Anhydrite

Anhydrite is a mineral - anhydrous calcium sulfate, CaSO₄. It is in the orthorhombic crystal system, with three directions of perfect cleavage parallel to the three planes of symmetry. It is not isomorphous with the orthorhombic barium (barite) and strontium (celestine) sulfates, as might be expected from the chemical formulas. Distinctly developed crystals are somewhat rare, the mineral usually presenting the form of cleavage masses. The hardness is 3.5 and the specific gravity 2.9. The colour is white, sometimes greyish, bluish or purple. On the best developed of the three cleavages the lustre is pearly, on other surfaces it is vitreous. When exposed to water, anhydrite readily transforms to the more commonly occurring gypsum, (CaSO₄·2H₂O) by the absorption of water. Anhydrite is commonly associated with calcite, halite, and sulfides such as galena, chalcopyrite, molybdenite, and pyrite in vein deposits.

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Anhydrite is most frequently found in salt deposits with gypsum; it was, for instance, first discovered, in 1794, in a salt mine near Hall in Tirol. In this occurrence depth is critical since nearer the surface anhydrite has been altered to gypsum by absorption of circulating ground water.

From an aqueous solution calcium sulfate is deposited as crystals of gypsum, but when the solution contains an excess of sodium or potassium chloride anhydrite is deposited if temperature is above 40°C. This is one of the several methods by which the mineral has been prepared artificially, and is identical with its mode of origin in nature, the mineral is common in salt basins.

The name anhydrite was given by A. G. Werner in 1804, because of the absence of water of crystallization, as contrasted with the presence of water in gypsum. Some obsolete names for the species are muriacite and karstenite; the former, an earlier name, being given under the impression that the substance was a chloride (muriate). A peculiar variety occurring as contorted concretionary masses is known as tripe-stone, and a scaly granular variety, from Vulpino, near Bergamo, in Lombardy, as vulpinite; the latter is cut and polished for ornamental purposes.

Chicken-wire anhydrite

Chicken-wire anhydrite is a type of anhydrite deposit where seeping ground water gradually deposited large amounts of anhydrite in the sediment, replacing most of it, so that a cross-section of it looks somewhat like the coarse wire netting often used to confine poultry.

References

• Dana's Manual of Mineralogy ISBN 0-471-03288-3
• Spencer, Leonard James. Anhydrite. 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
• Th Mineralgalleries.com
• Webmineral
• Mindat.org
• Minerals.net