Aragonite

Aragonite is a carbonate mineral, one of the three most common naturally occurring crystal forms of
calcium carbonate, CaCO3 (the other forms being the minerals calcite and vaterite). It is formed by
biological and physical processes, including precipitation from marine and freshwater environments.

The crystal lattice of aragonite differs from that of calcite, resulting in a different crystal shape, an
orthorhombic crystal system with acicular crystal.[5] Repeated twinning results in pseudo-hexagonal
forms. Aragonite may be columnar or fibrous, occasionally in branching helictitic forms called flos-ferri
("flowers of iron") from their association with the ores at the Carinthian iron mines.[6]

The type location for aragonite is Molina de Aragón in the Province of Guadalajara in Castilla-La Mancha,
Spain, for which it was named in 1797.[7] Aragonite is found in this locality as cyclic twins inside gypsum
and marls of the Keuper facies of the Triassic.[8] This type of aragonite deposit is very common in Spain,
and there are also some in France.[6]

An aragonite cave, the Ochtinská Aragonite Cave, is situated in Slovakia.[9]

In the US, aragonite in the form of stalactites and "cave flowers" (anthodite) is known from Carlsbad
Caverns and other caves.[10] For a few years in the early 1900s, aragonite was mined at Aragonite, Utah
(now a ghost town).[11]

Massive deposits of oolitic aragonite sand are found on the seabed in the Bahamas.[12]

Aragonite is the high pressure polymorph of calcium carbonate. As such, it occurs in high pressure
metamorphic rocks such as those formed at subduction zones.[13]

Aragonite forms naturally in almost all mollusk shells, and as the calcareous endoskeleton of warm- and
cold-water corals (Scleractinia). Several serpulids have aragonitic tubes.[14] Because the mineral
deposition in mollusk shells is strongly biologically controlled,[15] some crystal forms are distinctively
different from those of inorganic aragonite.[16] In some mollusks, the entire shell is aragonite;[17] in
others, aragonite forms only discrete parts of a bimineralic shell (aragonite plus calcite).[15] The
nacreous layer of the aragonite fossil shells of some extinct ammonites forms an iridescent material
called ammolite.[18]

Aragonite also forms naturally in the endocarp of Celtis occidentalis.[19]

Aragonite also forms in the ocean inorganic precipitates called marine cements (in the sediment) or as
free crystals (in the water column).[20][21] Inorganic precipitation of aragonite in caves can occur in the
form of speleothems.[22] Aragonite is common in serpentinites where magnesium-rich pore solutions
apparently inhibit calcite growth and promote aragonite precipitation.[23]

Aragonite is metastable at the low pressures near the Earth's surface and is thus commonly replaced by
calcite in fossils. Aragonite older than the Carboniferous is essentially unknown.[24] It can also be
synthesized by adding a calcium chloride solution to a sodium carbonate solution at temperatures above
60 °C (140 °F) or in water-ethanol mixtures at ambient temperatures.[25]