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Gypsum Crystals: The Importance and the Role of Calcium Sulphate...
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Gypsum Crystals: The Importance and the Role of Calcium Sulphate in Past and Modern Environments

A special issue of Minerals (ISSN 2075-163X). This special issue belongs to the section "Mineral Deposits".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 May 2025 | Viewed by 7008

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Alessandra Costanzo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Earth and Ocean Sciences, School of Natural Sciences, University of Galway, H91 CF50 Galway, Ireland
Interests: mineralogy; gemology; geofluids; igneous petrology; economic geology; sedimentary deposits
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Mara Cipriani

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biology, Ecology and Earth Science, University of Calabria, 87036 Arcavacata, Italy
Interests: evaporite deposit; fluid inclusions; bioconstruction; biomineralization

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Calcium sulfate is most abundant terrestrial sulphate and can be found in a wide range of natural environments. One of the most studied evaporitic gypsum formations is the one documented in the rock record of the Mediterranean basin, formed during the catastrophic event known as the Messinian salinity crisis (∼6 Ma ago). There are numerous worldwide locations with outcrops of gypsum crystals belonging to different ages, such as those outcropping in Germany and associated with Permian and Triassic rocks. The interest in calcium sulfate lies in its dual importance: economic and scientific. Its economic appeal is due to its production (about 100 million metric tons produced every year) and broad application, from agriculture to construction industry. From a scientific point of view, gypsum is a powerful tool that can be used to increase our knowledge on numerous aspects, such as climate and paleoclimate reconstruction, basin evolution, understanding the life of biotic communities in brine and on the gypsum surface, and planetary exploration. Although research on calcium sulfate has been ongoing for decades, new studies continue to give us new pieces of information such as the idea circulating in recent years that gypsum not only has a chemical origin but an organic one too.

In view of these new scenarios, the purpose of this Special Issue is to collect original research studies and data that can throw new light on the characteristics of calcium sulfate from every aspect and different disciplines. This Special Issue will highlight the latest advancements in both fundamental and applied studies and will draw attention to the importance of calcium sulphate in past and modern environments.

This Special Issue welcomes contributions on all sedimentological, petrographic, geochemical (organic and inorganic), and biological aspects of primary and secondary evaporite rocks.

Dr. Alessandra Costanzo
Dr. Mara Cipriani
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Minerals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • evaporite
  • fluid inclusions
  • water chemistry
  • climate variation
  • biomineralization

