Epitactic Overgrowths of Calcite (CaCO3) on Anhydrite (CaSO4) Cleavage Surfaces

Abstract

We investigate the crystallographic relationships between calcite crystals overgrown on the (100), (010), and (001) anhydrite cleavage surfaces, as a result of the interaction between anhydrite surfaces with carbonate-rich aqueous solutions. This interaction always leads to oriented nucleation and growth of calcite crystals, characterized by a parallelism between the calcite {1014} faces and the corresponding anhydrite cleavage surface.