Beekite
Beekite is a distinctive form of chalcedony usually associated with silica replacing carbonate minerals in fossils (e.g., the top part of the coral illustrated).[1]
Beekite, recognised as small, concentric rings (cylinders, ellipsoids, or spheres in 3D) of microcrystalline quartz, is recorded as first brought to geologists’ attention by Henry Beeke, probably from studies around Torbay.[2] Early studies were reported by Thomas McKenny Hughes, in Devon,[3] and R. Etheridge in Australia.[4]
A study of the taphonomy of silicified fossils (especially brachiopods) in Devon concluded beekite resulted from the aerobic decomposition of organic matter in an environment with a limited supply of silica during early diagenesis.[5] Elsewhere, beekite has been compared to silcrete, indicating a break in sedimentation, where it occurs as encrustations on clasts of carbonate rock in the Palaeocene alluvial fan deposits of central Anatolia.[6]
References
[edit | edit source]- ^ Beekite on Mindat.org
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