Prasiolite
quartz
Amethyst that went into the furnace and came out green instead of orange, a quirk of which iron sites survive the heat. It is marketed as 'green amethyst', a name that is chemically nonsense and commercially unstoppable. People carry it for calm, self-love and clarity. Tradition attaches it to the element earth, the heart chakra, Venus.
Seen · you don't have this one yet
Almost all prasiolite on the market is amethyst heated to roughly 500 °C, mostly from Montezuma, Brazil. Natural prasiolite exists but is very rare. The pale even mint colour is itself the tell.
Mineral facts
Hardness
7 Mohs
Formula
SiO2
Family
quartz
Where it comes from
Brazil (Montezuma, Minas Gerais), Poland (Rudki), Canada (Thunder Bay, natural), Arizona, USA
What it is
Amethyst that went into the furnace and came out green instead of orange, a quirk of which iron sites survive the heat. It is marketed as 'green amethyst', a name that is chemically nonsense and commercially unstoppable. Nearly all of it originates from a single Brazilian locality.
What it is confused with
green-aventurine, dyed-quartz, peridot, green-fluorite, chrysoprase
Transparent, very pale, slightly grey-green, the colour of a bottle held up to a window, not of emerald or aventurine. Colour is unusually even for quartz because it is produced in a kiln. Standard quartz prism habit with horizontal striations if crystallised; faceted and tumbled pieces show vitreous luster and conchoidal fracture. Anything saturated forest-green and translucent-but-not-transparent is dyed quartz or aventurine, not prasiolite.
Commonly faked · check before you buy
How to tell
Scratches glass, unlike fluorite. Unlike green aventurine it is transparent and shows no green mica glitter. Dyed quartz betrays itself with colour pooling in fractures under a loupe.
Almost all prasiolite on the market is amethyst heated to roughly 500 °C, mostly from Montezuma, Brazil. Natural prasiolite exists but is very rare. The pale even mint colour is itself the tell.
What it means for you
The Moon is at 1° Scorpio today. Prasiolite is a quartz, 7 on the Mohs scale, and it is the stone traditionally carried when the problem is proximity rather than intensity.
You know what this one would do for you. You just don't have it.
Prasiolite for every sign
Aries
The kiln did in an afternoon what you keep meaning to start.
Marketed as green amethyst, a phrase that is chemically nonsense and commercially unstoppable. Nearly all of it is amethyst from one Brazilian locality, heated to about 500 degrees until the surviving iron sites turned it mint. The kiln did in an afternoon what you keep meaning to start.
Taurus
Chemically nonsense and commercially unstoppable.
Amethyst that went into a furnace and came out green, depending on which iron sites survived the heat. Almost all of it originates at Montezuma in Minas Gerais. It sells as green amethyst, a name that is chemically nonsense and commercially unstoppable, which is a fight nobody wins.
Gemini
Green amethyst means nothing chemically and sells anyway.
Green amethyst means nothing chemically and sells anyway. What is in your hand is amethyst heated to around 500 degrees until the iron gave up violet for pale mint, nearly all of it from one mine at Montezuma. Mercury would have invented that name too.
Cancer
The kiln is the whole biography.
Green amethyst is a marketing term. The stone under it is amethyst baked to roughly 500 degrees until the violet turned pale mint, and nearly every piece traces back to Montezuma in Minas Gerais. The kiln is the whole biography.
Leo
The name is theatre and the stone is innocent.
Sold as green amethyst, a phrase that means nothing chemically. Nearly all of it is Montezuma amethyst cooked to about 500 degrees, and the tell is the colour itself: pale even mint, far too uniform for anything a rock managed alone. The name is theatre and the stone is innocent.
Virgo
The colour is too even to be natural.
Sold as green amethyst, a phrase that means nothing, since amethyst is violet by definition. What you have is amethyst heated near 500 degrees, almost all of it from one locality at Montezuma in Minas Gerais. The pale grey-mint is too evenly distributed to be natural, and the evenness is the tell.
Libra
The prettier name won, as it usually does.
Amethyst heated to about 500 degrees comes out mint green instead of orange, depending on which iron sites survive the kiln. It sells as green amethyst, a name that is chemically meaningless and commercially unstoppable. The prettier name won, as it usually does.
Scorpio
The flat even mint colour is the confession.
Sold as green amethyst, a name that is chemically nonsense and commercially unstoppable. Almost all of it is amethyst kilned to about 500 degrees at one Brazilian locality. The flat even mint colour is the confession, and natural prasiolite is rare enough that you will not meet one.
Sagittarius
A name that is chemically nonsense and commercially unstoppable.
Heat amethyst to 500 degrees and it can come out mint green instead of orange, depending on which iron sites survive. Nearly all of it originates in Montezuma, Minas Gerais. It is sold as green amethyst, a name that is chemically nonsense and commercially unstoppable.
Capricorn
A kiln is more consistent than geology ever manages.
Sold as green amethyst, a phrase that means nothing, and made by putting Brazilian amethyst in a kiln near 500 degrees. The flat even mint colour is the tell, because a kiln is more consistent than geology ever manages. Nobody hides this and nobody mentions it.
Aquarius
Correcting people is unpaid work, which Aquarius does anyway.
Sold as green amethyst, a phrase that cannot mean anything, since the word amethyst refers to the violet. It is amethyst heated near 500 degrees until a different set of iron sites survived. The name stuck because correcting people is unpaid work, which Aquarius does anyway.
Pisces
The evenness is itself the giveaway.
Pale, even, slightly grey mint, and the evenness is itself the giveaway, because kilns produce a uniformity that geology rarely bothers with. It is amethyst heated to about 500 degrees and sold as green amethyst. Nearly all of it comes from one Brazilian locality.
Correspondences
What tradition attaches to this stone. Folklore, not chemistry.
Element
earth
Planet
Venus
Chakra
heart
Signs
virgo, taurus, libra
What tradition says
In crystal lore, prasiolite is placed at the heart chakra as a bridge between heart and mind; the attribution is recent, dating from the stone's commercial appearance in the mid-20th century.
Care
- Water is fine. Dry it afterwards.
- Keep it out of direct sun. The colour goes and does not come back.
- Heat-produced colour can weaken with sustained UV. Keep out of sun; water and salt are fine.
Common questions
What does prasiolite mean?
Prasiolite is carried for calm, self-love and clarity. Amethyst that went into the furnace and came out green instead of orange, a quirk of which iron sites survive the heat.. Tradition links it to the heart chakra.
Is prasiolite real or fake?
Almost all prasiolite on the market is amethyst heated to roughly 500 °C, mostly from Montezuma, Brazil. Natural prasiolite exists but is very rare.. Scratches glass, unlike fluorite. Unlike green aventurine it is transparent and shows no green mica glitter.. Almost all prasiolite on the market is amethyst heated to roughly 500 °C, mostly from Montezuma, Brazil.
Can prasiolite go in water?
A short rinse is fine for prasiolite, then dry it. Keep it out of direct sun, because the colour fades and does not come back.
Uncommon · pale mint green, leek green, yellow-green
Where this leads
This stone belongs to
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FOR ENTERTAINMENT AND REFLECTION. NOT MEDICAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL, FINANCIAL OR LEGAL ADVICE. How this works