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How do crystals grow?

A

Anonymous

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I am personaly interested in the responses for this. I am doing a bit of research on Geological problems still inherent in the science.

Anyone interested in posting some feelings on the matter?
 
this depends on what kinds of crystals you are refering to.
 
Edit!

I would just like your opinions on how crystals grow. The behavior of multi-faceted growth, control over growth, electrical field effects, etc, etc

You choose the crystals if you wish:)
 
i know gravity, air pressure, chemical make-up play a part. some calcium-based crystals form fan-like structures instead of the classic crystaline shape. quartz is found with rocks, so this leads one to belive they come about thru internal chemical breakdown over thousands of years. if you would have asked me this when i was like 7 or 8 i could have talked your head off. i had a nice rock collection that included crystals. i've seen iron and hard-mineral crystals before, i.e. a non-transparent form. some crystals form because of bacterial cultures like tartaric acid crystals in wine barrels. a crystal isn't specific to one mineral or element actually. it's just the natural shape or path to a shape that minerals take when they are breaking down. like the way ice freezes. get what i am saying? the way air floats around it determines it's shape. that's all i can remember and deduct at this moment.
 
synthwerk said:
......when i was like 7 or 8 i could have talked your head off.
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Ditto!

I have had the fortune to travel the backbone of Britain over the years and view some of its most important geological features. Scotland alone has possibly the most important display of variety in rock on the planet. From its pre-cambrian to its sandstones and granites to its coal seams and limestone caverns to its volcanoes and glacier trails. I used to visit many of Scotlands volcanic areas and regularly camped in the sub-arctic tundra of the Cairngorms. I even met the ben MacDui Ghost. Personaly I think it is the rabbits that play hide and seek with you on that particualr range. You here footsteps and turn to see and hear nothing. Anyhoo........

My two favorite haunts that still occasionaly attract me is the mining area of leadhills (wanlockhead-ish) and Lyme regis. They are two very different places but both yield nice samples.

My own home is surrounded by 150 year old mineral mines and the railways to accompany them. My camping site on arran is positioned to appreciate the 280 million year old sandstones that were in position in a sahara type scotland. There are reptile footprints in two spots nearby.

I try not to buy my rocks as I prefer the natural state of my own collection. My treasures are a Giant Ammonite from Lyme regis, Gold from Leadhills, Olivine encrusted Lava and a rare paleolithic/mesolithic Flint spear head from....aha...that is a secret!:)

I love rock. Without it the universe would be.......a "hole"!

...unless it had a vacuum in it!:)
 
synthwerk said:
i've seen iron and hard-mineral crystals before, i.e. a non-transparent form.
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Which could only be Iron Pyrites and other metals. I used to collect them when I was wee from the ancient slates that surrounded my estate. Common as muck though!:)
 
St.Clair said:
I love rock. Without it the universe would be.......a "hole"!

...unless it had a vacuum in it!:)
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:D
Sorry, don't know anything about crystals, so you'll have to argue with someone else.:)
 
I believe crystals grow in liquid solutions, either when molten rock cools, or when a solution of chemicals (usually salts) get more concentrated during evaporation of the water. Then molecules or atoms of whatever the substance is begin to join together, the distinctive regular shapes being a result of the way the chemical bonds align.

Different substances, different shapes, but all regular because of the fixed and repetitive array of atoms or molecules. New atoms join the crystal by extending the array.

A Google on 'crystal growth' found 122,000 sites! That could be narrowed down using other keywords, like 'geology' or names of various substances.
 
as an aside id like to grow some with me son Harry... when i were a lad i grew Alum crystals any others u can grow in the kitchen?


I spent a couple of years wandering about the penwith mineing area. lots of Pyrites and amerthysts down there!
 
sidecar_jon said:
as an aside id like to grow some with me son Harry... when i were a lad i grew Alum crystals any others u can grow in the kitchen?
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Easiest and most fun for kids is SUGAR crystals. Most supersaturated solutions of substances that can cystalize will crystalize under the right circumstances.



here is a site that has instructions for making rock candy.
 
Fallen Angel said:
Easiest and most fun for kids is SUGAR crystals. Most supersaturated solutions of substances that can cystalize will crystalize under the right circumstances.



here is a site that has instructions for making rock candy.
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thanks for that... ive tried salt with little visible signs.... sugar sounds a good one... non toxic too! cheers
 
Have fun. St. Clair, you might want to look at that site too, there's some decent basic-science info on crystal formation.
 
Fallen Angel said:
Have fun. St. Clair, you might want to look at that site too, there's some decent basic-science info on crystal formation.
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You misunderstand.:) I do not require basic science information on crystal growth. I want to know the opinions of others on this board. The only info that I require is subjective opinion and theory rather than orthodox textbook science.

It is not crystal growth that I am researching. It is how the science is manipulated by the geological world. I am interested in the ways in which the problems manifest themselves to certain people or organisations.

I am not asking how crystals grow even though the thread title is exactly that. My first couple of posts explain briefly.

Cheers anyhoo.

P.S In schools they have occasionaly teached the kids about basic confectionary as an aid to teaching geology. The pressures and heats and coolings and foldings and crustings and crystals of confectionary are all found in the slower actions of rock formations.
 
