A common crystalline form of natural calcium carbonate, CaCO3, that is the basic constituent of limestone, marble, and chalk. Also called calcspar.
Most common form of natural calcium carbonate, a widely distributed mineral known for the beautiful development and great variety of its crystals. It occurs in stalagmites and stalactites and forms the structure of coral reefs. Calcite is the most important mineral in limestones and marbles used in the building, steel, chemical, and glass industries. Transparent crystals are called Iceland spar.
Material Notes:
Occurrence: Limestones, dolomites, marbles. Solubility of all carbonates rises rapidly with increasing pCO2(which stands for Partial Pressure of Carbon Dioxide) in industrial and urban atmospheres at low temperatures.
Property values are typical of naturally occurring Calcite.
Calcite is the primary mineral component of limestone and its metamorphic form, marble. It is very soluble in groundwater.
Precipitated calcite forms stalactites and stalagmites in caves, as well as deposits of travertine around hot springs and calcareous tufa deposits around other springs and streams.
Calcite, in its many varieties, has more than 600 distinct crystal forms. It ranges from white or colorless through a great variety of colors -- pink, red, yellow, greenish, bluish, lavender, brown or black -- depending on its impurities. It is found in tens of thousands of localities and has become a specialty of mineral collectors, many of whom belong to the International Calcite Collectors Association.
Calcite effervesces vigorously with dilute hydrochloric (muriatic) acid, which easily distinguishes calcite from dolomite. Calcite is brittle, often fluorescent sometimes thermo luminescent.
