Epidote, it's Picture Perfect

     Epidote’s crystals are near perfect examples of the diagrams of monoclinic crystals that I have seen in rock & mineral books. They look like gemstones that have been given a rectangular table cut or two pyramids that have been fused at the base and have had their caps cut off. Their flat faces are rectangular and not square and that is why I have called them near perfect examples of monoclinic crystal diagrams. These crystals are usually tabular or long, skinny prisms. Epidote’s crystals are often acicular (needle-shaped) or radial (they radiate from a central point like the spokes of a wheel.) Epidote is usually yellow-green in color, but can also be pistachio green, brown-black, or green-black and less commonly: pink, yellow, black, and gray. Epidote has a vitreous luster (it reflects light like quartz and glass do) but its cleaved surfaces have a pearly luster (a luster that resembles that of a pearl or mother of pearl.) Epidote can be transparent, translucent, and sometimes opaque. I have read that epidote is pleochroic (it changes color when looked at from different angles) but I haven’t seen any pleochroism in my specimen yet.
     Epidote and pink feldspar sometimes grow together to form a rock called unakite. Unakite is used to make jewelry and carvings. Epidote is used for those two purposes as well, but unakite is more popular.
     Epidote is found in many different places. I know of almost thirty different locales in which epidote is found, but have decided to mention only a few to keep this post short: Bolivia, Peru, Brazil, Norway, France, Kenya, South Africa, Mozambique, Mali, Montana, Maryland, Arkansas, Virginia, Japan, and Azerbaijan.
     Epidote has very simple crystals that can grow in interesting ways and it is an ingredient in a rock that people like to use for decoration. By now you might want to be adding epidote to your collection and with all of the places where it can be found you might just be able to find some where you live!