Entry № 255
Kobyashevite
Cu₅(SO₄)₂(OH)₆·4H₂O
Pale copper sulfate sprays of the oxidised zone.
Chakra
Throat · Heart
Element
Water · Metal
Zodiac
Libra · Aquarius
I. The Metaphysical Reading
How the stone has been held.
Kobyashevite is worked with as a specimen stone of fine articulation, held to contemplate how much detail a system can hold before it breaks. Its needle sprays are said to remind the carrier that fragility is not the same as weakness.
- Chakra
- Throat · Heart
- Element
- Water · Metal
- Zodiac
- Libra · Aquarius
- Keynote
- Pale copper sulfate sprays of the oxidised zone.
II. The Scientific Reading
What the lattice actually does.
Kobyashevite is a rare hydrated copper sulfate hydroxide first described from the Vishnevye Mountains of the Urals, Russia, and named for the mineralogist Yurii Semenovich Kobyashev. It forms delicate acicular blue crystals in the oxidised zone of copper deposits, closely related to devilline and campigliaite. Because it is very soft, water-soluble at the surface and chemically unstable outside its host, it is handled as a locked collector's specimen.
- Formula
- Cu₅(SO₄)₂(OH)₆·4H₂O
- System
- Triclinic
- Hardness
- 2 – 2.5 (Mohs)
- Provenance
- Russia (Vishnevye Mountains, Urals — type locality)
References & Sources
Independent mineralogical references used to verify the scientific details above.
Mineral Profile
Fact Sheet
- Chemical Formula
- Cu₅(SO₄)₂(OH)₆·4H₂O
- Crystal System
- Triclinic
- Mohs Hardness
- 2 – 2.5 (Mohs)
- Density
- 3.10 g/cm³
- Refractive Index
- 1.58 – 1.63
- Provenance
- Russia (Vishnevye Mountains, Urals — type locality)
- Color Origin
- Pale blue to blue-green fibrous sprays
Related Crystals
Stones that share this lattice
Next in the Atlas
Kunzite
Pink spodumene named for the gem scholar who found it.
