The present work contributes to the essential questions on calcium oxalate formation under the influence of lithobiont community organisms. We have discovered calcium oxalates in lichen thalli on surfaces of apatite-nepheline rocks of southeastern and southwestern titanite-apatite ore fields of the Khibiny peralkaline massif (Kola Peninsula, NW Russia) for the first time; investigated biofilm calcium oxalates with different methods (X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and EDX analysis) and discussed morphogenetic patterns of its formation using results of model experiments. The influence of inorganic and organic components of the crystallization medium on the phase composition and morphology of oxalates has been analyzed. It was shown that, among the complex of factors controlling the patterns of biogenic oxalate formation, one of the main roles belongs to the metabolic activity of the lithobiont community organisms, which differs significantly from the activity of its individuals.
The Lovozero Alkaline Massif intruded through the Archaean granite-gneiss and Devonian volcaniclastic rocks about 360 million years ago, and formed a large (20 × 30 km) laccolith-type body, rhythmically layered in its lower part (the Layered Complex) and indistinctly layered and enriched in eudialyte-group minerals in its upper part (the Eudialyte Complex). The Eudialyte Complex is composed of two groups of rocks. Among the hypersolvus meso-melanocratic alkaline rocks (mainly malignite, as well as shonkinite, melteigite, and ijolite enriched with the eudialyte-group minerals, EGM), there are lenses of subsolvus leucocratic rocks (foyaite, fine-grained nepheline syenite, urtite with phosphorus mineralization, and primary lovozerite-group minerals). Leucocratic rocks were formed in the process of the fractional crystallization of melanocratic melt enriched in Fe, high field strength elements (HFSE), and halogens. The fractionation of the melanocratic melt proceeded in the direction of an enrichment in nepheline and a decrease in the aegirine content. A similar fractionation path occurs in the Na2O-Al2O3-Fe2O3-SiO2 system, where the melt of the “ijolite” type (approximately 50% of aegirine) evolves towards “phonolitic eutectic” (approximately 10% of aegirine). The temperature of the crystallization of subsolvus leucocratic rocks was about 550 °C. Hypersolvus meso-melanocratic rocks were formed at temperatures of 700–350 °C, with a gradual transition from an almost anhydrous HFSE-Fe-Cl/F-rich alkaline melt to a Na(Cl, F)-rich water solution. Devonian volcaniclastic rocks underwent metasomatic treatment of varying intensity and survived in the Eudialyte Complex, some remaining unchanged and some turning into nepheline syenites. In these rocks, there are signs of a gradual increase in the intensity of alkaline metasomatism, including a wide variety of zirconium phases. The relatively high fugacity of fluorine favored an early formation of zircon in apo-basalt metasomatites. The ensuing crystallization of aegirine in the metasomatites led to an increase in alkali content relative to silicon and parakeldyshite formation. After that, EGM was formed, under the influence of Ca-rich solutions produced by basalt fenitization.