Fun Fact: The Guys At Our College’s Geology Department Prop Out The Doors With Their Samples. I Totally

i found a book about cats from 1873 and i’m absolutely losing my mind

Follower celebration: Make me choose between __and __

@x-kytanna-x asked: Thorin or Bilbo?

"Who are you?"

"I'm you but paleontologically accurate"

What if... what if I WANT an info dump???

Then you're my favorite and I will dump SO much info on natrocarbonatite lava

No one knows for sure why or how this type of lava forms. Oldoinyo Lengai is the only volcano on earth that actively erupts it currently, and Oldoinyo Lengai hasn't been extensively studied.

The factor that causes lava to be viscous (thick, and sticky) is its silica content. Rhyolitic magmas, like those in Washington, have around 70 weight % silica. Basaltic magmas, like the volcanoes in Hawai'i, are around 45 wt% silica. Natrocarbonatite lava is less than 3% silica. Its flow rate is close to water, so it flows faster than you can outrun.

It's also a LOT less hot than other lavas. Most lavas are from 700-1200 degrees C (basaltic lavas in the higher range, rhyolitic lavas in the lower), but natrocarbonatite is around 500-600 degrees C. It's cool enough that you won't immediately die if you fall into it (you'll be hospitalized for months, as one man who fell into it was, but it's survivable). It's so cool that you can't see it glow in daylight.

It flows black and cools white! This is because of its content of the minerals nyerereite and gregoryite, which are unstable and break down quickly when exposed to humidity.

Basically it's cool as fuck literally and figuratively and I'm obsessed with it

2020: Sequence of Little Blowhole operating. This blowhole was formed from a column dropping out in the Blow Hole Latite, the basal member of the Gerringong Volcanics (late Permian). 

I miss doing microscope work. Can we make a thread of our favourite thin section? This is mine

Actinolite Schist

Mount Ruapehu - Tongariro National Park

In western lands beneath the Sun

In western lands beneath the Sun the flowers may rise in Spring, the trees may bud, the waters run, the merry finches sing. Or there maybe ‘tis cloudless night and swaying beeches bear the Elven-stars as jewels white amid their branching hair. Though here at journey’s end I lie in darkness buried deep, beyond all towers strong and high, beyond all mountains steep, above all shadows rides the Sun and Stars for ever dwell: I will not say the Day is done, nor bid the Stars farewell.

–J. R. R. Tolkien, from Return of the King

Source

Azurite and malachite