Satin spar
Set index articles (minerals with the same trivial name)
Satin spar, less commonly atlas spar, is a trivial, partly obsolete name for fibrous varieties of the minerals gypsum, calcite, and aragonite. Satin spars have a characteristic satin (silky) luster. Despite their very low hardness (2 or 3 on the Mohs scale), satin spars are widely used as ornamental stones.
Spar is a general term for glassy, transparent to translucent minerals that cleave easily. Satin spars are not related to other minerals containing spar in their names, such as feldspar and fluorspar.
Main minerals and varieties
Satin spar gypsum is a white, fibrous variety of gypsum that is sometimes called selenite.
Satin spar calcite, or calcite spar, is a fibrous variety of calcite that superficially resembles satin spar gypsum (selenite), but is much less common in nature.
Aragonite is one of the polymorphic varieties of calcite, sometimes having the same satin effect.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Satin spar” as set index articles (minerals with the same trivial name). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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This entry incorporates text from “Satin spar” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.