Recent content by gsimonel

It looks like it contains a fossilized impression of some rugose coral. Whereabouts do you live? Do you know the age of the rocks in your area?

After discovering that one of the trees that I have been calling a sugar maple is actually a Norway maple, I've decided I'd better learn how to tell them apart. I've learned about the difference in their buds, their leaves and their sap. I've also learned that the Norway maple tends to stay...

Conducting a specific gravity test is pretty easy: http://www.johnbetts-fineminerals.com/jhbnyc/articles/specific_gravity.htm View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGnNE-MWDV4&feature=emb_logo There will be a slight error because of the string or wire that you use to suspend the sample, but...

Again, it's the sample size of one. I write music. One of the hardest things for a composer to do is begin a piece without any restrictions. It makes it difficult to know where to begin. If I have a few limitations in place--style, length, instrumentation--it makes it a lot easier to get...

It's hard to generalize with a sample size of one. It seems likely that there is a temperature range within the Goldilocks zone where life is more likely to arise. But that just raises other questions. What other factors besides temperatures do we need to consider? What possible compensating...

Looks like pyrite. It is not unusual for clasts (some kind of foreign material) in limestone to become pyritized. The thin pyrite coating takes the form of whatever it has adhered to, which is why it doesn't look like the typical pyrite samples you would see for sale at a rock and mineral show.

I have no idea if this is the case in your example, but often tectonic activity will cause rocks to crack and split. Mineral-rich water flow through these cracks and over millions of years the minerals in the water form crystals and eventually fill the crack with a new substance. If the new...

Keep in mind that continental crust, while thicker than oceanic crust, is less dense. There is less continental crust in the Southern Hemisphere now. But let's check back in 150 million years to see if your theory holds up.

Having lived in Bloomington, IN, where fossils like these are common, I would guess around 5-7 inches long. Is this correct?

The lines in the rock does remind one of a shell. But there is no reason to assume that a shell would be on the surface of Mars. There are many physical processes that could create lines and bubbles in a rock like that, such as sedimentation, trapped carbon dioxide gas or different chemical...

Well, a random AI guess is about as good as a random human guess. I guess.

It looks like some fossilized colonial rugose coral from around 330 million years ago.

I doubt there's a specific name for that particular type of formation. Call it whatever you want. "Patya's Formation" has a nice ring to it. ;) I can't tell what type of rock it is from the photos. The most likely explanation is that it is igneous rock that formed in older, softer rock. It...

From your question, I am not sure which rock you are trying to identify.

Correct, BUT, someone in that part of the galaxy wouldn't notice this. Do you notice that time moves differently for you than it does for an object closer to a black hole? One would only notice this difference if there was some way of comparing the two different rates. Once you were in that...