Chrysoprase – history and present
Author:
Sachanbiński Michał1, Kuleba Mirosław1, Natkaniec-Nowak Lucyna2ORCID
Affiliation:
1. 1 Higher School of Handicraft and Management , 21 Saint Matthias Square, 50-244 Wrocław , Poland 2. 2 AGH University of Science and Technology, Department of Mineralogy, Petrography and Geochemistry , Al. Mickiewicza 30, 30-059 Krakow , Poland
Abstract
Abstract
The authors present the history of chrysoprase discovery and the progress of knowledge about this material over the millennia, based on the extended review of world literature. Tracing the oldest archaeological artifacts from before 9,000 years, the lens of history turns on a stone that has not been properly identified mineralogically for centuries. In the 1830s, chrysoprase was finally included into the chalcedony group and its green color was associated, very correctly, with nickel compounds dispersed in its structure. After all, the most current mineralogy of chrysoprase is presented on the basis of the results of modern analytical studies. These data clearly indicate that chrysoprase is a mixture of several SiO2 polymorphs with varying degrees of structural order (opal, chalcedony, moganite, quartz). This radically changes the previous taxonomy of chrysoprase and its position in current mineralogical and petrographic systematics.
Publisher
Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Subject
Geochemistry and Petrology
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