Okay I figured it out. Most of the crust is solidified oxygen.
I assume there's some exception I haven't seen, but all the rocks I've seen are close-packed oxygen matrices. It has a few tiny metal ions hiding in the interstices which staple it together, but it's mainly oxygen by volume.
Corundum is just a block of solid oxygen held together by aluminum ions hiding in the unfilled corners between oxygen spheres. Stuff like ruby and sapphire comes from the fact that aluminum doesn't fill all the spaces, so you can fit some other stuff in there as well. (Or rather, will necessarily trap something outside lab conditions.) The alumina is clear in the visual spectrum, so the colours of the other stuff dominate.
Quartz is an oxygen matrix with, instead, silicon in the little nooks and crannies.
Feldspar is a quartz-like oxygen matrix with the niches displaying a mix of silicon and aluminum, balanced by a smidgen of potassium, sodium, or calcium.
Micas are sheets of oxygen hexagons glued to each other with various ions.
Limestone is made up of a network of carbonate ions, which have oxygen perimeters, glued together by calcium ions. Carbonates in general may be more carbony by volume, but carbonate rocks are rare. Mineral carbon usually ends up as carbon dioxide and thus plants or soil.
Et cetera. Rock = oxygen.
Controlling for IQ, the J do have higher TFR than whites.
ReplyDelete