Simplification of Geology: Cookbook for rocks (small)

Rocks are like pastry and breads.

Rocks are of a mixture of minerals like Quartz, Clay, Feldspar and Mica, just like pastry are a mixture of ingredients like Flour, Starch, Sugar and Butter.

Gems in rocks are like nuts in pastry, they influence texture and color.

Ingredients like Aluminium, Calcium, Sodium, Potassium, Magnesium and Hydrogen in rocks influence texture and their properties, just like sugars do in pastry.

Ingredients like Beryllium, Chromium, Iron, Copper, Gold, and Sulfur give color and properties to rocks just like spices do to pastry.

Mixtures of Minerals are baked in the bowls of the earth to form a variety of rocks.

Depending on how rocks or pastry are cooked, they can be fluffy, soft, hard, fine, crumbly, or flaky.

Equipment needed:

Volcanoes to cook, bake, blend, melt, spray and spread.

Gravity to run the rivers so that Erosion can cut and carve.

Wind to shape

Water to polish

Ice to crack and to accumulate into Glaciers

Glaciers to grind,

Earthquakes and Comets to mix, and mash,

Oceans to press and roll

Life to cement, bind and carve,

Preparing the ingredients:

The ingredients for rocks are minerals made from the atoms like Silicon, Oxygen, Aluminium, Magnesium, Potassium, Calcium, Sodium, Hydrogen, Beryllium, Chromium, Iron, Copper, Gold, Sulphur, etc. These raw ingredients are provided by the molten Magma beneath the earth’s crust.

To make main ingredients Quartz, Clay, Feldspar, Mica, Talc, Calcite, Dolomite, and Pyrite:

START with:
1 cup of Silicon.
2 cups of Oxygen.
Mix thoroughly until it hardens and crystallizes to Quartz.

Quartz (SiO2) is called Silicon dioxide or Silica. Depending on how it crystallizes, it forms various varieties of Quartz. When the crystals are big and have impurities, they form pinkish violet to deep purple crystals called Amethyst. When the crystals are dense and microscopically small, they forms big rocks called Chert which breaks into flat pieces called Flint. Flint is harder than steel and when struck against steel, red hot pieces of steel called sparks are chipped off.

When Chert has impurities embedded in the crystalline structure, it is called Jasper. If Jasper has iron, then it is red. If it has Emerald, then it is green.

When the crystals are even smaller and denser and if they are embedded with other minerals, then parallel layers or bands are formed as seen in Agate. When silica crystallizes in single chains interlock with magnesium, iron, aluminium and sodium, Jade a green gem, is formed. Garnet is quartz crystals with calcium accompanied by iron, aluminium or chromium, or aluminium accompanied by iron, magnesium or manganese.

When fibers grow very very long, they form silicate fibers like Asbestos which are used for insulation. When the fibers are breathed in, they can cause lung cancers to grow.

Take Quartz and add Aluminium and Fluorine to get Topaz.

Take Quartz and add Magnesium and Iron and Oxygen to get Pyroxene.

Add more Magnesium and Iron and Oxygen to get Olivine.

Take some Quartz and add Aluminium to get Clay.

Sprinkle Potassium, Calcium and Sodium to Clay and let it harden till it becomes Feldspar.

Use acid water to dissolve Potassium, Calcium, and Sodium from Feldspar to get back to Clay.

Mix Feldspar with low Quartz and add Sulfur, Oxygen and Chlorine till it becomes Lazurite.

Mix Feldspar with low Quartz and add Sodium, Oxygen and Chlorine till it becomes Sodalite.

Mix Feldspar with Hydrogen till it becomes flaky and slippery Mica.

Take Quartz and add Magnesium and Hydrogen and prepare some Talc.

Cook Talc till it turns to Soapstone.

In another bowl, substitute Silicon, the basic atom of rocks, with Carbon, the basic atom of life.

To make Calcite.

