Thursday, April 25, 2019

Geosonnet 53



An opal is the desert’s hidden gem
Precipitating from a torrid brine
Geologists from arid zones condemn
Ideas that ice, not heat, can redefine.
The glacial polish, hiding in plain sight
Amorphous silica precipitate
Dissolved from glacial floured andesite
It coats the scoured rock with silicate.
Will Coober Pedy yield to Mawson Base?
Should new chums and their ratters venture south?
Probably not; a glaze on orthoclase
Will not put food in hungry digger’s mouth.
   For chemical erosion makes a rind
   So thin that only TEM can find




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