One of the courses in my curriculum this summer is Geography. It’s all about earth systems, how they work and interact with one another. Yesterday was an introduction on minerals; their formation and identification. That was continued today, along with tectonic plate movements and the formation of volcanoes.
The healing powers of crystals and minerals has been a recent interest of mine, so learning about how they are formed and what chemical properties they contain has been of special relevance. Lodestone, for example, is a variety of magnetite and excellent for realigning the energy flows in the body, along with a host of other benefits. Anyway, enough of that.
I can’t quite remember the last geography class I took – I’m thinking it was somewhere around Grade Ten. Suffice it to say, it was a long time ago. Sciences and maths were never my forte either. Fine admission for an accountant to make. Go figure! So I have to admit to being a tad overwhelmed at the idea of trying to identify minerals by their properties. “A tad overwhelmed” could be considered an understatement. Panicked is probably more to the point.
Metallic and non-metallic, colour, streak and hardness, I managed. "Plane", however, took it to a whole new level. No pun intended. Other than the obvious meaning, I relate “plane” to geometry. That’s a math thing. That’s a four letter word thing – the bad kind. Likewise, cleavage and fracture have different connotations in my vocabulary. Much as I enjoyed it, I wasn’t entirely sure that my few remaining brain cells hadn’t been “fractured” in trying cram it all in.
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