Rocksday

Witherite

Barium carbonate: heavy, pale, and often in six-sided twinned pyramids.

Witherite specimen
Photo: Robert M. Lavinsky, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

How to identify witherite

  • Heavy pale crystals, often double pyramids.
  • Fizzes in acid.
  • May glow under UV.

Often confused with

Where it's found

  • Northumberland, England
  • Cave-in-Rock, Illinois

Uses

Minor barium source.

Rock tumbling

Not suitable for tumbling. Barium carbonate is toxic if swallowed.

Did you know?

It's named after William Withering, the physician who introduced digitalis as a heart medicine.

Think you could spot it from a blurry close-up?

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