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 **Sider ...

, a hydrated sodium calcium carbonate, formula Na₂Ca(CO₃)₂·5H₂O. 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 Vector (geometric), vectors. In the monoclinic system, the crystal is described by vectors of unequal lengths, as in t ...

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 oce ...

from alkali lacustrine waters. It also occurs rarely as veinlets in alkalic

igneous rock Igneous rock ( ), or magmatic rock, is one of the three main rock types, the others being sedimentary and metamorphic. Igneous rocks are formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or lava. The magma can be derived from partial ...

s. It was first described in 1826 for an occurrence in Lagunillas, Mérida,

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

. 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 by volume (with Alexander von Humboldt), f ...

(1778–1850). The mineral has been recently (2014) reported from drill core in Lonar lake in Buldhana district,

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

, India. Lonar lake was created by a

meteor A meteor, known colloquially as a shooting star, is a glowing streak of a small body (usually meteoroid) going through Earth's atmosphere, after being heated to incandescence by collisions with air molecules in the upper atmosphere, creating a ...

impact during the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

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 Pentahydrate minerals Monoclinic minerals Minerals in space group 15 Evaporite Luminescent minerals Minerals described in 1826 {{carbonate-mineral-stub