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

Share

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Apr 30th, 2:00 PM Apr 30th, 3:55 PM

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