1. Rock Crystallization Development
Ryan Weber & Shamim Formoso
Santa Rosa Junior College
Engineering 45
Younes Ataiiyan
Semester Project

2. The Anatomy of a Crystal
A crystal is a solid in which the constituent atoms, molecules, or ions are packed in a regularly ordered, repeating pattern extending in all three spatial dimensions.
Many rocks and minerals contain crystals within their structure. Crystals usually form when rocks are heated then cool slowly. Crystals have a regular internal structure and grow into a distinct geometric pattern. Crystals can also be grown from other crystals. No two crystals ever grow the same way.

3. Types of Crystals

4. Different Molecular Patterns
A single material can crystallize into different molecular patterns under different conditions.
when carbon crystals form under great temperature and pressure, they can become the hardest of all known materials: the diamond.
If the crystals form under other conditions, the carbon can take the form of graphite, commonly referred to as "pencil lead," which is very soft, opaque and black.

5. How to grow crystals
Get saturated solution in a hollow bowl until ‘seed’ is formed
Let ‘seed’ hang, undisturbed, in saturated solution in a jar

6. Rock Salt
This is the common name for the mineral "halite". Its chemical formula is NaCl.
It is typically formed by the evaporation of salty water (such as sea water) which contains dissolved Na+ and Cl- ions

7. Alum Contaminated
This is what happens when you add chromium salts to the alum solution before it crystallizes. Chromium is included in the resulting crystal structure and imparts a purple color. The intensity of the color will depend upon the amount of chromium included.

8. Crystals come in all sizes
The largest natural crystals on Earth have been discovered in two caves within a silver and zinc mine near Naica, in Chihuahua, Mexico, according to mine officials. Reaching lengths of over 20 feet, the clear, faceted crystals are composed of selenite, a crystalline form of the mineral gypsum.

9. The Eerie Crystal Skull
Some people with a mystical bend credit them with strange, supernatural powers. Geologists marvel at their size. Archaeologists wonder who made them. And nobody denies that they possess an eerie, horrible beauty unmatched by almost any other objects. They are the crystal skulls.

10. Works Cited http://www.unmuseum.org/cryskull.htm