r/askgeology

 I was hiking last weekend and picked up a rock that had little shiny flecks all through it. Looked almost like glitter but natural. My friend said it was probably mica. Then two feet away I found another rock that was just gray and nothing. Same trail same general area. Why the huge difference? Is it just about what minerals were present when the rock formed or does something else decide which rocks get the sparkle upgrade

Also is there an easy way to tell if shiny flecks are mica versus something like pyrite without licking the rock like a weirdo

I'm not sure I'll be able to explain this properly. I'm not even 100% sure this is a geology question. But here it goes.

I would think Amazon forest would have the highest biomass per area on land anywhere on Earth and all those living things do what living things do and die. That would get decomposed of course, and become dirt at the end essentially. Does that cause the land to rise? Or does all the carbon/water/nitrogen cycles reconstitute a lot back to biomass, and the rest get eroded by the gigantic water basin of the Amazon River and the land level keep the same? Or does the river go even further, and the land is actually lowering in a lot of places?

Long story short, what is the effect of the crazy biological activity on the altitude of the land?

 Been watching some field geology videos and noticed everyone does this little tap tap tap before actually grabbing the rock. Is it a safety thing? Checking for something specific? Or just some inherited habit that everyone copies?

Genuinely curious. Looks like a secret handshake but with hammers.

Stop the quarry!

A huge quarry is trying to start digging a 1600 ft deep open mine on Lone Pine Cyn Rd outside of Wrightwood. The limestone they will be hauling up is a commonly quarried rock containing asbestos. Absolutely pure limestone does not have asbestos, but during the mining process, actinolite is frequently found infiltrating the limestone.

Actinolite is one of the six types of asbestos. It is so common in this area, including Lone Pine Cyn, that if you googled "green actinolite" it would answer "Wrightwood." The answer with AI is more scientific but google's answer certainly let's you know this is not a safe area to mine limestone.

As a rock, actinolite is not dangerous, but cut, ground or blasted apart the dust released is deadly. So deadly they must do wet mining, which means constant water running on everything to control the dust and fragments. That means 2 things. They will be using endless water and sending our water table lower and lower. And all that water full of asbestos and limestone fragments will be going right downhill to Lytle Creek, Phelan, and other local communities. 20 years of mining profits before the first cases of cancer show up.

Any dust that does get into the air will be available to the PCTrailers as the trail is right beside the proposed mine. The dust, the constant blasting, 250 gigantic trucks a day, the diesel fumes, all on a very tiny mountain road that weaves through the Mormon Rocks. This is the future for a road built by Mormon settlers in the early 1850s that has never allowed more than 10,000 lbs and now someone said yes to trucks that are 30,000 lbs empty. What kind of reality is that?

Lone Pine Cyn Rd was built right on top of the San Andres Fault. It is also one of the few evacuation routes for Wrightwood. It is one of the main roads to Mt High ski resort. The Serrano Indians lived here. It is a wilderness for animals and people. Lone Pine Cyn Quarry has no intention of even doing an Environmental Impact Report or any other report.

I hear 3 lawyers have volunteered to work pro-bono. Judy Chu ( Member of Congress, House 28th Dist.) is helping. Many have written to Derek Newland ( San Bernardino Co Land Use Services Rep.) Help! Write, talk to everyone. PCT people are very upset.

Meeting 6 pm Thurs May 14, Wrightwood Place, 770 hwy 2, Wrightwood, CA 92397