Literature Search

A literature search was started last year (1999) for all references to cave aragonite in NSW as well as aragonite in general, summarised in Table 2.

Table 2: References to aragonite in publications

Type of Publication	Refs
NSW Cavers' trip reports	4
Other publications on NSW Caves	15
Other spelean aragonite	9
Aragonite in general	27
Total references	55

Additionally, there are a number of unpublished accounts by cavers together with verbal reports and photographs showing what appears to be aragonite in NSW caves.

One of the most useful ``Other references'' was by Morse on the kinetics of aragonite precipitation. Morse lists a number of anions and cations which can assist in the deposition of aragonite by inhibiting the precipitation of calcite.

It has been encouraging to see evidence of some of these materials in caves where aragonite occurs, in particular magnesium, manganese, sulphate and phosphate.