Formula: BaTiSi3O9
Origin of name: Locality; San Benito Co., California
Crystal system: Hexagonal
Crystal class: -6m2
Twinning: Rare by rotation around [0001] axis, penetration
Unit cell: a = 22.35 Ǻ, c = 21.41 Ǻ
Colour: blue to deep blue, purple, pink, white, or colourless
Diaphaneity: Transparent to translucent
Luster: Vitreous
Habit: Crystals generally flattened and triangular, pyramidal or tabular
Hardness: 6 to 6.5
Specific gravity: 3.64 to 3.68
Cleavage: 1 {10-11} indistinct
Tenacity: Conchoidal to uneven; brittle
Streak: Colourless
Synonyms/varieties:
Comments: Fluoresces bluish under short wavelength ultraviolet. Found in natrolite veins cutting glaucophane schist in serpentine body, in a magnesio-riebeckite-quartz-phlogopite-albite dike cutting serpentinite
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