Gypsum

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Gypsum precipitates (white) at a fumarole on the island of Vulcano in Italy.

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Gypsum is one of the salts left when saline

water evaporates from a lake or sea.

Gypsum in caves can form needle-like crystals that radiate from clusters on the cave floor.W

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The mountains around White Sands National Monument contain gypsum-rich limestone, which you can see as the light-colored rock in the mountains.

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Over a long period of time this has formed piles of gypsum sand, or dunes, in what we now call White Sands National Monument.

Rain dissolves the gypsum in the mountains, and the water carries it into the closed basin lake below. As the lake evaporates, gypsum crystals form and then get blown about and crushed by the wind.

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Stele of Ushumgal, Early Dynastic I; 2900–2600 B.C.; Mesopotamia, Umma (modern Jokha) (?); Purchase, Funds from various donors, 1958 (58.29); www.metmuseum.org

Alabaster (pure gypsum)is easy to carve.

Head of a man, 3rd–4th century; Southwestern Arabia; Alabaster (gypsum); H. 9 7/16 in. (24 cm); Purchase, Mr. and Mrs. Nathaniel Spear Jr. Gift, 1982 (1982.317.1); www.metmuseum.org

Many cultures carve alabaster.

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Gypsum is extremely useful in

construction.

Ground gypsum and vermiculite (mica) are pressed into inch-think sheets of wallboard,also known as sheetrock or drywall.

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Both wallboard and joint compound are made of gypsum. U

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Plaster, made of gypsum, is a sculpting and a molding material.

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Plaster casts of gypsum are often made of teeth before dental work is done.

Copper dental mold (right) and plaster cast (left).

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Plaster casts are made from Plaster of Paris (gypsum that has been heated).

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Gypsum can be used as a conditioner to improve soil: this farmer uses processed sheetrock scraps from building construction. O

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Gypsum is added to concrete as an admixture before it is poured.

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Gypsum is a filler in paper, chalk, paint, and toothpaste.

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Gypsum

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