Entry № 230
Helenite
Man-made Glass from Volcanic Ash
Volcanic ash, reborn as glass.
Chakra
Heart
Element
Fire · Earth
Zodiac
Leo · Aries

I. The Metaphysical Reading
How the stone has been held.
Helenite is worked with as a stone of phoenix energy, held when someone needs to believe that destruction can be transmuted into beauty. Born from the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens, it carries the mythos of renewal after devastation.
- Chakra
- Heart
- Element
- Fire · Earth
- Zodiac
- Leo · Aries
- Keynote
- Volcanic ash, reborn as glass.
II. The Scientific Reading
What the lattice actually does.
Helenite is a man-made glass produced by fusing volcanic ash from the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens with trace metals (typically copper and chromium) to produce a vivid emerald-green obsidian-like glass. It is not a natural mineral but a lapidary product created by heating the ash to approximately 1,400 °C. The resulting material has a refractive index and dispersion that give it a brilliant, fire-like appearance, and it is cut as a gemstone for jewellery and collectors.
- Formula
- SiO₂ (glass with trace Cu, Cr)
- System
- Amorphous
- Hardness
- 5 – 5.5 (Mohs)
- Provenance
- USA (Washington State — derived from Mt. St. Helens ash)
References & Sources
Independent mineralogical references used to verify the scientific details above.
Mineral Profile
Fact Sheet
- Chemical Formula
- SiO₂ (glass with trace Cu, Cr)
- Crystal System
- Amorphous
- Mohs Hardness
- 5 – 5.5 (Mohs)
- Density
- 2.40 – 2.50 g/cm³
- Refractive Index
- 1.50 – 1.54
- Provenance
- USA (Washington State — derived from Mt. St. Helens ash)
- Color Origin
- Vivid emerald green from copper and chromium
Related Crystals
Stones that share this lattice
Next in the Atlas
Hematite
The iron blood of the Earth — heavy, grounding, and magnetic.




