The world's largest Geode, formed when the Mediterranean disappeared, reveals a new study.
The team's driving question:
Where did the calcium sulfate in the Pulpí Geode come from?
The guiding question of the project is where the Pulpí Geode calcium sulfate came from?
While you may have never stood inside a Geode, you have probably held,
or at least seen, one before.
The term"geodi", typically
European, inconvenient for comparison with mineralogy, where the Geode is a small hollow rock bounded by crystals.
At Pulpí, however, the mine was completely dry, and the Geode's crystals had not grown in tens of thousands of years.
On top of that, the Geode's gypsum spikes are incredibly pure-
so translucent that"you can see your hand through them," García-Ruiz said.
The crystal columns at Pulpí are made of gypsum- the product of water, calcium sulfate, and lots and lots of time-
but not much else has been revealed about them since the Geode's unexpected discovery in 2000.