Manganese Oxide (Brownstone)

Hey dear Hive community, first of all I would like to welcome you all to my contribution and hope you had a pleasant day and a great start to the new weekend! In this post, I would like to discuss an interesting topic and hope you can expand your knowledge.

Brownstone can be seen here and it is not known as an independent mineral but a group of minerals of the same chemical composition and it is also called manganese oxides. Manganese oxides occur everywhere in nature and consist of oxygen and manganese and it is distinguished from different oxidation states which differ on the basis of the content of oxygen and traces of manganese can also be found in human body and are of great importance for survival and are found in food. Roughly it is differentiated from the gloss of the surface or the different colors and an important characteristic for manganese oxides is also that through the influence of light it can change the appearance and for centuries it has been of great relevance for various research areas and it is assumed that it was already used for cave paintings in the Stone Age. It also appears again and again in ancient writings and the well-known Roman scholar Pliny the Elder devoted himself to the topic and also some old alchemists reported on the use like the author of many alchemists works Basilius Valentinus. From an economic point of view, the field of application of manganese oxides is extremely diverse and is used for the production of batteries as with the well-known akali manganese batteries or glass and it is also often used as a pigment and these oxides can occur in different colors, which makes it particularly interesting for these purposes. Manganese oxides are also often used by the metal industry to produce alloys and is also often a component for the production of steel and also by the pharmaceutical industry it is often used for the production of various medicines and many other sectors benefit greatly from it and there is always a high demand for it.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you could learn something new about minerals! I captured these pictures with my Camera Sony Alpha 6000 plus 55-210 mm lens!