Sunday, March 31, 2019

WaterEarth: Serpentine

WaterEarth: Serpentinite 
                               by Sammy Castonguay, M.Sc. Geological Science


From the 2019 eROCKtica Calendar, Sammy lickes some
partially serpentinized peridotite of the  Josephine Ophiolite.

Happy Ostara! The fresh spring air and April showers punctuate a water-is-life season. April showers bring May flowers, while water on the [garden] beds will put salad in the bellies!
           In the metaphysical crystal healing community, water in minerals is not widely discussed, but is very important to the Earth Systems. It is said[1], metaphysically, that the green mineral serpentine can be used for “kundalini activation”, “earth healing”, “working with elementals”, “contacting spirit guides”, “cellular regeneration” and “the heart chakra”. I don’t know much about that, but undoubtedly serpentinite is a major stone of the deep-Earth water cycle.
           The Water Cycle. I am sure you know what I am talking about: ocean, clouds, rain, rivers, ocean. Right? Well, that is only a half-complete picture because it leaves out deep-Earth water that may be 1-10x[2] more than the oceans. I’m not talking about groundwater: the aquifers of water that home, farm, or municipal wells tap into. Instead, I am talking about water that is actually trapped within rocks and minerals!
           Water is a beautiful substance. Two positively charged Hydrogen atoms, the most common element in the cosmos, ionically bond with a large, negatively charged Oxygen. Oddly, the ultimate arrangement looks something like a boomerang instead of a straight-line giving rise to water’s magnificent properties:
·       Polar molecule: liquid molecules slide past each other, but the solid phase molecules repel each other. Water is unusual in that it expands when it freezes!
·       Latent heat: water has a very wide range of the amount of heat it can absorb before changing phase, so water becomes a vessel for transporting heat around the world!
·       Solvent: the polar properties give water the ability to break apart other ionic compounds like salt and many others substances.
·       Life: water is irreplaceable in photosynthesis as an electron donor.
           Serpentine is made by adding 300 liters of hot, silica-rich water to a cubic meter of the mineral olivine (the gemstone peridot is a type olivine). A common reaction in the plate tectonic zone where an oceanic plate subducts beneath another plate. At about 100 km depth in the solid mantle of mostly olivine, water is driven from the subducting plate, lowers the melting temperature of the olivine, and some magma forms. In places where magma does not form, the hot water injected into the mantle instead makes the mineral serpentine. Serpentine is GREEN and FULL of water! A spring mineral!
This Spring, work with ThisMagickalEarth--the Crystal World[3]--by visiting a Serpentinite outcrop[4]!

ThisMagickalEarth.com 
Science. Spirit. Practice.


3Crystal World, HedraNews, October 2018 archived at ThisMagickalEarth.com/writing
4 See ‘Adventure Lithoscrying’ also archived at site   
Manny found a piece of Serpentinite! Can you?
South of Dayville, OR along the South Fork John Day river is a small exposed chunk of the Miller Mountain Ophiolite complex, which contains this spectacular seafoam blue-green to black Serpentinite. This is the source of ThisMagickalEarth's Serpent Passion

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Serpentine, the mineral, and serpentinite, the rock, are both widely available in gem and mineral shops. But where did it come from? You would be hard pressed to find the answer to that question from the shopkeeper. Here at ThisMagickalEarth, it is very important to us to provide ETHICALLY SOURCED and RESPECTFULLY COLLECTED material. 

Serpent Passion is the serpentinite sediment that we provide. Please visit this link to the MagickalEarth Store to learn more about this product. 

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Reproduced from HedraNews April 2019, with permission.
Other articles archived at thismagickalearth.com/writing 

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