Crystals and Art. Juan Maguel Garcia Ruiz

Crystals and Art
Geometry and beauty in the mineral world
Juan Manuel García-Ruiz
CSIC, Granada, Spain
Juan Manuel García-Ruiz The Integral Club --Concert Hall Eureka- Novosibirsk, October 1, 2013

4500
4000
3800
3500
2800
2500
2100
1900
1800
1100
850
600
Formation of Earth
Origin of Life as
seen from microfossils
Oldest sedimentary rocks
Oldest putative fossils and stromatolites
Cianobacteria and Stromatolites
Iron Banding Formations
Latest detrital Uraninite and Pyrite
Atsmosferic oxygen
Nucleated cells (Phytoplankton)
Complex (sexual) Phytoplankton
Seaweeds and protozoans
Animals without backbones
History
of the
Primitive Earth
J. W. Schopf. Major events in the History of Life
(Jones and Bartlett, Boston, 1992)
E.C. Nisbet, The young Earth
Allen & Unwin, Boston 1987
Issua
Warrawoona
Onwerwacht
Fig Tree
Moodies
Insuzi
Fortescue
Hamersley
Ventersdorp
Gowganda
Transvaal
Gunflint
Belcher
Dismal Lakes
Belt
Chichkan
Ediacara
Bitter Springs
Chuar
Little Dal
Main Life EventsMain Microbiota
Change in the tectonic
regime of the earth.
Greenstones and komaitites
becomes later rare
Mostly based on data from
Oldest material Zircon ≈ 4.2 Gy
Oldest rock, gneiss ≈ 4.0 Gy
Oldest sedimentary rocks, Putative
Isotopic marks Issua ≈ 3.8 Gy.
Oldest putative microfossils,
Warrawoona 3.5 Gy
üIsotopic signature of
carbonaceous remnants
üMorphology of putative
microfossils
üChemical composition of
carbonaceous compounds
üStromatolitic-like structures
Primitive life detection

Primitive life detection
Some structures found in Precambrian rocks (cherts) which are interpreted as fossils remnants of primitive life and
its laboratory made silica/carbonate counterparts

FESEM view of morphologies found in the Martian
meteorite ALH84001 and proposed as evidence of
primitive life on Mars.
“Some of the features in ALH84001 (e.g. ﬁlaments) are common biogenic markers on Earth. We conclude that
the evidence for fossilized microbes and their products …………cannot be readily explained by nonbiologic
processes ..”
LPI Workshop, “Martian meteorites: Where do we stand and where are we going?”
Microstructures found in Achaean rocks and
interpreted as one of the oldest remnants of life
on planet Earth.
Search for life elsewhere (actually, on Mars and meteorites)

Two different world?
Two different geometry behavior?

Crystalline Shapes controlled by
crystal structure
Aiγi = minimum
32 G3
0 ⊂ K
Faceted crystals, sharp angles,
crystallographic dendrites, twining, ﬂuid
inclusions, hopper crystals

Juan Manuel García-Ruiz Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo 2013 Santalo’s School on the Mathematics of the Planet Earth

∞ G3
0 ⊄ K
Aiγi > minimum
Crystalline Patterns not controlled by
crystal structure

The symmetry of natural shapes
(classical thought)
The realm of the crystal The realm of life
Organic symmetry
Sinuous shapes
Continuous curvature
Unrestricted symmetry
Inorganic symmetry
Polyhedral, faceted shapes
Deterministic angles
Forbidden symmetry operators
Aiγi = minimum
32 G3
0 ⊂ K ∞ G3
0 ⊄ K
Aiγi > minimum

CO2 HCO3 and CO3
=
CO2
Silica gel
pH0 = 6.2
pH0 = 10.5
pHgradient
Room conditions
but they also form at higher pressure
and temperature
Preparation of silica/carbonate biomorphs
BaCl2 + NaSi2O3
8.5 < pH < 11
BaCl2
In solution
In gelled solution
The inorganic precipitation of barium or strontium carbonate in alkaline silica rich
solutions leads to the formation of self-assembled nanocrystalline aggregates displaying
complex shapes with non-crystallographic symmetry

The morphogenesis of the leaf-like shape
(L1D2 or D1L2 ; H1 = H2 ;Vφ1 Vφ2 Vρ) :
The morphogenesis of a helicoids of constant width
(L1L2 or D1D2 ; H1 = H2 ;Vφ1 ≈Vφ2 ≈Vρ):
The morphogenesis of the braid
(L1L2 or D1D2 ; H1≈ H2 ;Vφ1 ≈Vφ2 >Vρ):
The morphogenesis of worm like structures
(L1L2 or D1D2 or L1D2 ; H1 >> H2 ;Vφ1 ;Vφ2 ;Vρ):
The power of curling

