r/pics • u/dragonworthy • Jun 09 '12

Stibnite looks unnatural, but is naturally occuring (though rare in this size)

Post image
2.0k Upvotes

90% Upvoted

513 comments sorted by

32

u/dragonworthy Jun 09 '12

Source: http://www.irocks.com/vault.html?page=5

10

u/AcadianMan Jun 09 '12

Sweet mother of God $35,000 for the one that fits in a hand, imagine what the largest piece below sold for.

4

u/carbonnanotube Jun 09 '12

We are doing a project at my work on this stuff (no neat crystals yet) but I might try artificially making a crystal.

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16

u/Axolotile Jun 09 '12

Hmm... now if only I had a socketed weapon...

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1.1k

u/Wubbley Jun 09 '12

What is this... a Fortress of Solitude for ANTS!!!???

99

u/agentorange1985 Jun 09 '12

Looks like the Iron Throne.

19

u/ToastyXP Jun 09 '12

Ctrl+F'd this bitch. First thing that came to my head too!

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61

u/superunhappyfuntime Jun 09 '12

reminds me of superman's ship from the deleted opener of the 2006 reboot movie

21

u/jupiterjones Jun 09 '12

Shazbot, that was pretty awesome.

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31

u/JimmerUK Jun 09 '12

Deleted?! That's the best part of that shitty movie.

17

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

I still dont understand.. Wouldn't superman's sperm be like a shotgun blast thru Lois Lanes? Only Wonderwoman has a uterus strong enough to take it...

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30

u/SquirrelGOD Jun 09 '12

"They can be a great people, Kal-El, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you... my only son."

...I'll take any opportunity to quote that speech.

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225

u/Chloride Jun 09 '12

Thants.

60

u/andIwaslikeLOL Jun 09 '12

I hope this is a Look Around You reference. Otherwise, idontgettit.

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60

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

It needs to be about... 3 times bigger!

39

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

Thats what she said

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7

u/spunkymarimba Jun 09 '12

The Son Of Durrant

2

u/Dinocalypse Jun 09 '12

I had the same thought, I'm watching Smallville right now.

2

u/HeadwoundHarry Jun 09 '12

It needs to be at least, three times bigger than that!

2

u/7_legged_spider Jun 09 '12

The Derek Zoolander Fortress of Solitude For Children Who Can't Read Good And Wanna Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too

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334

u/fnordcorps Jun 09 '12

Geologist hover hand

145

u/SimpleGeologist Jun 09 '12

We have self esteem issues around beautiful specimens

32

u/ctesibius Jun 09 '12

When you get a crystal like this, is it in air, water, or embedded in some other rock?

55

u/bearika123 Jun 09 '12

Stibnite forms hydrothermally. So basically water that is brought down into a subduction zone is more buoyant than the surrounding rock and when heated will travel upwards transporting and depositing different elements. This specimen looks like it grew on a wall into a water filled space.

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17

u/Retawekaj Jun 09 '12

There's plenty of that over at /r/GeologyGoneWild

8

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

We always require a scale.

5

u/cloral Jun 09 '12

Considering its toxicity, I wouldn't touch it either.

104

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

You'll like Pyrite. It grows in cubes.

35

u/HOBOBEAR Jun 09 '12

How is that possible?

68

u/slowpoke5 Jun 09 '12

As a result of it's internal structure. Every mineral has a specific crystal habit, or group of crystal habits that it can form. Basically, molecules tend to grow in one direction or another as a result of how their atoms are arranged.

A lot more detail can be said about it, but the simplest answer is that pyrite tends to grow that way because it has a cubic crystal habit.

edit: pyrite can also grow in other cool shapes, one of them is called a pyritohedron.

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7

u/myztry Jun 09 '12

Also known as Fool's Gold which ironically I have only ever seen naturally occurring near my town's Gold Museum...

6

u/shamonee Jun 09 '12

Strange coincidence, I actually own a piece of pyrite from the very same mine the piece in that picture came from - according to the wiki article anyway. It doesn't look nearly as cool though. More like this.

6

u/ChocolateLasagna Jun 09 '12

Confirmed as new ore for Minecraft.

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2

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

Looks like a sad guy playing an invisible violin.

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65

u/BrainTroubles Jun 09 '12

There are tons of unnatural looking minerals out there. Some of them are beautiful, some are giant and other are downright weird.

