4 ms·

Elemental iron is not present in rocks on Earth.

lukan 2y ago
But iron ore is. And TFA literally talks about "liquified molten ore". And this is speculation, but I assume a molten ore rock from inside the vulcano shot outwards, might have enough energy and time to purify itself a bit (different elements have different density, centrifugal principle).
- cryptonector 2y ago
  ^F ore says no. This is the only mention of "ore" in TFA: > In a way, the idea of using iron to fix potholes has come full circle. Currently, researchers in Minnesota are experimenting with using tailings left over from processing taconite, a type of low-grade iron ore, into a durable road patch.
  - lukan 2y ago
    That is right, I meant the other linked article from the comments with the pictures https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/roman-roads-0011920 https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/rom...
LightHugger 2y ago
Elemental iron is in fact present in some rare geology on earth. However, that's unlikely to be related to this issue, since they found the iron localized to main roadways and not splattered all over.
loufe 2y ago
You do get some very large deposits of mostly pure iron, all of which in Europe would be fully mined out by now. Here's a mine in Northern Canada near my own which has 60-70% pure iron ore (truly astronomically high purity compared to ores for other metals).
- gus_massa 2y ago
  Where, so I can take a look for more details. Natural iron minerals are made of oxizized iron, that includes oxigen or sulfur. The chemical process to deoxidize iron requires a lot of energy.
  - throwway120385 2y ago
    I thought early Earth had no free oxygen with which to oxidize metal until life started producing it as a waste product? Isn't that why the banded iron formations exist?
    - meindnoch 2y ago
      Banded iron formations are iron oxide, not elemental iron. Vast amounts of iron were dissolved in Earths oceans, until oxygen produced by photosynthesis oxidized it, to form iron oxide, which precipitated and sank to the bottom. This process went on for 2.5 billion years until all the dissolved iron was consumed.
    - gus_massa 2y ago
      > I thought early Earth had no free oxygen [XXX] until life started producing it as a waste product? It's correct, but metal did get oxidized abyway before that. Don't expect to time travel and see bunchs of metalic Sodium. I'm only 99% sure thre was neither metalic Iron. Anyway, I googled https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banded_iron_formation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banded_iron_formation The idea is that the water alewady had oxidized iron(2+) and some bacterias oxidized it to iron(3+) that is no so soluble and then you got deposits of mixed iron(3+), iron(2+) and oxygen (2-).
  - loufe 2y ago
    Apologies, forgot to paste it when submitting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_River_Mine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_River_Mine There are some known techniques to deoxidize iron from the medieval and renaissance periods, and they take a lot of work (and even more wood). Here's an EXCELLENT write-up for anyone curious, https://acoup.blog/2020/09/18/collections-iron-how-did-they-make-it-part-i-mining/ https://acoup.blog/2020/09/18/collections-iron-how-did-they-...

But iron ore is. And TFA literally talks about "liquified molten ore". And this is speculation, but I assume a molten ore rock from inside the vulcano shot outwards, might have enough energy and time to purify itself a bit (different elements have different density, centrifugal principle).

cryptonector 2y ago
^F ore says no. This is the only mention of "ore" in TFA: > In a way, the idea of using iron to fix potholes has come full circle. Currently, researchers in Minnesota are experimenting with using tailings left over from processing taconite, a type of low-grade iron ore, into a durable road patch.
- lukan 2y ago
  That is right, I meant the other linked article from the comments with the pictures https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/roman-roads-0011920 https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/rom...

LightHugger 2y ago

Elemental iron is in fact present in some rare geology on earth. However, that's unlikely to be related to this issue, since they found the iron localized to main roadways and not splattered all over.

loufe 2y ago

You do get some very large deposits of mostly pure iron, all of which in Europe would be fully mined out by now. Here's a mine in Northern Canada near my own which has 60-70% pure iron ore (truly astronomically high purity compared to ores for other metals).

gus_massa 2y ago
Where, so I can take a look for more details. Natural iron minerals are made of oxizized iron, that includes oxigen or sulfur. The chemical process to deoxidize iron requires a lot of energy.
- throwway120385 2y ago
  I thought early Earth had no free oxygen with which to oxidize metal until life started producing it as a waste product? Isn't that why the banded iron formations exist?
  - meindnoch 2y ago
    Banded iron formations are iron oxide, not elemental iron. Vast amounts of iron were dissolved in Earths oceans, until oxygen produced by photosynthesis oxidized it, to form iron oxide, which precipitated and sank to the bottom. This process went on for 2.5 billion years until all the dissolved iron was consumed.
  - gus_massa 2y ago
    > I thought early Earth had no free oxygen [XXX] until life started producing it as a waste product? It's correct, but metal did get oxidized abyway before that. Don't expect to time travel and see bunchs of metalic Sodium. I'm only 99% sure thre was neither metalic Iron. Anyway, I googled https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banded_iron_formation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banded_iron_formation The idea is that the water alewady had oxidized iron(2+) and some bacterias oxidized it to iron(3+) that is no so soluble and then you got deposits of mixed iron(3+), iron(2+) and oxygen (2-).
- loufe 2y ago
  Apologies, forgot to paste it when submitting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_River_Mine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_River_Mine There are some known techniques to deoxidize iron from the medieval and renaissance periods, and they take a lot of work (and even more wood). Here's an EXCELLENT write-up for anyone curious, https://acoup.blog/2020/09/18/collections-iron-how-did-they-make-it-part-i-mining/ https://acoup.blog/2020/09/18/collections-iron-how-did-they-...