This is the Palo Duro canyon. 2nd largest canyon in the U.S. and the largest canyon in Texas located near Amarillo. 190 miles long, on average 6 miles wide, and about 860 feet deep.
>>447 Do people want the /cyb/ board renamed to "/scig/ - Science and Technology, and their effects upon society and the human imagination"?
>>446 So I'm contributing to the thread, check out the Crystal Cave in Naica, Mexico >Nothing compares with the giants found in Cueva de los Cristales, or Cave of Crystals. The limestone cavern and its glittering beams were discovered in 2000 by a pair of brothers drilling nearly a thousand feet below ground in the Naica mine, one of Mexico's most productive, yielding tons of lead and silver each year. The brothers were astonished by their find, but it was not without precedent. The geologic processes that create lead and silver also provide raw materials for crystals, and at Naica, miners had hammered into chambers of impressive, though much smaller, crystals before http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/11/crystal-giants/shea-text
>>449 Beautiful. I would like the name to be changed because I think it would encourage more discussions. We should put it to a vote. Pic is Alexandrite The alexandrite variety displays a color change (alexandrite effect) dependent upon the nature of ambient lighting. Alexandrite effect is the phenomenon of an observed color change from greenish to reddish with a change in source illumination.[8] Alexandrite results from small scale replacement of aluminium by chromium ions in the crystal structure, which causes intense absorption of light over a narrow range of wavelengths in the yellow region (580 nm) of the visible light spectrum.[8] Because human vision is most sensitive to green light and least sensitive to red light, alexandrite appears greenish in daylight where the full spectrum of visible light is present, and reddish in incandescent light which emits less green and blue spectrum.[8] This color change is independent of any change of hue with viewing direction through the crystal that would arise from pleochroism.[8]
I have a magnetite, an osbydian, an amethyst covered by volcanic rock and some tiny rocks like quartz and interesting ones, but my collection is really small compared to my mother's, she has a lot of rocks, one day I will have a collection as big as hers. Do you also like rocks anon?
>>456 Do you also like rocks anon? I have some, but rather than specific materials, I search for weird shapes.
I remember touching an Iron meteorite while visiting a travelling space expo, though. Just thinking "this thing comes from outside" sent chills down my spine.
>>456 I have a pretty large rock collection. I used to go fossil hunting when I was younger. I recently got a facetting machine so I can teach myself how to cut some of my stones.
>>472 They were deaf long before the crystals started forming >>471 Minerals were slowly deposited in the cavities over time and they slowly crystallized over a very long time.
>>471 Probably the fact that the shell is hollow and filled with a different material. I actually have a couple clams filled with them that I picked up in Peru. >>473 The thing was long dead, flesh long gone, by the time those crystals started to form.
>The tsunami bomb was an attempt during World War II to develop a tectonic weapon that could create destructive tsunamis. The project commenced after US Navy officer E.A. Gibson noticed small waves generated by explosions used to clear coral reefs. The idea was developed by the United States and New Zealand military in a programme code named Project Seal.[1] The weapons concept was deemed feasible, but the weapons themselves were never fully developed or used. A related concept, the bouncing bomb was developed and used in World War II, to be dropped into water as a means to destroy German dams and cause loss of industrial capacity and widespread flooding.
That was attempted during WW2. I wonder what could be done with modern technology.
>>608 Move to Texas. We have all kinds of fossils here from marine life, to petrified wood, to wooly mammoths, to dinosaurs. Also lots of opportunities for geologists.
>The Yellowstone Fumaroles in Wyoming are an incredible display of color and geochemistry. A fumarole releases gases such as carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and hydrogen sulfide, among others. Fumaroles deposit an array of minerals with the combination of acidic gases and high temperatures.
Small amounts of a material called "Louisiana Opal" or "Louisiana Sand Opal" have been mined from the Catahoula Formation near Leesville, Vernon Parish, Louisiana. If you examine this material closely, you will find that it is a sandstone in which the sand grains are bound together by a cement of clear precious opal.
The mineral pyrite, or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula FeS2 (iron(II) disulfide). Pyrite is considered the most common of the sulfide minerals.
A star sapphire is a type of sapphire that exhibits a star-like phenomenon known as asterism; red stones are known as "star rubies". Star sapphires contain intersecting needle-like inclusions following the underlying crystal structure that causes the appearance of a six-rayed "star"-shaped pattern when viewed with a single overhead light source. The inclusion is often the mineral rutile, a mineral composed primarily of titanium dioxide.
The third highest mountain in north america is only 17 miles away from sea level, in the Tann Fiord near Icy Bay Alaska. In October 2015, there was a landslide on the mountain that generated a tsunami wave over 500 ft high that swept over Icy Bay.
