September 2020

Peacock Rock

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-E5_2BCe8lYQ/X14i-WJS_8I/AAAAAAAAShg/DzPnuLus5K4zaalzVPC1N6tPQPiC0dRuwCLcBGAsYHQ/s512/unnamed%2B%25281%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="512" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-E5_2BCe8lYQ/X14i-WJS_8I/AAAAAAAAShg/DzPnuLus5K4zaalzVPC1N6tPQPiC0dRuwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/unnamed%2B%25281%2529.jpg" /></a></div></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">   <br /><br />
Peacock ore is a pet name, referring to rocks made of the minerals bornite and chalcopyrite. The colors of peacock ore are actually tarnish upon the ore's surface. There are many unique properties that define this beautifully dirty rock.<br /><br />
Bornite, also known as peacock ore, is a sulfide mineral with chemical composition Cu<sub>5</sub>FeS<sub>4</sub> that crystallizes in the orthorhombic system (pseudo-cubic). It does not display the brassy color of pyrite or chalcopyrite until tarnished but is a mottled brown/black/purple to copper-red but often is mixed with chalcopyrite. It easily tarnishes upon exposure to air and results in purple/blue iridescence on some areas. <br />
<br />
Bornite is an important copper ore mineral and occurs widely in porphyry copper deposits along with the more common chalcopyrite. Chalcopyrite and bornite are both typically <b>replaced </b>by chalcocite and covellite in the supergene enrichment zone of copper deposits. Bornite is also found as disseminations in mafic igneous rocks, in contact metamorphic skarn deposits, in pegmatites and in sedimentary cupriferous shales. It is important as an ore for its copper content of about 63 percent by mass.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Bornite </b>is a common copper bearing mineral, and is used as an ore of copper when found in copper deposits<br /><br /><b>Association</b>: Chalcopyrite, pyrite, other copper and iron sulfides, garnet, calcite, wollastonite, quartz.</div><br /><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> </div><img border="0" data-original-height="830" data-original-width="1270" height="408" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5CCpt1gM-I4/X14j9vCOw5I/AAAAAAAAShs/CZ-aASvc_8gUZsksYxqF2WuU7dyZaqImgCLcBGAsYHQ/w625-h408/Peacock%2BOre.jpg" width="625" /><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> </div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><b>Category:</b> Sulfide<br /><b>Color:</b> Copper-red or reddish-bronze on fresh surface, brown-black with bluish-purple when tarnished<br /><b>Luster:</b> Metallic when fresh, tarnishes too iridescent<br /><b>Hardness:</b> 3 - 3.25<br /><b>Streak:</b> Grayish-black<br /><b>Symmetry:</b> Orthorhombic<br /><b>Tenacity:</b> Brittle<br /><b>Crystal Habit:</b> Granular, massive disseminated grains, rare octahedrons<br /><b>Location:</b> Mainly Connecticut, Montana, Arizona, Peru, Mexico, Morocco <br /></div>

Peacock Rock

Peacock ore is a pet name, referring to rocks made of the minerals bornite and chalcopyrite. The colors of peacock ore are actually tarn...

