Sitting here and enjoying the view on the third rock from the Sun, Nana wants to get into the details. The whole may be more than the sum of the parts, but those parts can be pretty interesting too:
What’s the most important rock?
Dear Nana,
I so value your decision to contact me; I decided to take your question very seriously and do some actual research. Method: how many abstracts were submitted to EGU21 with a rock type in the title (OK, ok, I never said I was going to a lot of research!)
According to EGU contributors, the top ten hits in this year’s rock charts are:
- Coal (45 abstracts);
- sandstone (19);
- granite (18);
- basalt (17);
- shale (15);
- peridotite (15);
- schist (13);
- limestone (11);
- kimberlite (10);
- eclogite (8);
And for the genre charts, igneous came in bottom with a mere 21 abstracts, metamorphic got 30 votes, leaving sedimentary the clear winner with >100 abstracts. It looks like the future is in writing erosion and basin geodynamic codes!
However, I will add two more surprise mineral contenders to the competition: gold did well as the result of the extortionate registration fees; and silicon saved the day (eventually).
Yours truly,
The Sassy Scientist
PS: Only one rock can ever truly win this scientist’s heart. The clue’s in the title.