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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20 pages, 2991 KiB  
Article
Gypsum: From the Equilibrium to the Growth Shapes—Theory and Experiments
by Dino Aquilano, Marco Bruno and Stefano Ghignone
Minerals 2024, 14(11), 1175; https://doi.org/10.3390/min14111175 - 19 Nov 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1157
Abstract
The gypsum crystals (CaSO4·2H2O) crystallizes in a low symmetry system (monoclinic) and shows a marked layered structure along with a perfect cleavage parallel to the {010} faces. Owing to its widespread occurrence, as a single or twinned crystal, here [...] Read more.
The gypsum crystals (CaSO4·2H2O) crystallizes in a low symmetry system (monoclinic) and shows a marked layered structure along with a perfect cleavage parallel to the {010} faces. Owing to its widespread occurrence, as a single or twinned crystal, here the gypsum equilibrium (E.S.) and growth shapes (G.S.) have been re-visited. In making the distinction among E.S. and G.S., in the present work, the basic difference between epitaxy and homo-taxy is clearly evidenced. Gypsum has also been a fruitful occasion to recollect the general rules concerning either contact or penetration twins, for free growing and for twinned crystals nucleating onto pre-existing substrates. Both geometric and crystal growth aspects have been considered as well, by unifying theory and experiments of crystallography and crystal growth through the intervention of βadh, the physical quantity representing the specific adhesion energy between gypsum and other phases. Hence, the adhesion energy allowed us to systematically use the Dupré’s formula. In the final part of the paper, peculiar attention has been paid to sediments (or solution growth) where the crystal size is very small, in order to offer a new simple way to afford classical (CNT) and non-classical nucleation (NCNT) theories, both ruling two quantities commonly used in the industrial crystallization: the total induction times (tindtotal) and crystal size distribution (CSD). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Gypsum Crystals: The Importance and the Role of Calcium Sulphate in Past and Modern Environments)
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8 pages, 1837 KiB  
Article
Gypsum Crystals Formed by the Anhydrite–Gypsum Transformation at Low Temperatures: Implications for the Formation of the Geode of Pulpí
by Andrea Cotellucci, Juan-Manuel Garcia-Ruiz, Fermín Otálora, Àngels Canals, Marco Bruno, Quentin Wehrung, Luca Pellegrino, Dino Aquilano and Linda Pastero
Minerals 2024, 14(11), 1074; https://doi.org/10.3390/min14111074 - 25 Oct 2024
Viewed by 1299
Abstract
Determining the mechanisms of the formation of giant crystals is a challenging subject. Gypsum, calcium sulfate dihydrate (CaSO4·2H2O), is known to form crystals larger than one meter in several locations worldwide. These selenite crystals grow at different temperatures, either [...] Read more.
Determining the mechanisms of the formation of giant crystals is a challenging subject. Gypsum, calcium sulfate dihydrate (CaSO4·2H2O), is known to form crystals larger than one meter in several locations worldwide. These selenite crystals grow at different temperatures, either in sedimentary or hydrothermal systems. The famous selenite crystals of the geode of Pulpí (Almería, Spain) are known to have grown at a temperature T = 20 ± 5 °C and have been proposed to form in a subaqueous environment by a self-feeding mechanism triggered by anhydrite dissolution and the ripening of microcrystalline gypsum, enhanced by oscillations in temperature. This paper reports the monitored crystallization of gypsum crystals, from anhydrite powder dissolution, inside airtight evaporation-free reactors under oscillating low temperatures (15 °C < T < 25 °C). These crystals are clearly smaller than the ones in the Pulpí mine but exhibit similar habits (i.e., single blocky crystals and twins following the 100 twinning law). The growth rate of gypsum single crystals has been measured to be between 3.8 and 35.3 µm/day. Noteworthy, we document the occurrence of the 100 contact twinning law of gypsum, which is the most widespread twinning law in natural environments but never univocally reported in laboratory experiments. The selection of the 100 contact twinning law has been correlated to the low supersaturation values obtained in the experiment, where the concentration in these long-duration experiments can be safely assumed to be the equilibrium concentration, i.e., 0.3 (at 25 °C) ≤ SI ≤ 0.4 (at 15 °C). We discuss the relevance of our experiment for forming the gypsum crystals of Pulpí in the framework of the geological history of Pulpí mineralization. These laboratory model experiments contribute to a deeper understanding of mineral nucleation and growth processes in natural environments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Gypsum Crystals: The Importance and the Role of Calcium Sulphate in Past and Modern Environments)
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23 pages, 3689 KiB  
Article
Gypsum on Mars: A Detailed View at Gale Crater
by David Vaniman, Steve Chipera, Elizabeth Rampe, Thomas Bristow, David Blake, Johannes Meusburger, Tanya Peretyazhko, William Rapin, Jeff Berger, Douglas Ming, Patricia Craig, Nicholas Castle, Robert T. Downs, Shaunna Morrison, Robert Hazen, Richard Morris, Aditi Pandey, Allan H. Treiman, Albert Yen, Cherie Achilles, Benjamin Tutolo, Elisabeth Hausrath, Sarah Simpson, Michael Thorpe, Valerie Tu, David J. Des Marais, John Grotzinger and Abigail Fraemanadd Show full author list remove Hide full author list
Minerals 2024, 14(8), 815; https://doi.org/10.3390/min14080815 - 12 Aug 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2156
Abstract
Gypsum is a common mineral at Gale crater on Mars, currently being explored by the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover, Curiosity. In this paper, we summarize the associations of gypsum with other sulfate minerals (bassanite, anhydrite, jarosite, starkeyite, and kieserite) from the [...] Read more.
Gypsum is a common mineral at Gale crater on Mars, currently being explored by the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover, Curiosity. In this paper, we summarize the associations of gypsum with other sulfate minerals (bassanite, anhydrite, jarosite, starkeyite, and kieserite) from the lowest levels of the crater’s northern moat zone (Aeolis Palus) up through ~0.8 km of the stratigraphic section in the lower slopes of the sedimentary mound developed around the central peak, Aeolis Mons (informally, Mount Sharp). The analysis is based on results from the CheMin X-ray diffraction instrument on Curiosity, supplemented with information from the rover’s versatile instrument suite. Gypsum does not occur with the same frequency as less hydrous Ca-sulfates, likely, in most cases, because of its dehydration to bassanite and possibly to anhydrite. All three of these Ca-sulfate phases often occur together and, along with other sulfates, in mixed assemblages that are evidence of limited equilibration on a cold, dry planet. In almost all samples, at least one of the Ca-sulfate minerals is present, except for a very limited interval where jarosite is the major sulfate mineral, with the implication of more acidic groundwater at a much later time in Gale crater’s history. Although observations from orbit reveal a sulfate-rich surface, currently active dark basaltic dunes at Gale crater have only small amounts of a single sulfate mineral, anhydrite. Gale crater has provided the most complete mineralogical analysis of a site on Mars so far, but the data in hand show that Gale crater mineralogy is not a blueprint with planet-wide application. The concurrent study of Jezero crater by the Mars 2020 mission and comparisons to what is believed to be the most extensive deposit of gypsum on Mars, in the dune fields at the north polar ice cap, show significant diversity. Unraveling the stories of gypsum and other sulfates on Mars is just beginning. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Gypsum Crystals: The Importance and the Role of Calcium Sulphate in Past and Modern Environments)
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Review