Rainbow Obsidian

gemstones, Rocks 3:58 PM

<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="960" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tm4_8OpSKRo/X2tFpclCJ0I/AAAAAAAASi8/OpJQO4C31wEqx9ag3sAj44lYyH284dy4wCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h640/Polished%2BRainbow%2BObsidian..jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span><div data-contents="true"><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="73v51" data-offset-key="es99a-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="deh21-0-0"><span data-offset-key="deh21-0-0"><span data-text="true"> Polished Rainbow Obsidian.  Photo: La Roche Mère</span></span></div></div></div></span></td></tr></tbody></table></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /> <p></p><p>Obsidian is a naturally occurring<b> volcanic glass.</b>
 It is formed during the eruption of felsic lavas, which are 
distinguished by having high concentrations of the chemical element 
silica. Because of their high silica content, felsic lavas do not behave
 like the mafic, or silica-poor, lavas we see on the island of Hawaii.</p><p> <br />
Silica forms bonds with oxygen in lava creating linked molecule chains. 
These linked molecule chains are called polymers and the process of 
forming them is called polymerization. Polymers increase the viscosity, 
or resistance to flow, of the lava.</p><p><a href="http://www.geologyin.com/2015/08/obsidian-definition-properties-uses.html" target="_blank"><b>Obsidian </b></a>is dense volcanic glass, usually rhyolite in composition and<b> typically black </b>in color.  <b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Obsidian with multicolored iridescence caused by inclusions of magnetite nanoparticles.</span></b> Obsidian is often formed in r<a href="http://www.geologyin.com/2014/12/how-to-classify-igneous-rocks-into.html" target="_blank">hyolite lava</a> flows where the lava cools so fast that crystals do not have time to grow.<br />
<br />
Glass, unlike crystals, has no regular structure and therefore fractures
 in smooth, curved shapes. The intersections of these fractures can form
 edges sharper than the finest steel blades. For this reason, obsidian 
was used by many native cultures to make arrowheads and blades. Even 
today, surgeons use the knife sharp edges in operations. </p><p><br /></p><p><b><a href="http://www.geologyin.com/2017/08/california-rainbow-obsidian-is-natural.html" target="_blank">California Rainbow obsidian</a></b><br /></p>

Rainbow Obsidian

Polished Rainbow Obsidian. Photo: La Roche Mère Obsidian is a naturally occurring volcanic glass. It is formed during the eruption of...

