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AZURITE, or CHESSYLITE

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 86 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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AZURITE, or CHESSYLITE , a See also:mineral which is a basic See also:copper carbonate, 2CuCO3• Cu(OH)2. In its vivid See also:blue See also:colour it contrasts strikingly with the See also:emerald-See also:green See also:malachite, also a basic copper carbonate, but containing rather more See also:water and less See also:carbon dioxide. It was known to See also:Pliny under the name caeruleum, and the See also:modern name azurite (given by F. S. See also:Beudant in 1824) also has reference to the See also:azure-blue colour; the name chessylite, also in See also:common use, is of later date (1852), and is from the locality, Chessy near See also:Lyons, which has supplied the best crystallized specimens of the mineral. Crystals of azurite belong to the See also:monoclinic See also:system; they have a vitreous lustre and are trans-lucent. The streak is blue, but lighter than the colour of the mineral in See also:mass. Hardness 31—4; sp. gr. 3.8. Azurite occurs with malachite in the upper portions of deposits of copper ore, and owes its origin to the alteration of the sulphide or of native copper by water containing carbon dioxide and See also:oxygen. It is thus a common mineral in all copper mines, and sometimes occurs in large masses, as in See also:Arizona and in See also:South See also:Australia, where it has been worked as an ore of copper, of which See also:element it contains 55%. Being less hydrated than malachite it is itself liable to alteration into this mineral, and pseudomorphs of malachite after azurite are not uncommon.

Occasionally the massive material is cut and polished for decorative purposes, though the application in this direction is far less extensive than that of malachite. (L. J.

End of Article: AZURITE, or CHESSYLITE

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