Carbonate-Bearing Minerals


L. Bruce Railsback, Department of Geology, University of Georgia

    This is an updated version of Figures 1 and 2 of "Patterns in the compositions, properties, and geochemistry of carbonate minerals" (Carbonates and Evaporites, v. 14, p. 1-20.). Those two figures summarize the compositions of all known carbonate-bearing minerals, and thus the figures must change through time as new minerals are identified and the compositions of old ones are updated.
     Updated cells in the diagram are shown in bold. The headings for the columns and rows are explained in greater detail in the published figures. Columns 1 to 6 compile the pure carbonate minerals (carbonate minerals with no other anions), whereas Columns 7 to 12 compile the carbonate-bearing minerals that contain (and in some cases are dominated by) other anions. Rows 3 to 6 compile minerals with only divalent cations. Rows 7 to 11 compile minerals with +3 to +6 cations, but many of those minerals also contain +1 and/or +2 cations as well.

Carbonate-Bearing Minerals
  1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12
Bicarbs Simple H2O- bearing OH- or O- bearing OH- or O- and H2O- bearing Layered Cl- bearing SO4- bearing F- bearing PO4 etc- bearing Si- bearing multi- other anions
Monovalent Cations Only 5 2 2 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 1
Monovalent & Divalent Only 0 8 4 0 2 0 1 3 2 5 0 1
Ca
Only		 0 3 2 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 4 3
Ca +
others		 0 10 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 2
Mg +/-
others		 0 3 3 1 7 0 1 0 0 4 (9) 0 1
Other divalents 0 8 1 14 (5) 3 (6) 0 3 8 0 1 0 3
Rare earths
+/- others		 1 (7) 8 10 (3) 0 7 (4) 0 0 0 20 1 3 4
Al +/-
others		 0 0 0 1 7 9 (1) 2 4 3 1 4 13 (10)
Other
+3 cations		 0 0 0 2 0 9 0 2 1 1 1 0
+4 or +5
cations		 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 2 (8) 1 1 2 0
U +/-
others		 0 0 0 2 22(2) 0 0 0 1 0 1 1

Notes:
1 New mineral: IMA 97-019.
2 New mineral: Blatonite (97-025).
3 New mineral: IMA 97-036; redefinition of tengerite moves it to this cell.
4 Redefinition of tengerite moves it from this cell.
5 Redefinition of georgeite moves it to this cell.
6 Redefinition of georgeite moves it from this cell.
7 New mineral: Thomasclarkite-(Y) (97-047). However, thomasclarkite (Na(Y,REE)(HCO3)(OH)3.4H2O) contains OH and H2O, so it arguably belongs in a bicarbonate-analog of Column 5.
8 New mineral: IMA 98-002.
9 New and redefined mineral: Phosphoellengerite (94-006).
10 New mineral: Silvialite.

Other options:
Introduction to the tables accompanying this figure.
Table V: Recently recognized carbonate-bearing minerals.