Innehållsförteckning för April 2025 från Rock and Gem

It’s always weird to write my editor’s letters and know that you’ll see them when the world is much different from when they were written. For instance, as I write this, it’s January and much of the country, including me, has gone through a ton of winter weather. After weeks of snow and freezing temperatures, the ice outside my front door is just now starting to recede. For me, this is thrilling because I have rocks displayed on both sides of my garden just outside that door. I’m starting to see them again! I do find it ironic that as a rockhound, I really dislike large amounts of snow. After all, ice is a mineral and snow means my house is literally covered in minerals! With this promise of warmer…

Per the journal Nature, tech giants are betting big on AI, but AI requires enormous energy to power data centers. To get it, they’re betting equally big on energy sources. Google and Meta have placed their bets on a new way of sourcing geothermal energy. Traditional geothermal plants tap into hot springs that bubble from hot spots near the Earth’s surface. But to tap such energy, you need natural hot springs, which aren’t in huge supply. So next-generation geothermal energy—dubbed “enhanced geothermal systems”—comes from manufactured hot springs courtesy of fracking. Drill a borehole deep down where temperatures naturally hover as much as 400°F. Inject water and sand at high pressure and surrounding rocks fracture. Keep pumping in water to fill the space within the fractures and you’ll have an artificially…

With the ever-increasing demand for lithium batteries, lithium is the new gold. Wherever there’s a whiff of the stuff, the rush is on! One traditional way to get this mineral is by pumping brines from below ground, channeling them into shallow ponds, and allowing them to evaporate under the sun then processing further to separate lithium from other salts. This long process requires relatively rich lithium brines and often covers acres of land. Now, writing in the journal Science, two teams have developed new ways to extract lithium more quickly and efficiently from brines that might otherwise be considered too dilute to be promising for mining. A team led by Yan Song (Nanjing University, China) builds from traditional evaporation processes but is able to accelerate it via capillary-driven transpiration in…

Lithium and cobalt are the minerals of rage today, but in times past? Lead. Its malleability and low melting point (and occasional silver content) made it a popular metal for millennia. But lead has a decided downside: it’s a toxin. Decades ago I read speculation about lead in water pipes and the decline of the Roman Empire. A new study reinforces this theory with a twist. In addition to lead in the water, add lead in the air. Per an article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Joseph McConnell (Desert Research Institutes, Reno) and colleagues examined Arctic ice cores dating to the Roman Empire. They found high levels of atmospheric lead that would have covered much of Europe. It likely derived from widespread smelting by Romans. Combine that…

It’s happened before, and it’s happening again. Some 180 million years ago the supercontinent Gondwana began breaking apart early in the Jurassic Period. By 165 million years ago a chunk of continental crust containing present-day Madagascar and India split off from east Africa, with Madagascar and India subsequently splitting from one another 75 million years later. Today, researchers foresee another prolonged period of major rifting. Scientists and laymen alike have long known of the East African Rift extending down northeastern Africa from the Red Sea to Tanzania, with its hot springs, volcanoes, gorges and rapidly thinning and spreading crust. But it appears rifting is more far-reaching than realized. Indeed, it extends from the Red Sea all the way down to Botswana, and perhaps on through Namibia and into the Atlantic…

Once an ancient art form developed by the Mesopotamians and later perfected by the Italians, intarsia, the art of combining materials to design intricate pictures, images or designs, continues to be used by today’s artists using wood, stone and now agate. Eugene Mueller, owner of The Gem Shop in Cedarburg, Wisconsin, has put his spin on this ancient art form to create tiny framed landscapes from thin slices of agate and other gemstones. "His process is not only difficult but tedious and time-consuming. Each intarsia takes a minimum of 25 lapidary hours. Gene has experienced many failures along the way as so many things can and do go wrong during the process.” WHAT IS INTARSIA? Intarsia is defined as the process of cutting material out of a solid body of…

The Indiana Dinosaur Museum just outside of South Bend, Indiana, is a destination not to be missed for all dinosaur lovers. It is also a great family destination with a farmers’ market, buffalo herd, an exceptional restaurant called the South Bend Public House, hiking trails along the Continental Divide, a wintertime sledding hill and the South Bend Chocolate Company Museum. South Bend Chocolate Company President Mark Tarner’s love of paleontology and fossils helped him develop a dream to build a dinosaur museum. As an avocational paleontologist, he has found thousands of dinosaur bones and he wanted the public to enjoy them as much as he does. VISITING THE MUSEUM I recently visited the museum and was impressed by the level of innovation, education, craftsmanship and the sheer volume of dinosaur…

"By looking at a jeweler’s or shop’s current work, you can get a good idea of what to expect from your piece. Most of the time, these examples can be found on their website, often under ‘Custom Work.’ If you like what you see, there’s a good chance your piece will turn out similarly.” Imagine wanting to recreate your grandmother’s beloved ring and all you have is one photo of it in a destroyed state. Or you have your mom’s ring from the 1920s and want to replicate it for your daughter for a big life event. Maybe you’ve got an idea for a meaningful memorial piece. Or you already have a special gemstone and a design in mind. Or perhaps you’ve been searching for a specific piece, but what…

