Aragonite is the least stable form; crystals have been found altered to calcite.
There are, therefore, a number of agencies, all of which operate in shoal waters on the lee side of islands, or in shallow lagoons in such regions as the Bahamas, and the result of all these is to throw down calcium carbonate from solution in sea-water as minute needle-shaped crystals or little balls of aragonite.
When crystallized from water, crystals belonging to the orthorhombic system, and having a prism angle of 61 0 10', are obtained; they are often twinned on the prism planes, giving rise to pseudo-hexagonal groups resembling aragonite.
Thus the sulphate constitutes the minerals anhydrite, alabaster, gypsum, and selenite; the carbonate occurs dissolved in most natural waters and as the minerals chalk, marble, calcite, aragonite; also in the double carbonates such as dolomite, bromlite, barytocalcite; the fluoride as fluorspar; the fluophosphate constitutes the mineral apatite; while all the more important mineral silicates contain a proportion of this element.
Calcium carbonate, CaCO 3, is of exceptionally wide distribution in both the mineral and animal kingdoms. It constitutes the bulk of the chalk deposits and limestone rocks; it forms over one-half of the mineral dolomite and the rock magnesium limestone; it occurs also as the dimorphous minerals aragonite (q.v.) and calcite (q.v.).
