Sodalite Syenite
Fluorescent sodalite syenite beads are a grey igneous rock from the Lake Superior region that looks ordinary in daylight and glows orange and yellow under longwave ultraviolet light, because the sodalite scattered through it fluoresces. It is widely sold under the trademarked name Yooperlite. This collection holds natural fluorescent sodalite syenite in a range of finishes and shapes for bracelets, necklaces and earrings.
Appearance
In daylight the beads are a speckled mid to dark grey, the color of granite, with lighter feldspar grains and darker patches, and strands vary in how coarse the grain is and how much of the surface is sodalite. Under a 365 nanometer UV lamp the sodalite glows a vivid orange to yellow in spots, veins and splashes while the rest of the rock stays dark. Some beads carry only a few points of light and others are mostly glow; the pattern cannot be judged without a lamp.
The fluorescence does not fade with wear, though it needs a longwave UV lamp to show: a 365 nanometer lamp works far better than a 395 nanometer one. A polished finish gives the grey a slight sheen and does not affect the glow; a matte finish makes it look like a beach pebble. Sodalite sits at 5.5 to 6 on the Mohs scale and the feldspar around it at 6 to 6.5, so the beads take ordinary wear but should be stored apart from quartz and harder stones.
Formation and origin
Syenite is a coarse igneous rock related to granite but with little or no quartz, and here sodalite crystallized as part of the groundmass. The rock formed in the Coldwell Complex north of Lake Superior in Ontario about 1.1 billion years ago, during the rifting that created the lake basin, and glaciers later carried broken pieces south to the Michigan and Ontario shorelines, where they are collected from beaches. The orange glow comes from sulfur-bearing ions in the sodalite that absorb ultraviolet light and re-emit it as visible light. The stone was first reported as a collectible in 2017; the name Yooperlite, from the nickname for residents of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, is a registered trademark held by its discoverer, not a mineral name.
Pairings
Sodalite beads: the same mineral in its familiar royal blue, so a strand pairs the blue with the grey rock that hides it.
Onyx beads: plain black that disappears under UV and leaves the glowing beads to stand alone.
Howlite beads: white with grey veins that matches the daytime grey and stays dark under the lamp.
Lore and Meaning
Fluorescent sodalite syenite has long lain on the Lake Superior shore, but it has only been collected since 2017, when a Michigan rockhound noticed the glow on a night walk with a UV lamp, so it has no ancient lore. In modern crystal traditions sodalite is associated with insight, truth and the throat and third eye chakras, and the fluorescent variety is described as a stone of hidden potential. These are traditional beliefs, not claims of physical effect.
