Goshenite Beryl is a mineral with a hardness of 8 out of 10 on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness [?]. These Hexagonally structured gems are made of beryllium aluminum silicate, their full chemical compound being Be3Al2(SiO3)6.

Goshenite is a colorless sodium-rich gem variety of Beryl, a group which includes Emerald and Aquamarine. Other gem beryls include Heliodor and Morganite.

It also appears are pale-green, apple-green, to bluish. All beryls are resistant to chemicals with the exception of fluoric acid. They are brittle and therefore easily damaged by knocks, have a vitreous luster, and occur with aquamarine.

Their individual crystals are sometimes enormous, up to 30 ft long and weighing 25 tons. They appear as hexagonal prisms, often without terminations or bounded only by the basal pinacoid or by the combination of basal pinacoids and hexagonal dipyramids. The prism faces are often striated.

They are very hard, light, with imperfect basal cleavage, often contains a great many inclusions, making it opaque.

They are characteristic of granite rocks and pegmatites, where they sometimes occur in enormous crystals. They are also present in very high-temperature hydrothermal deposits (greisen) associated with quartz, spodumene, cassiterite, columbite, tantalite, and other rare minerals.

The specific gravity [?] for Goshenite Beryl is 2.8, it's refractive index [?] is 1.58-1.59, and it's double refraction [?] is 0.008.

History

Goshenite is named after a find in Goshen, Massachusetts (USA). In antiquity, eye glasses were made from colorless beryl.

Industrial Usages

Goshenite is used as imitation for diamond and emerald, by foiling the cut stone with silver or green metal foil.


Beryls are the main industrial source of beryllium, used in the nuclear industry and in light, very strong alloys in the aircraft industry. The salts are used in fluorescent lamps, in x-ray tubes and as a deoxidizer in bronze metallurgy.

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Terms

Double Refraction or dr is the ability of a mineral to separate a refracted ray of light into 2 rays. If held over an image or text it will display the object 2x its original size.

Mohs Scale of Mineral Hardness is the standard used to categorize a mineral's ability to resist scratching. It gets its name from Friedrich Mohs, the German geologist who first created the scale.

RI or Refractive Index defines light's ability to move through the mineral or in a general sense, any material.

SG or Specific Gravity is the ratio of the weight of any substance to that of pure water at temperature of 3.98°C(39.2°F) and standard atmospheric pressure. This is important to note when actively seeking these minerals in the wild. Minerals with a higher SG will settle below material with a lower sg over time.