What is "anthodite"

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Anthodites are featured at the commercial Skyline Caverns in Virginia, USA]]

Anthodites ( Greek ἄνθος ánthos, “flower”, -ode, adjectival combining form, -ite adjectival suffix) are speleothems (cave formations) composed of long needle-like crystals situated in clusters which radiate outward from a common base. The "needles" may be quill-like or feathery. Most anthodites are made of the mineral aragonite (a variety of calcium carbonate, CaCO), although some are composed of gypsum (CaSO·2HO).

The term anthodite is first cited in the scientific literature in 1965 by Japanese researcher N. Kashima, who described “flower-like dripstone” composed of “an alternation of calcite and aragonite”.

1. Kashima, N. (1965), Mem. Ehime Univ., Sect. 2, Ser. D, 5, 79.↩
2. Hey, M.H. and P.G. Embrey (1974), “Twenty-eighth List of New Mineral Names”, Mineralogical Magazine, December 1974, Vol. 39, pp 903–932.↩
3. See also the abstract in Min. Abstr. 18-282.↩