Morphological convergence of silica biomorphs with primitive life forms
Some structures found in Precambrian rocks (cherts) which are interpreted as fossils remnants of primitive life
and its laboratory made silica/carbonate counterparts

FeCO3 +H2O à Fe3O4 + CO2 +CO + H2 + PAH
Heating siderite at 300 ºC simple aromatic hydrocarbons
form (McCollom & Seewald, Geochem & Cosmoch. Acta,
67 ( 2003) 216)
Mixtures of phenol-formaldehyde adsorb in silica
biomorphs. After heating at 350 ºC kerogen is made. This
kerogen has the same Raman spectra that the one obtained
from structures considered the oldest microfossils found on
Earth
40 microns
D
G
Neither morphology nor chemical composition can be used as unambiguous tools
for life detection
Highly disordered
carbonaceous material
J.M. García-Ruiz. Origins of Life and Evolution of the Biosphere, 24 (1994) 451-467
J.M. García-Ruiz,A. Carnerup,A. Christy, N. J.Welham, and S. Hyde,Astrobiology 2 (2002) 335
J.M. García-Ruiz, S.T. Hyde,A. Carnerup,A.G. Christy, M.J.Van Kranendonk, N.J.Welham. Science 302 (2003) 1194.

Morphology does not contain unequivocal genetic information
Primitive and extraterrestrial life detection cannot be only based
on morphology
Morphology can be used only as a tool for
life detection when it becomes a darwinian
character. Before that critical and I guess late
step, morphology of living organisms where
controlled by the same physical parameters
that control the shape of abiotic self-
assembled structures, namely surface
tension, membrane elasticity and porosity
and osmotic forces.
There is not a fundamental difference between the symmetry of
the world of crystals and the symmetry of the lifeworld

The existence of a sharp boundary dividing the realm of biology and sensuality and the realm of minerals and cold
rationality has pervaded the landscape of arts and philosophy for centuries. Crystals and crystallographic theories
have played an important role in the intellectual construction of that proposed boundary.

2001: A Space Odyssey
Arthur Clarke/Stanley Kubrick, 1968

The
cold
shapes
of
crystals,
volumes

delimited
by
sharp
volumes
of
6ixed

angles
The sensual shapes
of life displaying
continuous
curvature

Crystals have fascinated humans since ancient
times. May be one of the stronger evidence of such
a fascination is the quartz crystal found in a 6000
years-old dolmen in Alberite, Cadiz, South of
Spain).

Dolmen of Alberite
Information from José Ramos y Salvador Dominguez-Bella

Dolmen of Alberite
Smocky quartz crystal found in the funerary site of
Alberite, built approximately 6000 years ago.
This pegmatitic quartz crystal does not exist near the
area of the location of the Dolmen and therefore has
been transported from an area located at least 400
kms away from Alberite.
Why mankind wonders about crystals ?

The planet on which we all live today was
formed around four thousand five hundred
million years ago. Way back then, the planet was
not only the scene of volcanic activity: the hot
earth also began to cool quickly, and condensed
water soon began to gather on the surface. And
so began the combined action of fire and water.
These two forces, along with the wind, carved
out the shapes of Earth’s inanimate materials, the
mineral world. These shapes are the result of the
repeated action of simple mechanism which
work relentlessly, second by second,
constructing an increasingly complex geometry
in which curves, and branching are the
dominant feature.
Shapes drawn by the earth
Water, wind and fire
moulded the surface of
the Earth over the
course of one thousand
million years.

The geological forces which first drew
shapes in the Earth’s surface were later
joined by living organisms, around three
thousand million years ago. This new artist
became a faithful apprentice in the
mineral workshops, copying, retouching
here and there, but without changing the
style of its master. The geometry of life
melted into the geometry of the Earth to
form a single landscape of curves and
branching: thenatural landscape.
Shapes drawn by life
L i f e s h a p e s t h e
landscape by fixing
and colouring
the forms drawn by the
water, the wind and
the fire

The geometry of
Nature No straight lines or circles, no polyhedra.

