How to identify Green Selenite
Gypsum (variety Selenite)
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Open the appTo correctly identify Green Selenite (Gypsum (variety Selenite)), check each of these features in order. Many rocks and minerals look alike, so cross-reference multiple properties before deciding.
Step-by-step identification
- 1
Color
Overall color and any zoning or banding
Ranges from pale mint green to deep emerald green, often translucent.
- 2
Luster
How the surface reflects light: metallic, vitreous, dull
Vitreous (glassy) to pearly on cleavage surfaces.
- 3
Texture
Grain size and surface feel: coarse, fine, glassy
Smooth to slightly fibrous, often with visible crystal faces.
- 4
Crystal Form
Shape of visible crystals or crystal faces
Commonly tabular, prismatic, or acicular crystals. Can also form in 'desert rose' aggregates or fibrous masses (satin spar).
- 5
Cleavage
How it breaks: flat cleavage planes vs irregular fracture
Perfect in one direction (pinacoidal), distinct in two others, leading to easy splitting into thin, flexible sheets.
- 6
Geological Environment
The rock formation and setting where it occurs
Evaporite deposits, sedimentary basins, caves, and sometimes as a secondary mineral in hydrothermal veins or altered volcanic rocks.
Key Facts
- Hardness
- 2 on the Mohs scale
- Specific Gravity
- 2.31 - 2.33 g/cm³
- Crystal System
- Monoclinic
- Color
- Colorless, white, gray, yellow, brown, green (due to inclusions)
- Luster
- Vitreous to pearly
- Transparency
- Transparent to translucent
- Fracture
- Conchoidal to uneven
- Cleavage
- Perfect on {010}, distinct on {100} and {101}
- Composition
- Hydrous Calcium Sulfate (CaSO4·2H2O)
Physical characteristics
- Crystal Habit: Tabular, prismatic, acicular, massive, fibrous (satin spar), granular, lamellar, rosettes (desert rose)
- Cleavage Type: Perfect in one direction ({010}), distinct in two others ({100} and {101})
- Fracture Type: Conchoidal to uneven
- Tenacity: Sectile (can be cut with a knife), flexible in thin sheets
- Luster Type: Vitreous to pearly
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