50
votes
Accepted
Why is NaCl so hyper abundant in the ocean?
Fluoride salts tend to be not particularly soluble in water. Chloride salts are. The same goes for salts containing sodium versus those containing calcium. Sodium chloride is ridiculously easy to ...
- 23.1k
43
votes
Why is NaCl so hyper abundant in the ocean?
Solubility. The question is quite chemical, in fact.
Solubility works somewhat counter-intuitively: if two ions that are not soluble together are present in the solution, they find each other and form ...
- 571
22
votes
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Taking into account the decay products of transuranic elements, are the world's uranium reserves growing or shrinking?
Let's start with the easy question:
given our current known reserves of transuranic elements and again taking into account their decay products, where will the greatest uranium reserves be in, say, ...
- 23.1k
15
votes
Are fossil fuels really formed from fossils?
Let's look at this. A very large number of points for one question.
First, the solar system. We do not see any hydrocarbons in the inner solar system (Mercury to Mars). This is because in this region ...
- 1,082
13
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Do lead 206 and other daughter isotopes occur naturally?
While lead 206 does occur naturally, unless a zircon (a zirconium silicate crystal) is contaminated with lead or has been around a long time, it will contain no lead. Zirconium, uranium, and thorium ...
- 23.1k
12
votes
Is oxygen the most abundant element on Earth?
Both of them.
The composition of the atmosphere, crust, mantle, core and bulk earth are all notably different.
The atmosphere is composed of ~78% nitrogen and ~21% oxygen, with small amounts of ...
- 2,221
12
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Why don't iron meteorites on Mars rust or oxidize? Why are they shiny?
tl;dr: Compared to Earth, the atmosphere on Mars is very thin; in addition, it contains much less of oxygen and water (i.e., is very dry). It is much colder there. These conditions may slow down ...
- 596
11
votes
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Diamond at the core of Jupiter
I would think this is questionable, though we don't have a definitive answer yet.
We usually think Jupiter has a roughly solar composition, which according to the solar abundance measurments of ...
- 3,152
11
votes
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Non-invasive techniques to find rock composition
You are looking for a portable XRF.
It does (almost) exactly what you said. It sends electromagnetic radiation to the rock (X-rays), which excites electrons in the atoms and when they bounce back ...
- 23.1k
10
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Are there minerals which are not been found on earth but which are still possible to exist?
To answer the first part, there are many minerals on earth which do not involve silicate bonded structures. For instance, non-silicates (minerals of carbonates, sulfides, sulfates, phosphates, and ...
- 101
10
votes
Would oceans regenerate if removed?
I'm ignorant of all the organic and inorganic chemical reactions that can destroy or create water, and the factors controlling them. But I can give a shot to the part of the question related to ...
- 17.6k
9
votes
Accepted
What are the cubic formations found inside Larimar gemstones?
Calcite and hematite may not be the the answer to my question
Hematite is not the answer, but calcite is.
The inclusions are not cubic, they are rhombohedral. This is precisely how calcite looks ...
- 23.1k
9
votes
Do lead 206 and other daughter isotopes occur naturally?
The four stable isotopes of lead and their relative abundance on Earth are: 204Pb (1.4%), 206Pb (24.1%), 207Pb (22.1%) and 208Pb (52.4%). Lead-204 is a primordial nuclide and is not a radiogenic ...
- 13.5k
8
votes
What is the origin of the ocean's salt?
I'd like to add a bit to the existing answer and maybe break it down to several simple things:
Chloride likes water. The chloride ion, Cl- really likes being in water. It's one of the most ...
- 23.1k
8
votes
Accepted
What "g" would be needed to keep helium on Earth?
Atmospheric escape is the loss of planetary atmospheric gases to outer space. You'd never be able to contain ALL of any gas forever by gravity. Ultimately you end up in the rarefied atmosphere where ...
- 511
8
votes
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Where can fluorite be found on Long Island, New York?
I do not know of fluorite being reported to occur on Long Island. If fluorite is found in NYC, the Natural History museum might have specimens. You might try contacting a mineralogy / mineral ...
- 5,959
8
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What is the difference between N-MORB, E-MORB and OIB?
The nomenclature is confusing and recent studies have shown that among mid-ocean ridge basalts (generally called MORBs) that normal mid-ocean ridge basalts (NMORB) should reflect the statistically ...
- 171
8
votes
Accepted
Is the iron on Earth's crust a leftover of the Iron catastrophe, or it was brought back by volcanoes?
Not all the iron sank to the core. Have a look at my answer to a previous question:
https://earthscience.stackexchange.com/a/7076/725
Your question is similar, but coming the other way. You're ...
- 23.1k
8
votes
Do scientists ever make rock vapor in a laboratory? If so, is it ever used to study planetary or lunar formation?
Not quite "rock vapour", but scientists do study gas-rock interactions. Some of that is used to understand processes forming in the moon.
For example, this paper looked at volatile metals (...
- 23.1k
7
votes
Is there a risk with putting out smouldering underground coal reserves?
There isn't a risk to putting it out other than the attempt failing, it is just impractical to do so once a large coal vein catches fire. You can read more about the Centralia, PA coal fire on ...
- 14.1k
7
votes
Accepted
How do hematite and magnetite form?
In nature, iron can be either metallic ($\ce{Fe^0}$), ferrous ($\ce{Fe^2+}$) or ferric ($\ce{Fe^3+}$).
In hematite, all of the iron is ferric: $\ce{Fe^3+_2O3}$. In magnetite, it is a combination of ...
- 23.1k
7
votes
Are all natural diamonds made of organic carbon material?
Diamond isn't made of organic C at all. Organic matter would rather become oil, gas, coal or dissolve entirely.
C itself isn't very common in earth's mantle, but subducted eclogites and peridotites ...
- 467
7
votes
Why silicon is abundant in earth surface?
Silicon, in the form of silica (oxidised silicon: Si4+ or SiO2), is indeed very common on Earth's surface.
This answer has two parts: why is silicon common in the Earth as a whole, and why it is ...
- 23.1k
7
votes
Accepted
Upon breaking apart andesite, what do you get?
By definition andesite is mainly plagioclase (mostly variety andesine),and pyroxene with either quartz or olivine (not both), and minor amounts of magnetite, ilmenite, zircon, apatite, possibly ...
- 14.2k
7
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7
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How to convert mol/m^2 to total mass ( e.g gram, kg etc )?
$\rm \frac{mol}{m^2}$ shows the amount of $\rm{NO_2}$ in the atmosphere over a square meter of surface area - in mols.
The molar mass of the $\rm{NO_2}$ is $14+2\cdot 16=46$. It means, the mass of 1 ...
- 660
7
votes
Accepted
Why is silver found mainly in lead
This may not be a complete answer, but a big misconception here may be that silver is found "in" lead. It would be more correct to say that silver is more concentrated in the lead ore ...
- 415
6
votes
Plotting a mineral stability diagram
Remember that you are concerned about stability fields. The lines on your stability diagram are the places where two minerals are in equilibrium. One one side one mineral will be more stable, on the ...
- 4,429
6
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Which theory is stronger, that iron came from outside or was formed within earth?
Somewhat more from volcanic activity than meteor impacts, but both are important.
The Earth has an iron-nickel ($\ce{Fe}$-$\ce{Ni}$) core that originates from Earth's formation out of the collision ...
- 1,207
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