Beneath Antarctica’s thick ice lurk more than 100 volcanoes. They remain largely unstudied given the realities of researching in the harsh conditions of our southernmost continent. Writing in the journal Science, Paul Voosen describes new efforts to explore two in particular: Mount Erebus and Mount Waesche. Erebus holds a lava lake within its caldera and thus is clearly active. To better monitor its activity (especially since it’s not far from McMurdo research station), volcanologists have buried seismometers and other sensors around its rim. They hope improved readings will provide upgrades from previous instruments compromised by the noise of fierce Antarctic winds. Waesche is technically considered dormant, but analyses of rocks from 50 past eruptions seem to show that nearly all coincided with warming periods during the Pleistocene Epoch when ice…

With its Artemis program, NASA is definitely sending a crewed mission to the Moon. It’s currently choosing from nine potential landing sites near the little-explored lunar south pole, an area described by NASA as “a completely different environment than we landed during the Apollo missions,” offering potential for expanded insights into the geology of our celestial companion. What remains not pinned down? Date of lift-off. The Artemis I mission has already circled the Moon and successfully returned an uncrewed Orion capsule. But pits in the heat shield resin have sparked concerns about sending a crew in Artemis II that will also circle the Moon as a trial run for Artemis III, which will land astronauts on the lunar surface. Devising a fix has already set back Artemis II lift-off from…

Having mounted Lookout Hill on the rim of Jezero Crater, NASA’s Perseverance rover explores new territory on Mars outside the crater confines. But—per reports in such journals as Nature and Scientific American—while it’s off to promising ground filled with new geological treasure, a key aspect of its mission is in jeopardy. To date, Perseverance has drilled and collected more than two dozen rock cores from within Jezero and will now collect even more from new environments. Stashed into little titanium tubes, these cores may hold tantalizing clues of ancient primitive life on the Red Planet. The original plan called for a second mission to land, collect those cores and return them to Earth for detailed analysis. But will that happen? Certainly not when originally projected. When the estimated cost for…

Clams, snails, slugs, octopi, chitons, squid, scaphopods, nautiluses and limpets. Mollusks today are so diverse it’s hard to imagine they share a common ancestor. But a newly described fossil zeroes in on the “stem mollusk.” Say hello to Sishania aculeata. In the journal Science, Chinese paleontologists led by Guanzxu Zhang (Yunnan University) describe a newly discovered 510-million-year-old critter from the Cambrian Period that some are comparing to a spiky fruit from Asia called a durian. Oval with a flat slug-like foot, its back was covered in small spikes composed of chitin. From such a humble beginning, mollusks would go on to become the second-largest animal phylum today after arthropods. That diversity includes two newly discovered weird forms dubbed Punk and Emo recently described by Mark Sutton (Imperial College, London) and…

Edinburgh, Scotland holds a firm place in the history of geology. Indeed, modern geology began there with James Hutton and the concept of Deep Time. Its geological heritage literally dominates the skyline with ancient volcanic remnants named Arthur’s Seat and Salisbury Crags. The University of Edinburgh counts many famed names among its faculty over the centuries, and contemporary Edinburgh hosts all manner of museums, a city-wide science fest, geological sites in plain view, and more. If you’ve never been to this World Heritage City, here’s why you should start planning a trip today. THE SCOTTISH ENLIGHTENMENT: GEOLOGY IS BORN Scotland experienced a burst of intellectual activity from the 1700s into the 1800s. The Scottish Enlightenment included philosopher David Hume, economist Adam Smith, and national poet of Scotland, Robert Burns. Intellectual…

It’s dark, 20 degrees below zero, and the snow falls in big, fluffy flakes. My long, mostly dark brown hair is frozen in white locks, but I’m toasty sitting up to my chin in the 103-degree steaming water of the hot springs in White Sulphur Springs, Montana. Winter is my favorite time to soak in hot springs, although any day in the hot waters counts as a good day, and I’m not alone. For millennia, people of all cultures have sought out natural hot springs for their relaxing qualities and health benefits, and there are good reasons these waters from deep within the earth are so good for us. HOT SPRINGS AT YELLOWSTONE There are three basic components required to create a hot spring. You need water (rain or snow),…

In the past, folks didn’t quite know what to make of such perfectly smooth round balls and ovals. Some considered them artifacts crafted by human hands; others saw stone eggs. Cracked open, some host amazing surprises inside. Whether you’re a mineral collector or a fossil fanatic, concretions can end up being your BFF. WHAT IS A CONCRETION? Concretions are rounded rock formations that form around a nucleus, just as a pearl grows layer-by-layer around a bit of grit inside an oyster. But while a pearl grows thanks to biological processes, a concretion grows because of geochemical processes. When sediments like mud or sand slowly harden into shale, siltstone or sandstone, some spots may harden faster than the rest, usually when some sort of mineral cement (like calcium carbonate or iron…

