Transparency crystals are transparent to translucent. Crystal Habits include flatten tabular to box shaped crystals, but good crystals are rare. More commonly found as grains in alluvial gravels and as granular xenoliths in magnesium rich volcanic rock. Twinning is rare, but has produced star shaped trillings. Cleavage is poor in two directions at 90 degrees, is more distinct in fayalite.
Fracture is conchoidal.
Hardness is 6.5 - 7. Streak is white. Associated Minerals are diopside , spinel , plagioclase feldspars , chromite , hornblende , serpentine , iron-nickel meteorites and augite . Best Field Indicators are color, hardness, mafic or metamorphic environment, lack of good cleavage and density.