All is Flux, Heraclitus
And according to him,
it is not possible to step twice into the same river...
Fossils
Fossils are remains of extinct animals and plants that have generally undergone some sort of mineralization, through the action of pressure and mineral water. Fossils are much more in evidence than some rockhounds realize.
Coal is formed of the remains of plants that lived in swampy forests. Limestone, often used as building stone, is the remains of extinct sea creatures. Dolomite is formed mostly of ocean shells. Amber, coral, chalk, oil and many other substances are fossils.
Occasionally, more spectacular fossils turn up, dinosaurs in North Dakota, frozen mammoths in Siberia and sloths in Florida are examples. But anyone can find fossils. For a beautiful miniature fossil try looking carefully at chalk, limestone or coal.
Fluorite
Fluorite has a property that makes it very useful in smelting ores. When it is present in small quantities, other minerals melt at lower temperatures. While talking about fluorite it is interesting to note that white enamel is composed of sand with about 15% fluorite added.
Granite
Granite is defined as a rock composed of quartz, feldspar and mica. However, quarry owners see 100 toms of granite as 8 lbs of aluminum, 5 tons of iron, 1200 lbs of titanium, 180 lbs of manganese, 70 lbs of chromium, etc. And to boot, enough uranium and thorium to supply atomic energy equal to the energy contained in 5000 tons of coal.
Cat Scan
The "Cat Scan," an acronym for computerized axial tomography is a sophisticated method of x-ray imaging. One of its uses is in archeology to examine mummies. This technique is said to be the most important breakthrough in Egyptology since the discovery of Tutankhamon's tomb.
Of course, much can be learned about the old Pharaohs. Their wives and others of their times were mummified. The causes of their deaths, from diseases and injuries, their life span, their use of medicine are all at least partly revealed by x-rays.
For the first time a view of those mummies newly unwrapped can reveal many things, hidden amulets of gold and semi-precious gems along with the outline of the face, old healed fractures, even the age of the death becomes known. Indeed, for instance, some of the Pharaohs even wore earrings!
Window Shopping Wisdom
- Window shopping is the fine art of impulse buying.
- A member is a person that makes it possible to keep the club growing.
- Happiness is not the situation we arrive at , but the manner by which we arrive.
- Of all the liars, the smoothest and most convincing is memory.
- It is said that the average cow produces 62 glasses of milk a day.
- Frustration is not having anyone to blame but yourself.
- For the bead class, keep thread.
- Maybe it's true that hard work won't kill a person.
- Tact is a lie about others as you would like to have them lie about you.
- The Black Sea appears black because of the finely dispersed pyrite in it.
Lepidolite
Difficult to polish, soft with a hardness of 4+, Lepidolite is nevertheless used by lapidaries when it occurs in massive form and has beautiful colors. It may be yellow, pink to purplish or lavender. Often found in fine-grained masses, it is used as a carving material.
In California, Lepidolite is found in the Pala district in pegmatites, occurring in pockets and fracture fillings. Micro-crystal collectors always look for it on the dumps and tailings of tourmaline and beryl mines. It is generally associated with quartz, albite, tourmaline, muscovite and spodumene.
Lepidolite sometimes contains about 30% lithium oxide (LiO) and in the Pala district, has been mined for mined for this lithium.
ammonite fossil