Calcite
Calcite is one of the most common minerals on the Earth's surface. It is a often part of sedimentary rocks, especially limestone. It is also the primary mineral in metamorphic marble.
It is a chemical or biochemical calcium carbonate with the formula CaCO3. It is a carbonate mineral. It can be a vein mineral in deposits from hot springs, and in caverns as stalactites and stalagmites.
Calcite Media
Crystal structure of calcite
Demonstration of birefringence in calcite, using 445 nm laser
Calcite Quarry, Michigan. Original from NASA.
One of several calcite or alabaster perfume jars from the tomb of Tutankhamun, d. 1323 BC
Ocean acidification reduces pH, which affects calcification in shelled organisms.
Calcite with mottramite
Trilobite eyes employed calcite
Calcite crystals inside a test of the cystoid Echinosphaerites aurantium (Middle Ordovician, northeastern Estonia)
Rhombohedrons of calcite that appear almost as books of petals, piled up 3-dimensionally on the matrix
Calcite crystal canted at an angle, with little balls of hematite and crystals of chalcopyrite both on its surface and included just inside the surface of the crystal
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Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Calcite. |