The California Coast is Disappearing Under the Rising Sea

Researches, USA 6:09 PM

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7nynMSQFHhE/X2dv6xAVj4I/AAAAAAAASio/l9np4SlBj6M_5gwk0GZNRMXCh312KAQjwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h360/gleason_drone%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="640" /></div><p> </p><p>A majority of the world population lives on low lying lands near the sea, some of which are predicted to submerge by the end of the 21st century due to rising sea levels.<br /><br />The most relevant quantity for assessing the impacts of sea-level change on these communities is the relative sea-level rise -- the elevation change between the Earth's surface height and sea surface height. For an observer standing on the coastland, relative sea-level rise is the net change in the sea level, which also includes the rise and fall of the land beneath observer's feet.<br /><br />Now, using precise measurements from state-of-the-art satellite-based interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) that can detect the land surface rise and fall with millimeter accuracy, an Arizona State University research team has, for the first time, tracked the entire California coast's vertical land motion.<br /><br />They've identified local hotspots of the sinking coast, in the cities of San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Cruz and San Francisco, with a combined population of 4 to 8 million people exposed to rapid land subsidence, who will be at a higher flooding risk during the decades ahead of projected sea-level rise.<br /><br />"We have ushered in a new era of coastal mapping at greater than 1,000 fold higher detail and resolution than ever before," said Manoochehr Shirzaei, who is the principal investigator of the NASA-funded project. "The unprecedented detail and submillimeter accuracy resolved in our vertical land motion dataset can transform the understanding of natural and anthropogenic changes in relative sea-level and associated hazards."<br /><div style="width:100%;margin: 0px auto">
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</div><br />The results were published in this week's issue of Science Advances.<br /><br />The research team included graduate student and lead author Em Blackwell, and faculty Manoochehr Shirzaei, Chandrakanta Ojha and Susanna Werth, all from the ASU School of Earth and Space Exploration (Werth has a dual appointment in the School of Geography and Urban Planning).<br /><br />Em Blackwell had a keen interest in geology, and as Blackwell began graduate school, the applications of InSAR drew them to pursue this project. InSAR uses radar to measure the change in distance between the satellite and ground surface, producing highly accurate deformation maps of the Earth's surface at 10s m resolution over 100s km spatial extent.<br /><br />Land subsidence can occur due to natural and anthropogenic processes or a combination of them. The natural processes comprise tectonics, glacial isostatic adjustment, sediment loading, and soil compaction. The anthropogenic causes include groundwater extraction and oil and gas production.<br /><br />As of 2005, approximately 40 million people were exposed to a 1 in 100-year coastal flooding hazard, and by 2070 this number will grow more than threefold. The value of property exposed to flooding will increase to about 9% of the projected global Gross Domestic Product, with the U.S., Japan, and the Netherlands being the countries with the most exposure. These exposure estimates often rely only on projections of global average sea level rise and do not account for vertical land motion.<br /><br />The study measured the entire 1350-kilometer long coast of California from 2007-2018, compiling 1000s of satellite images over time, used for making a vertical land motion map with 35-million-pixel at ~80 m resolution, comprising a wide range of coastal uplift and subsidence rates. Coastal communities' policymakers and the general public can freely download the data (link in supplemental data).<br /><br />The four metropolitan areas majorly affected in these areas included San Francisco, Monterey Bay, Los Angeles, and San Diego.<br /><br />"The vast majority of the San Francisco Bay perimeter is undergoing subsidence with rates reaching 5.9 mm/year," said Blackwell. "Notably, the San Francisco International Airport is subsiding with rates faster than 2.0 mm/year. The Monterey Bay Area, including the city of Santa Cruz, is rapidly sinking without any zones of uplift. Rates of subsidence for this area reach 8.7 mm/year. The Los Angeles area shows subsidence along small coastal zones, but most of the subsidence is occurring inland."<br /><br />Areas of land uplift included north of the San Francisco Bay Area (3 to 5 mm/year) and Central California (same rate).<br /><br />Going forward in the decades ahead, the coastal population is expected to grow to over 1 billion people by 2050, due to coastward migration. The future flood risk that these communities will face is mainly controlled by the rate of relative sea-level rise, namely, the combination of sea-level rise and vertical land motion. It is vital to include land subsidence into regional projections that are used to identify areas of potential flooding for the urbanized coast.<br /><br />Beyond the study, the ASU research team is hopeful that others in the scientific community can build on their results to measure and identify coastal hazards more broadly in the U.S. and around the world. </p><p><br /><u><i>The above story is based on <a href="https://asunow.asu.edu/20200731-satellite-survey-shows-california%E2%80%99s-sinking-coastal-hot-spots" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Materials</a> provided by <a href="http://www.asu.edu/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Arizona State University</a>. </i></u><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span><br /></span></span></p>

The California Coast is Disappearing Under the Rising Sea

A majority of the world population lives on low lying lands near the sea, some of which are predicted to submerge by the end of the 21st c...

