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dolomite
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Relations between lamellar twinning and cleavage planes in dolomite and calcite. This difference can be discerned best when thin sections of the minerals are viewed under a microscope. Figure 41: Typical crystal forms of magnetite. (Left) An octahedron and (right) an octahedron modified by dodecahedral faces. Anhydrite from Lockport, N.Y. Figure 42: Granitic rock consisting of reddish orange feldspar, nearly white quartz, and green epidote that appears to have been introduced into an original quartz-feldspar granite. This rock, sometimes called unakite, is used widely in jewelry. Dolomite from Corydon, Ind.
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Relations between lamellar twinning and cleavage planes in dolomite and calcite. This difference can be discerned best when thin sections of the minerals are viewed under a microscope.
Relations between lamellar twinning and cleavage planes in dolomite and calcite. This difference can be discerned best when thin sections of the minerals are viewed under a microscope.

dolomite

mineral
Written by
R.V. Dietrich
Emeritus Professor of Geology, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant. Author of Stones; coauthor of Gems, Gravels and Granites.
R.V. Dietrich
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History

dolomite, type of limestone, the carbonate fraction of which is dominated by the mineral dolomite, calcium magnesium carbonate [CaMg(CO3)2]. Along with calcite and aragonite, dolomite makes up approximately 2 percent of the Earth’s crust. The bulk of the dolomite constitutes dolostone formations that occur as thick units of great areal extent in many sequences of chiefly marine strata. (The rock dolostone is referred to by only the mineral name—i.e., dolomite—by many geologists.) The Dolomite Alps...

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