Tau.Neutrino said
Collectable-Meteorites
(Not fossils this time?)
I’ve always wanted my own tektite, the mushroom-shaped type like this. I came across one two years ago but couldn’t before it.
Afford not before.
I wonder what tektites can tell us about stability of bluff bodies in flight.
I’ll have a look at the others later.
mollwollfumble said:
Tau.Neutrino said
Collectable-Meteorites
What proportion of these would be fakes, I wonder. Most mammoth hair sold on ebay is a fake. A heck of a high proportion of Brand name jewellery sold on ebay is a fake.
Would this also apply to collectable geology? How would you know?
How could I tell the difference between a genuine tectite and a rock that someone’s melted using an acetylene flame?
So.
Q1. What proportion of meteorites, minerals, gemstones and fossils on ebay are fake? How would I spot a fake?
Q2. How many clear transparent macroscopic minerals are harder than quartz?
Q3. Given that some minerals such as monazite and xenotime contain multiple rare elements, how many minerals would I need to have all naturally occurring elements in the periodic table?
mollwollfumble said:
So.Q1. What proportion of meteorites, minerals, gemstones and fossils on ebay are fake? How would I spot a fake?
Probably as many as all of them?
mollwollfumble said:
So.Q1. What proportion of meteorites, minerals, gemstones and fossils on ebay are fake? How would I spot a fake?
Q2. How many clear transparent macroscopic minerals are harder than quartz?
Q3. Given that some minerals such as monazite and xenotime contain multiple rare elements, how many minerals would I need to have all naturally occurring elements in the periodic table?
On Q2, Quartz has a Mohs hardness of 7. Here are some common minerals from a table.
Beryl 7.5 to 8 – can be clear and transparent
Chrysoberyl 8.5 – can be clear and transparent
Cordierite 7 to 7.5 – can be transparent, not sure about clear
Corundum 9 – can be clear and transparent
Diamond 10 – can be clear and transparent
Euclase 7.5 – can be clear and transparent
Garnet 6.5 to 7.5 – transparent, can be clear, the hard garnet almandine is not clear
Spinel 7.5 to 8 – can be clear and transparent
Staurolite 7 to 7.5 – opaque
Topaz 8 – can be clear and transparent
Tourmaline 7 to 7.5 – can be clear and transparent if it’s high in lithium
Zircon 7.5 – can be clear and transparent
On Q3, excluding noble gases.
roughbarked said:
mollwollfumble said:
So.Q1. What proportion of meteorites, minerals, gemstones and fossils on ebay are fake? How would I spot a fake?
Probably as many as all of them?
Eek, that’s a lot. Reminds me of a sign spotted in a meme, “antiques made daily”.
Given the size of the tektite field from east of Madagascar to Tasmania to Taiwan, I wouldn’t have liked to have been around 700K years ago when it it was formed by meteorite impact.
mollwollfumble said:
roughbarked said:
mollwollfumble said:
So.Q1. What proportion of meteorites, minerals, gemstones and fossils on ebay are fake? How would I spot a fake?
Probably as many as all of them?
Eek, that’s a lot. Reminds me of a sign spotted in a meme, “antiques made daily”.
Given the size of the tektite field from east of Madagascar to Tasmania to Taiwan, I wouldn’t have liked to have been around 700K years ago when it it was formed by meteorite impact.
Looks like at least three separate impacts formed the Indochina + Australian tektite fields. One each in Indochina, the Philippines, and central Australia, with scatter patterns all heading south. The original craters have never been found. At least three groups of Homo Erectus appear to have survived the asteroid impacts that generated the tektites: in SE Asia, in China, Java, and Flores.
How can you not find a crater near Alice Springs that young?
mollwollfumble said:
mollwollfumble said:
roughbarked said:Probably as many as all of them?
Eek, that’s a lot. Reminds me of a sign spotted in a meme, “antiques made daily”.
Given the size of the tektite field from east of Madagascar to Tasmania to Taiwan, I wouldn’t have liked to have been around 700K years ago when it it was formed by meteorite impact.
