Actinolite

Actinolite is a mineral that can be green, green-black, gray-green, or black in color and is made of crystals. It is common around the world. The environment it lives in is in metamorphic rocks. It is named after the Greek word aktinos (meaning "ray") because of the nature of Actinolite.  Actinole is not radioactive.

Actinolite is a crystal found in countries like the US, Brazil, China, and Canada. Actinolite is commonly used in industrial applications such as in the production of asbestos because it has similar properties to asbestos fibers. It is sometimes used as a gemstone, but it is not suitable for jewelry. Some types of actinolite are rare, which makes it an attractive to some collectors.

Actinolite is a member of a series that contains varying amounts of calcium, magnesium, iron, and aluminum. Tremolite is the Mg end, and ferroactinolite the Fe end, with actinolite in the middle. Actinolites with more than 50% Fe are very rare. Catseye actinolite exists; when chatoyant material is cut, it exhibits a fine eye. Actinolite is easy to cleave and hard to cut and would make a poor jewelry stone. Actinolite is the chief constituent of nephrite (jade). Smaragdite is a chrome-rich tremolite from Tanzania.

 References 

Category:Asbestos
Category:Inosilicates