The name beryl comes from India and has always been associated with the gemstone. Beryl is praised for its transparency, high hardness, and beautiful colours with wide range of tones and shades. Several colour varieties of beryl are used as gemstones. Deep green beryls are called emeralds, greenish blue to pure blue - aquamarine, pale, almost colourless - goshenite, light yellow-green to golden-yellow - heliodor, rose and pink beryl is morganite, red variety is bixbite. Maxixe-type beryl is characterized by a bright blue colour which fades in the sunlight. The crystals are prismatic, they may be very large, even gigantic and in pegmatites may reach lengths of 2 to 3 m and widths of 0.5 to 1 m. 345 photos
This table shows the variety of hues this gemstone can be found in. Click on a photo for more information.
This table shows distribution of Beryl gemstone sizes that are listed on this site. This can give a good indication as to the general availability of this gemstone in different sizes.Contributed photos
| General Information |
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| Varieties/Types: | Aquamarine - Blue/green variety of beryl.Blue Beryl (Maxixe) - Deep blue beryl.Emerald - Deep green variety of a beryl.Goshenite - Colorless variety of beryl.Heliodor - Yellow variety of beryl.Morganite - Pink variety of beryl.Red Beryl - A red gem variety of beryl, also known as 'bixbite',Riesling Beryl - A strongly dichroic (pale green / golden yellow) beryl.Vorobyevite - A caesium-bearing variety of beryl. |
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| Chemical Formula | Ulrich Henn and Claudio C. Milisenda, Gemmological Tables (2004) More from other references |
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| Significant stones |
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| Image | Name | Weight | Country of Origin | Current Owner |
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 | Papamel | 552,500.00 cts | Brazil | | Marta Rocha | 173,500.00 cts | Brazil | | Quarto Centario | 110,000.00 cts | Brazil | | Esterela de Alve | 96,000.00 cts | Brazil | | Dom Pedro aquamarine | 10,363.00 cts | Brazil | Smithsonian Institution | | Emerald Unguentarium | 2,860.00 cts | Colombia | | Mogul Emerald | 217.80 cts | Colombia | Unidentified Private Owner | | Hooker emerald | 75.47 cts | Colombia |
Click here to view all significant Beryl gemstones |
| Beryl Treatments |
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| Colourless, yellow-green, and pale beryls can be transformed into blue and dark blue aquamarines and bright blue maxixe-type beryls by heat treatment or irradiation by X-rays, gamma-rays, electrons, and by combining heat treatment and irradiation. - E.Ya. Kievlenko, Geology of gems, 2003, p. 72 |
| Synthetic Beryl |
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| Beryl can be synthesized by such methods as: flux-fusion process (fluxing), hydrothermal process, gas transport reaction, and others. Mostly emerald is produced for commercial jewellery purposes. Synthesis of aquamarine and other gem varieties is considered commercially unprofitable (it is technically easier and cheaper to imitate them with synthetic corundum). A synthetic material, beryllium indialite, which is a structural analogue of beryl, and glasses of the same composition, which are easily synthesized, are promising for use as raw cutting material. - E.Ya. Kievlenko, Geology of gems, 2003, p. 72 |
| Physical Properties of Beryl |
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| Mohs Hardness | 7.5 to 8Herve Nicolas Lazzarelli, Blue Chart Gem Identification (2010) More from other references |
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| Specific Gravity | 2.60 to 2.90Herve Nicolas Lazzarelli, Blue Chart Gem Identification (2010) More from other references |
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| Cleavage Quality | IndistinctArthur Thomas, Gemstones (2009) |
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| Fracture | Uneven,ConchoidalEugenii Ya. Kievlenko, Geology of gems (2003) More from other references |
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| Optical Properties of Beryl |
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| Refractive Index | 1.560 to 1.604Herve Nicolas Lazzarelli, Blue Chart Gem Identification (2010) More from other references |
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| Optical Character | Uniaxial/-Herve Nicolas Lazzarelli, Blue Chart Gem Identification (2010) More from other references |
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| Birefringence | 0.003 to 0.010Herve Nicolas Lazzarelli, Blue Chart Gem Identification (2010) More from other references |
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| Pleochroism | Red beryl - distinct: (orangy)-red - purplish-red; Golden beryl - weak: yellowish - greenish-yellow; Green beryl - distinct: yellow-green - blue-greenHerve Nicolas Lazzarelli, Blue Chart Gem Identification (2010) More from other references |
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| Dispersion | 0.014Michael O?Donoghue, Gems, Sixth Edition (2006) More from other references |
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| Chatoyancy | Star: may show brownish to black body color, "colorless" when viewed from the sideHerve Nicolas Lazzarelli, Blue Chart Gem Identification (2010) |
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| Colour |
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| Colour (General) | Colourless, green, blue, yellow, yellow-green, pink, redUlrich Henn and Claudio C. Milisenda, Gemmological Tables (2004) More from other references |
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| Causes of Colour | Dark blue (Maxixe and Maxixe type), CO3(Maxixe-type), and NO3 (Maxixe) color centers due to irradiation. Light blue (aquamarine), Fe2+ in the channels of the structure. Darker blue (aquamarine), Fe2+-O-Fe3+ intervalence charge transfer. Green: yellow + blue, O2→Fe2 charge transfer and Fe2+ in the channels. Green (emerald, mint beryl), Cr3+ and/or V3+ in octahedral coordination. Red, Mn3+ in octahedral coordination. Pink (morganite), Mn2+ in octahedral coordinationW. William Hanneman, Pragmatic Spectroscopy For Gemologists (2011) |
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| Transparency | Transparent,TranslucentUlrich Henn and Claudio C. Milisenda, Gemmological Tables (2004) More from other references |
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| Lustre | VitreousArthur Thomas, Gemstones (2009) |
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| Crystallography of Beryl |
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| Crystal System | HexagonalHerve Nicolas Lazzarelli, Blue Chart Gem Identification (2010) More from other references |
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| Habit | PrismaticArthur Thomas, Gemstones (2009) |
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| Geological Environment |
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| Where found: | Beryl minerals occur in granites and granite pegmatites, in mafic metamorphic rocks and in high-temperature hydrothermal veins and in vugs in rhyolite.Michael O?Donoghue, Gems, Sixth Edition (2006) |
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| Spectrographic Data |
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| Calculated Spectra:Click spectra for more information |  Emerald - Locality: Synthetic Emerald - Locality: Synthetic (manufactured in China) Emerald - Locality: Muzo, Colombia |
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| Planes of tiny 2 phase inclusions - Blue Chart Gem Identification, Herve Nicolas Lazzarelli, 2010, p 6 |
 | Pyrite inclusion in emerald |
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| Inclusions: | Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Call to undefined function expandmin() in /var/www/gemdat/gemshow_class.php:1225 Stack trace: #0 /var/www/gemdat/gshow.php(189): gemshow_class->do_inclusions() #1 {main} thrown in /var/www/gemdat/gemshow_class.php on line 1225
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