Chrysocolla is normally found in copper mines in arid areas. It is found in copper veins. it is sometimes used as an alternative to turquoise. The name first appears in 315 bc and comes form the greek name chrysos for gold and kolla for water. Chrysocolla forms as crusts and stalacites. Chrysocolla is soft and tends to break unless intermixed when forming idealy with quartz and chalcedony which gives it duribillity and enables it to be worked. Found through out europe the US and africa with a mohls hardness of 2-3 and a refractive index of 1.58-1.64