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Bad Smell When Grinding on Concretion!


RJB

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  Ive been working on a most wonderful crab concretion these last few weeks and finally got to the grinding stage to smooth out the tool marks.  While grinding at times I would realize a bad smell?  About the 3rd or 4th time I smelled this smell I began to wonder what was going on?  and no, I wasn't passing gas, (just to stop any of you funny business type fellows).   My guess is sulpher?  I noticed when i was prepping this crab that its got a bit of pyrite in it so the rock must too?  Right?   Has anyone ever experienced this?  Can grinding on a rock with sulpher in it produce a bad smell?  Its not a big deal but just wondering. 

 

RB

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I guess so. 

Pyrite produces a bad smell when heated and grinding would heat it up I should think. 

So one supposes your rock contains the necessary sulfurous minerals. 

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6 hours ago, RJB said:

Can grinding on a rock with sulpher in it produce a bad smell?  Its not a big deal but just wondering. 

 

RB

Does it also taste bad?  Also, grinding on a concretion is awfully hard on your teeth.

 

If you heat sulfur enough you'll get sulfur dioxide, which does indeed smell bad.  This is "swamp gas", for example produced in stagnant water by blue-green algae.

 

Don

 

Oops, I stand corrected (thanks FranzBernHard).  The "swamp gas" produced by blue-green algae, and other organic sources, is hydrogen sulfide, H2S, not SO2.  However, I was correct that SO2 is produced by heating sulfur.  This is the pungent smell of burning matches, for example.  So the small produced by heating pyrite is most likely to be SO2.

 

Don

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Yes, grinding rocks can produce a bad smell. In my experience working with freshwater limestone from the Carboniferous, just cracking the rock with a chisel produces a strange, swamp like odor. Probably related to the production of sulfur dioxide as Fossildawg stated

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So the crab has gas, huh? :default_rofl:

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@RJB don't try to pass blame to the rock, we all know the truth. :P

 

If there's pyrite on the crab, there's going to be pyrite in the concretion and yes, if you're grinding the pyrite, you will smell sulfur. I've cut pyritized ammonites before in order to expose the chambers and they always generated a terrible odor.

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  Ok guys, thanks.  I also brought in this crab to give it a washing before I did the acrylic work and finish coating and I used warm water.  Oh boy, it stunk purty bad and kept smelling in the garage as it was drying!  Maybe I should name it "Stinky"?   Ha!  :)

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