A children's riddle about which stones in the sea is not known to almost everyone. In the sea, everything is washed by water, which means that there is only one answer: dry. But there is always someone who begins to analyze the issue. Attempts to penetrate its essence to give a detailed answer. Is it possible to do this?
Just a stone
If we discard the philosophical interpretation of stone, which defines it as the basis, then we can say about it like this: solid fossil. It is possible to formulate a definition. A stone is a body that is made up of many minerals that are different in composition and properties.
It must be borne in mind that they are natural and artificial. The latter are made in the factory, grown in scientific laboratories. Other species are found even in the human body.
As examples of non-precious artificial stones, brick, tile and others can be given. In most cases, they have found application in construction.
To create jewelry and heavy-duty tools, precious stones are specially made. It is impossible to do without them in many industries and even in medicine.
In the body, stones form in the kidneys and gall bladder. Nobody specially grows them, but it is not always possible to prevent their appearance.
Surely someone had already thrown into the waves fragments of a brick or frozen epoxy. Bathers wept on the shore, who lost stones from their jewelry. I don’t even want to talk about oxalates and urates - a lot of uncultured vacationers use the sea as a public restroom.
But even if you are asked about which stones are not in the sea, and you answer: “Artificial” or “Kidney stones”, then you will be wrong.
The sea itself creates stones
There are 4 oceans and 63 seas on Earth. Certainly, the entire Mendeleev table is included in the composition of the stones that are in them.
The sea itself knows how to make them. Coral grows, dies - and now a new stone. A tree trunk brought a storm into the sea waters, it was saturated with water, sank to the bottom. Centuries have passed. If such a trunk is now raised from the water, it will not be clear whether it is a tree or a stone, it has become so hard.
All objects drowned in the sea are overgrown with shells and gradually turn into stones. If you remove the petrified layer from above and try to break the silicon-impregnated base, then you can probably determine what this stone used to be. And the question of what kind of stones are not in the sea can be rephrased as follows: "What kind of stones are not in the sea!"
The sea reveals secrets
Some, answering the question of what kind of stones are in the sea, say: “Natural diamonds. Yes, there are jewelry and treasures lost by bathers that have been under water after shipwrecks. But diamond deposits are located in river mouths, as evidenced by numerous scientific treatises and works of famous prose writers such as Jack London. "
The answer "natural diamonds" is out of date. Diamond placers were found on the African coast and in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea. Currently they are being actively developed. Hence, stones such as diamonds are in the sea.
One of the most unexplored in mineral composition is the relatively shallow Black Sea. This is due to the fact that hydrogen sulfide masses constantly rise from its bottom, which do not allow geologists to find out the exact composition of the bottom minerals. All conclusions of scientists are based on the study of depths up to 200 m. But it is already known that the stones of the Black Sea are not only calcareous deposits and sandstones. Under the sea waters found deposits of titanium and tungsten, small deposits of diamonds and iron ore. Some of them are already being developed, others are just waiting in line.
But we can say for sure, even if there is an unfamiliar mineral under a layer of hydrogen sulfide, it will certainly be wet.
Those who like to get to the core of things when asked what stones are not in the sea will still have to be content with the answer: “Dry!”