Gypsum Crystals: The Importance and the Role of Calcium Sulphate in Past and Modern Environments

Dear Colleagues,

Calcium sulfate is most abundant terrestrial sulphate and can be found in a wide range of natural environments. One of the most studied evaporitic gypsum formations is the one documented in the rock record of the Mediterranean basin, formed during the catastrophic event known as the Messinian salinity crisis (∼6 Ma ago). There are numerous worldwide locations with outcrops of gypsum crystals belonging to different ages, such as those outcropping in Germany and associated with Permian and Triassic rocks. The interest in calcium sulfate lies in its dual importance: economic and scientific. Its economic appeal is due to its production (about 100 million metric tons produced every year) and broad application, from agriculture to construction industry. From a scientific point of view, gypsum is a powerful tool that can be used to increase our knowledge on numerous aspects, such as climate and paleoclimate reconstruction, basin evolution, understanding the life of biotic communities in brine and on the gypsum surface, and planetary exploration. Although research on calcium sulfate has been ongoing for decades, new studies continue to give us new pieces of information such as the idea circulating in recent years that gypsum not only has a chemical origin but an organic one too.

In view of these new scenarios, the purpose of this Special Issue is to collect original research studies and data that can throw new light on the characteristics of calcium sulfate from every aspect and different disciplines. This Special Issue will highlight the latest advancements in both fundamental and applied studies and will draw attention to the importance of calcium sulphate in past and modern environments.

This Special Issue welcomes contributions on all sedimentological, petrographic, geochemical (organic and inorganic), and biological aspects of primary and secondary evaporite rocks.

Dr. Alessandra Costanzo
Dr. Mara Cipriani
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Minerals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• evaporite
• fluid inclusions
• water chemistry
• climate variation
• biomineralization

1. Title: Gypsum on Mars

Author: Dr. David T. Vaniman (Planetary Science Institute, USA), etc.

2. Title: A study on textural patterns of secondary gypsum in the Lattarico’s quarry (Calabria region, southern Italy)
Authors: Cipriani, M., Costanzo, A., Molinaro, D., Dominici. R.
Abstract: Gypsum (CaSO4·2H2O) is an abundant evaporite salt, which precipitates as a primary-textured bedded deposit in the early diagenetic stages (eogenetic) of the burial cycle. During the subsequent burial and exhumation cycles, gypsum follows the paragenetic sequence of sulphate, moving from gypsum dehydrate (anhydrite -CaSO4) in the mesogenetic realm to secondary gypsum in the course of uplift in the telogenetic realm. In this last context, three secondary gypsum fabrics, characteristic of rehydration and replacement, can be formed: (i) Satin-spar, (ii) alabastrine and, (iii) porphyroblastic.
This work aims to investigate, for the first time, these gypsum fabrics documented in samples from the Lattarico's quarry located in the Crati basin, Calabria region, and to study which diagenetic processes have promoted their formation. Additionally, the research aims to help reconstruct the depositional environment during the final stages of the burial cycle.

3. Title: Gypsum: from the equilibrium to the growth shapes. Theory and experiments
Author: Prof. Dr. Dino Aquilano (Universita degli Studi di Torino, Italy) etc.