Gypsum or selenite is one of the commonest “decomposition” minerals found in connexion with the exposed surfaces of the Tertiary rocks in southern Ecuador. With the possible exception of the coarser grits and conglomerates, the normal sandstones are usually veined extensively by sheets of this mineral; it also occurs in a fibrous form (plates), in agglomerations of minute scalenohedrons, flake-like folia parallel to the bedding, and also in beautiful rosette-like or “stellate” groupings. In the typical clay shales or “gredas” the distribution of gypsum is not so general, though crystals or irregular groups of imperfectly shaped crystals occur on the weathered slopes or screes. In many localities, where a steep talus slope of shale forms the foot of a superimposing sandstone cliff, the scree itself is invariably covered with broken plates of gypsum in such profusion that from a distance it has the appearance of irregular masses of ice or glass. The platy form (which usually consists of parallel laminae with vertical fibres) is probably the most common and, in reality, each plate has been formed after the manner of a typical vein deposit.
Ore Genesis of the Takatori Tungsten–Quartz Vein Deposit, Japan: Chemical and Isotopic Evidence
