Ride the lightning with magnetic rock and iron staining
Machined stone can be detected by visual observation but what’s going on throughout the stone can be invisible.
The basalt I have tested in my backyard is magnetic. Basalt cools quickly after a volcanic flow creating a fine grained iron bearing rock that is magnetic.
The thin coating grown on the basalt surface is called a desert varnish. The brown portion of desert varnish is limonite (iron oxide) and the black mineral growing alongside is pyrolusite (manganese oxide).
Tree-like or branch-like formations are called dendritic formations. Dendrites show the path of least resistance and are seen everywhere in nature including within our eyeballs and cells.
Dendrites were created by a fracture in the quartz where the limonite and pyrolusite entered and rapidly grew dendritic skeletal formations. Capillary action speeds up the growth. The inclusions grew after the host crystal and are referred to as epigenetic.
Iron oxides trapped in quartz in conjunction with the fibrous mineral crocidolite is referred to as tigers-eye quartz. The internal parallel golden fibers create the chatoyant effect (cats-eye).
Dark areas with high iron content are magnetic. All quartz creates an electrical charge under pressure (piezoelectricity).
Iron-stained sandstone is abundant and decorates the Utah topography at both bryce and zion canyons. The black manganese oxide appears as rain along the iron rich cliffs. Iron is the coloring agent for many minerals and crystals.
Pictured (above center) is an iron-stained and fossilized coral stalactite. The coral was taken over by silica and is now a micro-crystalline quartz called chalcedony (also piezoelectric).
The desert varnish layer takes hundreds to thousands of years to achieve just a half millimeter of thickness. Removing the desert varnish layer will revel the lighter sandstone contained underneath.
Petroglyphs are carvings in rock that reveal layers of iron and manganese oxidation. Lighter color carvings are more recent and darker images are older.
Iron is responsible for the orange color in below faceted triangular fire opal, faceted orange sapphires, and fossilized coral.
We can also extract color from a rock.
Hematite is a major ore of iron and is not magnetic whereas imitation hematite is magnetic. The grape-like formation of the black hematite is called a botryoidal formation. When sliced thin or ground up fine the color of hematite is red.
Red platelets of hematite grew simultaneously inside the crystal quartz and is referred to as syngenetic inclusions.
Scraping hematite over hard abrasive paper will reveal the reddish-brown color. The red pigment can be used for painting.
The california cave below was painted by a people that understood mineral pigment extraction.
When taught false history, incorrect science, or if something blocks your learning progress, quickly move around the obstacle, and follow a new path.
