Rock Hounds and Carbon Minerals

Science writing assignment

Physical Science 102VB

October 15, 2016

Jessica Bennett

Rock Hounds and Carbon Minerals

        Northern Spain is the home of the Eureka uranium mine. It is a maze of long, dark tunnels with water that seeps down the walls. When the water evaporates into the tunnels’ cool air some of the dissolved ingredients combined to make a substance into a solid form.

        A Physicist at the Institute of Earth Sciences, Jordi Ibanez-Insa, said the mine is a crystalized factory of weird minerals. The uranium-bearing ores that once attracted miners to Eureka has produced about 61 different minerals. One of the latest finds, the abellaite, is a rarity that grows in small pincushions of tiny crystalline needles about 40-50 micrometers long. This crystal is so rare it has only been found on the walls of a 3-meter king stretch in the tunnel.

        Last December until September 19 began The Carbon Mineral Challenge. The premise behind the challenge is for researchers to scour the landscape and their museum drawers for unknown carbon-bearing minerals. Currently, there are about 548 carbon bearing minerals and over 100 waiting to be found!

        The most interesting fact is that most minerals are as common as dirt and out of the 5000 recognized minerals, about 100 have been reported by geologist at more than 1,000 sites worldwide. At least 1,000 minerals have been found in only one locale.