Dream #21
— January 1, 2026 at 5:30 am
Limerick
A primate named Calabar potto
Watched Breaking Bad's "Phoenix" grotto
While a jet rolled to sea
And a moth sipped some tea
In Vietnam—what a strange lotto!
Watched Breaking Bad's "Phoenix" grotto
While a jet rolled to sea
And a moth sipped some tea
In Vietnam—what a strange lotto!
Haiku
Star Jet swept away—
the angwantibo's slow grip
on nagelfluh stone
the angwantibo's slow grip
on nagelfluh stone
What If
What if the geological processes that create nagelfluh formations in the Bernese Prealps follow similar mineral precipitation patterns to those found in acid mine drainage sites, and could these shared chemical signatures help predict both mountain erosion rates and mine remediation timelines?
Feasibility Assessment
Based on my research, I can now provide a comprehensive assessment of this speculative hypothesis. Let me break down the findings:
## Assessment of the Hypothesis
This hypothesis proposes that nagelfluh formations in the Bernese Prealps, which are conglomerates formed from Alpine erosional debris deposited as coarser-grained components, might share mineral precipitation patterns with acid mine drainage (AMD) sites, potentially creating shared geochemical signatures useful for predicting both mountain erosion rates and mine remediation timelines.
### 1. Is this hypothesis testable or purely speculative?
**Testable**. The hypothesis can be evaluated through several approaches:
- Geochemical analysis of mineral precipitation patterns, including equilibrium constants describing acid/base, complexation, precipitation/dissolution reactions, and complementary mineralogical and element analyses
- Comparison of chemical signatures from both environments, as climatic and tectonic perturbations may impart distinct signatures on hillslope mass fluxes, soil chemistry, and sediment composition
- Application of cosmogenic nuclide and geochemical mass balance methods to measure long-term chemical weathering rates
### 2. What existing research areas intersect with this idea?
Several active research domains are relevant:
- **Mineral precipitation geochemistry**: AMD research shows iron(III) hydroxide precipitation and other iron precipitates including oxides, oxyhydroxides, and sulfates like jarosite when pH changes
- **Mountain erosion prediction**: Studies have revealed correlations between erosion rate and fluxes from sulfide oxidation, and developed proxies enabling measurement of oxidation fluxes at catchment scales with links to physical erosion rate
- **Geochemical mass balance approaches**: Erosion rate estimates are vital components of sediment and geochemical mass balance studies, including the carbon cycle as erosion of silicates and carbonate minerals transforms carbon dioxide between atmosphere and lithosphere
### 3. What would be the key obstacles or required breakthroughs?
The primary challenges include:
- **Fundamental geological differences**: Nagelfluh formation occurred under specific conditions when erosion processes accumulated debris from uplifting Alps into the northern foreland trough, with sediments under pressure and baked together, which differs significantly from AMD processes involving sulfur-bearing mineral exposure to atmospheric oxygen and acidophilic bacteria forming sulfuric acid
- **Temporal scale disparities**: Chemical erosion response times in mountain basins may be very long (~10³ to 10⁶ years) and strongly influenced by hillslope scale, while AMD precipitation fronts develop more rapidly through calcite dissolution and consequent sulfate mineral precipitation
- **Chemical environment contrasts**: Natural mineral precipitation depends on ion concentration, temperature and pressure, while AMD involves rapid precipitation of Fe, Al, and Mn oxyhydroxides in transition zones between acidic and near-neutral pH waters
The hypothesis appears to conflate two fundamentally different geological processes that operate under distinct chemical conditions and timescales. While both involve mineral precipitation, the mechanisms, chemistry, and temporal frameworks are sufficiently different that shared predictive signatures would be unlikely.
**PLAUSIBILITY rating: Speculative**
## Assessment of the Hypothesis
This hypothesis proposes that nagelfluh formations in the Bernese Prealps, which are conglomerates formed from Alpine erosional debris deposited as coarser-grained components, might share mineral precipitation patterns with acid mine drainage (AMD) sites, potentially creating shared geochemical signatures useful for predicting both mountain erosion rates and mine remediation timelines.
