Professor Wenhao Sun shows off dolomite from his personal rock collection. Sun studies crystal growth of minerals from a materials science perspective. By understanding how atoms come together to form natural minerals, he believes we can reveal fundamental mechanisms of crystal growth, which can be used to make functional materials more quickly and efficiently. Credit: Marcin Szczepanski, Lead Multimedia Storyteller, Michigan Engineering.
SciTechDaily has a story about dolomite. Researchers at the University of Michigan have published new research that solves the "Dolomite Problem". The paper "Dissolution enables dolomite crystal growth near ambient conditions" appeared in the journal Science. Until now, scientists have been unsuccessful creating dolomite in the laboratory. Understanding this process should allow for the creation of new high tech materials.
For two centuries, scientists have failed to grow a common mineral in the laboratory under the conditions believed to have formed it naturally. Now, a team of researchers from the University of Michigan and Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan have finally pulled it off, thanks to a new theory developed from atomic simulations.
Their success resolves a long-standing geology mystery called the “Dolomite Problem.” Dolomite—a key mineral in the Dolomite mountains in Italy, Niagara Falls, the White Cliffs of Dover, and Utah’s Hoodoos—is very abundant in rocks older than 100 million years, but nearly absent in younger formations.
