Topaz is found associated with the more acid rocks of the granite and rhyolite type and may be found with fluorite and cassiterite[?]. It can be found in the Ural and Ilmen[?] mountains, Czechoslovakia, Saxony, Norway, Sweden, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, and the United States.
The name "topaz" is derived from the Greek "to seek," which was the name of an island in the Red Sea that was difficult to find and from which a yellow stone (now believed to be a yellowish olivine) was mined in ancient times. In the Middle Ages the name topaz was used to refer to any yellow gemstone, but now the name is only properly applied to the silicate described above.
See also: List of minerals
wikipedia.org dumped 2003-03-17 with terodump