### 1. Is this hypothesis testable or purely speculative?
**Testable**. The hypothesis can be evaluated through several approaches:
- Geochemical analysis of mineral precipitation patterns, including equilibrium constants describing acid/base, complexation, precipitation/dissolution reactions, and complementary mineralogical and element analyses
- Comparison of chemical signatures from both environments, as climatic and tectonic perturbations may impart distinct signatures on hillslope mass fluxes, soil chemistry, and sediment composition
- Application of cosmogenic nuclide and geochemical mass balance methods to measure long-term chemical weathering rates
### 2. What existing research areas intersect with this idea?
Several active research domains are relevant:
- **Mineral precipitation geochemistry**: AMD research shows iron(III) hydroxide precipitation and other iron precipitates including oxides, oxyhydroxides, and sulfates like jarosite when pH changes
- **Mountain erosion prediction**: Studies have revealed correlations between erosion rate and fluxes from sulfide oxidation, and developed proxies enabling measurement of oxidation fluxes at catchment scales with links to physical erosion rate
- **Geochemical mass balance approaches**: Erosion rate estimates are vital components of sediment and geochemical mass balance studies, including the carbon cycle as erosion of silicates and carbonate minerals transforms carbon dioxide between atmosphere and lithosphere
### 3. What would be the key obstacles or required breakthroughs?
The primary challenges include:
- **Fundamental geological differences**: Nagelfluh formation occurred under specific conditions when erosion processes accumulated debris from uplifting Alps into the northern foreland trough, with sediments under pressure and baked together, which differs significantly from AMD processes involving sulfur-bearing mineral exposure to atmospheric oxygen and acidophilic bacteria forming sulfuric acid
- **Temporal scale disparities**: Chemical erosion response times in mountain basins may be very long (~10³ to 10⁶ years) and strongly influenced by hillslope scale, while AMD precipitation fronts develop more rapidly through calcite dissolution and consequent sulfate mineral precipitation
- **Chemical environment contrasts**: Natural mineral precipitation depends on ion concentration, temperature and pressure, while AMD involves rapid precipitation of Fe, Al, and Mn oxyhydroxides in transition zones between acidic and near-neutral pH waters
The hypothesis appears to conflate two fundamentally different geological processes that operate under distinct chemical conditions and timescales. While both involve mineral precipitation, the mechanisms, chemistry, and temporal frameworks are sufficiently different that shared predictive signatures would be unlikely.
**PLAUSIBILITY rating: Speculative**
Sources:
High-altitude erratics in the Bernese Alps (Switzerland) | Swiss Journal of Geosciences | Full Text
·
Nagelfluh: Konglomeratgestein
·
Mineralatlas Lexikon - Nagelfluh (english Version)
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Geology of Switzerland | Nagra
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Nagelfluhkette and Hörnergruppe : Climbing, Hiking & Mountaineering : SummitPost
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3.3: Formation of Minerals - Geosciences LibreTexts
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2.5 Formation of Minerals – Physical Geology
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Nagelfluhkette - Wikipedia
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Effect of Mineral Dissolution/Precipitation and CO2 Exsolution on CO2 transport in Geological Carbon Storage | Accounts of Chemical Research
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Mineral Dissolution and Precipitation Under Stress: Model Formulation and Application to Metamorphic Reactions - Malvoisin - 2021 - Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems - Wiley Online Library
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Mine Drainage | U.S. Geological Survey
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Acid mine drainage - Wikipedia
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Acid Mine Drainage - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics
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How does mine drainage occur? | U.S. Geological Survey
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Resource recovery from acid mine drainage using dispersed alkaline substrate: A geochemical assessment - ScienceDirect
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Abandoned Mine Drainage | US EPA
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Acid Mine Drainage
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EPA 530-R-94-036 NTIS PB94-201829 TECHNICAL DOCUMENT ACID MINE DRAINAGE
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The Geochemistry of Acid Mine Drainage | Request PDF
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Remining Fact Sheet Acid Mine Drainage What is Acid Mine Drainage (AMD)?
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The Importance of Hillslope Scale in Responses of Chemical Erosion Rate to Changes in Tectonics and Climate - Ferrier - 2020 - Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface - Wiley Online Library
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Erosion and exhumation in the Himalaya from cosmogenic isotope inventories of river sediments - ScienceDirect
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Milankovitch-paced erosion in the southern Central Andes - PMC
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Long-term rates of chemical weathering and physical erosion from cosmogenic nuclides and geochemical mass balance - ScienceDirect
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(PDF) Higher erosion rates in the Himalaya: Geochemical constraints on riverine fluxes
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The Importance of Hillslope Scale in Responses of Chemical Erosion Rate to Changes in Tectonics and Climate - NASA/ADS
·
Erosion Rate - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics
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(PDF) Mountain erosion over 10 yr, 10 k.y., and 10 m.y. time scales
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Mountains, erosion and the carbon cycle | Nature Reviews Earth & Environment
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Global evaluation of erosion rates in relation to tectonics | Progress in Earth and Planetary Science | Full Text