page_title: Spar (mineralogy)
hierarchical_section_title: Spar (mineralogy)
caption_attribution_description: English: calcite, fluorite var. violet fluorite&#160;: Elmwood Mine, Carthage, Smith County, Tennessee, USA - cristal 38 mm
context_page_description: Spar is an old mining or mineralogy term used to refer to crystals that have readily discernible faces. A spar will easily break or cleave into rhomboidal, cubical, or laminated fragments with smooth shiny surfaces.
  The various spar minerals were a historical term among miners and alchemists for any nonmetallic mineral akin to gypsum, known in Old English as spærstān, spear stone, referring to its crystalline projections. Thus, the word spar in mineralogy has the same root as "spear,".
  Amongst miners the term "spar" today is frequently used alone to express any bright crystalline substance. Most frequently, spar describes easily cleaved, lightly colored nonmetallic minerals such as feldspar, calcite or baryte. Baryte, the main source of barium, is also called "heavy spar".
  Calcite often forms the dogtooth spar crystals found in vugs and caves.
context_section_description: Spar is an old mining or mineralogy term used to refer to crystals that have readily discernible faces. A spar will easily break or cleave into rhomboidal, cubical, or laminated fragments with smooth shiny surfaces. 
  The various spar minerals were a historical term among miners and alchemists for any nonmetallic mineral akin to gypsum, known in Old English as spærstān, spear stone, referring to its crystalline projections. Thus, the word spar in mineralogy has the same root as "spear,".
  Amongst miners the term "spar" today is frequently used alone to express any bright crystalline substance.  Most frequently, spar describes easily cleaved, lightly colored  nonmetallic minerals such as feldspar, calcite or baryte. Baryte (BaSO₄), the main source of barium, is also called "heavy spar" (Greek "barys" means "heavy"). 
  Calcite often forms the dogtooth spar crystals found in vugs and caves.
caption: Dogtooth spar with fluorite from the Elmwood Mine in Tennessee
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D300S", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Elements 9.0 Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2012:05:12 17:41:53", "Image Artist": "G\u00e9ry Parent", "Image WhitePoint": "[313/1000, 329/1000]", "Image PrimaryChromaticities": "[16/25, 33/100, 21/100, 71/100, 3/20, 3/50]", "Image YCbCrCoefficients": "[299/1000, 587/1000, 57/500]", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "G\u00e9ry Parent", "Image ExifOffset": "496", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "1160", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1274", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6849", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/60", "EXIF FNumber": "36", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2013:04:17 09:30:21", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2013:04:17 09:30:21", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "33/10", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Spot", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, compulsory flash mode, return light detected", "EXIF FocalLength": "60", "EXIF SubSecTime": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "00", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3796", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2848", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R03", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1128", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "90", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF Gamma": "11/5"}