Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 13:21:30 -0500
Reply-To: Stan Wilder <wilden1@JUNO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Stan Wilder <wilden1@JUNO.COM>
Subject: Westy Man Struck Gold ?
Content-Type: text/plain
On a recent trip to Marble Falls Texas I camped near an old rock quarry.
I noticed some shiny stuff in the stream among the rocks and sand. I've
found gold!
Not really it was just pyrite that is commonly known as Fools Gold. It
didn't take long for me to wake up since Pyrite is flaky and floats to
the surface and Gold is heavy and settles to the bottom of stream beds
and Really! Gold in Texas, give me a break.
Not to be outdone I filled my gear box (6 cubic feet) my emergency
bathroom bucket (5 gallons) and a few plastic trash bags with the shiny
gravel. I brought it home and distributed it around my front flower /
rock / cactus bed (3 feet from the street) and now I have to sit up
nights with a shotgun to keep the neighbors from digging up my flower
bed.
They never mess with my smooth flat or round river rocks but that darn
pyrite just plays on their heads.
Stan Wilder
Pyrite (from Encarta Encyclopedia, thanks Microsoft!)
Pyrite, also iron pyrites or fool's gold, mineral composed of iron
sulfide, FeS2, the most common sulfide mineral. It crystallizes in the
isometric system (see Crystal) and frequently occurs as well-defined
crystals as well as in massive formations. The mineral is brass yellow,
is opaque, and has a metallic luster. The resemblance of pyrite to gold
caused many prospectors to mistake it for gold, and it became known as
fool's gold. It is distinguished from gold by its brittleness and by its
hardness, which ranges between 6 and 6.5; the specific gravity is 4.95 to
5.1. Pyrite is a common mineral in sedimentary rocks and also occurs in
igneous and metamorphic rocks. It is often associated with coal
formations and sometimes occurs associated with gold or copper. Large
deposits are found throughout the world; deposits in Spain and Portugal
are particularly noteworthy. In the U.S. important deposits occur in
Arizona, Colorado, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee,
Utah, and Virginia. Pyrite is not mined as an iron ore, except in
countries where iron-oxide ores are not available, because of the
difficulty of removing the sulfur. It is used mainly in the commercial
production of sulfuric acid and of copperas, or ferrous sulfate (see
Sulfur).
Marcasite, a mineral of the same composition as pyrite, is called white
iron pyrites. It is opaque, with a metallic luster, and is pale—bronze
yellow or almost white when freshly fractured. The hardness is the same
as that of pyrite. The specific gravity varies from 4.85 to 4.90.
Marcasite is distinguished from pyrite by the difference in color,
crystal habit, and by chemical tests. It is more easily decomposed than
pyrite and is much less common in occurrence. Marcasite is used, to a
much lesser extent than pyrite, in making sulfuric acid.
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