World's Oldest Sperm From 100 Million Years Ago Found Fossilised in Amber

amber, Fossils 5:53 PM

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="World's Oldest Sperm From 100 Million Years Ago Found Fossilised in Amber" border="0" data-original-height="789" data-original-width="1343" height="376" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T4H0647RK88/X2Ya0TfbPUI/AAAAAAAASic/ZKBv5mEixUIGaT7nkGirny1oYtETFtskQCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h376/World%2527s%2BOldest%2BSperm%2BFrom%2B100%2BMillion%2BYears%2BAgo%2BFound%2BFossilised%2Bin%2BAmber%2B%25281%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An ostracod trapped in the amber (Image: PA)<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><p></p>
<p><span style="font-family: georgia;">Scientists have discovered what they believe to be the oldest fossilised animal sperm from around 100 million years ago.</span></p>
<p>
  An international collaboration between researchers at Queen Mary University of
  London and the Chinese Academy of Science in Nanjing has led to the discovery
  of world's oldest animal sperm inside a tiny crustacean trapped in amber
  around 100 million years ago in Myanmar.<br /><br />The research team, led by
  Dr He Wang of the Chinese Academy of Science in Nanjing, found the sperm in a
  new species of crustacean they named Myanmarcypris hui. They predict that the
  animals had sex just before their entrapment in the piece of amber (tree
  resin), which formed in the Cretaceous period.<br /><br />Fossilised sperm are
  exceptionally rare; previously the oldest known examples were only 17 million
  years old. Myanmarcypris hui is an ostracod, a kind of crustacean that has
  existed for 500 million years and lives in all kinds of aquatic environments
  from deep oceans to lakes and rivers. Their fossil shells are common and
  abundant but finding specimens preserved in ancient amber with their
  appendages and internal organs intact provides a rare and exciting opportunity
  to learn more about their evolution.<br /><br />Professor Dave Horne,
  Professor of Micropalaeontology at Queen Mary University of London said:
  "Analyses of fossil ostracod shells are hugely informative about past
  environments and climates, as well as shedding light on evolutionary puzzles,
  but exceptional occurrences of fossilised soft parts like this result in
  remarkable advances in our understanding."<br /> </p><div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;">
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</div> <br />During the Cretaceous
  period in what is now Myanmar, the ostracods were probably living in a coastal
  lagoon fringed by trees where they became trapped in a blob of tree resin. The
  Kachin amber of Myanmar has previously yielded outstanding finds including
  frogs, snakes and a feathered dinosaur tail. Bo Wang, also of the Chinese
  Academy of Science in Nanjing added: "Hundreds of new species have been
  described in the past five years, and many of them have made evolutionary
  biologists re-consider long-standing hypotheses on how certain lineages
  developed and how ecological relationships evolved."<br /><br />The study,
  published in Royal Society Proceedings B, also has implications for
  understanding the evolutionary history of an unusual mode of sexual
  reproduction involving "giant sperm."<br /><br />The new ostracod finds may be
  extremely small but in one sense they are giants. Males of most animals
  (including humans) typically produce tens of millions of really small sperm in
  very large quantities, but there are exceptions. Some tiny fruit flies
  (insects) and ostracods (crustaceans) are famous for investing in quality
  rather than quantity: relatively small numbers of "giant" sperm that are many
  times longer than the animal itself, a by-product of evolutionary competition
  for reproductive success. The new discovery is not only by far the oldest
  example of fossil sperm ever found but also shows that these ostracods had
  already evolved giant sperm, and specially-adapted organs to transfer them
  from male to female, 100 million years ago.<br /><br />Each ostracod is less
  than a millimetre long. Using X-ray microscopy the team made computer-aided
  3-D reconstructions of the ostracods embedded in the amber, revealing
  incredible detail. "The results were amazing -- not only did we find their
  tiny appendages to be preserved inside their shells, we could also see their
  reproductive organs," added He Wang. "But when we identified the sperm inside
  the female, and knowing the age of the amber, it was one of those special
  Eureka-moments in a researcher's life."<br /><br />Wang's team found adult
  males and females but it was a female specimen that contained the sperm,
  indicating that it must have had sex shortly before becoming trapped in the
  amber. The reconstructions also revealed the distinctive muscular sperm pumps
  and penises (two of each) that male ostracods use to inseminate the females,
  who store them in bag-like receptacles until eggs are ready to be
  fertilised.<br /><br />Such extensive adaptation raises the question of
  whether reproduction with giant sperms can be an evolutionarily-stable
  character. "To show that using giant sperms in reproduction is not an
  extinction-doomed extravagance of evolution, but a serious long-term advantage
  for the survival of a species, we need to know when they first appeared" says
  co-author Dr Renate Matzke-Karasz of Ludwig-Maximilians-University in
  Munich.<br /><br />This new evidence of the persistence of reproduction with
  giant sperm for a hundred million years shows it to be a highly successful
  reproductive strategy that evolved only once in this group -- quite impressive
  for a trait that demands such a substantial investment from both males and
  females, especially when you consider that many ostracods can reproduce
  asexually, without needing males at all. "Sexual reproduction with giant sperm
  must be very advantageous" says Matzke-Karasz.<br /><br /><br /><p></p><u><i><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"> The above story is based on <a href="https://www.qmul.ac.uk/media/news/2020/hss/worlds-oldest-animal-sperm-found-in-myanmar-amber.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Materials</a> provided by <a href="http://www.qmul.ac.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Queen Mary University of London.</a>
</span></i></u>

