Malachite

                 Malachite is a green copper carbonate hydroxide mineral with a chemical composition of Cu2(CO3)(OH)2. It was one of the first ores used to produce copper metal. It is of minor importance today as an ore of copper because it is usually found in small quantities and can be sold for higher prices for other types of use.

Malachite has been used as a gemstone and sculptural material for thousands of years and is still popular today. Today it is most often cut into cabochons or beads for jewelry use.

Malachite has a green color that does not fade over time or when exposed to light. Those properties, along with its ability to be easily ground to a powder, made malachite a preferred pigment and coloring agent for thousands of years.the source

Australia move to the north

      

                    Due to tectonic shifts, the entire continent of Australia has moved 1.5 meters north over the past 22 years, putting it out of sync with global positioning systems (GPS).To fix the problem, the government's announced that the country's latitude and longitude will officially be updated to reflect the continent's new position.The Australian plate is the fastest continental plate on the planet, moving northwards and slightly to the east by about 7 centimeters each year.

                All that movement can build up tension that eventually releases in the form of an earthquake, but the most immediate result is that it drags the entire landmass of Australia closer to the equator year after year, which means the country isn't actually where we think it is anymore.Right now, digital maps know where a country is supposed to be based on detailed coordinates supplied by the government. So if you're looking at Google Maps, your phone has already been searching for a signal sent out by one of the many GPS satellites orbiting the planet. 

                And based on the positioning information that comes back, your phone is able to figure out your longitude and latitude, and place you on the map based on your country's official coordinates.But for Australia, those coordinates were last updated by the national body - the Geocentric Datum of Australia (GDA) - in 1994, and since then, the continent's moved more 1.5 meters.A 1.5-meter discrepancy isn't a huge issue for those of who just want to use Google Maps to figure out the fastest route home, because GPS technology on our smartphones is only accurate to within 5 to 10 meters anyway.the source

?What is a Geyser

geyser in New Zealand

                   A geyser is a vent in Earth's surface that periodically ejects a column of hot water and steam. Even a small geyser is an amazing phenomenon; however some geysers have eruptions that blast thousands of gallons of boiling hot water up to a few hundred feet in the air.

Conditions Required for Geysers

1) hot rocks below

2) an ample groundwater source

3) a subsurface water reservoir

4) fissures to deliver water to the surface

Most of the world's geysers occur in just five countries: 1) the United States, 2) Russia, 3) Chile, 4) New Zealand and 5) Iceland. All of these locations are where there is geologically recent volcanic activity and a source of hot rock below. a geyser erupts when super-heated groundwater, confined at depth, becomes hot enough to blast its way to the surface.the source

Gold

                 the gold deposits              

        

                 A native element and precious metal, Gold has long been prized for its beauty, resistance to chemical attack and workability. As it is found as a native element, has a relatively low melting point (1063 degrees Celsius) and is malleable, it has been used by mankind for thousands of years. 

Gold is used as a standard for international currency and is also widely used in jewelry, electronics (where its superb properties as a conductor help offset its tremendous cost), dentistry and in photographic processes.

             Gold occurs in significant amounts in three main types of deposits: hydrothermal quartz veins and related deposits in metamorphic and igneous rocks; in volcanic-exhalative sulphide deposits; and in consolidated to unconsolidated placer deposits. It may also occur in contact metamorphic or hypothermal deposits (eg. Skarns), or epithermal deposits such as volcanic fumaroles. It is most commonly found as disseminated grains in Quartz veins with Pyrite and other sulphides, or as rounded grains, flakes or nuggets in placer deposits in recent to ancient stream and river deposits. Gold is often panned from such deposits by taking advantage of its high density to wash away the lighter sediments from a pan or sluice. the source

gold fragments

?why is the oceans salty

      

hydrothermal vent

              Rivers and surface runoff are not the only source of dissolved salts. Hydrothermal vents are recently-discovered features on the crest of oceanic ridges that contribute dissolved minerals to the oceans. These vents are the exit point on the ocean floor from which sea water that has seeped into the rocks of the oceanic crust has become hotter, has dissolved some of the minerals from the crust, and then flows back into the ocean. With the hot water comes large amounts of dissolved minerals. Estimates of the amount of hydrothermal fluids now flowing from these vents indicate that the entire volume of the oceans could seep through the oceanic crust in about 10 million years. Thus, this process has a very important effect on salinity. The reactions between seawater and oceanic basalt, the rock of ocean crust, are not one-way, however; some of the dissolved salts react with the rock and are removed from seawater. 

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