Geologist couple mine golden discovery at Carnegie museum

June 10, 2009

Personally, I would love to go " play " in the filing cabinets with these

folks!! Since I live close enough to Pittsburgh, I could as far as geography

goes ... lol

l_

Now one particular passage in this article, annoys me to a degree:

" Mineral varieties and even mineral species can go extinct, " Wendell

Wilson, publisher and editor-in-chief of The Mineralogical Record, said in an

e-mail.

" They evolve, so to speak, in special restricted environments, in many

cases never spreading very widely, and when those occurrences have been mined

out, the minerals ... are permanently extinct in the wild and thereafter

exist only in captivity in museums and private collections, " he said. " So it

is critically important to preserve all possible information about them for

future reference. "

~~~~~~~~

~Mini rant on~

This is pretty broad spectrum (and absolute) and to me very inaccurate. How

a scientist can say a mineral can become extinct just boggles my mind.

This makes it out like we as humans have excavated the entire planet and know

for certain what is under her surface in any given spot. Now had this

article said something more to the effect of " The mine is flooded and it would

cost too much to drain it and start mining operations again. " This doesn't

make a mineral extinct .... just inaccessible. I also guarantee you that

there is no " just one location " on this planet for any single mineral .... it

is just a matter of said mineral is in a location yet to be discovered (and

very well may never be discovered due to environmental circumstances for

how it grows in the " wild " .

~mini rant off~

It would still be fun to play in their drawers!!! lol

Blessings to your eve all.

ReNau

" Codail, suaimhnigh i nge/aga nadragain "

" Sleep, rest in the arms of the Dragon "

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