Dolomite
Dolomite is an anhydrous carbonate mineral composed of calcium magnesium carbonate, ideally CaMg(CO3)2. The word dolomite is also used to describe the sedimentary carbonate rock, which is composed predominantly of the mineral dolomite (also known as dolostone).
History
Most probably the mineral dolomite was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1768. In 1778, it was described by the Austrian naturalist Belsazar Hacquet as the "stinking stone" (German: Stinkstein, Latin: lapis suillus). In 1791, it was described as a rock by the French naturalist and geologist Déodat Gratet de Dolomieu (1750–1801), first in buildings of the old city of Rome, and later as samples collected in what is now known as the Dolomite Alps of northern Italy. Nicolas-Théodore de Saussure first named the mineral (after Dolomieu) in March 1792. Hacquet and Dolomieu met in Laibach (Ljubljana) in 1784, which may have contributed to Dolomieu's work.
Properties
The mineral dolomite crystallizes in the trigonal-rhombohedral system. It forms white, tan, gray, or pink crystals. Dolomite is a double carbonate, having an alternating structural arrangement of calcium and magnesium ions. It does not rapidly dissolve or effervesce (fizz) in dilute hydrochloric acid as calcite does. Crystal twinning is common.
