Geology

  • Acicular

    Acicular, in mineralogy, refers to a crystal habit composed of slender, needle-like crystals. Crystals with this habit tend to be fragile. Complete, undamaged acicular specimens are uncommon. The term “acicular” derives from the Late Latin “acicula”… Read more.

  • Oltu Stone AKA Black Amber, a Kind of Jet

    Oltu stone (Turkish: Oltu taşı) is a kind of jet found in the region around Oltu town within Erzurum Province, eastern Turkey. The organic substance is used as semi-precious gemstone in manufacturing jewellery. Location and extraction Oltu stone, sometimes called… Read more.

  • Jet

    Jet is a type of lignite, the lowest rank of coal, and is a gemstone. Unlike many gemstones, jet is not a mineral, but is rather a mineraloid. It is derived from wood that has changed under extreme pressure. The… Read more.

  • Wood Opal

    Wood opal is a form of petrified wood which has developed an opalescent sheen or, more rarely, where the wood has been completely replaced by opal. Other names for this opalized sheen-like wood are opalized… Read more.

  • Petrified Wood

    Petrified wood, also known as petrified tree (from Ancient Greek πέτρα meaning ‘rock’ or ‘stone’; literally ‘wood turned into stone’), is the name given to a special type of fossilized wood, the fossilized remains of terrestrial vegetation. Petrifaction is the result… Read more.

  • Chert

    Chert is a hard, fine-grained sedimentary rock composed of microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline quartz, the mineral form of silicon dioxide (SiO2). Chert is characteristically of biological origin, but may also occur inorganically as a chemical precipitate or a diagenetic replacement, as in petrified wood. Chert is… Read more.

  • Gastrolith

    A gastrolith, also called a stomach stone or gizzard stone, is a rock held inside a gastrointestinal tract. Gastroliths in some species are retained in the muscular gizzard and used to grind food in animals lacking suitable grinding teeth. In… Read more.

  • Limonite, 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica

    LIMONITE, or Brown Iron Ore, a natural ferric hydrate named from the Gr. λειμών (meadow), in allusion to its occurrence as “bog-ore” in meadows and marshes. It is never crystallized, but may have a… Read more.

  • Supergene (Geology) and Gossan Cap

    In ore deposit geology, supergene processes or enrichment are those that occur relatively near the surface as opposed to deep hypogene processes. Supergene processes include the predominance of meteoric water circulation (i.e. water derived from precipitation) with concomitant oxidation and chemical weathering. The… Read more.