Many of the characters being so similar to those of pyrargyrite they are mentioned under that species. The prismatic crystals are often terminated by the scalenohedron and the obtuse rhombohedron, thus resembling calcite (dog-tooth-spar) in habit. The color is scarlet-vermilion and the lustre adamantine; crystals are transparent and very brilliant, but on exposure to light they soon become dull black and opaque. The streak is scarlet, the hardness 2.5, and the specific gravity 5.57.
The mode of occurrence is the same as that of pyrargyrite, and the two minerals are sometimes found together. Magnificent groups of large crystals have been found at Chañarcillo in Chile; other localities which have yielded fine specimens are Freiberg and Marienberg in Saxony, Joachimsthal in Bohemia and Markirch in Alsace.
See also
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Thursday May 08, 2008 at 07:35:09 PDT (GMT -0700)
View this article at Wikipedia.org - Edit this article at Wikipedia.org - Donate to the Wikimedia Foundation
Copyright © 2008, Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.