Apache Tears are small, rounded pieces of obsidian found within perlite. Perlite is a gray glassy volcanic rock that has numerous concentric cracks that give it a “pearl-like” appearance. The tears, which are small black glassy pebbles, are found loose on the ground and within the perlite matrix. They are found in the siliceous volcanic terrains of Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada, and are also found worldwide in similar rocks. The tears are popular among collectors as they are easily found, often abundant, and are a striking glossy black, especially when fresh surfaces are exposed. A notable occurrence of Apache Tears is present west of Superior, Arizona approximately one mile east of Picketpost Mountain. "Apache Tears are small, rounded and often indented pieces of obsidian that formed in perlite. They…

NASA’s Europa Clipper blasted off last October. Destination: Jupiter’s moon Europa. Europa sports an icy crust, and it’s long been believed a vast salty ocean sloshes beneath that crust, one that might be warmed by hydrothermal vents. This has spurred theories of life down below. But now, it seems, those hopes may be dimming. Per recent revelations by Steven Levin (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and fellow researchers at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union, the icy crust may be far thicker than believed. Newly examined data generated by NASA’s previous probe, Juno, in 2022 seem to reveal a shell of ice over 20 miles thick, two times thicker than thought. If true, this creates two problems. First, Europa Clipper may find it harder to peer through that crust with…

Vomit and poo may be the stuff of adolescent humor, but it’s serious business to paleontologists. More politely and professionally called bromalites and coprolites when fossilized and turned to stone, such materials from digestive tracts say a lot about the lifestyles of long-gone creatures. One group of paleontologists says it helps explain how dinosaurs proliferated and conquered the world starting in the Triassic Period. Per a research article in the journal Nature, a team led by Martin Qvarnström (Uppsala University, Sweden) examined bromalites from a succession of Triassic-Jurassic rocks in central Europe’s Polish Basin. These rocks came from a key period in dinosaur evolution. The team sliced and diced specimens, dissolved them in chemicals, and examined them not only under traditional microscopes but also via synchrotron microtomography that allowed them…

Eurkarya is one of three domains of life on Earth encompassing all plants, fungi, and animals and extending back 2 billion years through the Proterozoic Eon of Earth’s history. But tracing their evolution has been difficult because for much of that time, they were microscopic. Indeed, the period of 1.8 billion to 800 million years ago has been labeled the “Boring Billion” because life was so simple and static based on what can be determined by Earth’s rock record. In the journal Science, Qing Tang (Nanjing University, China) and an international team have presented a compilation of eukaryotes across the Proterozoic based on all available fossil data. True to expectations, the global biodiversity of eukaryotes barely budged. Very few new forms. Very simple forms. Very few extinctions. A very stable…

For five decades the U.S. has led the world in drilling deep into ocean rocks and forging scientific discoveries with its research ship the JOIDES Resolution. But that ocean-drilling ship was retired last September by the U.S. National Science Foundation. It sits at port stripped of personnel and equipment with no replacement on the shelf. Japan has Chikyu, a research ship that’s done deep-sea drilling, but its efforts have been confined mostly to Japanese waters and primarily to commercial oil and gas exploration. With a looming void, China has stepped into the breach. Per Dennis Normile, Asia correspondent for the journal Science, starting this year, the Meng Xiang replaces JOIDES Resolution as the premier research ship for deep-sea drilling all around the world. Meng Xiang translates to “Dream,” and Chinese…

It was Bob Ross who once said “We don’t make mistakes, just happy little accidents.” This sentiment could be applied to Fordite. Also known as Detroit agate and Motor City agate, the material is not a rock, but rather, the buildup of paint overspray baked over time on the walls and assembly stands in manufacturing plants such as Ford, Chrysler, General Motors, Kenworth trucks and Jeep. PAINTING A GEMSTONE Originally discarded when the layers of paint grew so thick that it hindered pulling the automobiles into the bays, workers later discovered the paint slag hardened into colorful works of art and started recovering it. Enthusiasts today scavenge it from abandoned factories and scour the internet and garage sales, ultimately creating a market that’s expanded to include Fordite jewelry, key chains,…

“There exists in the midst of the great ocean, in a region where nobody goes,” wrote French naval officer Pierre Loti in 1873, “a mysterious and isolated island . . . planted with monstrous great statues.” This island, called Rapa Nui by its original inhabitants, is known globally today by the name assigned by Dutch mariner Jacob Roggeveen who sighted it on Easter Sunday, 1722—Easter Island. Despite its extreme isolation, Easter Island now welcomes more than 100,000 visitors annually. Its main attraction is the hundreds of massive, monolithic human figures called moai (MO-eye), the purpose of which remains one of the world’s great mysteries. VOLCANIC ORIGIN Easter Island is a 63-square-mile mass of volcanic rock in the vast southeastern Pacific Ocean. More than 1,200 miles from the nearest populated island…