As a rock hunter and mineral collector for the past 40 years, I was interested in this article. However, it is problematic, which I will charitably attribute to the writing and editing, rather than to the researchers. If industrial waste really is “turning into rock in decades,” that would be a colossal discovery worthy of happy parades. What a great solution to the waste-disposal problem! The trick lies in the misleading headline. The truth is that the amount is minuscule, not merely in actuality, but in principle.
First, let’s look at the bad writing. The worst is this: “our models of erosion of land management,” which hilariously says that the management is eroding. This was caused by bad syntax compounded by the awkward use of “of…of….” What they meant was “our erosion models for land management.” Next we have “…becoming lithified - essentially turning into rock….” The jargon word lithified is a problem that they get around by the weasel word essentially, but not without a whiff of dishonesty (journalistic puffery—puffing up the story to make it more impressive). Since the term lithified is used—referring to the process of induration, or the hardening of stone aggregates by heat, pressure, cementation, or other means—I will assume that some small amount of chemical alteration has occurred to the surfaces of the embedded objects. Normally, this refers to rock constituents that create different kinds of rocks. So sand grains are pressured and/or cemented into sandstone. Or feldspar inclusions are consolidated into pink granite. When the constituent substantially maintains its integrity, it is referred to as an inclusion.
The most famous type of inclusion is probably rutilated quartz, in which inclusions of tiny rutile crystals or blebs, exist inside the quartz. This is because the rutile crystalizes or hardens by cooling faster than the quartz. Within arm’s reach, I have a wonderful thumbnail specimen of a purple lepidolite crystal (lithium mica) inside a quartz crystal, from the Katrina Mine, Pala, CA.
The can tab and coin remain primarily inclusions, probably cemented to the rock by goethite (rust) in view of the iron slag. If alteration has occurred in these, it appears to be slight. I would expect the original paper to estimate the degree of alteration. If the coin is copper, the most likely alteration would be to malachite (the green “rust” that occurs on copper).
The real importance of the discovery, as far as I can tell, is the speed of the alteration and the influence of the sea water. This particularly interested me because such chemical alteration, if it is occurring, is pseudomorphism, and pseudomorphs are the main focus of my collecting. Pseudos (for short) are mineral crystals that have taken on the shape of a different mineral crystal. This can be caused in three ways: (1) a negative cast (one mineral covers the faces of another, and the interior mineral dissolves away), (2) a positive cast (the opposite of #1, leaving a solid crystal behind), or (3) chemical alteration (usually caused by oxidation, reduction, or substitution of some reactive element or radical (such as hydroxide, carbonate, or sulfate).
I have on one occasion examined the slag heap of an old manganese mine in George Washington National Forest in the Shenandoah Valley, but found nothing of interest. That might indicate the difference between slag in the open air and slag regularly inundated by seawater.
The article gains sensational effect because the public generally believes that geological processes are always slow. This isn’t true. Calcite stalactites grow in the damp underbelly of the Lincoln Memorial because the memorial is limestone. I have collected sand selenite crystals (gypsum with sand inclusions) in the desert near Jet, Oklahoma. The collection area is rotated periodically, because the crystals take only about 4 years to grow.
I would be very skeptical of any lithification, in the sense of chemical induration, of polymers like rubber (recall the tire that was mentioned) and plastic. Polymers are very tough and resistant to chemical breakdown. To return to the beginning: if we could lithify tires quickly, that would be a fabulous, science-fictional discovery.
noone you say. Distance you say. Hmmmm
couldnt tell if it was about computers or witches (never would have guessed furniture!)