World's Oldest Sperm From 100 Million Years Ago Found Fossilised in Amber

An ostracod trapped in the amber (Image: PA) Scientists have discovered what they believe to be the oldest fossilised animal sperm from aro...

Extinct Cave Bear Found Whole After Being Frozen for 30,000 Years on Siberian Island

Earth History, Fossils 5:28 PM

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qor4tlMquSI/X2TDNVHrkcI/AAAAAAAASiQ/HfUEkaKx3WcuqYlpwlyJ-qpdJk2hEAP6gCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h426/Extinct%2BCave%2BBear%2BFound%2BWhole%2BAfter%2BBeing%2BFrozen%2Bfor%2B30%252C000%2BYears%2Bon%2BSiberian%2BIsland%2B%25281%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A carcass of an ice-age cave bear found on Great Lyakhovsky Island between the Laptev Sea and the East Siberian Sea in northern Russia. North-Eastern Federal University via <i>AP</i><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>The now extinct type of cave bear was found on a Siberian island where scientists search for the preserved remains of extinct animals in melting permafrost.<br /> </p><p>Scientists at the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk, Russia, announced on Saturday the discovery of a well-preserved cave bear on the New Siberian island of Bolshyoy Lyakhovsky.<br /><br />The adult bear lived its life sometime in the last Ice Age, at the same time as large animals like woolly mammoths, mastodons and saber-toothed tigers. When the bear died, permafrost preserved its soft tissues, organs and fur, making it the best-preserved example of a cave bear found yet. Most cave bear remains discovered so far have been odd bones and skulls.<br /><br />Coincidentally, a preserved cave bear cub was recently found on the Russian mainland, the university says in a statement. Using the two discoveries, scientists hope to learn more about cave bears’ lives.<br /><br />The whole, adult bear carcass is “the first and only find of its kind,” paleontologist Lena Grigorieva says in the university statement. “It is completely preserved, with all internal organs in place, including even its nose. This find is of great importance for the whole world.”<br /></p><div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;">
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</div><br />Reindeer herders working on the island discovered the ancient bear carcass and reported it to the university, which specializes in studying preserved Ice Age mammals.<br /><br />The team identified it as a cave bear, a species of bear that’s now extinct. It’s last common ancestor with modern bears lived about 1.2 to 1.4 million years ago, according to a study published in the journal Current Biology in 2001, George Dvorsky reports for Gizmodo. Cave bears could weigh up to 1,540 pounds, which is larger than most polar bears. The cave bear carcass found on Bolshyoy Lyakhovsky probably lived between 22,000 and 39,500 years ago, and the researchers hope to narrow that window with further research.<br /><br />The cave bear adult and cub are the latest additions to a growing list of preserved Ice Age carcasses emerging from the permafrost. Experts expect more preserved animals to appear as permafrost melting accelerates because of climate change.<br /><br />Researchers have uncovered woolly mammoths on the Lyakhovsky islands, and last year, scientists found a 40,000-year-old wolf’s head, Aylin Woodward reports for Business Insider. The wolf head still had its fur, teeth, brain and facial tissue.<br /><br />This year, scientists at the Centre for Palaeogenetics at Stockholm University analyzed the DNA of Ice Age lion cubs discovered in Yakutsk, per Gizmodo. Similar ancient DNA analysis revealed that woolly rhinos that lived during the Ice Age were likely driven extinct not by humans, as previously thought, but by a warming climate, Alex Fox reported for Smithsonian magazine in August.<br /><br />The cave bear carcass presents several opportunities for new research into Ice Age ecosystems. Analysis of its teeth might reveal details about its diet and the territory it grew up on; analysis of the contents of its stomach will show whether the bear ate plants, animals or both; and ancient DNA analysis could illuminate its evolutionary history.<br /><br />“The research is planned on as large a scale as in the study of the famous Malolyakhovsky mammoth,” which researchers attempting to clone, Grigorieva says in the statement.<br /><br /> <p></p>