Looks like at least three separate impacts formed the Indochina + Australian tektite fields. One each in Indochina, the Philippines, and central Australia, with scatter patterns all heading south. The original craters have never been found. At least three groups of Homo Erectus appear to have survived the asteroid impacts that generated the tektites: in SE Asia, in China, Java, and Flores.
How can you not find a crater near Alice Springs that young?
Weathering can make things not so recognisable.
Out near White Cliffs I was looking at the surface rocks and picked up something alien to the opal fields. It had to be a meteorite. Everything else was light by comparison.
mollwollfumble said:
So.Q1. What proportion of meteorites, minerals, gemstones and fossils on ebay are fake? How would I spot a fake?
Q2. How many clear transparent macroscopic minerals are harder than quartz?
Q3. Given that some minerals such as monazite and xenotime contain multiple rare elements, how many minerals would I need to have all naturally occurring elements in the periodic table?
For Q3, a cheat would be to take some uraninite (UO2) from the Oklo natural nuclear reactor in Gabon.
That would contain, as uranium decay products, all elements from Pb (82) to U (92), as well as fission products of U-235. Fission products include elements with mass 76 to 156, selenium (34) to europium (63) at the 0.01% level. At the 1% level it would be mass 85 to 104 and 128 to 150, that’s rubidium (37) to rhodium (45) and caesium (55) to neodymium (60).
roughbarked said:
Out near White Cliffs I was looking at the surface rocks and picked up something alien to the opal fields. It had to be a meteorite. Everything else was light by comparison.
Yes! I’ve been told that that’s the way to spot them.
¿Any sign of magnetism, only a small fraction are magnetic, could try with iron filings or a compass.
Anyone want to go mining? From wikipedia,
Os-Ir alloys are very rare, but can be found in mines of other platinum-group metals. One very productive mine was operated at Adamsfield near Tyenna in Tasmania during the Second World War with the ore shipped out by railway from Maydena. The site of the mine is now totally reclaimed by dense natural bush. It was once one of the world’s major producers of this rare metal, and the osmiridium was mostly found in shallow alluvial workings. The element is currently valued at about US$400 per troy ounce.
mollwollfumble said:
mollwollfumble said:
So.Q1. What proportion of meteorites, minerals, gemstones and fossils on ebay are fake? How would I spot a fake?
Q2. How many clear transparent macroscopic minerals are harder than quartz?
Q3. Given that some minerals such as monazite and xenotime contain multiple rare elements, how many minerals would I need to have all naturally occurring elements in the periodic table?
For Q3, a cheat would be to take some uraninite (UO2) from the Oklo natural nuclear reactor in Gabon.
That would contain, as uranium decay products, all elements from Pb (82) to U (92), as well as fission products of U-235. Fission products include elements with mass 76 to 156, selenium (34) to europium (63) at the 0.01% level. At the 1% level it would be mass 85 to 104 and 128 to 150, that’s rubidium (37) to rhodium (45) and caesium (55) to neodymium (60).
For Q3, a full 26 elements can be obtained from just 4 minerals:
Monazite – including rare earths and decay products of thorium
Xenotime – rare earths, yttrium and decay products of uranium
Osmiridium – platinum group metals
Coltan or Rutile – tantalum, niobium with manganese or titanium.
mollwollfumble said:
mollwollfumble said:
mollwollfumble said:
So.Q1. What proportion of meteorites, minerals, gemstones and fossils on ebay are fake? How would I spot a fake?
Q2. How many clear transparent macroscopic minerals are harder than quartz?
Q3. Given that some minerals such as monazite and xenotime contain multiple rare elements, how many minerals would I need to have all naturally occurring elements in the periodic table?
For Q3, a cheat would be to take some uraninite (UO2) from the Oklo natural nuclear reactor in Gabon.
That would contain, as uranium decay products, all elements from Pb (82) to U (92), as well as fission products of U-235. Fission products include elements with mass 76 to 156, selenium (34) to europium (63) at the 0.01% level. At the 1% level it would be mass 85 to 104 and 128 to 150, that’s rubidium (37) to rhodium (45) and caesium (55) to neodymium (60).
