Basic Information About Euclase

Euclase is said to have several important metaphysical properties. Euclase connects with crown, heart, and throat chakras. It is said to help wearers of the stone to break bad habits, maintain focus, increase ability in communicating clearly, and to heighten mathematical and other left-brained skills. Euclase is a rare mineral that primarily forms as an alteration product of beryl. Under hydrothermal conditions, beryl can decompose forming other beryllium minerals such as Euclase. It is typically massive, fibrous, or forms heavily etched crystals. It does occasionally form very euhedral, high clarity crystals in pockets. Euclase’s structure is not analogous to any other minerals that are very common, the most well known examples are clinohedrite and hodgkinsonite; two rare minerals that were discovered at Franklin, New Jersey.

EuclaseEuclase is BeAlSiO4OH- a fairly simple monoclinic beryllium aluminum silicate phosphate. It has a hardness of 7.5 on the Moh’s hardness scale and a very strong perfect cleavage perpendicular to the c-axis of the crystal. Euclase is biaxial, meaning it has two optic axes each with different indices of refraction, though for this mineral both of these numbers are very close to each other- around 1.65 or 1.65 times the refractive index of water. Euclase is typically colorless but is famous for the vibrant robins egg to deep indigo blue crystals it is found in. These crystals are prized as mineral specimens though they do not get very large- they only very rarely grow larger than 4cm. Euclase has many similarities to topaz structurally and in terms of its occurrence. Like topaz, its blue color is caused by explosure to radiation during formation. It seems that Euclase is more sensitive to radiation than topaz- it typically has a deeper blue color than the topaz it is found with. Its exposure to radiation does not make Euclase radioactive itself.

Euclase

Euclase structurally is composed of layers of AlO6 octahedra sandwiching a layer of BeO4 and SiO4 tetrahedra. The cleavage surface occurs between the mixed Be-Si-O layer and the Al-O layer and is a very strong, perfect cleavage due to the weakness of bonds holding the layers together. This property of euclase is what prevents it from being used abundantly in cut gemstones despite its hardness. Euclase does not have any commercial uses other than in mineral specimens and the odd gemstone for collectors. There are no known treatments used to enhance Euclase but heat treatment or radiation exposure likely enhances the richness of its blue coloration making pale specimens more desirable.

 

 

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