![theatlantic:
NASA Scientists Select Random Rock on Mars to Shoot With Laser
Meet the most boring rock in the world. It’s probably basalt, an igneous rock, which makes it like many, many other rocks and pebbles all over the world.
What makes it interesting is that the world in question is Mars, and this random little piece of stone happens to be sitting near the Mars Curiosity rover on the floor of the Gale crater. And, N165, as it is being temporarily called, also happens to have a nice, flat face that happens to be in the range of the rover’s laser.
That all makes this poor little guy a perfect test rock for everyone’s favorite Martian robot to fire upon.
Read more. [Image: NASA]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8x3yneJiD1qcokc4o1_500.jpg)
NASA Scientists Select Random Rock on Mars to Shoot With Laser
Meet the most boring rock in the world. It’s probably basalt, an igneous rock, which makes it like many, many other rocks and pebbles all over the world.
What makes it interesting is that the world in question is Mars, and this random little piece of stone happens to be sitting near the Mars Curiosity rover on the floor of the Gale crater. And, N165, as it is being temporarily called, also happens to have a nice, flat face that happens to be in the range of the rover’s laser.
That all makes this poor little guy a perfect test rock for everyone’s favorite Martian robot to fire upon.
Read more. [Image: NASA]
Project Aragonite: Day 7.
So week one has passed and there hasn’t been too much to update you guys with. The vinegar has just begun to expose the limestone, so with some time crystals will be more visable. More of the mineral has formed along the inner walls of the square glass jar, which is always a good sign! For this next week, I’m moving it into warmer temperatures with more light to help the crystals grow faster now that the tip of the rock is exposed.
These are some photos of the aragonite on the inner walls for you guys to see. I’ll try to update more (daily) as the process continues, but the last 5 days have just been uneventful, so I didn’t see much of the point.
Here’s some more yummy geology photos for you guys!
I talked about ductile deformation two days back, and now this is a post about brittle deformation. Brittle deformation differs from ductile deformation easily when you look at the rocks. Ductile looks as if someone has taken the rock, made it into gum, and then stretched it to make it curve, fold, etc. Brittle deformation is like taking a sledgehammer and fracturing the rock, making it have fault lines and look like puzzle pieces waiting to be put back together.
Like ductile deformation, brittle deformation is also caused by stress. The main differences for these two kinds of deformations is temperature, pressure, rock composition, and deformation rate. Higher temperatures and pressures are affiliated with ductile deformation whereas lower temperatures and pressures usually create brittle deformations.
This is a photo I found on geoscience.wisc.edu while looking for a good photo via google. I looked at a lot of different photos showing characteristics of brittle deformation, but this one I enjoyed the most because you can clearly see where the rock has been shifted, creating those faults. With banding like in the photo above, it helps you easily see where the stress hit the rock, creating these fractures.
Strata is a term we use in geology and stratigraphy, which is the rock layers/bands clearly defined like in the photo above. The word stratum is for one layer, whereas strata is for multiple layers. The photo above is by calwest on Flickr, which is a photograph of the Badlands in South Dakota.
It really doesn’t get any better when you can just look at the beautiful deformations in geology. The photo above shows what is called ductile deformation, which is basically a gradual change where the rocks are morphing, folding, etc. This is all due to stress when the rocks have breached their elastic limit, and this now means it will be a permanent change for the rock.
Photo above: by subarcticmike on Flickr.
Eroded Landscape and the carved from rock Selime Monastery, Turkey (by Roger Wong)
A California mother is recovering from second- and third-degree burns after colored rocks her family collected from a southern California beach unexpectedly caught fire while in her shorts pocket.
“We were talking about who was going to pick up the babysitter,” Lyn Hiner said today on “Good Morning America.” “And all of a sudden something hot on my leg just sort of started to bother me so I started thinking it was a bug bite, so I started slapping it and the next thing I know my pants were on fire.”
The harmless-looking, green- and orange-colored rocks, which Hiner’s daughters found Saturday on San Onofre State Beach in southern California, are now the subject of an intense scientific investigation.
“There were actual flames coming off of her cargo shorts,” Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Marc Stone told ABC News. “The husband was outside with a garden hose, actually trying to cool her leg down.”
The couple were eventually taken to the Grossman Burn Center, where Lyn Hiner continues to recover from the severe burns on her hands and leg.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” her doctor, Dr. Andrea Dunkelman, said today on “GMA.” “She has third-degree burns, which means that it’s been burned all the way through her skin to her underlying tissue, her fat. We treated her by placing skin grafts from her thigh to that area.”
Scientists investigating the mysterious explosion say there were seven rocks in total that the Hiner children took from the beach. Field tests found traces of phosphorus — the flammable orange chemical used in matches — on the rocks.
“It’ll burn right through flesh, bone and skin. I’ve never heard of anything like this before,” Dr. Michio Kaku, author of “Physics of the Future,” an examination of science in the coming century, said.
The beach where the rocks were collected is near Camp Pendleton Marine base. But Marine officials say there’s no evidence any military materials were involved.
San Diego State University geologist Pat Abbott says this was not Mother Nature’s fault.
“I know the orange is not part of the rock,” Abbott said. “It’s not natural. It’s human made.”
Click title to read the full article & see video on Yahoo. Article content above via Yahoo.com
Ammonite, Kilve, Somerset (by Gemanji)
From the looks of the photo, it has the appearance of being replaced with pyrite! I love when this occurs.
Ancient Forest (by erikruthoff)
Looks to be Arizona.
Bahaha, how did I not realise the username when I wrote that? Too excited to see the monument, I guess.
