Event Title
Calcite: Mineral Information
Location
Parker-Reed, SSWAC
Start Date
30-4-2015 2:00 PM
End Date
30-4-2015 3:55 PM
Project Type
Poster
Description
At the beginning of the semester, students in Intro to Mineralogy class were assigned unknown minerals. The goal of this project is to identify and research an unknown mineral throughout the semester. My assigned mineral is calcite, a carbonate mineral. Calcite is from Latin word calx, or calcis, meaning burnt lime. This mineral was originally named by Haidinger in 1845 after a Greek root chalx, meaning to reduce to powder by heat. Calcite is the stable form of CaCO3 at most temperature and pressures. There are two polymorphs of calcite, which are aragonite and vaterite. The crystals of calcite are triginal-rhombohedral. The crystals are transparent to translucent and usually colorless. The most common appearance of calcite is white rhomb with vitreous to greasy luster. Calcite is a very common and widely distributed mineral in the earths crust. It is an important rock-forming mineral in sedimentary and metamorphosed sedimentary rocks. With its great variety in forms, calcite has been used for various purposes since antiquity. It also has been instrumental in advancing mineralogy as well as physics and materials science.
Faculty Sponsor
Herb Wilson
Sponsoring Department
Colby College. Geology Dept.
CLAS Field of Study
Natural Sciences
Event Website
http://www.colby.edu/clas
ID
1590
Calcite: Mineral Information
Parker-Reed, SSWAC
At the beginning of the semester, students in Intro to Mineralogy class were assigned unknown minerals. The goal of this project is to identify and research an unknown mineral throughout the semester. My assigned mineral is calcite, a carbonate mineral. Calcite is from Latin word calx, or calcis, meaning burnt lime. This mineral was originally named by Haidinger in 1845 after a Greek root chalx, meaning to reduce to powder by heat. Calcite is the stable form of CaCO3 at most temperature and pressures. There are two polymorphs of calcite, which are aragonite and vaterite. The crystals of calcite are triginal-rhombohedral. The crystals are transparent to translucent and usually colorless. The most common appearance of calcite is white rhomb with vitreous to greasy luster. Calcite is a very common and widely distributed mineral in the earths crust. It is an important rock-forming mineral in sedimentary and metamorphosed sedimentary rocks. With its great variety in forms, calcite has been used for various purposes since antiquity. It also has been instrumental in advancing mineralogy as well as physics and materials science.
https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/clas/2015/program/167