How to Identify Beryl

Study the crystal system and crystal habit of beryl. Beryl's crystal system is hexagonal which means that it forms six sided crystals. Its crystal habit includes both elongated and flattened forms of hexagonal prisms.

Compare this knowledge to what your mineral looks like.

Study the different types of luster by looking at pictures of minerals that have been classified, including pictures of beryl. Beryl's luster is classed as vitreous.

Compare your mineral to the pictures.

Study the environments that the various types of beryl form in, including the minerals that form alongside beryl. Compare that information to the environment that your mineral was found. Environments that beryl forms in range from pegmatites and hydrothermal veins to the environment created when an igneous intrusion intrudes on certain stones like aluminous schist.

Study how beryl breaks when broken. Beryl cleaves when hit at one angle, and fractures, conchoidally or in a shell-shaped way, when broken at other angles. Cleavage is when a mineral breaks apart into smaller pieces of the same shape due to certain atomic connections being weaker than others.

Put on the goggles, pick a sample of your mineral and experiment with hitting it at different angles to see how it breaks. Compare this to what you have learned about how beryl fractures.

Perform the streak plate test. Rub your mineral across a tile of unglazed porcelain. Compare the streak to pictures other minerals' streaks. Beryl's streak is white.