Gaylussite is a
carbonate mineral
Carbonate minerals are those minerals containing the carbonate ion, .
Carbonate divisions Anhydrous carbonates
*Calcite group: trigonal
** Calcite CaCO3
** Gaspéite (Ni,Mg,Fe2+)CO3
** Magnesite MgCO3
**Otavite CdCO3
** Rhodochrosite MnCO3
...
, a hydrated sodium calcium carbonate, formula Na
2Ca(CO
3)
2·5H
2O. It occurs as translucent, vitreous white to grey to yellow
monoclinic
In crystallography, the monoclinic crystal system is one of the seven crystal systems. A crystal system is described by three vectors. In the monoclinic system, the crystal is described by vectors of unequal lengths, as in the orthorhombic ...
prismatic crystals. It is an unstable mineral which dehydrates in dry air and decomposes in water.
[
]
Discovery and occurrence
It is formed as an evaporite
An evaporite () is a water- soluble sedimentary mineral deposit that results from concentration and crystallization by evaporation from an aqueous solution. There are two types of evaporite deposits: marine, which can also be described as ocean ...
from alkali lacustrine
A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...
waters. It also occurs rarely as veinlets in alkalic igneous rock
Igneous rock (derived from the Latin word ''ignis'' meaning fire), or magmatic rock, is one of the three main rock types, the others being sedimentary and metamorphic. Igneous rock is formed through the cooling and solidification of magma o ...
s.[ It was first described in 1826 for an occurrence in Lagunillas, Mérida, ]Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
. It was named for French chemist Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac
Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (, , ; 6 December 1778 – 9 May 1850) was a French chemist and physicist. He is known mostly for his discovery that water is made of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen (with Alexander von Humboldt), for two laws ...
(1778–1850).[
The mineral has been recently (2014) reported from drill core in Lonar lake in ]Buldhana district
Buldhana district (Marathi pronunciation: ulɖʰaːɳa is located in the Amravati division of Maharashtra, India.
It is situated at the western border of Vidarbha region and is 500 km away from the state capital, Mumbai. The district ha ...
, Maharashtra
Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the second-most populous state in India and the second-most populous country subdi ...
, India. Lonar lake was created by a meteor
A meteoroid () is a small rocky or metallic body in outer space.
Meteoroids are defined as objects significantly smaller than asteroids, ranging in size from grains to objects up to a meter wide. Objects smaller than this are classified as mi ...
impact during the Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...
Epoch and it is one of only four known hyper-velocity impact craters in basaltic rock anywhere on Earth.[Anoop et al., ''Palaeoenvironmental implications of evaporative gaylussite crystals from Lonar Lake, central India,'' Journal of Quaternary Science, V., Issue 4, pp. 349–359, May 2013]
References
Sodium minerals
Calcium minerals
Carbonate minerals
Monoclinic minerals
Minerals in space group 15
Evaporite
Luminescent minerals
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