Magnesium sulfate constituents of evaporitic potassium-magnesium (K-Mg) salts deposits. Bright spots observed by the Dawn Spacecraft in Occator Crater on the dwarf planet Ceres are most consistent with reflected light from magnesium sulfate hexahydrate. Almost all known mineralogical forms of MgSO are hydrates. Epsomite is the natural analogue of "Epsom salt". Another heptahydrate, the copper-containing mineral alpersite (Mg,Cu)SO·7HO, was recently recognized. Both are, however, not the highest known hydrates of MgSO, due to the recent terrestrial find of meridianiite, MgSO·11HO, which is thought to also occur on Mars. Hexahydrite is the next lower (6) hydrate. Three next lower hydrates—pentahydrite, starkeyite, and especially
Magnesium oxychloride at about 23 °C, the completely liquid region has vertices at the following triple equilibrium points (as mass fractions, not molar fractions): The other vertices are pure water, magnesium chloride hexahydrate, and the saturated solution (0.0044 MgO + 0.9956 by mass). The anhydrous forms decompose when heated above 450-500 °C by decomposition of the hydroxide and chloride anions, releasing water and hydrogen chloride and leaving a magnesium oxide residue, by the reactions: Extended exposure of magnesium oxychlorides to water leaches out the soluble , leaving hydrated brucite . On exposure to the atmosphere, the oxychlorides will slowly react with carbon