Okay, it's GB "english" and American "english

OKay, I guess I have to chalk this up to the language barrier, because I have re-read your first two posts and you mentioned conditions that might affect crystal growth such as electrical fields. I found it mildly interesting in that site that fats affect cystal re-formation with sucrose, e.g. conditions that affect crystal growth. Sorry if I made you yawn, St. Clair.

Again, maybe it's the language, but on this thread and the Highland Cattle thread, it's not very clear what you are asking for. Nowhere in your posts have you asked a clear and concise question which has not been answered; in both instances, the question you did ask was answered but you have been insistant that it has not.

Perhaps you might want to re-read or even edit your original posts (to clarify your questions)?
 
Re: Okay, it's GB "english" and American "eng

Fallen Angel said:
OKay, I guess I have to chalk this up to the language barrier, because I have re-read your first two posts and you mentioned conditions that might affect crystal growth such as electrical fields.
...
Again, maybe it's the language, but on this thread and the Highland Cattle thread, it's not very clear what you are asking for. Nowhere in your posts have you asked a clear and concise question which has not been answered; in both instances, the question you did ask was answered but you have been insistant that it has not.
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No, Fallen, not GB v US English, just St. Clair v English! You sum up the situation very well.

St. Clair also said
P.S In schools they have occasionaly teached the kids about basic confectionary as an aid to teaching geology.
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I didn't get much on confectionary at my schools, but they taught me many other things. :rolleyes:
 
WHAT IS ALL THIS....?:mad:

Nowhere in your posts have you asked a clear and concise question which has not been answered;
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And yet......I asked this:
Anyone interested in posting some feelings on the matter?
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And.....
I would just like your opinions on how crystals grow. The behavior of multi-faceted growth, control over growth, electrical field effects, etc, etc
Click to expand...
And.....
I want to know the opinions of others on this board. The only info that I require is subjective opinion and theory rather than orthodox textbook science.

It is not crystal growth that I am researching. It is how the science is manipulated by the geological world. I am interested in the ways in which the problems manifest themselves to certain people or organisations.
Click to expand...
What the hell is the problem?

P.S Rynner: That grammatical error was written at 05:00 am. Get a grip!

What the hell is going on here?
 
Re: Okay, it's GB "english" and American "eng

Fallen Angel said:
but on this thread and the Highland Cattle thread, it's not very clear what you are asking for.
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Eh? The thread title is "What are Highland Cows actually for?"

What do you mean?
 
na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na quote wars

na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na quote wars!

QUOTE WARS

QUOTE WARS!
 
Apologies everyone!:(

I have had an awful week and I have had to apologise to people at home twice today because of my snapping.

An old camping and hill walking friend has just died. He was my closest friends kid brother He was only eighteen. I used to take him camping when he (and myself) were younger. He was very much like a kid brother to me. His funeral was today.

This is no excuse to come barking on this board or to snap at my family. Apologies all round I think.
 
St.Clair said:
An old camping and hill walking friend has just died. He was my closest friends kid brother He was only eighteen.
...
This is no excuse to come barking on this board or to snap at my family. Apologies all round I think.
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Sorry to hear about that, St.Clair.

I recently heard that an old friend of mine died a couple of weeks ago, of lung cancer. But he was older than me, so he had had 'a good innings'. But it is disturbing to hear of the death of a young person.
 
St.Clair said:
Apologies everyone!:(

I have had an awful week and I have had to apologise to people at home twice today because of my snapping.

An old camping and hill walking friend has just died. He was my closest friends kid brother He was only eighteen. I used to take him camping when he (and myself) were younger. He was very much like a kid brother to me. His funeral was today.

This is no excuse to come barking on this board or to snap at my family. Apologies all round I think.
Click to expand...

i know the feeling ...
 
Sorry to hear that St Clair, tis always hard to cope with the death of someone close, especially when so young.

Snap all you wish.
 
'S easy...

Crystals grow...
...by magic...


:rolleyes: I thought everyone knew that!
 
Does it snow on Eurpoa?

I was reading an article on how snowflakes grow. (dont remember the website but it had a catalog of pictures and how they form complete with a lab to generate snowflakes) and found it quite interesting that through some process the water molucules (sp?) "knew" what the other side of the snowflake was going to look like and repeated the pattern on the five other points of the flake.

How can this be? The snowflake is not one single entity with a form but a collection of atoms, molucules, etc that seem to know into what they should form over a distance.

Could the patterns in snowflakes be derived from composition of Earth's atmosphere? (What would a snowflake look like on Mars or Europa, etc where a different atmosphere is present.)

Can snowflakes be made out of something other than water?

I know that the website mentioned that the temperature for flakes to be created determines the type and structure of the patterns and then again if it's too warm or too cold they don't form either.

For instance, Europa has an ice shell surrounding what current thory says is an ocean deep beneath the surface. I'm not sure what the atmosphere is composed of and what the temperature range is but it would easy to believe that it doesn't snow there.

Could be OT but something to ponder. I was bored :)
 
Could it have something to do with the polarity of water? Water tends to defy scientific explanation in a lot of things I think, still a very misunderstood substance?
 
I remember hearing something that if you take water down to near absolute zero, it goes from a solid into liquid and can climb up walls or something :wince:
 
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