Kieserite

specimen number:
1052790

location:
Niedersachsen potash mine, Wathlingen, Celle, Lower Saxony, Germany

description:
A sealed glass jar holding fragments of glassy mostly gemmy colorless kieserite. The size provided is the size of the jar. The specimen comes with an antique label as shown at the end of the video. This label gives an acquisition date in 1928.

The Niedersachsen potash mine, situated near Wathlingen in the Lower Saxony region of Germany, operated as a major salt extraction facility within the Hannover district. Geologically, the deposit is part of the extensive Permian Zechstein basin, where thick marine evaporite sequences were altered by tectonic forces into massive salt domes, or diapirs. The target ore layers consisted primarily of complex potassium and magnesium salts, including sylvinite and carnallitite, which were squeezed into highly concentrated structural zones during the Mesozoic era. Sinking of the initial shafts began in 1909 under the Kaiseroda company, and industrial production of potash for agricultural fertilizers commenced in 1913. The underground mine remained a major regional employer and producer throughout the twentieth century under various management structures, including K plus S, until declining economic reserves and structural changes led to the permanent cessation of potash mining at the site in 1997.

Kieserite is a magnesium sulfate monohydrate mineral that occurs abundantly within marine evaporite deposits. Geologically, it forms as a primary precipitate from the evaporation of highly concentrated, magnesium-rich seawater, or as a secondary alteration product through the dehydration of other hydrated sulfate minerals like epsomite. It is commonly found in massive, granular, or compact crystalline aggregates intergrown with halite, sylvite, and carnallite within the potash zones of salt domes. Because it dissolves slowly in water compared to other sulfate species, it serves as a highly valuable, slow-release industrial source of magnesium and sulfur for agricultural soils, making its extraction a key economic component of Zechstein salt mining operations.

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