#well a fun chunk of fossilized tree resin

[miru-mu]

today, I offer u a rock. tomorrow? who knows

[desertdollranch]

Camp AG, day 5: In the Laboratory

It was raining and thundering for most of the day yesterday, so the activities at Camp American Girl were held indoors. That doesn’t mean fun is cancelled, though. It was the perfect chance for the campers to spend some time in the classroom laboratory and do some hands-on learning. They got to see a whole new dimension of their national park: its tiniest components! Everything from insects to minerals to microorganisms. This shows to them that everything is interconnected. All things in nature, now matter how tiny or unseen, serve a purpose and are part of a greater whole.

The counselors have brought in a pile of cool rocks. Some of them are local, others are from far away. The girls get to pair up and determine which is which, using their knowledge of the geology and the history of this area. 

They can pick up and examine them as much as they like. Sariah doesn’t see so well up close, so she’s using her hands to feel the textures of the rocks.

Josara can spot the gypsum right away. Gypsum can be found all around this area in abundance. 

Sariah has a fulgurite, a tube of sand, rock, or soil that has been struck by lightning. Fulgurites can happen in all kinds of places, so this may or may not be local. The girls will have to examine and research it a bit more to figure out what this fulgurite was before it was hit by lightning!

Josara was fascinated by this raw amber. It hasn’t been polished, so it could almost be mistaken for something less unique without a closer look. Amber is just fossilized tree resin, so it’s possible it could be local, but not likely. Most of the world’s amber comes from the Baltic sea region, the Dominican Republic, or Myanmar. 

Antonia and Hana are looking at their specimens under the microscope for a much closer look. 

Rajani liked the geodes best of all.

They’re too big to fit on the microscope, but a magnifying glass helps show the incredible detail. 

Geodes are rough and ordinary-looking on the outside, but when they’re cracked open they reveal a miniature cave of wonders! How fun would it be to shrink oneself down and explore among the crystals? 

Rajani and Antonia are trying to make their own crystals so that they can watch the formation process from beginning to end. They dissolved alum in a jar of hot water, and now they have to patiently wait for crystals to start appearing.

Sierra has a chunk of ulexite. The fibers of ulexite reflect in a unique way that transports any image placed underneath it onto the top layer, making things look closer but not magnified. That’s why it’s also called a “TV stone”.

Sierra runs it along the pictures in this textbook to see the fiber optic effects. 

Once all the rock samples have been examined, each team of lab partners gets ready to start throwing everything into different chemicals to see how they react!

Personal protective equipment is required when working with chemicals. This includes safety glasses and aprons. Hair must be tied back. 

Sierra and Josara are shaving off small pieces of each rock and adding them to different liquids. One is acidic, one is basic, and one is neutral pH. 

Sierra predicts that putting the gypsum into acetic acid will cause the acid to bubble and fizz, but that’s not what happens. Josara points out that although gypsum contains calcium, it does not contain a carbonite ion and so won’t release carbon dioxide bubbles. But if they put limestone in the acid, that will definitely cause a reaction, since limestone is calcium carbonate. 

That’s also true on a much larger scale. Acid rain will dissolve limestone much faster than other types of rock, and more than typical conditions will allow. Normally rainwater has a pH of about 5. Fossil fuel pollution from cities, even ones far away from a national park, will lower the pH of rainwater, making it more acidic and more destructive to stone, soil, and water. Acid rain can kill fish in rivers and lakes, or dissolve minerals like calcium and magnesium in the soil of forests, minerals that trees need to grow healthy. Without proper nutrients, trees become more susceptible to infections and destructive insects. When trees die, they become more dry and thus easier to burn in a wildland fire. 

Everything in nature is connected to something else. Even just a slight lowering of the pH of rainwater has far-reaching effects on even the smallest part of an ecosystem. 

To get a closer look at some of these components, the girls are looking at some slides under a microscope.

All of these small things make their home in the park and are dependent on other life forms for their existence. Up close, it’s easy to see how complex everything is, made up of even smaller parts that are also made from even smaller parts! 

They looked at a red oak leaf, a monarch butterfly, a wild violet, a blue jay feather, and a clover. If they look closely, they may see similar patterns where they didn’t expect to see them, or differences that surprise them. To the naked eye without magnification, a monarch butterfly’s wing looks similar to a bird’s feather, but up close they look very different. The oak leaf and clover might not look so alike at a passing glance, but they have tremendous similarities when magnified. 

The counselors have brought in some local fungus, moss, and bacteria for the girls to look at and study. They’re contained in Petri dishes, and are being exposed to an acid, a base, and a pH neutral substance. 

Josara records their findings. 

It’ll be a day or two before the jar of alum forms into crystals, so we’ll check back on it when everyone is back in the classroom lab!

[thesparklingfern]

Found out something new

So I love Steven universe watched the show since it came out. And though out the show I thought that all gems were non-organic. Hell it's even mentioned in the show a few times.

Well apparently we are wrong.

There are 5 known organic gem stones in this world.

The first one is coral.

The coral gem is the second most common organic gemstone made from you guessed

Coral. The colors it can come in is White, red, orange, pink gray and black most common one red which is said to have therapeutic properties. The most valuable kind is found the Mediterranean ocean.

Secondly we have amber

Amber gems are made from fossilized tree resin. These come in a variety of colors. The common yellow orange. Lemon yellow. Blue. The rarest cherry. They can also be brown or almost black. This gem is not very hard and can be liquidfied quite easily and you can often find fossils of dead bugs and plants inside chunks of amber. It is inside amber that people have found giant hugs from the Carboniferous and early Permian periods. It is also what the dinosaurs were trapped inside in the one episode of gravity falls.

Thirdly there is jet

Jet is a type of lignite that is formed from coal. Coal as we know it is not a gem in the same sense as jet. Jet used to be a common gemstone back in the 1800s and was quite valuable as it was worn on queen Victoria on her mourning dress at the funeral of prince Albert. Today jet is quite rare and sought after greatly. Jet only comes in 2 colors. Black or brownish black. Fun fact the turn jet black hair comes from the gemstone jet for it's very dark color.

Fourthly we have ivory

Ivory is a controversial gemstone as it's made out the tusks of elephants. Ivory is extremely sought after and is often molded into many shapes but due to laws against pouching ivory is not as easily found as it used to be. While it wasn't that easily found its now even harder to get your hands on these and to be honest I'd rather not have one.

And finally we have the humble pearl

Yes you heard right pearl.

Pearls are an aquatic gem much like the coral gemstone and is made from the shell of mollasks and other similar creatures. Pearl are very common to find are quite fragile and because of how small mollasks are, are small and well often formed in jewelery. They're a decorative peace used to say 'look at me I have a pearl necklace look how special I am' while pretending to be rich when really you bought it for a $1 at the dollar tree. Of course those are fakes and real pearls are quite expensive but because of how mainstream they are, are worthless.

Anyway I hope you learned something today and I just have one more thing to say

Why the hell the pearl not have water powers when she is an aquatic gem I mean common.