For Q3, a full 26 elements can be obtained from just 4 minerals:
Monazite – including rare earths and decay products of thorium
Xenotime – rare earths, yttrium and decay products of uranium
Osmiridium – platinum group metals
Coltan or Rutile – tantalum, niobium with manganese or titanium.
I remember asking before about assembling a periodic chart with the actual elements, could you source them pure (or close enough) and some would/might be unavailable, the radioactive ones for example
if anyone wants to crowd source me a birthday present I would really go some ulexite.. and adore forever the donor of that.
Arts said:
if anyone wants to crowd source me a birthday present I would really go some ulexite.. and adore forever the donor of that.
Why ulexite?
Michael V said:
Arts said:
if anyone wants to crowd source me a birthday present I would really go some ulexite.. and adore forever the donor of that.
Why ulexite?
because it’s groovy
Cymek said:
mollwollfumble said:
mollwollfumble said:For Q3, a cheat would be to take some uraninite (UO2) from the Oklo natural nuclear reactor in Gabon.
That would contain, as uranium decay products, all elements from Pb (82) to U (92), as well as fission products of U-235. Fission products include elements with mass 76 to 156, selenium (34) to europium (63) at the 0.01% level. At the 1% level it would be mass 85 to 104 and 128 to 150, that’s rubidium (37) to rhodium (45) and caesium (55) to neodymium (60).
For Q3, a full 26 elements can be obtained from just 4 minerals:
Monazite – including rare earths and decay products of thorium
Xenotime – rare earths, yttrium and decay products of uranium
Osmiridium – platinum group metals
Coltan or Rutile – tantalum, niobium with manganese or titanium.
I remember asking before about assembling a periodic chart with the actual elements, could you source them pure (or close enough) and some would/might be unavailable, the radioactive ones for example
I’ve seen that before somewhere. Not exactly this one, but it’s easier to read than some others of this type.
Arts said:
Michael V said:
Arts said:
if anyone wants to crowd source me a birthday present I would really go some ulexite.. and adore forever the donor of that.
Why ulexite?
because it’s groovy
“Ulexite (NaCaB5O6(OH)6·5H2O, hydrated sodium calcium borate hydroxide). Ulexite is also known as TV rock due to its unusual optical characteristics. The fibers of ulexite act as optical fibers, transmitting light along their lengths by internal reflection. Ulexite is found in evaporite deposits”.
May not be too difficult. There are plenty of evaporite deposits in Australia.
I’m up to 57 elements from just 10 minerals. That leaves only 33 still to find.
Osmiridium
Xenotime
Monazite
Rutile
Galena
Crookesite
Sphalerite
Zirconium
Molybdenite
Wolframite
Galena is more than just PbS. It can also contain significant amounts of silver (as in Broken Hill), cadmium, manganese, selenium, bismuth, antimony and gold.
Perhaps Broken Hill ought to think about what else it can get from its ore (galena + sphalerite). Sphalerite in addition to zinc can also contain cadmium, gallium, germanium and indium.
Also, Australia’s mineral sands contain rutile, monazite and xenotime. I think someone’s missing out on a bonanza here – even it it’s not profitable now, it will be in the near future.
mollwollfumble said:
Cymek said:
mollwollfumble said:Why ulexite?
because it’s groovy
“Ulexite (NaCaB5O6(OH)6·5H2O, hydrated sodium calcium borate hydroxide). Ulexite is also known as TV rock due to its unusual optical characteristics. The fibers of ulexite act as optical fibers, transmitting light along their lengths by internal reflection. Ulexite is found in evaporite deposits”.
May not be too difficult. There are plenty of evaporite deposits in Australia.
I’m up to 57 elements from just 10 minerals. That leaves only 33 still to find.
Osmiridium
Xenotime
Monazite
Rutile
Galena
Crookesite
Sphalerite
Zirconium
Molybdenite
WolframiteGalena is more than just PbS. It can also contain significant amounts of silver (as in Broken Hill), cadmium, manganese, selenium, bismuth, antimony and gold.
Perhaps Broken Hill ought to think about what else it can get from its ore (galena + sphalerite). Sphalerite in addition to zinc can also contain cadmium, gallium, germanium and indium.