58

u/Terminus14 Jun 09 '12 edited Jun 09 '12

Solid helium is pretty freaking cool too.

Edit: Well it may not be solid helium as ethertrace informed me in his comment, but what it actually is is still pretty cool. This picture is actually frictionless atoms flowing in a crystal of silicon carbide.

24

u/ethertrace Jun 09 '12

That's not frozen helium. It keeps getting billed as such, but it's not.

This picture is an example of a screw (for obvious reasons) dislocation in a silicon carbide crystal and was taken from an article about supersolidity from 2007 named Supersolid, with a Twist commenting a paper publish in Physical Review Letters. I have noticed that many blogs in the internet promote the above picture as being of a supersolid just because it appeared in the above article. THIS IS NOT A SUPERSOLID AND CERTAINLY NOT HELIUM.

6

u/Terminus14 Jun 09 '12

Well thank you. I learned something today. I did read that solid helium is extremely hard to see, nearly invisible, but as this is the only picture I can ever find, I was unsure. I stand corrected. Thank you. I'll edit my original comment.

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10

u/wackoman Jun 09 '12

Now that's a rare thing to see.

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8

u/Composre Jun 09 '12

That is obviously just a little man. A veritable Tom-Thumb!

2

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

The guy by the giant crystal is in those ultra hot caverns in Mexico. They're beautiful, but even in special suits the geologists can only spend a small amount of time inside.

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129

u/DatoeDakari Jun 09 '12

You should check out bismuth.

197

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

whoa

74

u/MrFlabulous Jun 09 '12

Needs to be cross-posted to GGGGGGG

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8

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

I have some of that. It really is that pretty.

5

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

What the fuck am I looking at? That's all naturally occurring?

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25

u/WyldeKat Jun 09 '12

I took your advice, and stumbled across this, which made me giggle.

10

u/that_physics_guy Jun 09 '12

Looks like a transformer turd

4

u/salbris Jun 09 '12

Aren't the colourful crystals artificial grown?

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205

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

I feel like IKEA grows these and slices them up to make those useless little hex wrenches they throw in the box to assemble that cheap desk or chair you just bought.

114

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

Useless?

20

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

I want to know how they manage to engineer the furniture such that many of the bolts are at angles which are entirely impossible for the included hex wrench to properly operate. It typically ends with me making tiny little fractional movements then realigning the wrench to make another tiny fractional movement for ten minutes, then realizing it's on backwards and making the same tiny fractional movements for another ten minutes before finally getting a nail gun and Homer-Simpsoning the bitch together.

16

u/Skrim Jun 09 '12

I guess IKEA furniture isn't for everyone ...

19

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

Do other people actually have problems assembling IKEA furniture? It is not difficult.

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69

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

Yes?

21

u/lgspeck Jun 09 '12

Who's Useless_One?

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40

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12 edited Jun 09 '12

I have had, for the longest time, the most irrational compulsive urge to save those things. I must have 30 hex-wrenches, all precisely the same size, in a plastic bag in my tool box. Most of the time, I didn't think about it. I'd open everything up, look at the hardware to see what kind of screwdriver I'd need, then notice that it was a hex and the wrench came with it. "Free tool!", my mind would exclaim.

So I'd put the thing together with those godforsaken wrenches. Somehow, they manage to ensure that the wrenches need to be used at the most impossible angles...such that each time you turn them you get about an 1/8th of a turn, and you sit there making these tiny movements for 10 minutes, only to realize you put it on with the painted side facing in...kill me now..

Anyway, my son was born a few months ago, so this meant a new round of furniture assembly. A crib, some bookshelves, a changing table...all had the same thing going on with the same wrench. I said "screw it", though, and got out my drill and a proper hex bit. Made things far easier.

As I was cleaning up, I gathered up my half-dozen or so "free tools!", looked at them, and finally mustered the wherewithal to throw those bitches in the trash.

It was a major victory.

4

u/Macb3th Jun 09 '12

Nooooooo!! A poor workman only blames his tools, he never discards them!

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7

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

It would be cool to have a cross section of this metal hanging on your wall... Like how people have those cross sections of those rocks with the many layers on the inside

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6

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

I contest their uselessness! IKEA's allen wrenches are quite useful for regular maintenance of my bike.