START with:
1 cup Carbon
3 cups Oxygen
1 cup Calcium
Mix the mixture thoroughly until it hardens to CaCO3 (Calcium Carbonate) and crystallizes to Calcite.

Add Magnesium to make Dolomite.

Add Phosphorous to Calcite to make Apatite.

Add Sulphur to Calcite to make Anhydrite.

Add water to Anhydrite to make Gypsum used for walls in houses. Gypsum can grow crystals bigger than 10 meters.

When the crystals are very small, Alabaster is formed that make translucent rock often used for ornament carvings. When gypsum is heated, pulverized and mixed with water, it form plaster of Paris.

Mix and heat Iron and Sulphur until it turns to Pyrite (FeS2) that looks just like Gold.

Mix Lazurite, Sodalite, Pyrite and Calcite,
heat and press until you get Lapis Lazuli.

Metals are useful as coloring agents.

Use a pinch of:

Gold for gold

Weathered and oxidized Iron for red rust

Weathered and oxidized Copper for green Azurite

Magnesium for blue

Sulfur for yellow.

To make decorative Gems for color and texture like Aquamarine, Emerald, Opal, Sapphire, Ruby and Turquoise:

Take some Clay and add Beryllium to make light blue Aquamarine.

Add Chromium to Aquamarine to turn it into a green Emerald.

Soak Quartz it in water until it turns to Opal and red, green and blue clouds are seen and it looks like there is an ocean inside.

Mix Aluminium and Oxygen (Corundum) and make some blue Sapphire.

Add Chromium to Sapphire and make some red Ruby.

Add water to hydrate the phosphate of copper and aluminium and get Turquoise.

To make Tuff, Basalt, Granite, Sandstone, Quartzite, Limestone, Marble, Shale, Slate, Schist, Gneiss, Peat, Coal, and Asphalt:

Glaze Magma to make volcanic glass called Obsidian.

Pop some Magma to make volcanic cinders called Scoria.

Whip some Magma to make volcanic foam called Pumice.

Mix and Knead the above into a dough and gently bake to get porous Tuff (made with small pieces)

and Breccias (made with large pieces)

To make fine grained Rhyolite (70% Quartz and light in color), or

Diorite (50% Quartz) or

Basalt (40% Quartz and dark).

Take Magma and rapidly cool it in air or water.
Now for the course grains....

To make coarse grained Granite (70% Quartz and light in color), or

Andesite (50% Quartz) or

Gabbro (40% Quartz and dark)

Take Magma and slowly cool it under ground.

Roll Quartz into a flat sheet, press and fold to make Sandstone.

Take Sandstone and under heat and pressure let it crystallize into Quartzite.

Mix Quartz with Calcite from Sea Shells and press and heat until it turns to Limestone.

Soft limestone, called chalk is used to write on polished slate stone slabs called blackboards.

Travertine is a limestone formed my rapid precipitation of CaCO3. It is deposited by hot mineral springs at its mouth, on ceilings of caves as stalactites, or on the floors of caves as stalagmites.

Add Dolomite Limestone to make Dolostone.

Heat Limestone or Dolostone in a pressure cooker until it turns to Marble.

Crush Quartz till it turns to Silt and Mud.

Mix with Clay and Calcite and let harden to Shale.

Press till it is Slate, a rock that splits into flat surfaces used to make roof tiles and blackboards.

Press Slate till it is Phyllite.

Press Phyllite till it is Schist.

Press Schist and add Feldspar to make Gneiss hard enough to use on the side of roads.

Pressure cook a cup of Plants till you get a black greasy sludge called Hydrocarbons.

Mix in Sandstone to make Asphalt.

Simmer hydrocarbons till it hardens into Peat.

Press until it is Coal.

Press and heat until it is Graphite.

Press and heat until it is Diamond, the hardest mineral.

Using Calcite from Limestone as a cement and sand and gravel as a filler, man has learned from geology`s cookbook to cook up many new materials that nature missed out on. Like concrete, porcelain, glass, plastics and IC chips that are carved like statues into computer brains.