We continue today with our daily “Merry Blogmas” posts on fun bite-sized science topics, which will run until Christmas. SULFUR Sulfur is one of the coolest elements going. It’s also on the smelliest things on the planet. It stinks enough that I included it in the article I wrote for listverse.com on 10 rocks that stink. Sulfur has some really cool properties. It’s a soft yellow mineral that can be set on fire. It burns with a blue flame. While…
WHAT IS A VITRIOL? Simply put, a vitriol is a metallic sulfate compound, often but not always hydrated. The crystals of most vitriols are glassy and all are soluble in water, making solutions containing sulfuric acid. In fact, the very word vitriol has its origin in the Latin word for glass, vitrum. Out of the ten or so vitriol compounds, one is common and occurs along faults and oxidized zones in metallic mineral deposits: green vitriol, better known to geologists and miners as…