Category: mineralogy

mineralogy

A tale of two CaCO3’s — Calcite and Aragonite

itssedimentary

Aragonite (left) and calcite (right), both CaCO3; image by author Here in this photo, we clearly have two different minerals–one aragonite and the other calcite. However, they both have the same chemical formula of CaCO3. So how can it be that these two different minerals are both calcium carbonate? Aragonite and calcite are polymorphs of… Continue reading A tale of two CaCO3’s — Calcite and Aragonite

mineralogy, sedimentary

What are these things? — Stylolites

itssedimentary

See these thin little squiggly gray lines in the rock in the photo above? These are what you call stylolites. Stylolites are caused by pressure dissolution, meaning that a large amount of stress was applied to the rock in a direction perpendicular to which to stylolites are formed. Because of this pressure applied, there’s a dissolving… Continue reading What are these things? — Stylolites