Abstract
THE recent publication of analyses of salt in the pans in Cape Colony by Dr. Juritz (Agricultural Journal, November, 1908, Cape Town) brings to a head a problem which has been puzzling me for a long time. A large amount of magnesia is dissolved in water on the decay of rocks, yet a very small portion finds its way to the sea. Dead coral reefs become dolomitised, but, as a general rule, recent limestone deposits do not contain more than 1 per cent, of magnesia; the magnesia dissolved in sea-water, therefore, is the accumulation of long ages, and should bear some relation in quantity to that of sodium, yet magnesium in the salts of sea-water is less than one-twelfth that of sodium. In the up-country pans in Cape Colony which collect the water washing over dolerite hills and evaporate the contents on their shallow surfaces, we find plenty of magnesia in the liquors, but practically none in the crystallised product. Here are Dr. Juritz's figures for an average sample:—
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SCHWARZ, E. Magnesium in Water and Rocks. Nature 79, 309 (1909). https://doi.org/10.1038/079309a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/079309a0
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