The study of earth sciences is intimately linked to the study of life since living beings establish intimate contact with the physical environment where they are found, and because many of them remain as fossils for millions of years, allowing us to know how were the costumes in different geological eras.
The reason that has led us to create this section of Baringer Hill Minerals is precisely to try to solve the greatest amount of doubts about the most diverse topics related to Geology in a series of articles will answer the question “Baringer Hill Minerals – What is the type of a mineral ”
Type of Minerals at Baringer Hill Minerals.
Hematite
Hematite, also called hematite and oligisto, is an iron oxide that crystallizes in the trigonal system, and which can be found in different forms, from crystals with intense metallic to botryoidal luster or earthy forms. It is one of the main iron minerals and is used for the extraction of this metal. Its line is intensely red and the crystals, when they are tiny and thin and let in the light, show vivid red blood. Crushed is the red ocher?? Already used in the Paleolithic, in the parietal art.
Training and environment
Hematite is a common mineral in effusive rocks, pegmatites and hydrothermal veins formed by the consolidation of residual magmas (those that persist after the formation, for example, of granites and pegmatites). Very common is also the sedimentary genesis, by partial recrystallization (diagenesis) of limonite. Like the latter, the hematite can present concrete aspect. Due to metamorphism, it can replace magnetite assuming its external form in this case, it takes the name of Martita.
Calcite
Calcite, whose name derives from Latin calx, is a very common mineral at Baringer Hill Minerals. It is, in fact, the main component, and sometimes the only one, of rocks such as limestones, marbles, and alabaster, of concretions such as stalactites and stalagmites, of pisolites and a particular mass called monte milk. The rocks of the main component cover about 40% of the earth’s surface.
Moreover, It is a very abundant mineral and is often confused with other common minerals such as dolomite, quartz, halite or gypsum, especially when it appears massive or in microcrystalline aggregates forming monomineral rocks or filling fractures. The best way to identify calcite is by its crystallization and by the acid test, because this mineral always produces effervescence with, for example, HCl, since in that reaction CO 2 is released, which causes bubbles.
Training and environment
Calcite is a typical mineral of sedimentary genesis that is formed either chemically by evaporation of solutions rich in calcium bicarbonate (chemical limestone), or by the activity of marine organisms that form their calcium carbonate shells and when they die sediment these giving rise to the so-called organ genic limestones. It can also have a metamorphic origin (marbles, calcareous schists); on rare occasions, it forms igneous rocks (carbonatites).
Physical properties
Habit: Calcite occurs in very varied forms, but the most frequent are rhombohedral and prismatic crystals, with possible combinations of these forms. The calcite can be colorless or transparent if it is pure (Iceland spar) or colored in the most diverse colors, in relation to the presence of pigments or impurities. The very acute scalenohedrons are known as dog teeth and the very obtuse, crowning the bases of the trigonal prisms, like nail heads. Compression gives rise to lamellar polysynthetic twins.
Lastly, the type of a mineral occurring at Baringer Hill Minerals are many and we have just highlighted only a few in this article. Besides, other minerals include Ilmenite, hematite, lepidolite, rutile, pyrite chalcopyrite, molybdenite, and sphalerite. All this occurred at the site.