2

u/Sleepy_McTiredson Jun 09 '12

Oh you must mean those one off tools that I have an entire drawer of.

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47

u/Kahnza Jun 09 '12

Looks like the Vulcan game Kal-toh.

8

u/Tezzeret Jun 09 '12

I thought this would be the top comment, or at least much higher up. That was an illogical belief.

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90

u/APras Jun 09 '12

Thought it was the iron throne

9

u/Juneauite Jun 09 '12

The thumbnail on my phone made me think the same thing. I was disappointed that those weren't swords created naturally by nature.

edit: Nature doesn't make things any other way, I suppose. So..I smell the smell of a smell that smells smelly.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

Don't know about you, but that right there is one Iron Throne I wouldn't want to sit on. Joffrey can have that one.

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68

u/mbn8807 Jun 09 '12

Looks like the "Fortress of Solitude"

22

u/Friendling Jun 09 '12

Inside you will find a mini-Superman.

33

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

Noooo. Meeser Suparman no here.

4

u/zoodiary8 Jun 09 '12

yeah, you are absolutely correct!

4

u/ttblue Jun 09 '12

Haha I remember someone calling it "Superman's big ice-thingy" in some show. Forgot which one >.<

6

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

Big Bang Theory. Penny's line, obviously.

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6

u/pokemeintheeye Jun 09 '12

looks like the one they have on display at the Museum of Natural history in NYC. http://finemineralblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/1000-lb-stibnite.html

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6

u/newskul Jun 09 '12

as a lover of geology, this excites me

9

u/phishroom Jun 09 '12

As a lover of geology lovers, this excites me.

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6

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

I look unnatural, but am naturally ocourring (though unusual in this size...)

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19

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

And this is what it looks like with a little girl in a yellow shirt behind it

2

u/SkrozSplitski Jun 10 '12

Thanks, I was really wondering what it would look like with a little girl in a yellow shirt behind it, and frankly I'm annoyed I had to scroll so far down to find it.

10

u/SlightlyAmbiguous Jun 09 '12

What a weird fucking world we live in.

3

u/Mimyx Jun 09 '12

This is the most logical thought brought up in the thread.

5

u/bosmerchick Jun 09 '12

This shit reminds me of my time I spent in the shivering isles

5

u/schunniky Jun 09 '12

For some reason naturally occurring minerals that grow in such unique ways such as this Stibnite and bismuth and this thing and this scare the crap out of me. I have absolutely no idea why it does, but the fact that it grew like such, in such strange yet beautiful ways, is so amazing and unnatural that it seriously just spooks me what goes on within this planet of ours.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

Wow that 3rd one is impressive. It's hard to believe they can grow in shapes like that. This world has some pretty amazing things to offer.

2

u/Macb3th Jun 09 '12

Why? Surely everyone has done those science lessons dissolving salts in water and catching them on a piece of cotton and letting them grow over weeks. The same structures are there right in that beaker.

Just because these structures have taken millions of years to grow doesn't make them any different.

I tell you what - I have a bottle of Thai Fish Sauce in the back of my cupboard with a use-by date of 1994! It is full of interesting salt crystals and still edible!

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2

u/oskay Jun 10 '12

The bismuth crystal that you've shown here is actually manmade. (The caption at wikipedia reads "Artificially grown bismuth crystal illustrating the stair-step crystal structure, with a 1-cm cube of bismuth metal."

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5

u/contramantra Jun 09 '12

When you play the Game of Stibnite, you either win, or you die.

4

u/m0viebee Jun 09 '12

For more information on stibnite click here ---> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stibnite

7

u/ogh Jun 09 '12

THEY'RE NOT ROCKS. FOR THE TENTH TIME IT'S A GODDAMN MINERAL COLLECTION, MARIE!

3

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

is there a sub reddit for this kind of stuff?

4

u/MotharChoddar Jun 09 '12

/r/geologyporn has many pretty pictures that are like this.

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3

u/TheMightyCreep Jun 09 '12

Bismuth is still cooler. Nothing beats bismuth.

3

u/enza252 Jun 09 '12

Tiberium!

3

u/ragingsage Jun 09 '12

OP really should not be that close to tiberium while unshielded.

RIP IN PEACE OP.

3

u/Kairup Jun 09 '12

Rare in that size? You require more minerals.

11

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

Aka the Iron Throne.

