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Barylite
A valid IMA mineral species - grandfathered
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About Barylite
Formula:
Be2Ba(Si2O7)
Colour:
Bluish white, colourless
Lustre:
Vitreous, Greasy
Hardness:
7
Specific Gravity:
4.066
Crystal System:
Orthorhombic
Name:
Named in 1876 by Christian Wilhelm Blomstrand from the Greek for βαρυζ = "heavy" and λιτθοσ = "stone", in allusion to its high density (specific gravity).
Barylite was first recognized in 1874 by C. W. Blomstrand (1876) in the Långban Mine, Värmland, Sweden. The mineral was originally bought from the Swedish mineral collector E. Petterson Trapp. At the time Blomstrand erronously regarded barylite as a Ba-Al-silicate (beryllium was not detected) related to the barium feldspars. It was first when an analysis made by Almström that Aminoff (1923) revealed that it was a Ba-Be-silicate.
Unique Identifiers
Mindat ID:
545
Long-form identifier:
mindat:1:1:545:4
Crystal Peak, Teller County, Colorado, USA