The “Well-Healed” Tourmaline…and more

Today over at Michael Lebowitz’s Posterous…

Michael asked: “While talking about visualizing time and evolution, it occurred to me that tree rings are naturally occurring data visualization… any other examples out there?”

Crystals are the perfect example!

This tourmaline out grew the Vug it called home – broke off and with time and pressure it healed grew a little – broke – healed – grew a little – broke…and so on…until this “well-healed” (pun intended) tourmaline was found bent and broken yet solid and a beautiful testament to time.

…and then of course you also have the various minerals that hit the region represented in the color banding! YEP! crystals are the perfect example of naturally occurring data visualization!

From Fine Mineral Show – San Francisco

or…this gorgeous Aquamarine…what catastrophic event do you think caused the dramatic loss of color at that particular point in the growth of the crystal?

From Fine Mineral Show – San Francisco