Labradorite is a feldspar mineral in the plagioclase series, prized for a flash of color that sweeps across the stone as it turns. The flash is called labradorescence. Britannica notes that labradorite is usually gray, brown or black, and that not every stone shows the effect.
What makes the flash
GIA explains that labradorite is built from thin, alternating layers of two feldspars with different chemistry. Light diffracts as it passes through the layers, and their thickness helps decide which colors appear. GIA lists blue, green, yellow, orange and violet. Mindat, the mineral database, adds that the layers form only when the rock cools very slowly.
Named for Labrador
The stone takes its name from Labrador, Canada. GIA dates its first recognition in Labrador to 1770. That year a Moravian missionary at Nain was given a piece of the brightly colored local rock, according to the provincial government. Mindat names Paul Island, near Nain, as the place of the first find. In 1975 the province declared labradorite its official mineral.
Spectrolite from Finland
Spectrolite is the trade name for labradorite from Finland, and GIA says its flashes look like the northern lights. The Geological Survey of Finland credits the find of the Ylämaa deposit, in southeastern Finland, to Pekka Laitakari, who came across it in 1940 while serving on the Salpa Line fortifications. His father, the geologist Aarne Laitakari, had searched for its source for years.
The northern lights in stone
Jason Sikoak, from Rigolet in Nunatsiavut, retold a Labrador Inuit legend for Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami in 2019. In his telling, a powerful angakok, or shaman, wanted the northern lights for himself. He stole them from the sky and trapped them in the rocks by his home on the northern Labrador coast. A great hunter drove his harpoon into the brightest spot. The blow released some of the lights back into the sky, but some colors stayed in the rock, "giving us what we call Labradorite today." Rock & Gem magazine records other Inuit versions. In one, a hunter frees the light with his spear. In another, part of the northern lights froze during a bitter winter and fell to earth.
In modern crystal lore, labradorite is called a stone of transformation and protection.
Caring for labradorite
Labradorite rates 6 to 6.5 on the Mohs scale, and GIA lists its toughness as poor. Feldspars cleave in two directions, so a hard knock can split the stone. Clean it with warm, soapy water. GIA advises against ultrasonic and steam cleaners, high heat and sudden changes in temperature. GIA notes that the "rainbow moonstone" now sold from Madagascar is labradorite, as our moonstone guide explains, so it needs the same care.
Labradorite at Buddha.store
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