Entry № 220
Green Opal
Common Opal (var. Green)
Opal without fire, coloured by nickel or celadonite instead.
Chakra
Heart
Element
Water · Earth
Zodiac
Cancer · Libra

I. The Metaphysical Reading
How the stone has been held.
Green opal is worked with as a stone of gentle emotional renewal, kept close during grief that is being metabolised slowly. Practitioners hold that it works by softening rather than accelerating.
- Chakra
- Heart
- Element
- Water · Earth
- Zodiac
- Cancer · Libra
- Keynote
- Opal without fire, coloured by nickel or celadonite instead.
II. The Scientific Reading
What the lattice actually does.
Green opal is a common (non-precious) opal — hydrated amorphous silica without the ordered silica-sphere lattice that produces play-of-colour. Its green tint comes from either trace nickel substituting in the silica gel or included flakes of celadonite, a green iron-rich mica. Peruvian and Madagascan material is among the best-known.
- Formula
- SiO₂·nH₂O with trace Ni or celadonite inclusions
- System
- Amorphous
- Hardness
- 5.5 – 6.5 (Mohs)
- Provenance
- Peru, Madagascar, USA (Oregon), Tanzania, Indonesia
References & Sources
Independent mineralogical references used to verify the scientific details above.
Mineral Profile
Fact Sheet
- Chemical Formula
- SiO₂·nH₂O with trace Ni or celadonite inclusions
- Crystal System
- Amorphous
- Mohs Hardness
- 5.5 – 6.5 (Mohs)
- Density
- 1.98 – 2.20 g/cm³
- Refractive Index
- 1.42 – 1.47
- Provenance
- Peru, Madagascar, USA (Oregon), Tanzania, Indonesia
- Color Origin
- Pale apple to mossy green from nickel or celadonite mica
Related Crystals
Stones that share this lattice
Next in the Atlas
Green Opalised Wood
A tree replaced, cell by cell, with green silica.




