Inclusions in Spinel

Inclusions are always a piece of art from nature and fascinate us. Nowadays, gemologists use increasingly more sophisticated methods to describe the gifts of nature that they are so fortunate to work on.

Now, when we talk about inclusions in spinels, the first thing that you should look for is octahedral crystals, as primary cavities, especially from crystals from Myanmar and Sri Lanka. These crystals appear like tiny bipyramid shapes within the spinel and reflect the external form of the spinel crystals. Sri Lankan (Ceylon) spinel contains zircon haloes, cracks caused by unequal thermal stress in host stone.

In comparison to their corundum cousins, while established, fluid inclusions in the spinel are comparatively uncommon. Sometimes, other solid inclusions are seen in spinels: such as apatite prisms, calcite or dolomite, sphene, quartz, olivine, spinel (a spinel inside a spinel! Yes it's possible!), and limonite crystals.

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