File:Calcite (Wenshan Mine, Yunnan, China).jpg

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English: Calcite crystals from China.

A mineral is a naturally-occurring, solid, inorganic, crystalline substance having a fairly definite chemical composition and having fairly definite physical properties. At its simplest, a mineral is a naturally-occurring solid chemical. Currently, there are over 5400 named and described minerals - about 200 of them are common and about 20 of them are very common. Mineral classification is based on anion chemistry. Major categories of minerals are: elements, sulfides, oxides, halides, carbonates, sulfates, phosphates, and silicates.

The carbonate minerals all contain one or more carbonate (CO3-2) anions.

Calcite is a common mineral. It is calcium carbonate (CaCO3). It has a nonmetallic luster, commonly clearish to whitish to yellowish to grayish in color, is moderately soft (H≡3), moderately light-weight, has hexagonal crystals, and rhombohedral cleavage (three cleavage planes at 75º & 105º angles - cleavage pieces look like lopsided boxes). The easiest way to identify calcite is to drop acid on it - it easily bubbles (effervesces) in acid. The bubbles are carbon dioxide gas. If the acid is dilute hydrochloric acid, the chemical reaction is:

2HCl(aq) + CaCO3(s) -->> CO2(g)↑ + H2O(l) + CaCl2(aq)

The most important & voluminous calcitic rocks in the world are limestone (sedimentary), marble (metamorphic), carbonatite (igneous), and travertine (speleothem, or "cave formations", and many hotspring deposits). Quite a few hydrothermal veins in the world are calcitic or have calcite as a principal component.

Locality: Wenshan Mine, Wenshan County, southeastern Yunnan Province, southwestern China


Photo gallery of calcite:

www.mindat.org/gallery.php?min=859
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Source https://www.flickr.com/photos/47445767@N05/43729671651/
Author James St. John

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This image was originally posted to Flickr by James St. John at https://flickr.com/photos/47445767@N05/43729671651. It was reviewed on 19 November 2020 by FlickreviewR 2 and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0.

19 November 2020

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current18:19, 19 November 2020Thumbnail for version as of 18:19, 19 November 20202,058 × 3,955 (4.99 MB)Ser Amantio di Nicolao (talk | contribs)Uploaded a work by James St. John from https://www.flickr.com/photos/47445767@N05/43729671651/ with UploadWizard

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