Also, Australia’s mineral sands contain rutile, monazite and xenotime. I think someone’s missing out on a bonanza here – even it it’s not profitable now, it will be in the near future.
Could be a side project sift out the useful stuff and stockpile it
mollwollfumble said:
Cymek said:
mollwollfumble said:Why ulexite?
because it’s groovy
“Ulexite (NaCaB5O6(OH)6·5H2O, hydrated sodium calcium borate hydroxide). Ulexite is also known as TV rock due to its unusual optical characteristics. The fibers of ulexite act as optical fibers, transmitting light along their lengths by internal reflection. Ulexite is found in evaporite deposits”.
May not be too difficult. There are plenty of evaporite deposits in Australia.
I’m up to 57 elements from just 10 minerals. That leaves only 33 still to find.
Osmiridium
Xenotime
Monazite
Rutile
Galena
Crookesite
Sphalerite
Zirconium
Molybdenite
WolframiteGalena is more than just PbS. It can also contain significant amounts of silver (as in Broken Hill), cadmium, manganese, selenium, bismuth, antimony and gold.
Perhaps Broken Hill ought to think about what else it can get from its ore (galena + sphalerite). Sphalerite in addition to zinc can also contain cadmium, gallium, germanium and indium.
Also, Australia’s mineral sands contain rutile, monazite and xenotime. I think someone’s missing out on a bonanza here – even it it’s not profitable now, it will be in the near future.
Not much ore left at Broken Hill.
Get yourself some pieces of quite common rocks. Leucogranite, alkaline gabbro (or basalt), serpentinite. That should give you just about every natural element. And you wouldn’t have to find rare minerals.
Speaking of which, zirconium (above) is an element, not a mineral. Zircon is the mineral that contains the element zirconium.
mollwollfumble said:
I’m up to 57 elements from just 10 minerals. That leaves only
3327 still to find.
Osmiridium
Xenotime
Monazite
Rutile
Galena
Crookesite
Sphalerite
Zirconium
Molybdenite
WolframiteGalena is more than just PbS. It can also contain significant amounts of silver (as in Broken Hill), cadmium, manganese, selenium, bismuth, antimony and gold.
Perhaps Broken Hill ought to think about what else it can get from its ore (galena + sphalerite). Sphalerite in addition to zinc can also contain cadmium, gallium, germanium and indium.
Also, Australia’s mineral sands contain rutile, monazite and xenotime. I think someone’s missing out on a bonanza here – even it it’s not profitable now, it will be in the near future.
I should add that the few elements not already found in Australia’s silver-lead-zinc and black-sands deposits can be found in Australian brines, with highest concentrations from oil well brines, but even briny bore-water could contain many unusual elements in commercial concentrations.
Having a bit of luck with minerals that have unusual element pairings.
Galkhaite: caesium & mercury
Dietzeite: iodine & chromium
Tusionite: tin & boron
Melonite: nickel & tellurium
I haven’t settled on minerals containing barium yet – about 20 good mineral possibilities there.
That leaves me with, let’s see, with the following to find:
H, Li, Be, C, N, F, Na, Al, Cl, K, Sc, V, Co, Br, Rb, Sr, Ba
Some of these are the most common elements in rocks!
Combinations with barium
Ba+V+F
Ba+Be+F+H
Ba+Na+Al+H+F+Sr+K – this may be the one. Arrojadite
Ba+Al+C+Cl
Ba+Li+K+Na+Be+H
Still to check N, Sc, Co, Br, Rb before deciding.
Michael V said:
mollwollfumble said:I’m up to 57 elements from just 10 minerals. That leaves only 33 still to find.
Osmiridium
Xenotime
Monazite
Rutile
Galena
Crookesite
Sphalerite
Zircon (oops)
Molybdenite
WolframiteGalena is more than just PbS. It can also contain significant amounts of silver (as in Broken Hill), cadmium, manganese, selenium, bismuth, antimony and gold.
Perhaps Broken Hill ought to think about what else it can get from its ore (galena + sphalerite). Sphalerite in addition to zinc can also contain cadmium, gallium, germanium and indium.
Also, Australia’s mineral sands contain rutile, monazite and xenotime. I think someone’s missing out on a bonanza here – even it it’s not profitable now, it will be in the near future.
