4 ms·

That grid-like crystalline pattern can't be produced in a lab. It's only present in metals that cool by 1 celsius every thousand years. https://en.wikipedia.or

That grid-like crystalline pattern can't be produced in a lab. It's only present in metals that cool by 1 celsius every thousand years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widmanst%C3%A4tten_pattern https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widmanst%C3%A4tten_pattern

ajross 2y ago
Uplifted mantle rocks will absolutely cool that slowly. What makes the iron crystals special is that the Earth's mantle and crust is swimming in oxygen so you don't see crystalline metals like that at all.
ipsum2 2y ago
It probably could be produced in a lab if it had practical applications.
alphan0n 2y ago
>IRON METEORITE WIDMANSTATTEN PATTERN PRODUCED IN THE LABORATORY Joseph I. Goldstein, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa. Arthur S. Doan, Jr., Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt >Pub date: 1970 https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1970Metic...5..201G https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1970Metic...5..201G
wruza 2y ago
The formation of Ni-poor kamacite proceeds by diffusion of Ni in the solid alloy at temperatures between 450 and 700 °C, and can only take place during very slow cooling, about 100 to 10,000 °C/Myr, with total cooling times of 10 Myr or less.[13] This explains why this structure cannot be reproduced in the laboratory. Hmm, [13] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0009281909000038?via%3Dihub https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00092... The wide range of cooling rates for IVA irons and their inverse correlation with bulk Ni concentration show that they crystallized and cooled not in a mantled core but in a large metallic body of radius 150±50 km with scarcely any silicate insulation. This body may have formed in a grazing protoplanetary impact. Uhm, There is a growing consensus that most iron meteorites come from bodies that accreted early – even before the parent bodies of the chondrites – and that 26Al, which has a half-life of 0.7 Myr, is the major heat source that melted them. What? If I understand correctly, it was a large 150km metal blob full of radioactive alumin(iu)m that controlled the crystallization process over millions of years. Now that’s hardcore metal.

ajross 2y ago

Uplifted mantle rocks will absolutely cool that slowly. What makes the iron crystals special is that the Earth's mantle and crust is swimming in oxygen so you don't see crystalline metals like that at all.

ipsum2 2y ago

It probably could be produced in a lab if it had practical applications.

alphan0n 2y ago

>IRON METEORITE WIDMANSTATTEN PATTERN PRODUCED IN THE LABORATORY Joseph I. Goldstein, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa. Arthur S. Doan, Jr., Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt >Pub date: 1970 https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1970Metic...5..201G https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1970Metic...5..201G

wruza 2y ago

The formation of Ni-poor kamacite proceeds by diffusion of Ni in the solid alloy at temperatures between 450 and 700 °C, and can only take place during very slow cooling, about 100 to 10,000 °C/Myr, with total cooling times of 10 Myr or less.[13] This explains why this structure cannot be reproduced in the laboratory. Hmm, [13] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0009281909000038?via%3Dihub https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00092... The wide range of cooling rates for IVA irons and their inverse correlation with bulk Ni concentration show that they crystallized and cooled not in a mantled core but in a large metallic body of radius 150±50 km with scarcely any silicate insulation. This body may have formed in a grazing protoplanetary impact. Uhm, There is a growing consensus that most iron meteorites come from bodies that accreted early – even before the parent bodies of the chondrites – and that 26Al, which has a half-life of 0.7 Myr, is the major heat source that melted them. What? If I understand correctly, it was a large 150km metal blob full of radioactive alumin(iu)m that controlled the crystallization process over millions of years. Now that’s hardcore metal.