Beekite is a distinctive form of chalcedony usually associated with silica replacing carbonate minerals in fossils (e.g., the top part of the coral illustrated). [1]
Beekite, recognised as small, concentric rings (cylinders, ellipsoids, or spheres in 3D) of microcrystalline quartz, is recorded as first brought to geologists’ attention by Henry Beeke, probably from studies around Torbay. [2] Early studies were reported by Thomas McKenny Hughes, in Devon, [3] and R. Etheridge in Australia. [4]
A study of the taphonomy of silicified fossils (especially brachiopods) in Devon concluded beekite resulted from the aerobic decomposition of organic matter in an environment with a limited supply of silica during early diagenesis. [5] Elsewhere, beekite has been compared to silcrete, indicating a break in sedimentation, where it occurs as encrustations on clasts of carbonate rock in the Palaeocene alluvial fan deposits of central Anatolia. [6]
