Questions tagged [mineralogy]
questions relating to the scientific study and identification of minerals.
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How are minerals classified?
What is exactly done to classify minerals in Earth Sciences such as Geology? How can it be known if one mineral is the same of another should they be visually different?
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Metallic Balls Found in Sandstone or Mudstone Layer
Found metallic balls of some type of metal ore surrounded by yellow mudstone the metallic balls crush easily into a fine gray powder.
The gray balls are situated between sandstone layers in a soft ...
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What kind of efflorecence is this?
It occures in a tunnel under tens of meters of vulcanic deposits (mostly Thephra i think) at Herculaneum, Italy. Water seems to come from the surface, however the sea is near. It's level is lower ...
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Mineral/rock identification [closed]
I found this rock in the Himalayan region in India. It was on the roadside of a hill that we were trekking.
It has a silver lustre. It has a hardness of 5.5(I can scratch it with a knife blade).it has ...
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Can someone identify this mineral? [closed]
I found this in a stream in Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest, Wyoming. One side (2/3 length) has a pointy pyramid with four faces; other side (1/3 length) has four faces but with with an edge ...
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Mineral identification - please help!
I'm currently writing an essay on a mosaic in the British Museum, and am unsure about which stone the frame is constructed from (pictured). I would be most grateful for help identifying it.
Thanks!
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What is this translucent and blue vein crystal, 7.5 < Mohs < 9, Lustre: Aventurescence
It looks like quartz, but it has blue veins on the surface that look died. Not all surface scratches are blue though.
Hardness: > 6.5. Nail file will not scratch it. > 7 quartz will not scratch it. >...
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What is this translucent blue-green oblong crystal?
I think it might be aventurine of some sort, but I'm not sure.
Hardness: It is harder than a steel nail file. The file leaves a track, but it rubs off, leaving no mark. I scraped it on the bottom ...
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Where/how people find minerals
Forever I have seen little shops here and there offer minerals like those crystals and neat shaped rocks of different kinds, turquoise and amethyst and many others and such. But I never really thought ...
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Do Pyroelectric gemstones really exist? Can they be found on web market?
I just got the curiosity today to know whether the gems that produce electricity non stop without an end exist, and I have found this site.
But I’m having doubts about it, thinking that it could be ...
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If the study of “minerals” is covered by inorganic chemistry
I am wondering what field studies "minerals", such as the minerals in Wikipedia's list. I keep thinking that perhaps it would be covered in inorganic chemistry (list of inorganic compounds wiki), but ...
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Why would India have so much thorium on it's beaches?
The recent BBC News article Why India Wants to Turn it's Beaches into Nuclear Fuel includes the passage:
The tropical beaches of India probably bring to mind sun-dappled palms, fiery fish curries ...
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I found this strange spherical stone in Gillette Wyoming. I have no idea what it is. Please help.
These are recent pictures of it. It’s heavy, I see small minerals that catch the light in it, very bumpy, spherical, doesn’t seem to be magnetic, I was falling down a deep trench and kicked it up at ...
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Is this a rock with metal or gold? [closed]
I found these really hard rock while i was excavating. It caught my attention the different colors.
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Help Identifying this Mineral? [closed]
I have the following rock/mineral but can't seem to identify. Anybody have an idea what it might be? It's heavy, 3"x3", nonmagnetic (but slightly repels a neodymium magnet), blackish in color with ...
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Please identify- no origin known but given to me by a geologist
A very dear man who love his job as a geologist gave this to me. He’s been all over the country so I have no idea where he may have picked it up
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What is this Stone [closed]
I found this stone in my father's old stuff. I tried to search online for about it but I don't know what is it. It looks to be a rare stone.
Can someone identify it?
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1answer
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heavy, brown, rock with crystals, please help identify
please help identify this rock. it is heavier than most. dark brown color. picture is shown with streak test. found in Philadelphia pa. at home demolition site. crystals seem to be different type and ...
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A chemical formation or constructed by microorganisms?
This mineral formation was at the side of a fresh water canal in Gürpınar, Van, Turkey. It was dug out from the bottom of the canal. It is very brittle.
I know that the natural water sources in the ...
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What are the name of these stones?
There are some kind of stone, I collected them and I want to be sure of their identification.
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Please help identify this! Rock? Glass? Crystal? It's big and very heavy [closed]
About 1.5 feet tall, 1 foot deep and 2 foot wide. Very heavy and very hard. I will get a better picture posted asap. You can read a newspaper thru it. Was left to me by my uncle years ago but never ...
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Is this petrified wood or just “some rock”?
I was gifted this and have no idea what it is and was to embarrassed to ask, so here I am.
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Can you help me identify my rock?
I found this rock in my yard. Can someone please identify it for me? I’m not sure if you can see the blue hue on the rock in the picture! (https://i.stack.imgur.com/cuklH.jpg)
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How does chalcedony containing quarts and mogánite form?
I just learned that the cryptocrystalline form of silica, chalcedony, usually contains 1-20% of the monoclinic $\ce{SiO_2}$ mineral mogánite as well as the much more common hexagonal quartz. With time ...
