Complex

Process Essay: How Are Crystals Formed?

Ash 2 Table of Contents First Stage: Nucleation ............................................................................................................................... 4 Second Stage: Critical Size .................................................................................................................... 4 Third Stage: Protocystal ........................................................................................................................... 5 Final Stage: Equilibrium ........................................................................................................................... 5 Alternative Method ..................................................................................................................................... 5

Ash 3 Outline i. ii. Introduction Forming Crystals A. First Stage B. Second Stage C. Third Stage D. Final Stage iii. Conclusion

Ash 4 Matthew Ash Mr. Coyner English 29 August 2012 Complex Process Essay: How Are Crystals Formed? They are created underground over eons through fluids, stress and temperature. They are raw crystals or minerals, which are naturally occurring, inorganic solids with a specific chemical composition that can grow. The process through which crystals grow can satisfy the curiosity and be a fount of personal satisfaction for others. This is a reviewed and simplified version of the process in which crystals are formed. This paper can be a guide for amateur geologists and other earth related jobs. This
student 8/29/12 9:09 AM Deleted: The student 8/29/12 9:10 AM Comment: I could have come up with a better introduction.

process is what makes the gems and beautiful crystals that we see in jewelry stores and shops. People generally never put any thought into the creation of these beautiful objects and how. Minerals, or crystals can only form underground and only under certain conditions. First Stage: Nucleation The first stage is nucleation, in which the solute molecules, the smaller portion of a
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solution, will usually encounter solvent molecules but if they encounter other solute molecules then they will attempt to bond, especially if it is pure enough when it was solid. Generally, these connections are broken apart by other forces but sometimes they stay together to attract more solute molecules. However, even at this stage, they can still break apart. Second Stage: Critical Size

student 8/29/12 9:12 AM Comment: This most likely should be a longer sentence

Ash 5 This next stage is known as the critical size where the combined attractive forces

between the solute molecules become stronger than the other forces in the solution which tends to disrupt the formation of these aggregates or the bonding of the molecules. Also, once this stage is reached, they cannot be forced apart and the pulling force on other solute molecules will increase. Third Stage: Protocystal After critical size is the protocrystal stage. It is a sort of pre-crystal and it becomes

a nucleation site, an area in which you have a high surface area relative to the volume of the solution. As this protocrystal, or pre-crystal, floats around the solution and encounters more solute molecules. These molecules feel the attractive force of the protocrystal and bond with the pre-crystal, allowing it to grow. Final Stage: Equilibrium The crystal will continue to grow in size in the solution until it can no longer stay in

the solution as a dissolved form and falls out of the solution, or no longer belongs to the solution. Now, other solute molecules continue to grow on the crystal and it keeps getting bigger until an equilibrium, or balance, is reached between the solute molecules in the crystal and those still dissolved in the solution. Alternative Method There is another method through which crystals are formed called assisted

nucleation, the other being unassisted nucleation. However, there is no difference except that in an assisted nucleation, there will be a solid surface for solute molecules to meet. This process has gone on for centuries, even millennia, underneath the crust of the

earth and knowing nothing about it. The only proof for it even happening are the cut gems

Ash 6 in jewelry stores, through a process that gone on undisturbed for generations underneath the feet of humankind. Despite numerous gems and crystals in museums and in jewelry stores or even on these accessories, no thought has ever been on how it even came to be, only on what it looks like. This is the truth that lies within our world. There is still beauty, even in the darkest of places.

Ash 7 References: Heil, Mark. "MouseFlip." MouseFlip. Mr. Heil, n.d. Web. 28 Aug. 2012. <https://sites.google.com/site/mouseflip/ca>.