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diddi
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it does look industrial to me...
that sort of dendritic habit is common in industrial treatments of minerals
Beginning construction of periodic table display
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Morgan
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Industrial is a good word to describe it. Another comment from someone was that it looked like a feather or to me the plural feathers the way it's
layered.
And then of course it could be a meteorite. ha
"The Monolith Monsters tells the story of a large meteorite that crashes in the desert and explodes into hundreds of black fragments with strange
properties. When those fragments are exposed to water, they grow very large and tall. The fragments also begin to slowly petrify some of the
inhabitants of a nearby small Southern California desert town. The story that unfolds becomes one of human survival against an encroaching unnatural
disaster, that if not stopped, could become a national ecological nightmare that could pose a possible threat to all of humanity."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monolith_Monsters
"Bits and pieces of the universe"
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x22numj_monolith-monsters_s...
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Broken Gears
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Morgan, your railroad rock is iron filings from a angle grinder or a similar tool. The sparks fuse back together and forms rocks like that.
Too bad I just broke of the rock on my grinding machine, otherwise I could show you one just like your picture, just smaller.
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Morgan
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It could be this. Thanks for the tip.
Viewer comment.
RAIL GRINDER GROOVING A ETCH INTO THE BALL OF THE RAIL AND REMOVING SLIPPAGE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-dRW_yaqRk#t=2m35s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z3edFLjkBI
[Edited on 8-12-2015 by Morgan]
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Morgan
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Oddly, I found the tail end of my railroad rail rock today when walking along the tracks this morning. And the tracks had shiny striated marks on the
top of them where it looked like they had been recently abraded, not your smooth typical rail.
Now with the tail end attached, the fused steel particles seem to take on the abstract appearance of a fossilized fish.
"Unlike some other uses of iron and steel, railway rails are subject to very high stresses and are made of very high quality steel."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_profile
 
[Edited on 9-12-2015 by Morgan]
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diddi
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re the industrial look: heres an example of aluminium cooled in a pot at the refinery.
Beginning construction of periodic table display
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Morgan
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The other day I came across this magnesium look when looking for my mystery rock in Google images.
http://www.britannica.com/technology/magnesium-processing
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Morgan
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As a followup to the hardened mass of steel sparks is a photo of the track from which it presumedly came and some other shots of the rails that caught
my eye.
A long, slow train with molten sulfur and other stuff went by shortly after taking these photographs.
    
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diddi
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the magnesium shows very similar habit, Morgan. Have you looked at all the other types of rocks? I have found more than 10 interesting minerals on
the tracks near me place. including magnesite, axinite, epidote, calcite, pyrite...
the marks do look a lot like a grinder has been used.
Beginning construction of periodic table display
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Morgan
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I held some black glittery rocks up the camera but I didn't photo any. There're some green rocks and faint pinks and a lot of granitic looking gravel.
I tried to look for something really unusual. It seemed like some of the railroad track rocks were worth some study, but being so commonplace ...
A nearly solid block of compressed sheet metal ~75 cm square that apparently fell off a train was so heavy it didn't budge in the least.
That one rail photo with the chip in it looks sort of like the rail has or is made in two layers of steel the way there's an air gap separation in the
side.
     
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diddi
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nice train!
glittery bits may be pyrite
look for rocks that have rust around them. pyrite and marcasite
take a magnifier with you to see what is around
granites are often host to many rare microminerals
Beginning construction of periodic table display
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Morgan
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I walked in the opposite direction on the tracks for quite some distance and came upon more "sintered" rocks. This large piece weighed quite a bit and
looked larger than the camera perspective. The last photo of it had a fine grain appearance. There was also a large/huge piece of carbon brake pad
near the tracks shaped like the curve would fit over a train wheel. There were filaments of what looked like asbestos in the brake pad.
     
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aga
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Ferrosilicon/silicate from the asbestos brake shoe and the steel of the train wheel ?
Do not Eat.
Edit:
Nice photos !
Photos really do brighten the place up.
[Edited on 15-12-2015 by aga]
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diddi
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that looks like left over slag from a thermite they use to join rails. look for blood red sandy lumps which I think is related.
Beginning construction of periodic table display
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Morgan
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There were these metal cylinder posts right next to the tracks along with some shavings and granular flecks of metal. Also a fragment of brake pad
probably with fibers in it although not the beautiful curved giant piece I found a few days later. And a great blue heron. The last train I saw had
hydrogen peroxide, methyl chloride, LPG, phosphoric acid, hydrochloric acid, and other stuff I can't remember.
     
[Edited on 15-12-2015 by Morgan]
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Morgan
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Some of the cliffs where exposed are orange but as you go down towards the bay there are patches where the quartz sand has been washed enough to
become white it seems. The Gulf of Mexico across the bay used to have beautiful dunes of sugar white sand. Now the beach is flat for the most part.
     
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Eddygp
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Quote: Originally posted by Eddygp  | Although I posted this in a separate thread a while ago, it was never completely identified, so here it goes. This rock has been discovered along with
other apparently pure, blobby metal fragments coated in a hard red oxide shell (which led me to think that it is iron, but -whaaaat?!- it is not
attracted to magnets!!!).
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You can see the photos for this post, which is on page 6 of this thread.
I think this might be it! Ferrihydrite?
http://www.mindat.org/min-1493.html
there may be bugs in gfind
[ˌɛdidʒiˈpiː] IPA pronunciation for my Username |
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Morgan
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Here's some rocks found at the shoreline that were kind of a pretty blue when wet. I wonder what makes them blue? The first photo they were dry but
all were found submerged in the lapping waves.
  
[Edited on 27-12-2015 by Morgan]
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Morgan
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| Quote: Originally posted by diddi | | that looks like left over slag from a thermite they use to join rails. look for blood red sandy lumps which I think is related.
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Well I did find evidence of some thermite activity, lots of large chunks of sand that was red with a neat layer of white sand . And there were these
wooden sticks about and what looks like iron that had hardened in the sand mold somehow. I brought home a tiny piece of the red oxide stained sand and
a piece of the railroad track. I wonder how long railroad track lasts generally? All the thermite paraphernalia was buried under a pile of rocks near
the tracks, as if a half-hearted attempt was made to neaten the area. There were lots of large chunks of hardened half red and half white sand and
those iron spike shapes probably from the mold.
 
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diddi
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well that solves that one  same red stuff I collected recently. I reckon the
thermite was not contained well enough and a blowhole has caused the feathery looking pieces.
Smash up one of your blue chunks and see the texture and hardness. they appear sandy and course from the pics and probably somewhat soft.
Beginning construction of periodic table display
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Morgan
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I think this feathery thing is from the railroad grinding sparks/sintered 3D printing method and not from a thermite process.
http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/files.php?pid=430509&...
Here is something that looks like the red sandstone material I found.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wi6q7fKgqkE#t=1m20s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TstoubOQImQ#t=2m59s
Here's a nice anvil made from a railroad segment.
http://static1.squarespace.com/static/54ecd99fe4b0bc2e9aa70e...
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diddi
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yeh looks pretty right.
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Morgan
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A few brief introductory tidbits ...
Death Rocks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2xPQ36kfOY
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diddi
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gotta get me some hutchinsonite. got all the others
Beginning construction of periodic table display
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Morgan
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Maybe of interest.
Life's Rocky Start
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/earth/life-rocky-start.html
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