About Beryls

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About Beryls

Is one of the Birthstones for the star sign Libra.

Physical Properties

Beryl chemical composition: Be3Al2(SiO3)6

Class: cyclosilicates

Crystal system: hexagonal; 6/m2/m2/m

Specific gravity: 2.62 – 2.91

Hardness: 7.5 – 8.0

Beryl History and Mythology

Beryls are beryllium-aluminium-silicates. As pure beryl, they are colourless, but they are able on account of their structure to store various foreign substances, and it is these which give rise to the various colours, turning a plain, colourless gemstone into a green, yellow, pink or blue treasure.

Iron colours beryl in the most beautiful sea-blue hues, turning it into aquamarine, one of our best known and most popular gems. This gem not only shines in all the colours of water – fine blue shades which can complement almost any skin or eye colour – ; a slight green shimmer is also one of its typical features. Aquamarine is the favourite stone of many a creative designer and distinguishes itself by a whole series of good qualities: even distribution of the colour, inclusions which hardly spoil the effect at all, good hardness and a wonderful shine.

Originally, the name ‘beryl’ came from India. It was derived from the Sanskrit word ‘veruliyam’, an old term for the gemstone chrysoberyl, from which the Greek word ‘beryllos’ later developed.

Beryls are popular gems, not only on account of their magnificent colours. Their appeal also lies in their high brilliance and qualities such as their hardness (7.5 to 8), which makes them admirably well suited for use in jewellery. The typical hexagonal beryl crystals with their often vertically striated surfaces are mainly found in the gemstone deposits of South America and those of Central and West Africa. However, they also occur on Madagascar, in Russia and the Ukraine, and in the USA. The skilled hands of gemstone cutters turn them into a multitude of many-faceted shapes. In particular, beryls are well suited to rectangular or square step cuts, since it takes a clear design to bring out the transparent beauty of this colourful gemstone family to the full.

The “Pink” Beryl

Beryl behaves quite differently when there is manganese involved. This element gives it a special feminine pink, turning it into morganite, without doubt the next best known representative of the beryl group after the classics, emerald and aquamarine. Formerly, it was known rather plainly as ‘pink beryl’. It has only been called morganite since the year 1911, having been so named in honour of the New York finance expert and gemstone collector John Pierpont Morgan. This gemstone loves generosity, since it is only from a certain size upwards that the beauty of its colour, mostly ranging from a tender pink to a pale violet, is shown to its full advantage.

Beryls and Love

Beryl is said to instill and nurture love. It is also said to give patience, and to enhance one’s communication skills.

Beryl is said to help remedy respiratory ailments and to increase the supply of oxygen to cells.

References

All information taken from the following sites:
Gemstone.org
Mineral Miners