the chemistry, properties, and characteristic inclusions of these emeralds has revealed similarities between the properties of Sankari emerald and those of emerald from several previously described locations on the island of Madagascar. This finding suggests that Sankari emeralds may have been emplaced into the ancient supercontinent of Gondwanaland before India rifted from it some 200 million years ago.