Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A white or light-colored mineral, essentially CaMg(CO3)2, used in fertilizer, as a furnace refractory, and as a construction and ceramic material.
  • noun A magnesia-rich sedimentary rock resembling limestone.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun a stage of the New York series of formations represented by magnesian limestones, constituting a final phase in the Silurian of the Appalachian region. The formation is characterized by its remarkable profusion of merostome crustaceans of the genera Eurypterus, Pterygotus, Eusarcus, etc., and has commonly been known as the Eurypterus beds, corresponding in position to similar fossiliferous beds of Great Britain and the Baltic provinces.
  • noun A native carbonate of calcium and magnesium, occurring as a crystallized mineral, and also on a large scale in white granular crystalline rock-masses, and then often called dolomite marble. The proportions of the carbonates vary from 1:1 to 1:3 or 1:5.
  • noun A rock consisting essentially of this mineral.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Geol. & Min.) A mineral consisting of the carbonate of lime and magnesia in varying proportions. It occurs in distinct crystals, and in extensive beds as a compact limestone, often crystalline granular, either white or clouded. It includes much of the common white marble. Also called bitter spar.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun mineralogy A saline evaporite consisting of a mixed calcium and magnesium carbonate, with the chemical formula CaMg(CO3)2; it also exists as the rock dolostone.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a kind of sedimentary rock resembling marble or limestone but rich in magnesium carbonate
  • noun a light colored mineral consisting of calcium magnesium carbonate; a source of magnesium; used as a ceramic and as fertilizer

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, after Déodat de Dolomieu, (1750–1801), French geologist.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French dolomite, named after French mineralogist and engineer Déodat de Dolomieu (1750–1801) in 1791.

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Examples

  • Known as the "Pale Mountains," they boast a chemical composition dubbed dolomite stratified calcium magnesium carbonate, deposited more than 230 million years ago when seawater covered the region.

    StarTribune.com rss feed 2011

  • There it will be forced into spaces in a type of limestone called Knox dolomite, which is found beneath much of Kentucky and the region.

    Signs of the Times 2009

  • MgCO3 are referred to as "dolomite" or as dolomitic limestone, and those containing between 5 -20 % MgCO3, as magnesian limestone.

    1. General Information 1985

  • Thus the sulphate constitutes the minerals anhydrite, alabaster, gypsum, and selenite; the carbonate occurs dissolved in most natural waters and as the minerals chalk, marble, calcite, aragonite; also in the double carbonates such as dolomite, bromlite, barytocalcite; the fluoride as fluorspar; the fluophosphate constitutes the mineral apatite; while all the more important mineral silicates contain a proportion of this element.

    Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4 "Bulgaria" to "Calgary" Various

  • Before I start writing about a couple of stone knives indigenous to East Texas, I suggest you keep in mind nearly all of the previously discussed knives have been made out of a high quality chert or a piece of dolomite which is the material known as Alibates flint.

    unknown title 2009

  • A protective wall of dolomite and earth – 610 yards (620 meters) long, with an average height of nearly 9 feet (2.7 meters) – has been built in Kolontar to shield the area from further spills of the red sludge, a highly caustic waste produced when making alumina, which is used to make aluminum.

    Hungary Toxic Sludge Flood Residents Return To Town, Kolontar, Despite Health And Safety Concerns AP 2010

  • A protective wall of dolomite and earth – 610 yards (620 meters) long, with an average height of nearly 9 feet (2.7 meters) – has been built in Kolontar to shield the area from further spills of the red sludge, a highly caustic waste produced when making alumina, which is used to make aluminum.

    Hungary Toxic Sludge Flood Residents Return To Town, Kolontar, Despite Health And Safety Concerns AP 2010

  • Magnesium (to make magnesium chloride) comes from dolomite, the principle ore of magnesium.

    The Future of Architecture 2009

  • Pistorius was born in 1986 in Johannesburg to Sheila and Henke, who works in dolomite mining.

    Is it fair for 'Blade Runner' Oscar Pistorius to run in London Olympics? 2011

  • About half the material was "non-fibrous" including polystyrene foam, vermiculite mineral, combustion product carbon soot, mineral dust of gypsum, calcite, dolomite and quartz.

    September 11 Toxic Dust: Deciphering My Pocketful Of Terror 2011

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