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aamukherjee A Slice of Entropie -
alchymista Alchymista -
crownedrose Fading Like A Dead Star -
expose-the-light Quarks to Quasars -
ikenbot CWL -
abluegirl A Blue Girl -
perscientiamlibertas A Matter of the Most Pleasant Fraternal Confidence
Pyrite - Vermont by adamantine on Flickr.
A cluster of pyrite crystals from Springfield, Vermont. The view is 18 mm across. These crystals are octahedrons, an unusual shape for pyrite.
abluegirlFrom Wikipedia: Native element minerals are those elements that occur in nature in uncombined form with a distinct mineral structure. The elemental class includes metals and intermetallic elements, semi-metals and non-metals. This group also includes natural alloys, phosphides, silicides, nitrides and carbides.
Examples above include: gold, sulphur, copper, diamond, and silver.
There are 32 elements (18 metals, 5 nonmetals and gases) that can be found in nature in their elemental form. Metals give a metallic luster on their polished sides, as do some nonmetal and semimetal minerals.
crownedroseThe Empress of Uruguay
- Originally discovered in Uruguay, it is now on display at The Crystal Caves in Australia.
- It is 3 metres tall, and weighs in at 2.5 tonnes.
- The geode is full of stunningly dark amethyst, but also has some wonderful calcite. Those dark amethyst are very valuable for their quality as jewellery.
- If you go visit, not only do you get to gawk and take photographs, but you can actually touch it. Yes, they allow you to touch the minerals! How much better could it get?
- The Empress is not for sale.
bugger!Back in 2007, the owners of The Crystal Caves paid around 100,000 (US) for the initial buy + shipment/labour, and the specimen is now valued to be around 260,000 in US dollars.- As I said in my previous post - in 2011 - someone decided to vandalise the beauty. They were caught not long after, but the tennis sized chunks they broke off devalued the geode, and most importantly damaged an absolute natural wonder. (Sources: one, two, & three).
- Don’t just go for The Empress of Uruguay though, because they have a massive collection with hundreds of specimens you can stare at!
- Oh yeah, and the museum is built like a cave.
Read more on The Empress of Uruguay.
Photos by The Crystal Caves. Check out their Flickr page!
![blamoscience:
The Mohs scale of mineral hardness characterizes the scratch resistance of various minerals through the ability of a harder material to scratch a softer material. It was created in 1812 by the German geologist and mineralogist Friedrich Mohs and is one of several definitions of hardness in materials science.[1] The method of comparing hardness by seeing which minerals can scratch others, however, is of great antiquity, having first been mentioned by Theophrastus in his treatise On Stones, c. 300 BC, followed by Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia, c. 77 AD.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/1bff718c97bd4da62186210dfb9918b3/tumblr_mg7mce2RxZ1r5u3kto1_500.jpg)
The Mohs scale of mineral hardness characterizes the scratch resistance of various minerals through the ability of a harder material to scratch a softer material. It was created in 1812 by the German geologist and mineralogist Friedrich Mohs and is one of several definitions of hardness in materials science.[1] The method of comparing hardness by seeing which minerals can scratch others, however, is of great antiquity, having first been mentioned by Theophrastus in his treatise On Stones, c. 300 BC, followed by Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia, c. 77 AD.
(via fyeahgeology)
Celestite (aka Celestine) displayed at the Smithsonian Institute (by Orbital Joe on Flickr)
Project Aragonite: Day 7.
So week one has passed and there hasn’t been too much to update you guys with. The vinegar has just begun to expose the limestone, so with some time crystals will be more visable. More of the mineral has formed along the inner walls of the square glass jar, which is always a good sign! For this next week, I’m moving it into warmer temperatures with more light to help the crystals grow faster now that the tip of the rock is exposed.
These are some photos of the aragonite on the inner walls for you guys to see. I’ll try to update more (daily) as the process continues, but the last 5 days have just been uneventful, so I didn’t see much of the point.
- Read more in the Project Aragonite tag on crownedrose.
- What’s Project Aragonite again?
- Track Project Aragonite on Tumblr’s tag.
(via geologise)
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Did you guys know rubies and sapphires - which are usually seen in jewellery - are actually the same thing?
