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Formula: Ba3(VO4)2
Simple vanadate of barium,
tuite group,
palmierite supergroup
Crystal System: Trigonal
Specific gravity: 5.044 calculated for the empirical formula
Streak: White
Colour: Colourless
Environments
Localities
At the type locality, the Gurim anticline, Hatrurim Basin, Tamar Regional Council, Southern District, Israel,
two new (in 2013) barium-bearing minerals, gurimite and
hexacelsian, were discovered in veins of
paralava cutting
gehlenite-flamite
hornfels. Gurimite and
hexacelsian occur in oval polymineralic inclusions in
paralava and are associated with
gehlenite,
pseudowollastonite or
wollastonite, rankinite,
flamite, larnite,
schorlomite, andradite,
fluorapatite,
fluorellestadite,
kalsilite, cuspidine,
aradite, zadovite and
khesinite.
Gurimite and hexacelsian form elongate crystals less than 10 μm
thick.
The minerals are colourless and transparent with a white streak and vitreous lustre. It is suggested that after
relatively fast crystallisation of the main constituents of the
paralava, gurimite,
hexacelsian and also other
barium-bearing phases crystallised from residual melt enriched in
incompatible elements (see
Wikipedia article) that filled interstices
between crystals of the main constituents
(MM 81.4.1009-1019).
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