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Entry № 230

Helenite

Man-made Glass from Volcanic Ash

Volcanic ash, reborn as glass.

Chakra

Heart

Element

Fire · Earth

Zodiac

Leo · Aries

Helenite

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

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Next in the Atlas

Hematite

The iron blood of the Earth — heavy, grounding, and magnetic.