Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Hidden Treasures

With all this talk about rock... I am wondering where the gems come from? Gems typically come from igneous and metamorphic crystals.

Precious stones are rare and are highly prized by humans. These gems are usually prized for their hardness, their beautiful colors, and how they reflect light. Many precious stones are found in connection with volcanoes. In fact, diamonds are often found in deep tube like areas that are called diamond pipes. It is believed that the diamonds were formed from an extinct volcano.

Some of the more precious stones include: sapphire, ruby, emerald, red spinel, amethyst, tourmaline, lapis, turquoise, chalcedony and green jade. Among these beautiful precious stones are also precious metals. These rare metals are found within rocks, or sometimes by themselves. They can often be melted and formed into other object. These metals include gold, silver, platinum, and copper. Other metals can be made by mixing these metals together to form things such as bronze (made from copper and tin.)

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Rock it...

Rocks... the hardest objects on earth. Yet, they were designed to be the foundational element on earth... the building blocks of earth. Rocks give us metal, building materials, and other useful things. Other rocks are beautiful and are crafted into costly jewelry and beautiful objects of art. There are many different types of rocks, but here are a few.

1) Igneous rocks are usually rocks that are formed from magma. These are hot rocks! There are two types of this kind of rocks extrusive igneous which are formed when magma is forced out of a volcano, and intrusive igneous which are formed while the magma cools underground.

2) Sedimentary rocks are formed by a layer of sand and minerals that were laid down by water and pressed together to form rocks. You see these layers often when you look at the side of an eroded mountain or even the Grand Canyon.

3)Metamorphic Rocks are formed by changing a rock from one type into a new kind of rock. Sometimes great heat or great pressure with transform rocks into other types of rock. Like the coal into a diamond.