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Unidentified mineral found in France
(I am not a native english speaker, so I'm not really aware of the specific terminology.)
A few years back, I found an unidentified rock on a beach in Normandie (France). It looks and feels (texture-...
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Are these obsidian snowflakes?
I'm not sure if these are obsidian snowflakes:
I found it near a river, hardness is 4 to 5, it has a wax lustre when pre-polished. The 'flakes' in the matrix are raised and gray.
Pre-polished side
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What exactly are enantiotropic and monotropic polymorphic transitions?
Recently, I've been studying the subject of polymorphism and met two important concepts, the monotropic and enantiotropic polymorphic transition types. However, I can't really seem to grasp the ...
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What's this? Chess pieces growing spines!
These chess pieces have laid undisturbed for a long time (15-20 years?). In this time, they seem to have grown clear/white, spiny, long crystals. I'm wondering if they are dangerous, but also curious ...
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Is this deep green calcite, green gneiss stone?
The site where it is found is characterized by schist, quartz and gneis, but also other species of rock. This is a scissors 2 cm semi transparent, vitreous luster, hard scale 6.5 - 7 ... I will post ...
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1answer
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What is the type of stone/mineral in this necklace please?
I would like to sell this necklace but can't remember its original description and the online store where I got it no longer carries it so I can't look it up that way. Blue Chalcedony comes to mind, ...
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Why would CaO be more finely spread than K2O in Granodiorite?
I recently interpreted some XRF data on samples of a granodiorite which were classified under three different types of physical characteristics: very little, mild and significant levels of weathering. ...
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Can you help me identifying this beige/brown rock?
I found this stone in a box where I keep some memorabilia. Unfortunately I don't know, where it's from, maybe it's from a mountain side in the alpins or from a beach at the mediterranean sea. One side ...
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Help identify this brown red mineral?
This was found in my garden today and has me completely stumped. What is it?
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Melting point of minerals
Looking at this website, I can see the melting point of the following minerals: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Geophys/meltrock.html
Apparently at a temperature of 1200 °C, all the ...
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Is there any rule of thumb to decide the indentation hardness test?
How to decide whether Brinell Hardness test, Rockwell test or Vicker's test is to be applied as far as grain-size is concerned? Is there any rule of thumb to decide the type of indentation hardness ...
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Help identify glowing stone with scarab carving
I found almost no information from searching Google, Someone mentioned it might be Fluorite. I simply don't know where else to look for an answer and so I am asking you.
When I was a child, my ...
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Detecting the hydrothermal alteration zones?
Is it possible to use remote sensing to determine Hydrothermal alteration zones without resorting to collecting samples from the Area of study?
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What kind of light blue stone is this?
My son found this stone on the beach on the island Crete. It was a one of its kind, no other visible stone on the beach was the same.
We asked the locals, but they did not know this stone.
It's about ...
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1answer
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What are the cubic formations found inside Larimar gemstones?
I recently noticed what appears to be common cubic formations just beneath the surface of Pectolite (Larimar) gemstones. They quite resemble transparent sugar sprinkles. Each formation isn't perfectly ...
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Which Earth minerals would Moon colonists miss the most?
In my science-based novel, Moon colonists need to return to Earth to collect some rare or absent mineral(s) Ideally, something they could derive from seawater. Which minerals might they be...?
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How can I distinguish real from fake? (Jade Stone)
How can I be certain this is jade. I bought this rock from a thrift store for 40 bucks. I thought it was a bit pricey for what it is..does anybody have any solid tips on how to clean up the ...
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Iron-nickel phase in pallasite meteorites
I have recently been learning and researching about meteorite types and classification. Pallasites are mainly composed of a 'solid-solution' of olivine crystals and an iron-nickel alloy. My question ...
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Can anyone tell me what these rocks are? One is layered, the other has holes
These I have collected in Northeast Ohio.
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What disciplines of science are used in the locating and extraction of mineral resources? [closed]
Im trying to do an assessment but I just can answer this question!
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Inorganic Limestone and Inorganic Gypsum
I read that limestone is made from the compaction of marine animals' bones. But, I am unable to find out why limestone could not have been produced from calcium occurring naturally (5th most abundant ...
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Difference between pyrite oxidation and dissolution
I've seen papers use oxidation and dissolution of pyrite. Are these two processes the same? I was always under the impression that pyrite does not dissolve easily. What is the difference between ...
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The influence of special emissions (possibly coal mining activity) on particulate matters
Based on multiple site sampling of airborne $PM_{2.5}$ and $PM_{10}$ , the elemental concentrations of the trace elements were analyzed.
I have found out in the site near surface coal mining zone ...
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Chloride and evaporation
I have a layered aquifer with water that contains high concentrations of calcium and sulfate (~400 mg/L Ca2+, ~1300 mg/L SO42-), at 50 cm below ground surface (bgs), 250 cm bgs and 300 cm bgs. The ...