>The wave that followed ripped spruce from 1,700 feet up a mountain slope and left trimlines in the bay that are visible today. >Last October, seismologists at Columbia University in New York detected the Icy Bay landslide on their instruments. Göran Ekström and Colin Stark specialize in picking up landslide signals. They figured the slide spilled 200 million tons of rock in 60 seconds. >Scientists estimate the Icy Bay slide might be the biggest non-volcanic landslide, by volume, in North America’s written history. https://www.gi.alaska.edu/alaska-science-forum/giant-wave-icy-bay
Chemical Formula: NaCr+++Si2O6 Help on Composition: Composition: Molecular Weight = 227.15 gm Sodium 10.12 % Na 13.64 % Na2O Chromium 22.89 % Cr 33.46 % Cr2O3 Silicon 24.73 % Si 52.90 % SiO2 Oxygen 42.26 % O ______ ______ 100.00 % 100.00 % = TOTAL OXIDE Help on Empirical Formula: Empirical Formula: NaCrSi2O6 Help on Environment: Environment: A major constituent of some jadeitites; an accessory constituent of some iron meteorites. Help on IMA Status: IMA Status: Valid Species (Pre-IMA) 1894 Help on Locality: Locality: In the Toluca, Coahuila, Hex River Mountains, and Canyon Diablo meteorites. Link to MinDat.org Location Data. Help on Name Origin: Name Origin: From the German kosmisch, for cosmic, in allusion to its meteoritic occurrence, and the Greek chlor, for green.
The view of the Danxia landform in Gansu's Zhangye is so gorgeous and breathtaking that no words can match its beauty. You would be amazed at the nature's magical hands. The landscape is presented in multi-colors, such as red, yellow, orange, blue, white and grey. Some mountains look like a watercolor painting while others like a Chinese brush drawing. Being in such a wonderland, you will feel like you were in a fairy tale.
Danxia landform is created by red-colored sandstones and mud stones. It was listed as one of the 10 most amazing geographic wonders of the world by the National Geographic magazine in 2011.
Zealandia, also known as the New Zealand continent or Tasmantis, is an almost entirely submerged mass of continental crust that sank after breaking away from Australia 60–85 million years ago, having separated from Antarctica between 85 and 130 million years ago.
Trilobites ( /ˈtraɪləˌbaɪt, ˈtrɪ-, -loʊ-/; meaning "three lobes") are a group of extinct marine arachnomorph arthropods that form the class Trilobita. Trilobites form one of the earliest-known groups of arthropods.
Not a rock this time but an interesting bit of information. Earth's. Magnetic field effects how stones crystallize. You can tell the direction of Earth's magnetic field at the time magma cooled based on the arrangement of magnetic crystals in stones.
A fossil natural nuclear fission reactor is a uranium deposit where self-sustaining nuclear chain reactions have occurred. This can be examined by analysis of isotope ratios. The conditions under which a natural nuclear reactor could exist had been predicted in 1956 by Paul Kazuo Kuroda. The phenomenon was discovered in 1972 in Oklo, Gabon by French physicist Francis Perrin under conditions very similar to what was predicted.
Oklo is the only known location for this in the world and consists of 16 sites at which self-sustaining nuclear fission reactions are thought to have taken place approximately 1.7 billion years ago, and ran for a few hundred thousand years, averaging probably less than 100 kW of thermal power during that time.
Tourmaline ( /ˈtʊərməlɪn/, -/iːn/ TOOR-mə-lin, -leen) is a crystalline boron silicate mineral compounded with elements such as aluminium, iron, magnesium, sodium, lithium, or potassium. Tourmaline is classified as a semi-precious stone and the gemstone comes in a wide variety of colors.
Petrified wood is the name given to a special type of fossilized remains of terrestrial vegetation. It is the result of a tree or tree-like plants having completely transitioned to stone by the process of permineralization.
Labradorite is a feldspar mineral of the plagioclase series that is most often found in mafic igneous rocks such as basalt, gabbro, and norite. It is also found in anorthosite, an igneous rock in which labradorite can be the most abundant mineral.
Obsidian is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed as an extrusive igneous rock. Obsidian is produced when felsic lava extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal
Amber is fossilized tree resin, which has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects. Amber is used in jewelry. It has also been used as a healing agent in folk medicine.
Azurite is a soft, deep-blue copper mineral produced by weathering of copper ore deposits. During the early 19th century, it was also known as chessylite, after the type locality at Chessy-les-Mines near Lyon, France.
The Mariana Trench or Marianas Trench is located in the western Pacific Ocean about 200 kilometres east of the Mariana Islands; it is the deepest trench in the world. It is crescent-shaped and measures about 2,550 km in length and 69 km in width.