Not much ore left at Broken Hill.
Get yourself some pieces of quite common rocks. Leucogranite, alkaline gabbro (or basalt), serpentinite. That should give you just about every natural element. And you wouldn’t have to find rare minerals.
Speaking of which, zirconium (above) is an element, not a mineral. Zircon is the mineral that contains the element zirconium.
Which minerals in those?
Yes, not much ore left at Broken Hill. Would have been worthwhile separating out the other valuable stuff up front rather than discarding it in the waste? Because sorting through the waste for it will end up costing heaps more.
It annoys me no end that Australian sand miners discard their monazite and xenotime with the waste.
Black Beauty meteorite suggests habitable primordial Martian crust
According to the results of a new study, soon after the creation of the solar system, Mars may have formed a primordial crust capable of hosting life. The research is based on an analysis of the rare and super-valuable Black Beauty meteorite, which was discovered in the Sahara Desert back in 2011.
The Black Beauty is an especially expensive specimen, with a single gram of the meteorite selling for approximately US$10,000 a pop. The scientists behind the new study were able to obtain an impressive 44 grams of the rare meteorite. Their goal was to analyze deposits of a mineral called zircon that were embedded within the Black Beauty.
The data supports an extremely rapid crystallization process. For comparison, a solid crust would not form on Earth for another 130 million years. The team estimates that Mars’ early crust lasted for roughly 100 million years before being reworked, possibly by cataclysmic asteroid impacts. This cataclysm melted the Red Planet’s surface, creating magma from which the Black Beauty’s zircons, complete with samples of the primordial Martian crust, crystallized.
more…
To make life easy for myself, that’s 20 minerals for the whole periodic table, excluding noble gases.
mollwollfumble said:
Tau.Neutrino said
Collectable-Meteorites(Not fossils this time?)
For gemstones, forget ebay. The best option is to go straight to China. Eg.
https://www.cubiczirconiagem.com
An incredible range of synthetic and natural gems. Even real diamonds (small ones) with which to encircle bigger stones.
Unit prices as low as $0.005 per gemstone (ie. $5 for 1000 pieces)
mollwollfumble said:
mollwollfumble said:
Tau.Neutrino said
Collectable-Meteorites(Not fossils this time?)
For gemstones, forget ebay. The best option is to go straight to China. Eg.
https://www.cubiczirconiagem.com
An incredible range of synthetic and natural gems. Even real diamonds (small ones) with which to encircle bigger stones.
Unit prices as low as $0.005 per gemstone (ie. $5 for 1000 pieces)
Darn good prices on rough gemstones simulated using cubic zirconia. Single pieces weigh one kilogram! Price per kilogram. US dollars plus shipping.
Pink morganite $440/kg
Peridot $146/kg
Aquamarine $311/kg
Amethist $44/kg
Blue sapphire $311/kg
Blue topaz $311/kg
Kunzite $440/kg
Red garnet $44/kg
Tanzanite $275/kg
Clear $33/kg
etc.
Here’s what $311 for a 1 kg imitation sapphire looks like.
Please note that cubic zirconia is a far better quality gemstone than glass, rhinestone, paste, Herkimer diamond, crystal, rutile, strontium titanate, etc.
I’m never going to make jewellery, for several reasons, but if I did:
One problem of ceramics in general is lack of toughness. Diamonds can crack relatively easily. Zirconia is twice as tough as silicon carbide, and two and a half times as tough as ruby an sapphire, but that’s still pitifully fragile. Zirconia has only 3.5% of the toughness of stainless steel. Silicone is tough, casting polyester is not.
Tau.Neutrino said:
Collectable-Meteorites
Mineral specimens for sale from China
https://www.mineratminerals.com/asia/china
eg.
Stibnite
!https://www.mineratminerals.com/images/stories/virtuemart/product/3390mkst-(1).jpg!
Wulfenite
!https://www.mineratminerals.com/images/stories/virtuemart/product/7465jtst%20(1).jpg!
Spessartine garnet and smoky quartz
!https://www.mineratminerals.com/images/stories/virtuemart/product/5830mkst%20(1).jpg!