• 11 Posts
  • 61 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
cake
Cake day: June 29th, 2023

help-circle

  • CuzsciencetoScience Memes@mander.xyzYou don't know me!
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    4 months ago

    Seek is also a decent alternative if you want quick results with minimal steps. It’s a more casual experience. You basically scan your specimen with Seek on live video and it identifies it in real-time. You miss out on the iNaturalist community help, but you can link Seek to your iNaturalist account to share observations.
















  • A lot of heat and a lot of pressure would be a start, but then there’s a time factor as well. The heat and pressure mess around with the rocks mineral constituents, but the real “magic” begins as those minerals start recrystallizing. In time (geologic time) that recrystallization makes a much harder rock.

    I honestly don’t know if the process can be sped up. I’m thinking of something like firing bricks, but bricks are made with specific ingredients and certain impurities are specifically excluded because they hurt the manufacturing. When you start with shale, lord knows what mother nature threw into that specific specimen and how she arranged it.

    I guess the easiest way to get shale harder might be to crush it finely, mix it with water and bake it. If you’re lucky the clay minerals will find each other and form a strong matrix. It wouldn’t be slate, or even a rock anymore, but bricks are handy sometimes.