Vorobyevite Identification Guide
How to identify Vorobyevite, the rare cesium-rich pink-to-colorless beryl, and tell it from morganite and other beryls.
Read the full Vorobyevite encyclopedia entry →
What Vorobyevite Looks Like
Vorobyevite (also spelled vorobievite or worobieffite) is an old name for cesium-rich beryl, typically pale pink, rose, peachy or nearly colorless. It overlaps strongly with morganite and the colorless cesian beryl sometimes called rosterite.
- Color: soft pink, rose, salmon, lilac-pink, or colorless to pale yellow.
- Luster: vitreous.
- Transparency: transparent to translucent.
- Crystal habit: hexagonal (six-sided) prisms, but cesian beryls are notably tabular/flattened (short, plate-like) rather than long columns, a useful clue.
Step-by-Step Field Checklist
- Confirm beryl: six-sided crystal outline, vitreous luster, hardness 7.5-8 (scratches quartz).
- Note the flattened habit. Cesium-rich beryl often grows as squat, tabular crystals.
- Check the color. Delicate pink to colorless with possible weak pleochroism.
- Heft the stone. Cesian beryl is slightly denser than ordinary beryl (cesium adds weight).
- Test hardness: 7.5-8, resists a steel file and scratches glass and quartz.
Key Diagnostic Tests
- Mohs hardness: 7.5-8.
- Streak: white.
- Cleavage: imperfect basal; fracture conchoidal to uneven.
- Density: elevated for beryl, often ~2.8-2.9+ g/cm3 due to cesium (normal beryl ~2.7), heavier than expected.
- Refractive index: slightly higher than common beryl, another lab clue.
- No acid reaction.
Common Look-Alikes
- Morganite (pink beryl): essentially the same material; "vorobyevite" historically denotes the cesium-rich, often more tabular variety. Distinction is compositional (Cs content), not visual.
- Pezzottaite: a related Cs-Li beryl-group mineral, usually more raspberry-pink and trigonal; needs lab confirmation.
- Kunzite (spodumene): stronger pink-lilac, perfect cleavage (beryl has only imperfect basal), and prismatic with striations.
- Pink topaz: higher density (~3.5), one perfect cleavage.
- Rose quartz: lower density (~2.65), usually massive/cloudy, no good crystal faces.
Where It Is Found
Vorobyevite comes from cesium-rich granite pegmatites; classic localities include Madagascar, the Urals (Russia), Elba (Italy), Brazil, and Pakistan/Afghanistan.
Frequently asked questions
What is Vorobyevite?
It is an old name for cesium-rich beryl, usually pale pink to colorless and often tabular, overlapping with morganite and the colorless variety rosterite.
Is Vorobyevite the same as morganite?
They are very closely related; vorobyevite specifically refers to the cesium-rich, frequently more flattened pink beryl, whereas morganite is the general pink beryl name.
How can you tell Vorobyevite from kunzite?
Beryl is hexagonal with only imperfect basal cleavage and hardness 7.5-8, while kunzite (spodumene) has perfect prismatic cleavage and is softer and more easily split.
What makes Vorobyevite denser than normal beryl?
Its cesium content raises the specific gravity above ordinary beryl (often 2.8-2.9+ versus ~2.7), so it feels slightly heavier and shows a higher refractive index.