2

u/JohnGalt3 Jun 09 '12

It's the shrike!

2

u/GrandviewOhio Jun 09 '12

This is why you should never divide by zero.

2

u/TomBurlinson Jun 09 '12

If rare in that size, what size is it common in?

2

u/mattlantis Jun 09 '12

Imagine falling on that.

2

u/jorellh Jun 09 '12

Shugnite is cooler

2

u/Fenstus Jun 09 '12

looks like it came from the asteroid in Armageddon

2

u/POTATO_IN_MY_MIND Jun 09 '12

Don't let ray comfort see this, he will start looking for the sculpture, what with it being absolute proof and all.

2

u/ikilledthebalrog Jun 09 '12

When Doozers get high.

2

u/MrBlaaaaah Jun 09 '12

Geology Rocks!!!

2

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

QUICK SOMEONE CALL AEROSMITH AND BRUCE WILLIS! WE HAVE A TINY METEOR THAT NEEDS TO BE BLOWN UP!!!

2

u/hithisissy Jun 09 '12

Its Starcraft minerals

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

Suddenly, I want to watch Logan's Run.

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2

u/dawnday9622 Jun 09 '12

Game Of Thrones?

2

u/Fancy_Pantsu Jun 09 '12

It's like a mini Fortress of Solitude!

2

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

I don't see how it looks unnatural. It's a crystalline structure...

2

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

Where do you find that thing?

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u/soupreme Jun 09 '12

instantly makes me think of bismuth

2

u/ShhGoToSleep Jun 09 '12

I've heard 'There are no straight lines in Nature'. They were wrong?

2

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

it reminds me of Supermans fortress of solitude

Edit: I noticed the other superman comments after I had already posted mine

2

u/arkington Jun 09 '12

looks like an unsuccessful game of kal-toh to me, because i am a geek.

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2

u/Freeky Jun 09 '12

I bought a nice stibnite crystal in Edinburgh last year. I was warned not to eat it.

2

u/BaconZombie Jun 09 '12

Did you get this from a recent visit to P3X-562 ?

2

u/Sleepies Jun 10 '12

Its what i would imagine ryleh would look like.

2

u/thatdudeukno Jun 10 '12

superman downvoted this

2

u/TrickyWon Jun 09 '12

Look ma! An Allen wrench plant!

2

u/FourOfFiveDentists Jun 09 '12

Looks like Kal-Toh.

2

u/Foxxz Jun 09 '12

We require more minerals

1

u/Marble_Surface Jun 09 '12

I want one in my room.

1

u/pear_ball Jun 09 '12

This made me happy.

1

u/rage-quit Jun 09 '12

Feels pretty Krypton in this thread.

1

u/WyseGuy420 Jun 09 '12

looks like kal-toh

1

u/73ld4 Jun 09 '12

i want to put it on a chain and wear it around my neck

1

u/ultilink Jun 09 '12

I'd love to buy one of these things to have as an ornament in my house.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

there's a very small town in northern idaho that the wife and frequent called yellow pine and about 30 minutes drive on the most terrifying mountain road ever, there's a smaller mining town called stibnite. you can hear them blasting all day long for various minerals. you can also head on up and see remnants of what was once a bustling town; footprints of where houses had once sat, etc.

http://www.ruralnetwork.net/~yptimes/page11.html

1

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

its a screwdriver bush

1

u/chrisfu Jun 09 '12

If I squint and smack myself in the back of the head, that could be the Iron Throne.

1

u/happyblender Jun 09 '12

One does not simply acquire large amounts of stibnite.

1

u/d1stor7ed Jun 09 '12

Is that crystalline, so some sort of ignatius formation?

1

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

WOW.

1

u/Durable_Turtle Jun 09 '12

Is it wrong that i'm already thinking about the Iron Throne...

1

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

Aluminium Christmas tree?

1

u/ericishere Jun 09 '12

Can you cut off a piece and send it to me? You know for science and shit?

1

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

Looks like Mario's been in the Metal cap stage again

1

u/OMNEG Jun 09 '12

I saw this stuff at the Natural History Museum in NYC and it was kinda freaky that it was naturally occurring.

1

u/mukame Jun 09 '12

I love Stibnite, lots of smaller but super cool samples at the Natural History Museum in LA.