Extinct Cave Bear Found Whole After Being Frozen for 30,000 Years on Siberian Island

A carcass of an ice-age cave bear found on Great Lyakhovsky Island between the Laptev Sea and the East Siberian Sea in northern Russia. Nort...

Five Rare Blue Diamonds Discovered at Cullinan Mine

Diamonds, famous 5:25 PM

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="The five blue diamonds recovered at Cullinan in Sep. 2020, all in the space of one week’s production. (Image: Petra Diamonds.)" border="0" data-original-height="844" data-original-width="1245" height="434" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-64lCs5EdmVo/X2NwnRlEd0I/AAAAAAAASiA/qWhucrcJeuU7N47gnkHoQovsAKZo3_lzACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h434/Five%2Bblue%2Bdiamonds%2Brecovered%2Bat%2BCullinan%2Bin%2BSeptember%2B2020_%2B%25281%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The five blue diamonds recovered at Cullinan, all in the space of one week’s production. (Image: Petra Diamonds.)<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p> </p><p></p><p></p><p>Five blue diamonds, of exquisite transparency and brilliance, were recently found in South Africa, their proud owner announced on Wednesday.<br /><br />Petra Diamonds Limited said they were discovered the same week in its main mine in Cullinan, located about 40 kilometers east of the capital Pretoria.<br /><br />Each stone is individual, meaning they are not from a larger fractional diamond, and their weight ranges from 9.61 to 25.75 carats.</p><p><br /></p><div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;">
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</div><p><br />“Blue diamonds are so rare that there are no official statistics on them,” said Petra in a statement, stressing that it was very “unusual” to find “five high quality stones at the same time”.<br /><br />The Cullinan mine is the main source of blue diamonds in the world.<br /><br />The last significant discovery was a 20.08 carat blue gem found at the site in September 2019, which sold for $14.9 million to an anonymous buyer.<br /><br />Petra said it was "maintaining a flexible approach to sales" for its latest find and "still evaluating the optimal route to market for the stones".<br /><br />The group, which has three mines in South Africa and one in Tanzania, was battling with debt and falling diamond prices even before coronavirus shuttered the global gem trade.<br /><br />It warned that the five blue gems, whilst a "positive development", would "not have a material impact on... the required long-term solution to improve the group's capital structure". </p><p><br /></p><p></p><p></p>

Five Rare Blue Diamonds Discovered at Cullinan Mine

The five blue diamonds recovered at Cullinan, all in the space of one week’s production. (Image: Petra Diamonds.) Five blue diamonds, of e...

Dendrite Minerals

gemstones, Geochemistry 5:29 PM

Dendrite Minerals

Dendrite in quartz. Photo: Fasanarock A crystal dendrite is a crystal that develops with a typical multi-branching tree-like form. ...

