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God sleeps in the minerals

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Re: God sleeps in the minerals

#61

Post by bregma »

alnwlsn wrote: post #53

I've been to a few mineral museums like this and one of the interesting ones you can come across is Asbestos. Just hanging out there on display right next to some other mineral. It forms beautiful formations just like the rest, but I've heard so many mesothelioma lawyer commercials that it's easy to forget it's a completely natural material. Also one you can pick apart like cotton and weave into a fabric - it's a fle…

We used to have asbestos rocks sitting around in our house when I was growing up (my mother was born a raised in the town formerly called Asbestos, QC). You could just peel the fibers off the rock. In that form the asbestos is harmless: it's only when it's chopped into shorter fibers and inhaled that it's seriously unhealthy. Industrial uses almost always chopped the fibers so almost no commercial products using asbestos are safe, but the rocks just sitting there are harmless.

Re: God sleeps in the minerals

#62

Post by chromacity »

throwup238 wrote: post #59
Uncle_Brumpus wrote: post #20

These types of huge perfect specimens always take my breath away when I am able to see them in person. To think that this kind of stuff just kinda exists buried in the earth... I am a part of a local mineral club which hosts several "field trips" a year to various mineralogically interesting locations (most of which aren't accessible as an individual, like private land and special digs at active mining/quarrying site…

That’s what really sucks about rockhounding as a hobby. In the US we have a blessing of public BLM lands where we can collect, especially in the West, but most of the interesting specimens in museums and fancy collections come from mines or some unique geological occurrence on private land. Getting them requires dropping lots of money or getting into commercial mining. The best most of us can really hope for is some…

> There are a few species you can sometimes find in washes when they get buried during massive floods, but other than that most museum quality specimens are impossible to find for rockhounds.

Well, that's kinda how it has to be, right? If art museums displayed the artwork anyone can paint, they wouldn't be interesting to most people. Most museums are about displaying the stuff you otherwise wouldn't be able to find, buy, or make. It's still fun to learn to paint, even if you're no Rembrandt.

To be fair, there are some museums that go for depth instead of scarcity and I personally find them more interesting. The Computer History Museum does this pretty well. They have some truly unique items, but also plenty of stuff you can buy on eBay, just presented and explained well.

Re: God sleeps in the minerals

#63

Post by dylan604 »

vscode-rest wrote: post #8

The Cubes are the most captivating to me. Organic mishmash of polyhedra and assorted blobs is one thing, but perfect cubes is uniquely striking.

Especially since it's an exception that breaks the rule that straight lines are not found in nature. Not only is it a straight line, but a cube. They just look unnatural. Very cool stuff

Re: God sleeps in the minerals

#65

Post by thaumasiotes »

adrian_b wrote: post #23
namanyayg wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pyrite or fool's gold, lovely mathematical perfection and a great etymology to match!

Regarding etymology, for many centuries the substances that are now called "sulfides" were called "pyrites", after the "iron pyrite" i.e. the iron (II) disulfide, which is the most abundant sulfide mineral. At the end of the 18th century, Lavoisier together with a few other French chemists have created the modern systematic chemical nomenclature, so the old term "pyrite" was replaced by "sulfide" (like also "vitriol"…

> Ancient Greek or Latin "p" corresponds with English "f"

Similarly, ancient Greek "p" corresponds with modern Greek "f", and ancient Greek "b" corresponds with modern Greek "v".

We may have done it first, but the sound change is pretty common. "B" -> "v" is arguably in process in Spanish. Something similar had already happened in Latin; compare Latin "frater" to English "brother" or Latin "fero" to Greek "phero".

Re: God sleeps in the minerals

#66

Post by 01100011 »

alnwlsn wrote: post #53

I've been to a few mineral museums like this and one of the interesting ones you can come across is Asbestos. Just hanging out there on display right next to some other mineral. It forms beautiful formations just like the rest, but I've heard so many mesothelioma lawyer commercials that it's easy to forget it's a completely natural material. Also one you can pick apart like cotton and weave into a fabric - it's a fle…

Central California has several abandoned asbestos mines which continue to release asbestos into the nearby air and water. I remember considering some hiking around the area once and then came across the warnings regarding exposure.

CA also has a lot of naturally occuring mercury as well. I seem to remember that some lakes in CA are so high in natural(i.e. not from gold mining) mercury that you shouldn't eat the fish.

Re: God sleeps in the minerals

#67

Post by wartywhoa23 »

vscode-rest wrote: post #54
hermitcrab wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's fine as a poetic term. But no god is required. Just time, pressure and the laws of physics.

Simple enough. Say, could you fabricate some new time, pressure, and laws of physics for me? Oh, and don’t forget the matter!

So many people carry this dull heavy just in their pockets to fend off all attempts to revive the sense of wonder they buried deep in their childhood.

For me, just the very fact that there exist time, space, laws of physics, enormous complexity stemming from deceptive "simplicity", is absolutely awe-inspiring.

Re: God sleeps in the minerals

#68

Post by lightedman »

throwup238 wrote: post #59
Uncle_Brumpus wrote: post #20

These types of huge perfect specimens always take my breath away when I am able to see them in person. To think that this kind of stuff just kinda exists buried in the earth... I am a part of a local mineral club which hosts several "field trips" a year to various mineralogically interesting locations (most of which aren't accessible as an individual, like private land and special digs at active mining/quarrying site…

That’s what really sucks about rockhounding as a hobby. In the US we have a blessing of public BLM lands where we can collect, especially in the West, but most of the interesting specimens in museums and fancy collections come from mines or some unique geological occurrence on private land. Getting them requires dropping lots of money or getting into commercial mining. The best most of us can really hope for is some…

"The best most of us can really hope for is some small piece from tailings."

Just this past weekend I pulled a plate full of rare tellurides out of Otto Mountain for a Caltech PhD. You have to be very observant to find a good spot to acquire minerals out of the ground, but excellent large specimens are still out there to be pulled.

Re: God sleeps in the minerals

#70

Post by billiam »

these dramatic and colorful massive specimens are perfect for an art museum, but as a recovering mineralogist I feel like the true beauty of the world of minerals in Earth is shown on the microscopic level, where you can see both the incredible order and incredible randomness of the (mostly) crystalline solids that make up minerals. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thin_section

There is an idea that minerals are these inorganic substances but fully two thirds of all minerals identified were originated from direct or indirect interaction with living things on Earth. In fact a recent hypothesis holds that minerals have evolved since the formation of the solar system very much like living things, getting more and more complex via selective processes. See https://hazen.carnegiescience.edu/research/mineral-evolution

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