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[Flying Dice]

Well this is a good time to mention I have a rock that needs identifying

Now if only I can find it...

Basically it's either coal or iron. Kewl.

See if it is magnetic. If so, magnetite (derp). If it is rust-red, it is probably hematite. Trying to remember my geoscience lab. 

[Zrk2]

gnesis

Half way between gneiss and genesis? Is it the missing link or something?

Basically it's either coal or iron. Kewl.

make it into an artifact and set it on fire. if it burns for eternity at a high enough temprature to run a furnace, it's coal, if it becomes a legendary flaming sword, it's iron.

Do it. For science.

[lordcooper]

Question 2:) It'll probably be mighty hard without a picture, probably close to what Max White said, however.

That is not a question.

[Starver]

Well this is a good time to mention I have a rock that needs identifying

Now if only I can find it...

Basically it's either coal or iron. Kewl.

This sort of reminds me.  Not that it's too relevant, and is more or less just a random anecdote, but here you are anyway...

When doing some work on my driveway, a lot of the previous infill having obviously been something akin to steelworks slag and (I suppose quite literally!) as hard as iron, there were a number of rock pieces with a green appearance.  This was long before I was involved in DF, but still I wouldn't have considered it to be olivine.  I brought a lump inside and put it on a shelf as decoration.  More or less forgot about it.

Then, years later, I happened to look at it again, and it wasn't green at all.  And so I surmise that it was a biological sheen, and not (as I might well have supposed) some ferrous (Iron II) compound, and the colony responsible (at least at the surface) had died in the exposed location on the shelf, where it had been happy being buried.

(I know it'd be silly to have a photosynthesis potential in a buried rock, but it's my best theory so far[1], and it could be a hold-over for various organisms that have above and below-ground existences and it was not so much of a penalty to have some green nature to them, even when currently below normally required light-levels.)


I probably still have the rock.  I have a feeling it's currently sitting on top of one of my larger book-cases, and will doubtless have a thick layer of dust over it.


[1] Also considered a re-oxidation/other reaction turning the Iron II compounds into Iron III, but it didn't look like it went 'rusty', either.  Just went 'random rock'-coloured.

[Skyrunner]

Perhaps the lichen growing on it died of dehydration  Poor plant...animal...colony...thing.

[Farmerbob]

Starver, it was likely iron slag with a dusting of copper on it.

When you process furnace slag, you will sometimes get pools of copper slag under pools of iron slag, and during the breaking process they will separate, and the iron will have a thin bit of copper on it and the copper will have a thin bit of iron.

Your slag rock was likely slag iron peeled apart from slag copper, and over time the copper oxidized, exposing the iron, which then oxidized in turn and expanded over the copper.

That's my layman's guess from what I know about the metal recycling business.

And yes, fine slag is used for under concrete driveways   Sometimes even for unpaved driveways.

[Starver]

Starver, it was likely iron slag with a dusting of copper on it.

Yeah, maybe.  Although I'd pre-dismissed the idea of it being copper verdigris because I'd doubted there was so much copper in the source material.  But I could check with my Dad about the usual consistency of the iron reserves historically used in this area, because his past career was all about analyses of samples from before/after the steelmaking process.  He hasn't been active in the industry since he retired over thirty years ago, but with the house itself being about that age it's a good bet that it'll be roughly contemporaneous with the era that he knows...

(Yes, already mentioned that the material included slag.  Easily sourced, around this area, as filling material.  In my case it was below a brick-and-slab driveway, rather than either a bare or fully over-concreted one.)

Anyway, when I get back home, I'll see if the lump is indeed on top of the bookcase I think it is.  Was thinking I'd try to split it, to see if there's something visible in the interstitial rock that is no longer visible at the surface.  Could also wet a bit of it, and see if it anything 'revives' after time, or even if the wetness affects the surface quality immediately (to show more of a physical cause for the colouration, rather than anything living).

[Muz]

I wonder if having an "Identify this rock" thread is worth it. Like where we take pictures of rocks around our houses and identify what kind of soil everyone lives on and the likelihood of finding adamantine or dinosaurs or something.

[Descan]

Or adamantine dinosaurs.

[Farmerbob]

Starver, it was likely iron slag with a dusting of copper on it.

Yeah, maybe.  Although I'd pre-dismissed the idea of it being copper verdigris because I'd doubted there was so much copper in the source material.  But I could check with my Dad about the usual consistency of the iron reserves historically used in this area, because his past career was all about analyses of samples from before/after the steelmaking process.  He hasn't been active in the industry since he retired over thirty years ago, but with the house itself being about that age it's a good bet that it'll be roughly contemporaneous with the era that he knows...

(Yes, already mentioned that the material included slag.  Easily sourced, around this area, as filling material.  In my case it was below a brick-and-slab driveway, rather than either a bare or fully over-concreted one.)

Anyway, when I get back home, I'll see if the lump is indeed on top of the bookcase I think it is.  Was thinking I'd try to split it, to see if there's something visible in the interstitial rock that is no longer visible at the surface.  Could also wet a bit of it, and see if it anything 'revives' after time, or even if the wetness affects the surface quality immediately (to show more of a physical cause for the colouration, rather than anything living).

A lot of copper finds it's way into steel recycling operations, and I believe some primary iron processing facilities might use steel scrap as part of their process of creating steel as well.

If the local slag came from a primary ore processing facility with no scrap feed, then it's probably pretty unlikely to have significant amounts of copper, unless they run many cycles of ore through a furnace before tapping out the bottom of the furnace to get rid of nondesireable heavier metals.  I know how electric arc furnaces used for steel recycling work, not so sure about ore processes.

[Valid_Dark]

Well this is a good time to mention I have a rock that needs identifying

Now if only I can find it...

Basically it's either coal or iron. Kewl.

See if it is magnetic. If so, magnetite (derp). If it is rust-red, it is probably hematite. Trying to remember my geoscience lab. 

I've never seen rust-red hematite, and hematite can be magnetic.

[Loud Whispers]

Well this is a good time to mention I have a rock that needs identifying

Now if only I can find it...

Basically it's either coal or iron. Kewl.

See if it is magnetic. If so, magnetite (derp). If it is rust-red, it is probably hematite. Trying to remember my geoscience lab. 

I've never seen rust-red hematite, and hematite can be magnetic.

Well it's jet black with a seam of bronze-gold, so it could technically be both iron and coal o_O

I have also reviewed my inventory and found I have a surprising lack of magnets. How does that work?

[Azkanan]

I was looking for a demotivational image referencing to the "Identify" spell from Dungeons and Dragons. Then I found this image, and had to share it.

[Flying Dice]

Well this is a good time to mention I have a rock that needs identifying

Now if only I can find it...

Basically it's either coal or iron. Kewl.

See if it is magnetic. If so, magnetite (derp). If it is rust-red, it is probably hematite. Trying to remember my geoscience lab. 

I've never seen rust-red hematite, and hematite can be magnetic.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Perhaps we have different conceptions of 'rust-red'.

[Valid_Dark]

well that just looks like rust, that could as easily happen to a chunk of iron as it could to a chunk of hematite