Discovery of Metamorphic Rock Microdiamonds Has Geologists Questioning Japan’s History

Diamonds, Earth History 5:52 PM

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Japan researchers have discovered microdiamonds in the Nishisonogi metamorphic rock formation in Nagasaki Prefecture, second region after Italian Alps.<br />
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A collaboration of researchers based in Kumamoto University, Japan have discovered microdiamonds in the Nishisonogi metamorphic rock formation in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. Microdiamonds in metamorphic rocks are important minerals because they form in continental collision zones and show that the crust has penetrated deeper than 120 km below the surface. This is the second area in the world, after the Italian Alps, that shows microdiamonds can form in metamorphic rock through subduction of oceanic plates.<br />
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In recent years, microdiamonds have received a great deal of attention because they have been discovered in metamorphic rocks around the world and it has become clear that they are formed in collisions between continents.<br />
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It was thought that Japan would not produce such microdiamonds because it is not a continental collision zone, but an oceanic plate subduction zone. However, the first microdiamonds from metamorphic rocks in Japan were found in the Nishisonogi metamorphic rock formation in the west coast of Nagasaki Prefecture.<br />
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The area where the microdiamonds were discovered is an approximately 100-million-year-old Cretaceous metamorphic rock formation. On the west coast of Saikai City in Nagasaki Prefecture, blocks of pelitic and basic schist are scattered amongst serpentinite that was created from mantle material.<br />
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Such rocks are called a serpentinite mélange and indicate that they have risen from deep in the subduction zone. Researchers found microdiamonds here, in the serpentinite mélange.<br />
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Their formation conditions have been estimated to be a temperature of about 450 °C and a pressure of about 2.8 GPa, which makes them the coldest diamonds ever formed. It has been thought that the Nishisonogi metamorphic rock was formed under a pressure of about 1 GPa, but it is now clear that they were ultrahigh-pressure metamorphic rocks that rose after subducting to 120 km—a very unexpected discovery.<br />
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"The discovery of microdiamonds from Japan's first metamorphic rocks will rewrite Japan's geological history," said Professor Tadao Nishiyama, the leader of this study. "Until now, the Nagasaki metamorphic rocks were said to belong to a low-temperature, high-pressure-type metamorphic rock belt, the "Sanbagawa Belt," which crosses the Japanese mainland.<br />
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It has become clear, however, that they are independently-formed ultrahigh-pressure metamorphic rocks. I expect that there will be many discussions about what kind of plate movement created this formation."<br />
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<u><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above story is based on <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-68599-7" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by <a href="https://ewww.kumamoto-u.ac.jp/en/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Kumamoto University.</a></span></i></u></div>

Discovery of Metamorphic Rock Microdiamonds Has Geologists Questioning Japan’s History

Credit: CC0 Public Domain Japan researchers have discovered microdiamonds in the Nishisonogi metamorphic rock formation in Nagasaki Pr...

