[Rockhounds] Volcanos, earthquakes and things

[Axel Emmermann]

Pete,
> 
> that quartz crystals grow with their c-axis aligned with the 
> earth's gravitational field. 
> I must say that I think this is just someone's speculation, 
> and I doubt that it has been confirmed in any valid way.

I'll tried to find some source reference. The information came from a guy
that is really specialized in quartz. Now I just contacted him and it seems
that there is indeed no valid proof to be found in literature. There was
some rumor about it a few years back but that soon veered off into the
esoteric realm.
Good! One more fairy tale out of the way?
 
> You must pardon me for always being quite a skeptic, but that 
> is what science teaches one to do.

Always! I said that it was a frivolous attempt, didn't I? 
There was one large wave of UFO sightings in Belgium. It was after that wave
that the 5.4 Roermond quake happened on
April 13, 1992. Now it would be tempting to make the link between those
sightings and seismic pressure but that would be a bridge too far. The
location of the sightings coincides with the seismic fault.
You cannot just jump at conclusions but still you can't ignore it either if
more than a few of these coincidences pop up.  

> To be a bit philosophical, I think I have learned that people 
> have a great tendency to want to believe something that 
> "sounds like it ought to be so", and especially that fits in 
> with their preconceived ideas of how things ought to be, and 
> that offers simple, useful solutions to complex problems 

Now you sound like me when I'm in a really atheistic mood, fending of hordes
of door-to-door Bible-salesmen .... (LOL)

> (like predicting earthquakes).? This same thing applies, of 
> course, not just to earth science, but to medicine and human 
> health, and many other things that we deal with in life.? 
> This is a part of our human nature.

That's absolutely true. But here's another idea that I cherish for almost 40
years: if we all keep thinking along the lines that are set out by classical
science... Well, who would stick his neck out to introduce a new idea? 
I believe that asking the right questions often leads to new paths of
thought. The "interested & educated laymen" are perhaps a good source of
those questions.
 
 
> All should keep in mind that just because one can cite one or 
> two scientific reports that seem to confirm one certain 
> hypothesis, does not mean that the hypothesis is reliably 
> demonstrated to be correct; especially if they are not formal 
> reports published in the peer-reviewed scientific literature, 
> but news stories as told to reporters and publicized in the 
> popular literature because they sound promising and exciting 
> and "sexy".? It takes a considerable body of work, by 
> different investigators?tackling and testing a 
> proposed?hypothesis in different ways and from different 
> directions, to truly confirm it.

I'll be the last to contradict this, Pete.

> Doesn't mean we can't discuss with eagerness and excitement 
> all these new suggestions, but one should just keep in mind 
> that many of these good ideas may not turn out to be valid.

Yes? We should keep the curiosity-center in our brains active ;-)))

Axel