Tridymite and Cristobalite are the low pressure, high temperature polymorphs of quartz, stable at below ~4Kbars and above 1,000 degrees C. Silica polymorphs exemplify that even that which seems fixed and unyielding (quartz is one of the most resistant and common minerals on Earth) can transform, down to it’s very inner structure, and yet remain “itself” (SiO2).

Tridymite and Cristobalite are the low pressure, high temperature polymorphs of quartz, stable at below ~4Kbars and above 1,000 degrees C.

Silica polymorphs exemplify that even that which seems fixed and unyielding (quartz is one of the most resistant and common minerals on Earth) can transform, down to it’s very inner structure, and yet remain “itself” (SiO2).

To tell your history, although you didn’t ask. Dr. Hollocher’s thin section drawing depicts partially retrograded garnet and chloritoid of a schist that reentered greenschist facies. 

To tell your history, although you didn’t ask.

Dr. Hollocher’s thin section drawing depicts partially retrograded garnet and chloritoid of a schist that reentered greenschist facies. 

Protorock, waiting to be kept. [c] Edit: And how I pain at calling you such. I resolve you to a name. You, unrestrainable.  You that cannot be known. You: Ineffable! My limitations call you rock, describe you as a mafic mass defining its own crests. Bolstering heat concealed in iridescent sheath that is at once rigid and flowing. This is the closest I can get to You, I am limited to your outer depths, the chagingyouwitheveryangle. It is your inner depths, your heat, vibrating energy, that I can never reach. I settle - pāhoehoe.  

Protorock, waiting to be kept.

[c] Edit: And how I pain at calling you such. I resolve you to a name. You, unrestrainable.  You that cannot be known. You: Ineffable! My limitations call you rock, describe you as a mafic mass defining its own crests. Bolstering heat concealed in iridescent sheath that is at once rigid and flowing. This is the closest I can get to You, I am limited to your outer depths, the chagingyouwitheveryangle. It is your inner depths, your heat, vibrating energy, that I can never reach. I settle - pāhoehoe.  

Philip Glass- The Hours

Rocks teach you the lesson of time. It has several meanings, implications: gifts nuanced understandings. One lesson I’ve learned from rocks is that in this moment of transition, I just need to let time be (outside of me). Rocks seem immutable in the present, but I (~)understand that their history is already being made on their own system of measurement. They change drastically and unforgivably, given time. I, too, will be able to incorporate my changes, given time - but I don’t know by what units, and that shouldn’t concern me.

Image: Arcasta gneiss complex [c].

“

Civilization exists by geologic consent, subject to change without notice.

An ice loss cries polygons of water. Molecules collapse in void. Now, α dense sadness. Thawing permafrost on the Lena River Delta, Russia.

An ice loss cries polygons of water. Molecules collapse in void. Now, α dense sadness.

Thawing permafrost on the Lena River Delta, Russia.