Chrysanthemum stoneThese delightful flowery specimens are sedimentary rocks found in a specific loca
Chrysanthemum stoneThese delightful flowery specimens are sedimentary rocks found in a specific location in China. They formed from fine-grained sediments deposited hundreds of millions of years ago at the bottom of a quiet ocean. The sediments are rich in calcium carbonate – the most commonly used mineral by organisms making shells in the ocean. Calcium sits one row above the element Strontium in the periodic table, so strontium and calcium have similar chemical characteristics and sometimes strontium can get stuck in crystal structures in place of calcium. These crystals have grown from the mineral celstite (or celestine), a strontium sulfate mineral. After the sediments were deposited, fluids moved through the sediments, picking up elements that didn’t fit perfectly where they were. The strontium in the sediments migrated to this surface, growing new crystals in the process. The crystals grew outward from single points due to the combination of a flat surface in the sediments and the natural arrangement of the atoms in celestite.-JBBImage credit: https://flic.kr/p/i7vY8KRead more:http://bit.ly/1AFpfv3 -- source link
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