Name/Title
AragoniteEntry/Object ID
78.63.282Description
Chemical Composition: CaCO3
Crystal System: Triclinic System
Description: Minerals
Museum location: Case # 41
Common Name: Aragonite
Group Name: Carbonates
Location: Mexico
Chemistry: CaCO3
Descriptionh: Delmar described this specimen as very sharp, thin crystals of white calcite. Variety "Dogtooth calcite". Long 1 3/8" to 1 1/2" (3.5 x 3.8 cm) and 3/8" (.6 cm) in diameter. Approxmately 1/2 of crystals "dusted" with fine small crystals of calcite
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS:
Color is extremely variable but generally white or colorless or with light shades of yellow, orange, blue, pink, red, brown, green, black and gray. Occasionally iridescent.
Luster is vitreous to resinous to dull in massive forms.
Transparency: Crystals are transparent to translucent.
Crystal System is trigonal; bar 3 2/m
Crystal Habits are extremely variable with almost any trigonal form possible. Common among calcite crystals are the scalenohedron, rhombohedron, hexagonal prism, and pinacoid. Combinations of these and over three hundred other forms can make a multitude of crystal shapes, but always trigonal or pseudo-hexagonal. Twinning is often seen and results in crystals with blocky chevrons, right angled prisms, heart shapes or dipyramidal shapes. A notch in the middle of a doubly terminated scalenohedron is a sure sign of a twinned crystal. lamellar twinning also seen resulting in striated cleavage surfaces. Pseudomorphs after many minerals are known, but easily identified as calcite. Also massive, fibrous, concretionary, stalactitic, nodular, oolitic, stellate, dendritic, granular, layered, etc. etc.
Cleavage is perfect in three directions, forming rhombohedrons.
Fracture is conchoidal.
Hardness is 3 (only on the basal pinacoidal faces, calcite has a hardness of less than 2.5 and can be scratched by a fingernail).
Specific Gravity is approximately 2.7 (average)
Streak is white.
Other Characteristics: refractive indices of 1.49 and 1.66 causing a significant double refraction effect (when a clear crystal is placed on a single line, two lines can then be observed), effervesces easily with dilute acids and may be fluorescent, phosphorescent, thermoluminescence and triboluminescent.
Associated Minerals are numerous but include these classic associations: Fluorite, quartz, barite, sphalerite, galena, celestite, sulfur, gold, copper, emerald, apatite, biotite, zeolites, several metal sulfides, other carbonates and borates and many other minerals.
Best Field Indicators are crystal habit, reaction to acid, abundance, hardness, double refraction and especially cleavage.
Fracture: conchoidal
Hardness: 3 Calcite
Luster: Vitreous
Occurrence: Notable Occurrences include Pugh Quarry, Ohio; Rosiclare, Illinois; Franklin, New Jersey; Elmwood, Tennessee; Brush Creek and other Missouri, Wisconsin, Kansas and Oklahoma localities, USA; Andreasburg, Harz Mountains and Saxony, Germany; Brazil; Guanajuato, Mexico; Cornwall, Durham and Lancashire, England; Bombay area of India; Eskifjord, Iceland; many African localities as well as others around the world with their own unique varieties.
The type location for aragonite is Molina de Aragón (Guadalajara, Spain), 25 km outside Aragon. An aragonite cave, the Ochtinská Aragonite Cave, is situated in Slovakia. In the USA, aragonite in the form of stalactites and "cave flowers" (anthodite) is known from Carlsbad Caverns and other caves. Massive deposits of oolitic aragonite are found on the seabed in the Bahamas.
Aragonite forms naturally in almost all mollusk shells, and as the calcareous endoskeleton of warm- and cold-water corals (Scleractinia). Because the mineral deposition in mollusk shells is strongly biologically controlled, some crystal forms are distinctively different from those of inorganic aragonite. In some mollusks, the entire shell is aragonite; in others, aragonite forms only discrete parts of a bimineralic shell (aragonite plus calcite). Aragonite also forms in the ocean and in caves as inorganic precipitates called marine cements and speleothems, respectively. The nacreous layer of the aragonite fossil shells of some extinct ammonites forms an iridescent material called ammolite. Ammolite is primarily aragonite with impurities that make it iridescent and valuable as a gemstone.
Specific Gravity: 2.7
Streak: whiteCollection
Delmar Smith Mineral CollectionAcquisition
Accession
78.63Source or Donor
Delmar Smith Crystal CollectionAcquisition Method
DonationDimensions
Height
3-13/16 inWidth
2-3/4 inLength
2 inDimension Notes
Dimension taken at widest pointsLocation
Location
Display Case
FS-9Room
Frieda Smith HallBuilding
Crater Rock MuseumCategory
PermanentDate
August 8, 2023