With over centuries of effort to understand the formation mechanism of dolomite, a common mineral in sedimentary rocks, the geologic community still struggles to formulate a universal mechanism to explain the origin of massive deposition of sedimentary dolomite. Understanding the exact mechanism for dolomite formation at Earth's surface conditions is crucial for investigating economic reservoirs, interpreting sedimentary environments, reconstructing secular seawater variations, assessing potential carbon sequestration reservoirs, and understanding biominerlization processes.One of the main obstacles for dolomite nucleation and growth is the high water affinity of magnesium and the subsequent kinetic energy barrier for surface Mg2+-water complex to dehydrate. Polysaccharides, exopolymeric substances (EPS), and hydrogen sulfides demonstrate the capability to overcome the kinetic barriers and catalyze dolomite growth, which supports the hypothesis that sedimentary dolomite has a microbial origin. However, not all dolomite are formed by microbial life as dolomite is much more abundant in earlier Earth history when microbial activity levels are lower compare to nowadays, and an abiotic mechanism is needed to explain massive dolomite formation. This work applied laboratory and synchrotron X-ray diffraction, high-resolution TEM imaging, Z-contract imaging, and electron microprobe analysis on low-temperature synthesized and natural samples to understand abiotic controls on surface Mg2+-water complex dehydration and dolomite precipitation. Several focused studies were conducted toward exploring this topic, including: (1) Using ethanol-water mixtures to validate the hypothesis that low-dipole moment materials induce the surface Mg2+-water complex dehydrate, thus allowing disordered dolomite precipitation; (2) Demonstrating that dissolved silica, a low dipole moment molecule, in naturally available concentrations can promote disordered dolomite growth; (3) Applying a dissolved silica catalyzed dolomite growth model to decipher Marinoan cap carbonate formation with coupled Ca, Mg Si, and C cycles; (4) Testing dissolved silica driven dolomite growth in modern hypersaline settings (i.e., the Great Salt Lake, UT); (5) Examining the effect of dissolved silica toward catalyzing dolomite formation in Early Silurian dolomite. Results from this research demonstrate that dissolved silica may be a dominating abiotic control for dolomite precipitation in early Earth history, when dissolved silica in seawater is significantly higher prior to the appearance of silica-consuming microorganisms, and modern hypersaline environments. This abiotic mechanism would allow the reconstruction of solution chemistry changes based on abundances, textures, and associated minerals of dolomite. Changes in dolomite abundances might also contain information on weathering intensities, sea level variations, and Wilson cycles both locally and globally from changes in dissolved silica concentration.