Microscopic Crystals Might Reveal Multiple Jurassic Extinctions

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Ancient, microscopic crystals show a potential link between a series of less well-known mass extinctions and periodic volcanic activity. Click the link to discover more.

Ancient Crystals

The volcanic history of this region ⁠ is evident in its rocks. Most of them are basaltic ⁠— dark-colored and rich in iron and magnesium, formed from the melting of the Earth’s mantle. But Luttinen and his colleagues focused on something a little less common in the region: pink and orange rocks called rhyolites.

Zircon crystals, aka zirconium silicate, are colorless and sparkly ⁠— high-quality ones are used in jewelry as diamond substitutes. The ones in the rhyolitic rocks of the Karoo are microscopic, far too tiny to make into a pair of earrings, but they’re valuable to geoscientists for their ability to trap uranium.

The team sampled rhyolitic rocks from throughout the Karoo large igneous province, including ones from Mozambique, South Africa, and Antarctica. They crushed the rock and dumped the dust into a heavy, dense liquid to isolate the zircon crystals inside. “The liquid is so dense that only the dense minerals can sink to the bottom,” says Luttinen. And zircon, it so happens, is very dense.

Source: Entertainment Trends (entertainmenttrends.net)

 

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