Single Crystal Galena Pillars as Highly Anisometric Dissolution Forms

Ivan K. Bonev and Clive M. Rice
Geological Institute, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria
Department of Geology & Petroleum Geology, University of Aberdeen, Meston Building, Kings College, Aberdeen AB24 3UE, UK

Abstract: Remarkable single crystal galena formations in the unique form of cylindrical or steep conical ‘pillars’ with ‘capitals’ of small rhombododecahedral single crystals of sphalerite, are described. It is suggested that the pillars result from a highly specific process of anisotropic mineral dissolution controlled by a system of internal channels in the original skeletal crystals and represent a kind of dissolution whiskers.

Keywords: galena • crystal morphology • dissolution • whiskers

Mineralogical Magazine; June 1997 v. 61; no. 406; p. 377-386; DOI: 10.1180/minmag.1997.061.406.05
© 1997, The Mineralogical Society
Mineralogical Society (www.minersoc.org)