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barytocalcite

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Barytocalcite is an anhydrous barium calcium carbonate mineral with the chemical formula BaCa(CO3)2. It is trimorphous with alstonite and paralstonite, that is to say the three minerals have the same formula but different structures. Baryte and quartz pseudomorphs after barytocalcite have been observed.

Key facts

Mineral.name
Barytocalcite
Mineral.image
Barytocalcite w - rock Calcium barium carbonate Blaygill Alston Cumberland England 2302.jpg
Mineral.caption
Barytocalcite from England
Mineral.category
Carbonate mineral
Mineral.formula
BaCa(CO3)2
Mineral.IMAsymbol
Bcal
Mineral.molweight
297.42 g/mol
Mineral.strunz
5.AB.45
Mineral.dana
14.02.06.01
Mineral.system
Monoclinic
Mineral.class
Prismatic (2/m) (same H-M symbol)
Mineral.symmetry
P21/m
Mineral.unit cell
a = 8.1 Å, b = 5.2 Å, c = 6.5 Å, β = 106°; Z = 2
Mineral.colour
Colourless, white, greyish, greenish, yellowish
Mineral.habit
Prismatic, drusy, massive – granular
Mineral.cleavage
Perfect in at least two directions
Mineral.tenacity
Brittle
Mineral.mohs
4

via Wikipedia infobox

~6 min read

Encyclopedic overview

8 sections
Contents
  • Structure
  • Unit cell
  • Appearance
  • Optical properties
  • Physical properties
  • Type locality
  • Other localities
  • References

Barytocalcite is an anhydrous barium calcium carbonate mineral with the chemical formula BaCa(CO3)2. It is trimorphous with alstonite and paralstonite, that is to say the three minerals have the same formula but different structures. Baryte and quartz pseudomorphs after barytocalcite have been observed.

Barytocalcite crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system, typically as massive to druzy accumulations of transparent white to yellow to grey aggregates of slender prismatic crystals. It has a Mohs hardness of 4 and a specific gravity of 3.64 to 3.71.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “barytocalcite” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.