Rhodochrosite is a manganese carbonate mineral with chemical composition MnCO3. In its (rare) pure form, it is typically a rose-red color, but impure specimens can be shades of pink to pale brown. It streaks white, and its Mohs hardness varies between 3.5 and 4. Its specific gravity is between 3.5 and 3.7. It crystallizes in the trigonal system, and cleaves with rhombohedral carbonate cleavage in three directions.

A woman looks for fruits to buy inside a bus called Sacolao in Santa Teresa neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 7, 2015. The bus, which began operating as a municipal initiative but has been taken over by a private enterprise, arrives every week in some neighborhoods to facilitate families with their grocery shopping and sells food at an affordable price, according to sellers. (Photo by Pilar Olivares/Reuters)

A winter swimmer, wearing a Santa Claus hat to celebrate the upcoming Christmas, reacts as he plays on a frozen lake at a park in Shenyang, Liaoning province, December 22, 2014. The characters on the hat read: “Shenyang Winter Swimming”. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

A Thai traffic security guard wears a Santa Claus costume as he directs the traffic on a street during Christmas celebrations outside a shopping mall in Bangkok, Thailand, 22 December 2015. The campaign of a shopping mall is held to celebrate the upcoming Christmas season and to attract shoppers. (Photo by Narong Sangnak/EPA)

A visitor and an employee dressed as Snegurochka (Snow Maiden), the granddaughter of Ded Moroz (Russian equivalent of Santa Claus), pose for a picture inside an upside down house, constructed as an attraction for local residents and tourists and located at the Royev Ruchey Park of Flora and Fauna in the suburbs of Krasnoyarsk, Russia, December 7, 2016. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

Performers dressed as Ded Moroz, the equivalent of Santa Claus, and his granddaughter Snegurochka (Snow Maiden) take on shoe covers as they visit the Republican Scientific and Practical Centre of Pediatric Surgery in Minsk, Belarus, December 28, 2016. (Photo by Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters)

A native Brazilian competes in a tora competition, which is a race while carrying a log, during the Indigenous Youth Games of Pataxos nation in Santa Cruz de Cabralia, Bahia state, Brazil, April 18, 2016. (Photo by Roosevelt Cassio/Reuters)

A Sri Lankan Christian girl wears a Santa hair band and a face mask as a precaution against the coronavirus as she arrives at a church to attend the Christmas mass in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Friday, December 25, 2020. (Photo by Eranga Jayawardena/AP Photo)