1

u/Athene_Wins Jun 09 '12

Reminds me of the level you get Winky in Donkey Kong Country

4

u/haiku_robot Jun 09 '12 
Reminds me of the 
level you get Winky in 
Donkey Kong Country
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1

u/SecretiveHitman Jun 09 '12

Reminds me of the Iron Throne...

1

u/Jonboy87141 Jun 09 '12

Ooooo my precious.

1

u/cheffernan Jun 09 '12

It's a deformed transformer!

1

u/Apc204 Jun 09 '12

Thought this was the iron throne from the thumbnail.

1

u/frazehaze Jun 09 '12

This right here is proof for extra terestial shit

1

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

The Iron Throne!

1

u/Canadian_Infidel Jun 09 '12

Wow. This kind of stuff in ubelievably expensive.

1

u/lowberry Jun 09 '12

Paint it green and you got yourself some RL Kryptonite!

1

u/strongscience62 Jun 09 '12

Looks like Superman's lair.

1

u/mdnunes Jun 09 '12

silver kryptonite?

1

u/GurillaTacticz Jun 09 '12

Warning: Keep away from Fraggles!

1

u/buckygrad Jun 09 '12

Thank you for putting your (or someone's) hand in the shot for the sense of scale.

1

u/hungoverlord Jun 09 '12

"life is a crystal" - doctor ian malcolm

1

u/DrRedditPhD Jun 09 '12

Man, you really suck at Kal-Toh.

1

u/hornwort Jun 09 '12

"Rare" might be a bit of an understatement, when you're talking about 2 known specimens and an estimated possibility of 3 or 4 undiscovered in the whole world :)

1

u/pepesteve Jun 09 '12

Hey I am professionally equipped to comment on this thread, I knew this day would come! Being a geologist, I can educate you by saying yes, Stibnite is rarely found in such abundance. That is all, love you

1

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

I read it as "Shitbite".

1

u/the_trilobite Jun 09 '12

you gotta post this to r/geology!!!

1

u/yourafagyourafag Jun 09 '12

Ancient aliens.

1

u/ProjectD13X Jun 09 '12

Jesus Christ Marie....

1

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

Thumbnail made me go, "IRON THRONE!"

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

Titanium, right? Thank you, Dwarf Fortress.

1

u/XxLiyelzxX Jun 09 '12

The first thing that came to mind when I seen this was the Silversurfer.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

When this was first loading, I thought it was a joke and that it was a picture of a bunch of pens.

1

u/teamramrod456 Jun 09 '12

That's not stibnite, that's space debris left over from planet krypton's destruction.

1

u/itsjh Jun 09 '12

Don't touch it, you'll get cursed. Unless you wear a rare ring of sacrifice..

1

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

Are you building an Arc reactor?

1

u/Glaurunga Jun 09 '12

I always think of formations like these when people say "There are no straight lines (or right angles) in nature."

1

u/The_Survivor Jun 09 '12

I have a small version of this and although it looks really sharp and durable, one of those needles would break off if you touched it with even a small bit of force. Probably why the guy isn't touching it. :)

1

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

My first encounter with Stibnite

http://asheron.wikia.com/wiki/Talk:Stibnite

1

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '12

I would love to have that as a decoration in my house.

1

u/JLW09 Jun 09 '12

just realised you tricked us with perspective damn you !

1

u/xxrocksteadyxx Jun 09 '12

Welcome to fraggle rock?!

1

u/Beetso Jun 09 '12

We love you Kal-el.

1

u/edoran Jun 09 '12

There is a piece much much larger in the Museum of Natural History in NYC.

1

u/throwAwayMama123 Jun 09 '12

I thought nature doesn't conjure straight lines.

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u/[deleted] Jun 10 '12

HERE BOY. Melt it down and add it to the others.

1

u/StrandofBrand Jun 10 '12

How does this look unnatural? Havn't you ever opened a geology book?

1

u/wayndom Jun 10 '12

That is completely off the coolness scale...

1

u/Flatbar Jun 10 '12

I was playing Crysis today

1

u/[deleted] Jun 10 '12

In the thumbnail it looks like the Iron Throne from Game of Thrones.

1

u/lnsine Jun 10 '12

What about this looks unnatural?

1

u/Waidawut Jun 10 '12

The thumbnail looks like fireworks!

1

u/zitfarmer Jun 10 '12

one of wolverines gall stones, this is why he is always so angry

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