Carbonate minerals are those minerals containing the carbonate ion, CO2−3.
Calcite crystals from the Sweetwater Mine, Viburnum Trend District, Reynolds County, Missouri; 6.2 × 6 × 3.3 cm
Rhodochrosite, Sweet Home Mine, Alma, Colorado; 5.2 × 4.2 × 2.3 cm
Smithsonite, Silver Bill Mine, Dragoon Mts, Cochise County, Arizona; 4.8 × 4.1 × 2.4 cm
Dolomite with calcite and chalcopyrite from the Picher Field, Tri-State district, Cherokee County, Kansas; 12.0 × 9.7 × 4.3 cm
In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid substance with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.
Crystals of serandite, natrolite, analcime, and aegirine from Mont Saint-Hilaire, Quebec, Canada
Schist is a metamorphic rock characterized by an abundance of platy minerals. In this example, the rock has prominent sillimanite porphyroblasts as large as 3 cm (1.2 in).
Hübnerite, the manganese-rich end-member of the wolframite series, with minor quartz in the background
When minerals react, the products will sometimes assume the shape of the reagent; the product mineral is termed a pseudomorph of (or after) the reagent. Illustrated here is a pseudomorph of kaolinite after orthoclase. Here, the pseudomorph preserved the Carlsbad twinning common in orthoclase.
