[flagged]
You must be real fun at parties ...
God sleeps in the minerals
81–90 of 112 posts
Re: God sleeps in the minerals
#82The Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh has the absolutely stunning Hillman Hall of Minerals and Gems.
https://carnegiemnh.org/explore/hillman-hall-of-minerals-and...
Spent many hours there
Re: God sleeps in the minerals
#83Check out the yt talk on "king of kashmir" .. the world's largest aquamarine discovered in Karakoram mountains (pakistan) .. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujGJwq3PaU0
Thank you for this. I didn't have any interest at all i. the topic, but video got me excited and interested!
you are welcome sir :)
Re: God sleeps in the minerals
#84I'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.
There are several different kinds of asbestos and they differ radically in their level of risk and the worst kinds are not (generally?) found in California. So that signage might just be out of an abundance of caution.
I wouldn't be surprised if by the numbers you have a lot more risk of serious injury driving to and from the hike than from the asbestos, particularly if your hiking doesn't involve intentionally disturbing the ground. :)
For the many posters on HN in the bay area-- watch road cuts for green rocks, asbestos co-occurs with serpentinite all over the coast range-- and serpentinite is the state rock! You can easily find some with asbestos, usually grey/white fibrous strands on the rocks. Don't grind it up and huff it, but you can thrill your friends by showing them some boogieman-mineral you found.
(It's only fitting that the state rock is technically known to the state of california to cause cancer... :P)
Re: God sleeps in the minerals
#85Me Mum[0] was a geologist. I grew up with stuff like that, all around the house.
I still have a lot of it.
Re: God sleeps in the minerals
#86[dead]
Re: God sleeps in the minerals
#87These 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…
It isn't that difficult to find excellent mineral specimens, some boulder-sized, on National Forest and BLM land in the mountain West. There are many places where people have never been or where a fantastic-looking mineral deposit was ignored because they were too small (common with e.g. copper minerals).
Most of the ones I've found were incidentally discovered while hiking around off-trail in the boonies. I do always bring my Estwing with me just in case though.
Re: God sleeps in the minerals
#88[flagged]
It's fine as a poetic term. But no god is required. Just time, pressure and the laws of physics.
"Just" Could you create the laws of physics? If all of humanity got together in a common effort, could we make one law of physics or change one law of physics?
Something which has always existed, which created the entire universe, is ever present through space and time, and invisible. Something which can never be resisted because it is almighty. Not even for one second.
Something which will create beautiful sculptures out of dull stone in places hidden from the world.
Re: God sleeps in the minerals
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
There are several different kinds of asbestos and they differ radically in their level of risk and the worst kinds are not (generally?) found in California. So that signage might just be out of an abundance of caution. I wouldn't be surprised if by the numbers you have a lot more risk of serious injury driving to and from the hike than from the asbestos, particularly if your hiking doesn't involve intentionally distu…
> that signage must just be out of an abundance of caution.
I'm pretty sure prop 65 applies to all materials known to man, so that checks out
Re: God sleeps in the minerals
#90One of my favorite topics and a hobby finally makes it to Hacker News
Fine mineral specimens are the most surprising things on earth. Such regularity and color! It reminds you that every atom of an element, every molecule of a compound is exactly the same (caveat energy states), and the laws of physics and chemistry don't change. That's how these stunningly bright and REGULAR forms develop - trillions of atoms or molecules all falling into line.