Keepin’ then comin’! This weeks photo is brought to you by Immageo as per usual. It can be found: here The image was taken by Dmitry Tonkacheev, IGEM RAS, Moscow, Russian Federation. Dmitry writes, “This is Co-bearing sphalerite, synthesised using gas transport method at 850C looks like the Christmas Tree. Although presented intergrowth of crystals was made in the laboratory, the ...[Read More]
The truly insane photo above shows “Different generations of calcite cements in Late Miocene seep carbonates (Piedmont, Italy; cathodoluminescence microphotograph)”. It was taken by Marcello Natalicchio, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germania – Source. This photo was taken using a cathodoluminescence microscope which is both a standalone tool or can be an adaptation to a scann ...[Read More]
My friend John Jamieson, who is now a prof in the geology department at Memorial University in Newfoundland and Canada Research Chair in marine geology and is also a former GeoSphere guest poster is currently on a research cruise near Fiji. John researches deep sea vents, aka. black smokers/seafloor massive sulphide deposits that are exhaling super heated water at tectonic plate boundaries around ...[Read More]
I’m getting back in the bog saddle. After a brief hiatus as I was adjusting to the life of a real, productive member of the PGS (post grad school) world I am good to go for blogging again. Enjoy the photo of the week! The text that follows is a technical description of the photo by the photographer, Dmitry Tonkacheev. Presented intergrowths of the infinite number of dark-brown sphaleriteR ...[Read More]
It is once again time to write about geology and classics and the incredibly important impact the geosciences had on the ancients and their way of life. My previous post on this topic can be found at my old blog location as the post: The Odyssey and Geology. I’ll begin by relating a story: The two fleets, the Persians the the Greeks, which was composed of the navies of all the city states, b ...[Read More]
We all know that cement is a man-made substance and therefore cement is always synthetic right? Wrong! In the unusual case of Maqarin, Jordan the stars aligned to produce natural cement and many of the “synthetic” minerals found therein. The Maqarin site has been the subject of an intense geological investigation by a consortium of over 100 researchers for years in an attempt to try an ...[Read More]
Finding the next big mineral deposit is a dream of many geologists past, present and future. However, in the past hundred years or so, many of them close to surface have already been found and developed. This is because they can be found relatively inexpensively by traditional methods such as geochemical surveys, shallow geophysics, drilling, and a lot of luck. In the 21st century, mineral explora ...[Read More]
My apologies for the slight blogging hiatus over the last little while. I have been preparing for a conference and then attending and so I had to put blogging on the back seat for a few weeks to prepare properly. However, the conference is done, my talk is given so now I can get back to blogging…at least until the next one…which starts on Tuesday (tomorrow). Luckily, I get to just watc ...[Read More]
The photo this week is of another self collected beauty. I collected this piece below at the Marmoraton Iron Mine in Marmora, Ontario a few years ago. When I found it none of the garnet crystals you see were visible. They were all covered by a thick layer of calcite. I could just make out the edge of a broken crystal at the side. However, I have been collecting at Marmora a lot and I knew that thi ...[Read More]
A few weeks ago I went to the 46th annual Ottawa Gem and Mineral show. I have always been a dedicated mineral and fossil collector and shows like this allow me to indulge my inner collector and drool over all the fantastic specimens. I have been to a lot of shows, all local such as Kingston, Peterborough and now the Ottawa show, but there are tons all over the world. In fact, I would speculate tha ...[Read More]
