BARITE


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Barite (bottom) and desert roses from Arkansas, USA. The colour of the "roses" is actually much pinker than my picture shows

This mineral forms tabular and prismatic crystals, which can be very large. It also occurs as small, sand-bearing, rose-shaped concretions called desert roses. It forms in hydrothermal veins with a number of other minerals, including quartz, calcite, fluorite, galena, pyrite, dolomite and sphalerite. Barite also forms in clay nodules, in veins in sedimentary strata, and around hot springs.

Hardness: 3-3 1/2

Other characteristics.



Barite on hematite(d) quartz (on green quartz on amethyst) - beautiful, but I forget where it came from. (Colour should be as the above photo)