Skip to main content

The Rock (and proof I'm a nerd)

...as if there was any doubt.

















A local shop had some pretty rocks with fluorite crystals (note on them says "Fluorite NM" but I don't know where in NM they were collected). The others might have been more spectacular but I wanted this one (which was my Christmas present from my husband) because it had three different minerals that form isometric crystal structures.  That means that they form (or can form) perfect geometric cubes.  The white crystals are calcite (CaCO3), which has a hexagonal crystal structure, and I think if you zoom in on the bottom half of the rock there are some sorta hex shaped white nuggets.  But no one cares about the calcite.  So... the fluorite crystals (CaF2) are the clear purple/blue cubes.  There are also galena crystals (PbS), but they are hard to see in this picture.  Galena is super showy.  The crystals look like perfect little metallic cubes with mirror-shiny faces.  Most of the galena crystals in this rock are fractured, but the cube shapes still show clearly.

Well... I've now convinced myself that the glittery black crystals are not what I thought they were, (darn you, internet!)  but are actually also galena crystals (I thought they must be chromite but I couldn't find *any* images of actual cubic chromite despite the fact that it's isometric.)  The galena crystals have glittery coatings of Anglesite on them...  PbSO4... so, essentially the surface of the galena crystal has oxidized and recrystalized as little lead sulfate crystals. Which I suppose is also pretty cool.

(The amazing box that I'm using to prop up my rock was a gift from my daughter who made it in wood shop.)

Comments

bagoh20 said…
Cool! And, I love the box. That's very creative and beautiful work.
chickelit said…
Very cool, Synova. I'm impressed with your knowledge of minerals.

The nomenclature is fascinating and reminds me of enzymology where everything ends in "-ase" according to what it does. In mineralogy, everything ends in "ite."
Synova said…
I'm halfway convinced that I was wrong about the calcite but I'm not motivated enough, atm, to figure out if it's barite instead, and there may be quite a bit of quartz in the rock, too.

The fluorite, galena, and anglesite are firm.

Popular posts from this blog

Some times some people.

 

It's Not Projection

Take the case of "fascism". When you can see clear as day that the person who is accusing you of fascism is a fascist, they aren't projecting. They're talking about something ELSE. Basically, in the case of fascism, the basic set of fascist government controls are the default assumption of reality for a whole lot of people. The government is supposed to control every part of your life. The government is supposed to make you moral and good and reflect "justice". The government is supposed to do this by picking winners from the good people and losers from the bad people. The government is supposed to control the way people do business, how businesses (and farmers) function and what they produce. And people should be made to cooperate with this control because they are part of society and society is dependent on everyone being in compliance. This is simply the Truth. It's how the world works and how the world is supposed to work. The Socialist Nationalism,

What You Know That Isn't So

  The saying goes like this, It's not what you *don't* know that is going to trip you up, it's what you know that isn't so. I believe that the first lady might possibly have been feigning helplessness, just a little bit.  She already had concept art and visuals, so I think she'll be okay.   But someone might truly be so new that they know nothing about science fiction as a genre or how it works in the world.  That person, the truly "new" person, might not realize that the second lady, no matter how assured she seems to be that she's passing on vital Wisdom, is wrong. So lets unwrap her backpack a little (to steal a metaphor). Stories about space pirates are Space Opera, generally.  "Soft" science in science fiction usually refers to sociology or psychology, social "science".  A story about space pirates might be "soft".  But that's picking nits.  The first big boo-boo is this: "not as popular *because* it is women