Many minerals form beautiful crystals, but the most prized of all are gemstones. Uncut gems often look fairly ordinary–like rocks. It's only when they are cut and polished that they obtain the ...

There would be no bright and colorful fireworks without rocks and minerals. A firework is produced ... This explosion propels brightly burning particles in all directions, creating streaks of ...

All plants require 17 elements ... review the mineralogical composition of common rocks that make up the soil parent material (Table 1). Primary minerals form at elevated temperatures from cooling ...

Some minerals in rocks and organic matter (e.g., wood, bones, and shells) can contain radioactive isotopes. The abundances of parent and daughter isotopes in a sample can be measured and used to ...

At CU Boulder, we use petrology to study the formation of volcanoes and their magmatic sources, the evolution of continental crust during the growth and destruction of mountain belts, the genesis of ...