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24 pages, 5195 KiB  
Review
A Challenged Evaporite Paradigm?
by Hans Konrad Johnsen, Martin Torvald Hovland and Hakon Rueslatten
Minerals 2024, 14(5), 527; https://doi.org/10.3390/min14050527 - 20 May 2024
Viewed by 1473
Abstract
The general subject of this article deals with the term salt. Salt deposits usually contain chlorides, sulphates/gypsum, borates, carbonates, etc., that are seemingly part of the same system. Even though this article mainly presents data and observations on chlorides, which are not easily [...] Read more.
The general subject of this article deals with the term salt. Salt deposits usually contain chlorides, sulphates/gypsum, borates, carbonates, etc., that are seemingly part of the same system. Even though this article mainly presents data and observations on chlorides, which are not easily explained by the present paradigm, it should also prove relevant for the formation of sulphates and other types of salts observed in major salt deposits. The paradigm explaining large salt deposits rests on two pillars governing salt formation and salt deformation. Salt formation is thought to occur vis solar evaporation of seawater in restricted basins. Salt deformation and forming of salt diapirs is thought to occur due to gravity-induced movements. Our review presents peer-reviewed and published data and observations from different authors within different disciplines that challenge the present evaporite paradigm. The current theory/paradigm rests on numerous observations and interpretations in support of it. Adding more observational interpretations in support of the paradigm will not nullify even one observation that contradicts or remains unexplained by the theory. The contradicting evidence must be explained within the present paradigm for it to survive. Significant observations of and within salt deposits are presented, as well as visual and geophysical observations of salinity in crusts and mantles in relevant tectonic settings. In our view, the omnipresent salinity observed in the subsurface needs to be understood and included in the description of a new salt formation mechanism in order to fully explain all features presented herein. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Gypsum Crystals: The Importance and the Role of Calcium Sulphate in Past and Modern Environments)
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