Quantum Simulation of Quantum Crystals

Crystal, Researches 5:29 PM

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The chemical element bismuth as a synthetic made crystal. The surface is an iridescent very thin layer of oxidation. Credit: Alchemist-hp/CC BY-SA 3.0</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A research team describes the new possibilities offered by the use of ultracold dipolar atoms.</span></h4>
The quantum properties underlying crystal formation can be replicated and investigated with the help of ultracold atoms. A team led by Dr. Axel U. J. Lode from the University of Freiburg's Institute of Physics has now described in the journal <i>Physical Review Letters</i> how the use of dipolar atoms enables even the realization and precise measurement of structures that have not yet been observed in any material. The theoretical study was a collaboration involving scientists from the University of Freiburg, the University of Vienna and the Technical University of Vienna in Austria, and the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, India.<br />
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Crystals are ubiquitous in nature. They are formed by many different materials—from mineral salts to heavy metals like bismuth. Their structures emerge because a particular regular ordering of atoms or molecules is favorable, because it requires the smallest amount of energy.<br />
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A cube with one constituent on each of its eight corners, for instance, is a crystal structure that is very common in nature. A crystal's structure determines many of its physical properties, such as how well it conducts a current or heat or how it cracks and behaves when it is illuminated by light. But what determines these crystal structures? They emerge as a consequence of the quantum properties of and the interactions between their constituents, which, however, are often scientifically hard to understand and also hard measure.<br />
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To nevertheless get to the bottom of the quantum properties of the formation of crystal structures, scientists can simulate the process using Bose-Einstein condensates—trapped ultracold atoms cooled down to temperatures close to absolute zero or minus 273.15 degrees Celsius. The atoms in these highly artificial and highly fragile systems are extremely well under control.<br />
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With careful tuning, the ultracold atoms behave exactly as if they were the constituents forming a crystal. Although building and running such a quantum simulator is a more demanding task than just growing a crystal from a certain material, the method offers two main advantages: First, scientists can tune the properties for the quantum simulator almost at will, which is not possible for conventional crystals.<br />
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Second, the standard readout of cold-atom quantum simulators are images containing information about all crystal particles. For a conventional crystal, by contrast, only the exterior is visible, while the interior—and in particular its quantum properties—is difficult to observe.<br />
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The researchers from Freiburg, Vienna, and Kanpur describe in their study that a quantum simulator for crystal formation is much more flexible when it is built using ultracold dipolar quantum particles. Dipolar quantum particles make it possible to realize and investigate not just conventional crystal structures, but also arrangements that were hitherto not seen for any material.<br />
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The study explains how these crystal orders emerge from an intriguing competition between kinetic, potential, and interaction energy and how the structures and properties of the resulting crystals can be gauged in unprecedented detail.<br />
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<u><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above story is based on <a href="https://www.pr.uni-freiburg.de/pm-en/press-releases-2020/quantum-simulation-of-quantum-crystals" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Materials</a> provided by <a href="http://www.uni-freiburg.de/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">University of Freiburg</a>. </span></i></u><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><br />
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Quantum Simulation of Quantum Crystals

The chemical element bismuth as a synthetic made crystal. The surface is an iridescent very thin layer of oxidation. Credit: Alchemist-hp...

Blue Scorodite Crystals

Minerals 6:16 PM

<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lOVKhwZcOFg/YJ6UrZlXDtI/AAAAAAAAS-Q/W7IEzXJoD-kOrxvBSddzZLHg82GV25WOQCLcBGAsYHQ/s793/blue%2Bscorodite%2Bcrystals%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="793" height="310" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lOVKhwZcOFg/YJ6UrZlXDtI/AAAAAAAAS-Q/W7IEzXJoD-kOrxvBSddzZLHg82GV25WOQCLcBGAsYHQ/w320-h310/blue%2Bscorodite%2Bcrystals%2B%25281%2529.jpg" title="Blue Scorodite Crystals" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Photo credit: Mintreasure.com</b></td></tr></tbody></table> <br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Formula:  FeAsO₄·2H₂O<br />System:Orthorhombic<br />Colour:Green, blue-green, grey, ...<br />Lustre: Sub-Adamantine, Vitreous, Resinous<br />Hardness:3½ - 4<br />Scorodite
 is a common hydrated iron arsenate mineral, with the chemical formula 
FeAsO₄·2H₂O. It is found in hydrothermal deposits and as a secondary 
mineral in gossans worldwide.</p><p></p><p>Scorodite was discovered in the Schwarzenberg, Saxony district, Erzgebirge, Saxony, Germany. Named from the Greek Scorodion, "garlicky". When heated it smells of garlic, which gives it the name.<br /><br />From Clara Mine, Oberwolfach, Freiburg Region, Baden-Württemberg, Germany<br />Ex. Wolfgang Pohl coll.<br /> </p>

Blue Scorodite Crystals

Photo credit: Mintreasure.com Formula: FeAsO₄·2H₂O System:Orthorhombic Colour:Green, blue-green, grey, ... Lustre: Sub-Adamantine, Vitreo...

Massive Yellowstone Geyser Sat Dormant for 6 Years. It Just Exploded

earth, USA, Yellowstone 6:31 PM

Massive Yellowstone Geyser Sat Dormant for 6 Years. It Just Exploded

Yellowstone's Giantess Geyser erupts for first time in six years In these troubled times there comes a point where we all need to...

Geology In