Calcite

Calcite is derived from the German Calcit, a term from the 19th century that came from the Latin word for lime, calx (genitive calcis) with the suffix "-ite" used to name minerals. It is thus etymologically related to chalk.[8]

When applied by archaeologists and stone trade professionals, the term alabaster is used not just as in geology and mineralogy, where it is reserved for a variety of gypsum; but also for a similar-looking, translucent variety of fine-grained banded deposit of calcite.[9]

In publications, two different sets of Miller indices are used to describe directions in hexagonal and rhombohedral crystals, including calcite crystals: three Miller indices h, k, l in the ${\displaystyle a_{1},a_{2},c}$ directions, or four Bravais-Miller indices h, k, i, l in the ${\displaystyle a_{1},a_{2},a_{3},c}$ directions, where ${\displaystyle i}$ is redundant but useful in visualizing permutation symmetries.

To add to the complications, there are also two definitions of unit cell for calcite. One, an older "morphological" unit cell, was inferred by measuring angles between faces of crystals, typically with a goniometer, and looking for the smallest numbers that fit. Later, a "structural" unit cell was determined using X-ray crystallography. The morphological unit cell is rhombohedral, having approximate dimensions a = 10 Å and c = 8.5 Å, while the structural unit cell is hexagonal (i.e. a rhombic prism), having approximate dimensions a = 5 Å and c = 17 Å. For the same orientation, c must be multiplied by 4 to convert from morphological to structural units. As an example, calcite cleavage is given as "perfect on {1 0 1 1}" in morphological coordinates and "perfect on {1 0 1 4}" in structural units. In ${\displaystyle \{hkl\}}$ indices, these are {1 0 1} and {1 0 4}, respectively. Twinning, cleavage and crystal forms are often given in morphological units.[4][10]

The diagnostic properties of calcite include a defining Mohs hardness of 3, a specific gravity of 2.71 and, in crystalline varieties, a vitreous luster. Color is white or none, though shades of gray, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, brown, or even black can occur when the mineral is charged with impurities.[4]

Optical

Photograph of calcite displaying the characteristic birefringence optical behaviour.

Calcite is transparent to opaque and may occasionally show phosphorescence or fluorescence. A transparent variety called "Iceland spar" is used for optical purposes. Acute scalenohedral crystals are sometimes referred to as "dogtooth spar" while the rhombohedral form is sometimes referred to as "nailhead spar".[2] The rhombohedral form may also have been the "sunstone" whose use by Viking navigators is mentioned in the Icelandic Sagas.[13]

Demonstration of birefringence in calcite, using 445 nm laser

Single calcite crystals display an optical property called birefringence (double refraction). This strong birefringence causes objects viewed through a clear piece of calcite to appear doubled. The birefringent effect (using calcite) was first described by the Danish scientist Rasmus Bartholin in 1669. At a wavelength of about 590 nm, calcite has ordinary and extraordinary refractive indices of 1.658 and 1.486, respectively.[14] Between 190 and 1700 nm, the ordinary refractive index varies roughly between 1.9 and 1.5, while the extraordinary refractive index varies between 1.6 and 1.4.[15]

One of several calcite or alabaster perfume jars from the tomb of Tutankhamun, d. 1323 BC

Ancient Egyptians carved many items out of calcite, relating it to their goddess Bast, whose name contributed to the term alabaster because of the close association. Many other cultures have used the material for similar carved objects and applications.[21]

A transparent variety of calcite known as Iceland spar may have been used by Vikings for navigating on cloudy days.[22]

High-grade optical calcite was used in World War II for gun sights, specifically in bomb sights and anti-aircraft weaponry.[23] It was used as a polarizer (in Nicol prisms) prior to the invention of Polaroid plates and still finds use in optical instruments.[24] Also, experiments have been conducted to use calcite for a cloak of invisibility.[25]

Microbiologically precipitated calcite has a wide range of applications, such as soil remediation, soil stabilization and concrete repair.

Calcite, obtained from an 80 kg sample of Carrara marble,[26] is used as the IAEA-603 isotopic standard in mass spectrometry for the calibration of δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C.[27]

Calcite is a common constituent of sedimentary rocks, limestone in particular, much of which is formed from the shells of dead marine organisms. Approximately 10% of sedimentary rock is limestone. It is the primary mineral in metamorphic marble. It also occurs in deposits from hot springs as a vein mineral; in caverns as stalactites and stalagmites; and in volcanic or mantle-derived rocks such as carbonatites, kimberlites, or rarely in peridotites.

