6Be is also very short-lived with a half-life of 5.0 × 10−21 second.

[10]
The exotic isotopes 11Be and 14Be are known to exhibit a nuclear halo.

[11] In short, the nuclei of 11Be and 14Be have, respectively, 1 and 4 neutrons orbiting substantially outside the classical Fermi 'waterdrop' model of the nucleus.

Unstable isotopes of beryllium are created in stars, but these do not last long.

It is believed that most of the stable beryllium was created when cosmic rays induced fission in heavier elements found in interstellar gas and dust.[12]

Occurrence

Beryllium ore

See also Category: Beryllium minerals

The beryllium concentration of the Earth's surface rocks is ca.

4–6 ppm.

Beryllium is a constituent of about 100 out of about 4000 known minerals, the most important of which are bertrandite (Be4Si2O7(OH)2), beryl (Al2Be3Si6O18), chrysoberyl (Al2BeO4) and phenakite (Be2SiO4).

Precious forms of beryl are aquamarine, bixbite and emerald.[3][13][14]

Production

Because of its high affinity for oxygen at elevated temperatures, and its ability to reduce water when its oxide film is removed, the extraction of beryllium from its compounds is very difficult.

Although electrolysis of the fused mixture of beryllium fluoride and sodium fluoride was used to isolate beryllium during the nineteenth century, the metal's high melting point makes this process more energy-consuming than the corresponding processes for the alkali metals.