minerals Article Gem-Quality Tourmaline from LCT Pegmatite in Adamello Massif, Central Southern Alps, Italy: An Investigation of Its Mineralogy, Crystallography and 3D Inclusions Valeria Diella 1,* , Federico Pezzotta 2, Rosangela Bocchio 3, Nicoletta Marinoni 1,3, Fernando Cámara 3 , Antonio Langone 4 , Ilaria Adamo 5 and Gabriele Lanzafame 6 1 National Research Council, Institute for Dynamics of Environmental Processes (IDPA), Section of Milan, 20133 Milan, Italy;
[email protected] 2 Natural History Museum, 20121 Milan, Italy;
[email protected] 3 Department of Earth Sciences “Ardito Desio”, University of Milan, 20133 Milan, Italy;
[email protected] (R.B.);
[email protected] (F.C.) 4 National Research Council, Institute of Geosciences and Earth Resources (IGG), Section of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy;
[email protected] 5 Italian Gemmological Institute (IGI), 20123 Milan, Italy;
[email protected] 6 Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A., Basovizza, 34149 Trieste, Italy;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +39-02-50315621 Received: 12 November 2018; Accepted: 7 December 2018; Published: 13 December 2018 Abstract: In the early 2000s, an exceptional discovery of gem-quality multi-coloured tourmalines, hosted in Litium-Cesium-Tantalum (LCT) pegmatites, was made in the Adamello Massif, Italy. Gem-quality tourmalines had never been found before in the Alps, and this new pegmatitic deposit is of particular interest and worthy of a detailed characterization. We studied a suite of faceted samples by classical gemmological methods, and fragments were studied with Synchrotron X-ray computed micro-tomography, which evidenced the occurrence of inclusions, cracks and voids.