Calcite is often the primary constituent of the shells of marine organisms, such as plankton (such as coccoliths and planktic foraminifera), the hard parts of red algae, some sponges, brachiopods, echinoderms, some serpulids, most bryozoa, and parts of the shells of some bivalves (such as oysters and rudists). Calcite is found in spectacular form in the Snowy River Cave of New Mexico as mentioned above, where microorganisms are credited with natural formations. Trilobites, which became extinct a quarter billion years ago, had unique compound eyes that used clear calcite crystals to form the lenses.[28] It also forms a substantial part of birds' eggshells, and the δ¹³C of the diet is reflected in the δ¹³C of the calcite of the shell.[29]

The largest documented single crystal of calcite originated from Iceland, measured 7 m × 7 m × 2 m (23 ft × 23 ft × 6.6 ft) and 6 m × 6 m × 3 m (20 ft × 20 ft × 9.8 ft) and weighed about 250 tons.[30] Classic samples have been produced at Madawaska Mine, near Bancroft, Ontario.[31]

Bedding parallel veins of fibrous calcite, often referred to in quarrying parlance as beef, occur in dark organic rich mudstones and shales, these veins are formed by increasing fluid pressure during diagenesis.[32]

Calcite formation can proceed by several pathways, from the classical terrace ledge kink model[33] to the crystallization of poorly ordered precursor phases like amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC) via an Ostwald ripening process, or via the agglomeration of nanocrystals.[34]

The crystallization of ACC can occur in two stages. First, the ACC nanoparticles rapidly dehydrate and crystallize to form individual particles of vaterite. Second, the vaterite transforms to calcite via a dissolution and reprecipitation mechanism, with the reaction rate controlled by the surface area of a calcite crystal.[35] The second stage of the reaction is approximately 10 times slower.

However, crystallization of calcite has been observed to be dependent on the starting pH and concentration of magnesium in solution.[36] A neutral starting pH during mixing promotes the direct transformation of ACC into calcite without a vaterite intermediate. But when ACC forms in a solution with a basic initial pH, the transformation to calcite occurs via metastable vaterite, following the pathway outlined above.[37] Magnesium has a noteworthy effect on both the stability of ACC and its transformation to crystalline CaCO₃, resulting in the formation of calcite directly from ACC, as this ion destabilizes the structure of vaterite.

Calcite may form in the subsurface in response to microorganism activity, such as sulfate-dependent anaerobic oxidation of methane, where methane is oxidized and sulfate is reduced, leading to precipitation of calcite and pyrite from the produced bicarbonate and sulfide. These processes can be traced by the specific carbon isotope composition of the calcites, which are extremely depleted in the ¹³C isotope, by as much as −125 per mil PDB (δ¹³C).[38]

Calcite seas existed in Earth's history when the primary inorganic precipitate of calcium carbonate in marine waters was low-magnesium calcite (lmc), as opposed to the aragonite and high-magnesium calcite (hmc) precipitated today. Calcite seas alternated with aragonite seas over the Phanerozoic, being most prominent in the Ordovician and Jurassic periods. Lineages evolved to use whichever morph of calcium carbonate was favourable in the ocean at the time they became mineralised, and retained this mineralogy for the remainder of their evolutionary history.[39] Petrographic evidence for these calcite sea conditions consists of calcitic ooids, lmc cements, hardgrounds, and rapid early seafloor aragonite dissolution.[40] The evolution of marine organisms with calcium carbonate shells may have been affected by the calcite and aragonite sea cycle.[41]

Calcite is one of the minerals that has been shown to catalyze an important biological reaction, the formose reaction, and may have had a role in the origin of life.[10] Interaction of its chiral surfaces (see Form) with aspartic acid molecules results in a slight bias in chirality; this is one possible mechanism for the origin of homochirality in living cells.[42]

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  Calcite with mottramite
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  Trilobite eyes employed calcite
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  Calcite crystals inside a test of the cystoid Echinosphaerites aurantium (Middle Ordovician, northeastern Estonia)
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  Rhombohedrons of calcite that appear almost as books of petals, piled up 3-dimensionally on the matrix
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  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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  Thin section of calcite crystals inside a recrystallized bivalve shell in a biopelsparite
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  Grainstone with calcite ooids and sparry calcite cement; Carmel Formation, Middle Jurassic, of southern Utah, USA.
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  Several well formed milky white casts, made up of many small sharp calcite crystals, from the sulfur mines at Agrigento, Sicily
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  Reddish rhombohedral calcite crystals from China. Its red color is due to the presence of iron
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  Cobaltoan, the cobalt-rich variety of calcite
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  Sand calcites (calcites heavily included with desert sand) in South Dakota, USA
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  Calcite, butterfly twin, 4,0 × 3,3 × 1,6 cm. José María Patoni, San Juan del Río, Durango (Mexico)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Calcite.

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Calcite".

• Ikaite, CaCO₃·6H₂O
• List of minerals
• Lysocline
• Manganoan calcite, (Ca,Mn)CO₃
• Monohydrocalcite, CaCO₃·H₂O
• Ocean acidification
• Ulexite

• Schmittner, Karl‐Erich; Giresse, Pierre (June 1999). "Micro‐environmental controls on biomineralization: superficial processes of apatite and calcite precipitation in Quaternary soils, Roussillon, France". Sedimentology. 46 (3): 463–476. Bibcode:1999Sedim..46..463S. doi:10.1046/j.1365-3091.1999.00224.x. S2CID 140680495.