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Old 03-July-2009, 05:33 PM
xfahctor xfahctor is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Swift View Post
Sorry I'm late to the party, I was away for vacation.

I've never heard of ferrum. If I had to guess, it is a bad translation of a Russian article by a Macedonian News Agency of either ferrous (iron in a +2 oxidation state) or ferric (iron +3). I suppose it also could be a real word in one of those languages. Or it could be complete nonsense.

I feel comfortable saying that there are multiple ferric and ferrous silicate minerals on Earth, but I'd have to do some work to get a count.

As far as the picture of quartz crystals with holes in them... without knowing more details (how the picture was taken, how the sample was prepared), it is hard to say much of anything about it. But it is quite possible for quartz to have holes in it, I've done it many times and it can happen in natural crystals. And the picture to me doesn't even look like holes, but either thinner, or uncolored sections of crystal.

Certainly, both iron silicate and quartz are very common, both on Earth, and in other bodies, including interplanetary dust particles or in comets.
there does seem to be alot of confusion reguarding the mentioned compound/element/whatevertyewannacallit....to me it isnother hole in the russian scientists theory. Thanks for the response.
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