To most people, diamonds are the most valuable mineral, but to most geologists, that may be zircon.
To most people, diamonds are the most valuable mineral, but to most geologists, that may be zircon. Even more than diamond, they really do last forever, being the oldest thing humans have yet discovered on Earth (see our older post http://tinyurl.com/k9668zp). They are also valuable to geologists in their time-keeping ability. Unlike diamond, and many other minerals, you can directly tell when it was formed by radioactive decay of Uranium into Lead. The combination of the durability and the time-keeping make Zircon useful to find ages of rocks even after they have been metamorphosed!Mr. AImage Credit: Chd (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Zircon_microscope.jpg) -- source link
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