When I say the ‘same thing’, I mean they are both varieties of the mineral corundum, which forms mainly in metamorphic rocks, but not limited to. They have the same chemical formula, Al2O3, yet come in different colours and are known to the general public as different ‘stones’.
Rubies and sapphires both must have a certain amount of colourisation and hues to be considered a specific kind of that gemstone. Sapphires can also come in other colours than the dark blue most people know.
The reasons for all these different colours and hues is dependant on the amount of elements found within the mineral.
For example, the ruby’s pink-to-red colours are because of the presence of the element chromium.
Sapphires come in a more array of colours - blue, purple, green, yellow, pink, etc - due to different elements being present like copper, iron, and magnesium; just to name a few.
The best part is, these are all impurities. Funny how impurities actually make something even more beautiful, right? As well, we all know the diamond is the hardest gemstone, coming in with a 10.0 on the Mohs scale, but rubies and sapphires come very close with a 9.0.
Oh yeah, and these varieties can be fluorescent too. Just a bonus to add to the pure awesome that is corundum. Next time you see these gemstones set in jewellery, you’ll now know some new facts to tell others!
Photo credit goes to:
- Sapphire ring: gemteck1 on Flickr
- Ruby ring: paparutzi on Flickr
- Corundum (var. sapphire): Orbital Joe on Flickr
- Corundum (var. ruby): Orbital Joe on Flickr
(via geologise)
Stibnite is an awesome mineral, but also one that can be potentially toxic, so it must be handled with care (and always wash your hands!). It’s an antimony sulphide, Sb2S3, and also a soft mineral that comes in with only a 2.0 on the Mohs hardness scale. The specimen above is called “Spectacular Stibnite”, and the largest specimen ever displayed, and very rare due to its size/crystal structures. It’s also 1,000 pounds and originally from a Chinese mine.
This brilliant mineral was created around 130 millions years ago when antimony and sulphur were dissolved in water heated by volcanic activity, and then deposited between layers of limestone. For those beautiful crystals to grow so large, it would have been deposited in a pocket at one point, which is very lucky it was found and not destroyed while workers were in the mine.
It is on display at the American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY.
Photo credit: Ryan Somma on Flickr
crownedrose:Chalcedony & Chrysocolla happy via on Flickr
what causes the inside to look bubbled like that?It’s a habit called botryoidal. It happens a lot with minerals like hematite, smithsonite, and chrysocolla. Once I’m back on Tumblr, I’ll write up a post about it with a lot of examples in various minerals. It’s one of my favourite features for minerals to have. They can form awesome stalactites and stalagmites.
So, as many of you may know, I’ve barely been on Tumblr for the last month because real life tends to be the top priority. I’ve had my queue on (okay, it’s on 24/7 no matter what), which has been of help keeping my blog from looking like a desert. With that, I haven’t had time to finish writing or start any good/new science-y posts. But to make up for that, I thought I’d document a little DIY experiment for everyone - which is something you can do at home too!
There are many ways to grow crystals yourself. You can find websites all over the internet, videos on YouTube, and goodness knows where else. Some ways are much easier than others, and I thought I’d show you guys a very basic and easy-to-do way of growing some awesome aragonite crystals!
I have not started the process just yet because I wanted to ask my followers if they’d be interested in watching a day-by-day process (with photos) and my explanation of what is happening, and how you can do it. I may not be able to start this experiment tomorrow, but I would like to within the next few weeks when my schedule has calmed down. Summer is when a lot of stuff is going on (anyone signed up for some fossil digs!? [that reminds me, I still need to write up that directory for digging with museums!]), so my blog’s going to be pretty wonky when it comes to scheduled posts. The crystal growing process is something that will be fun for everyone to watch, and maybe get you guys inspired to try it out yourself.
So tell me, would anyone want to watch me grow some aragonite?
Thought I’d pass this on to anyone following Scinerds who may be interested in this project!
Orpiment Macro (with Calcite) by cobalt123 on Flickr
“Velvet” Malachite (photo source)
This is what I was eyeing yesterday (not this exact specimen, but one like it). It looks like velvet from a short distance, but in turn is actually very fine needle-like crystals (called acicular).
