Main index --- Minerals list --- Iron index Pyrite cube Pyrite polyhedron
Name:Pyrite
Derivation:From "pyrites" (Greek) fire, because sparks could be struck from it.
Formula: FeS2
Description: Pyrite is shiny and faintly tinged with yellow. Pyrites has two different shapes of crystals, as seen in these two photographs.

Pyrite crystals Pyrite crystals Pyrite is sometimes called Fool's Gold, although chalcopyrite is perhaps more convincing.

It is possible to find pyrites crystals as simple shapes, but usually these are several crystals jumbled together. Even in the cube above, you can see a tiny cube sticking out the top. They may be very small, as in the photograph on the right, but with a magnifying glass you can usually see the individual crystal forms. In the left hand photograph below, you can see faint parallel lines across the faces of the crystals. They are called striations.

Larger pictures of Pyrite:

This specimen is a crystal with a pentagonal face. There are striations on the faces.

Pyrites

Here are some single crystals, two cubic and one dodecahedron.

Pyrites Pyrites

These are clusters of crystals.

Pyrites

Pyrites

This is Pyrite in Quartz. It shows why Pyrite is sometimes called Fool's Gold.

Pyrites