hewhocaves wrote:green granite is apparantly possible - there's a place in Australia where oxidizing iron has lent granite a green color....
Do you know where in Australia? Just curious...
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hewhocaves wrote:green granite is apparantly possible - there's a place in Australia where oxidizing iron has lent granite a green color....
Teresa wrote:bigalpha wrote:yes! shiney rocks! I'm in.
Teresa -- while you cannot definitively say that the coloring of a rock is from one element/cation -- can you say that it's most likely from a certain element/cation? Or maybe, from a higher concentration of element/cation than other impurities?
I think it would be more that there are 'typical colors'--except in the case of gemstones which are defined by their color--for example corundum by any other color is sapphire, red corundum is ruby, or amethyst--defined as purple quartz.
Colors can fool you though. Being a mean TA, I would give kids green fluorite and basalt with big pink phenocrysts for their tests. Not enough of those zingers to fail a student, of course, but one or two to humble the know-it-alls..
Now, if you ID a rock by a suite of characteristics--color+texture+hardness+any other weird characteristic you are much safer.
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