Even though there is a lot of dolomite on the surface of the Earth -- there are mountains of it in Italy named the Dolomites, for example -- geochemists have a real tough time making it form in the laboratory. A real tough time. In fact, it has never been accomplished.
Until now. Those genius types at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology managed to figure out how to make it, using the basic mineral components, along with some anaerobic sulfur-philic bacteria in a biofilm. Really. Sounds like an unusual recipe, but it worked.
Recreating ancient minerals
"It wasn’t until the turn of the 20th century that a Russian microbiologist demonstrated the potential for anaerobic bacteria to cause dolomite to form from minerals in ocean water, a process called biomineralization. Since then, researchers have found that in modern environments, biofilms — containing photosynthetic microbes and the slimy organic matrix that they excrete for their home (exopolymeric substances) — in highly evaporative pools of salty water can provide a surface on which dolomite can nucleate and grow."
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| View in the Dolomites of Italy |
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