Everyone has something they can’t stop themselves from nerding out over - but often it’s hard to find people to talk to about it. So go ahead, share your interests, and tell us about them!

  • FooBarrington@lemmy.worldOP
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    1 year ago

    What are metals people wouldn’t expect to find in their local soil?

    Are there processes to extract most/all metal from soil?

    What are the coolest properties of metals that you know?

    • Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net
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      1 year ago

      What are the coolest properties of metals that you know?

      Hah. I see my mantrap caught someone. I’m talking about metal bands in my first bullet (lmao), but elemental metals in my other two.

      Metals are generally rough to remediate because they are inherent to the soil parent material (rock) that the soil developed on and the geochemistry of that rock. It’s kind of like trying to take carbon dioxide out of the air; you can do it, but it’s not easy and there is a chance your changes will be short lived.

      Typically removal is done through phytoremediation, or by trying to stabilize soil metals in situ so they are in non-bioavailable forms.

      Generally the ones most people (public) don’t expect to see are lead, arsenic, copper and molybdenum. There is a mineral called Galena that can be common sometimes and a large source of the first two metals.