These types of huge perfect specimens always take my breath away when I am able to see them in person. To think that this kind of stuff just kinda exists buried in the earth...
I am a part of a local mineral club which hosts several "field trips" a year to various mineralogically interesting locations (most of which aren't accessible as an individual, like private land and special digs at active mining/quarrying sites on their days off). I have never found anything even remotely as beautiful as the specimens shown, but the small collection of mildly interesting things that I've smashed out of the earth with my own 2 hands is amazingly satisfying to me. You don't even have to be a super dedicated "rock nerd" to take part, I highly recommend looking for local mineral clubs to join if this even remotely interests you. It's really a ton of fun!
Kind of fun to think that the crystalline structure of minerals is an "echo" of their arrangement of atoms. A repeating pattern on a scale we can actually observe.
I've been to a few mineral museums like this and one of the interesting ones you can come across is Asbestos. Just hanging out there on display right next to some other mineral. It forms beautiful formations just like the rest, but I've heard so many mesothelioma lawyer commercials that it's easy to forget it's a completely natural material. Also one you can pick apart like cotton and weave into a fabric - it's a flexible material, made out of a rock, which can kill you.
The asbestos formations are ones they keep behind glass.
these dramatic and colorful massive specimens are perfect for an art museum, but as a recovering mineralogist I feel like the true beauty of the world of minerals in Earth is shown on the microscopic level, where you can see both the incredible order and incredible randomness of the (mostly) crystalline solids that make up minerals. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thin_section
There is an idea that minerals are these inorganic substances but fully two thirds of all minerals identified were originated from direct or indirect interaction with living things on Earth. In fact a recent hypothesis holds that minerals have evolved since the formation of the solar system very much like living things, getting more and more complex via selective processes. See https://hazen.carnegiescience.edu/research/mineral-evolution
For us nerds in the Portland/PNW area, the Rice Museum out in Hillsboro—despite a name suggesting it has an exhaustive display of rice varieties—has a terrific collection of large and unique mineral specimens.
https://www.ricenorthwestmuseum.org
One of my favorite topics and a hobby finally makes it to Hacker News
Fine mineral specimens are the most surprising things on earth. Such regularity and color! It reminds you that every atom of an element, every molecule of a compound is exactly the same (caveat energy states), and the laws of physics and chemistry don't change. That's how these stunningly bright and REGULAR forms develop - trillions of atoms or molecules all falling into line.
I've found these more interesting since reading The Mysterious, Deep-Dwelling Microbes That Sculpt Our Planet in the nyt. You don't get that kind of thing on asteroids or Venus, they are mostly produced as a side effect of microbes in the earth's crust that predate most surface life.
I find it somewhat reassuring that even if we raze the plant through nuclear war or climate change, the crust microbes will be just fine and regenerate new surface life a while after.
For a while I thought what could there be to see in the petrified national forest. It's mineralized trees (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrified_wood), and there were enough different minerals in the area to make different colors. Definitely worth a visit.
oh my god, this is gorg. i love museums for the same exact thing. there's so much you donno and every visit just leaves me in awe. thank you for sharing it. big wide bful world
First thought in my head was that these would make great demos for 3DGS: both geometry and light interactions are non-trivial. I imagine that makes them difficult to capture with traditional photogrammetry
The pictures are striking, but the comments are quite amusing on their own. Both on the website and here on HN. You can really see how people are going out of their way to get offended.
If "dead" things look this much alive, imagine how hard it is to determine life on other planets. Real life could look much more dull than these things :-)
The shamans would test your ability of spirit by qualifying if you "Know the Stone People". They are the oldest beings, the keepers of deep wisdom and knowledge.
God sleeps in the minerals
(wchambliss.wordpress.com)
105 comments
I am a part of a local mineral club which hosts several "field trips" a year to various mineralogically interesting locations (most of which aren't accessible as an individual, like private land and special digs at active mining/quarrying sites on their days off). I have never found anything even remotely as beautiful as the specimens shown, but the small collection of mildly interesting things that I've smashed out of the earth with my own 2 hands is amazingly satisfying to me. You don't even have to be a super dedicated "rock nerd" to take part, I highly recommend looking for local mineral clubs to join if this even remotely interests you. It's really a ton of fun!
The asbestos formations are ones they keep behind glass.
There is an idea that minerals are these inorganic substances but fully two thirds of all minerals identified were originated from direct or indirect interaction with living things on Earth. In fact a recent hypothesis holds that minerals have evolved since the formation of the solar system very much like living things, getting more and more complex via selective processes. See https://hazen.carnegiescience.edu/research/mineral-evolution
Arthur Young
Fine mineral specimens are the most surprising things on earth. Such regularity and color! It reminds you that every atom of an element, every molecule of a compound is exactly the same (caveat energy states), and the laws of physics and chemistry don't change. That's how these stunningly bright and REGULAR forms develop - trillions of atoms or molecules all falling into line.
I still have a lot of it.
[0] https://cmarshall.com/miscellaneous/SheilaMarshall.htm
https://www.hmns.org/exhibits/cullen-hall-of-gems-and-minera...
(Post Malone’s response in a Joe Rogan interview when asked about McKenna’s Stoned Ape Theory)
It's an interesting question if we'll find them and or simple life in the crust of Mars. Idelwords has some discussion of that https://idlewords.com/2023/1/why_not_mars.htm
I find it somewhat reassuring that even if we raze the plant through nuclear war or climate change, the crust microbes will be just fine and regenerate new surface life a while after.
(nyt article https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/24/magazine/earth-geomicrobi... or https://archive.ph/VgzKD)
https://carnegiemnh.org/explore/hillman-hall-of-minerals-and...
Spent many hours there
https://tellusmuseum.org/exhibit/weinman-mineral-gallery/
You like apple? How could you hate orange!?
I don't see any god though, but I think I saw godzilla hiding in one of those shapes.
"They are not rocks, they are minerals marie"