When humans forked off and carved out a
straight line in the earth to aerate it and to
sow seeds, they began to paint the
landscape with a new pattern which broke
away from the style created by the Earth and
life duting thousands of millions of years.
Man-made shapes
Less than a couple of
millions years ago
appeared on the
E a r t h a n e w l y -
evolved species.
Men drew its own
tracks on the Earth’s
surface

An aesthetic battle began when mankind
started to plough the fields with perfectly-
straight lines, like in the irrigated fields
around Doñana in southwest Spain, where
surface water could then flow easily from
the well dug out in the sandy soil.
The landscape was retouched, but gently,
and this is a minor injury, just like the
artificial lagoon that fits delicately into the
shallows of the salt marsh in San Fernando,
near Cadiz in southern Spain
Man-made shapes

Man-made shapes

Juan Manuel García-Ruiz The Integral Club --Concert Hall Eureka- Novosibirsk, October 1, 2013Juan Manuel García-Ruiz Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo 2013 Santalo’s School on the Mathematics of the Planet Earth
Man-made shapes

The skyline of the
large cities is the
perfect example of the
triumph of the straight
line in the urban
landscape.
Juan Manuel García-Ruiz Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo 2013 Santalo’s School on the Mathematics of the Planet Earth
Man-made shapes

Dolmen of Alberite
Smocky quartz crystal found in the funerary site of
Alberite, built approximately 6000 years ago.
This pegmatitic quartz crystal does not exist near the
area of the location of the Dolmen and therefore has
been transported from an area located at least 400
kms away from Alberite.
Why mankind wonders about crystals?
Because crystals are singular natural objects with morphology
distinct from any other kind of natural objects

Why are they not spherical, like
soap bubbles ?
Crystals are shapes
of minimal energy
Because crystals have anisotropic 3D
structures.
Melancholia from Durero

The minimum work required to build a unit
interface at a constant volume and temperature
in the system is called the specic free-surface
energy and denoted gamma
It has units of energy per unit area and is
conceptually similar to surface tension, but not
identical in the case of solids.
The density and relative strength of bonds in
crystals depend on the orientation of the
surface. The polyhedral shapes of the crystals
result from the anisotropy in speciﬁc free-
surface energy.
Crystals: Internal order

Crystals: External order

1784
Essai d’une théorie sur la
structure des crystaux
René Haüy Traité de Minérologie
(1801)

Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus (1818)
Maria Shelley
Based on the work of Andrew Crosse, a
fascinating character who explores
electrocrystallization in 1817, including
controversial experiments on life creation
by electrocrystallization. The book of Mary
Shelley was inspired by these experiments

Speciﬁcally, beginning in the nineteenth
century with the works of Jules Verne
(1828-1905) and in case of giant crystals in
his famous Journey to the Center of the
Earth (1864) illustrated by French painter
Édouard Rius.
Same year of 1864 George Sand published
Voyage dans le cristal, another book using
t h e n e w c o n c e p t o f c r y s t a l s a n d
crystallization.

Wenzel Hablik
The Path of the Genius, 1918
Structure of a Colony Floating in the Air, 1908

Ville Savoye
de
Le Courbusier

the Glass house of Mies van der Rohe

The manifesto “Towards the crystal”
A. Ozenfant and Le Corbusier
L'ESPRIT NOUVEAU (1923)

You love a matter definite and exact,
where the toadstool cannot pitch its camp.
You love the architecture that builds on the absent
and admit the flag simply as a joke.
The steel compass tells its short, elastic verse.
Unknown clouds rise to deny the sphere exists.
The straight line tells of its upward struggle
and the learned crystals sing their geometries.
But also the rose of the garden where you live.
Always the rose, always, our north and south!
Calm and ingathered like an eyeless statue,
not knowing the buried struggle it provokes.
Pure rose, clean of artifice and rough sketches,
opening for us the slender wings of the smile.
(Pinned butterfly that ponders its flight.)
Rose of balance, with no self-inflicted pains.
Always the rose!
A debate on aesthetic
From García Lorca
Ode to Dali
Dali Naked In Ecstasy Before Five Regular Bodies

Federico
Garcia
Lorca
Poet
in
Nueva
York
A debate on aesthetic
Murdered by the sky,
among the forms towards the snake
and the forms searching for crystal
I will let my hair grow

The Pyramid of The Louvre

Juan Manuel García Ruiz El Escorial, 22 de Julio de 2013 Cursos deVerano de la Complutense
55
Crystals and architecture

The Crystal Cathedral
of Philips Johnson

Juan Manuel García Ruiz El Escorial, 22 de Julio de 2013 Cursos deVerano de la Complutense

David DiMichele's "Construction" installation

I kept searching ... and I found ...

Quartz crystals:
• Zhoukoudian, China, Upper 8 Quartz Horizon 2 (Locus G), ~770,000 BP:
~20 quartz crystals, 1 perfect fully faceted smoky quartz, some transparent or
semi-transparent with one or more of faces recognizable, probably transported
from 7 km away (Pei 1931);
• Gudenus Cave, Austria, Acheulian level, fragment of large crystal with several facets (Bednarik 1988);
Singi Talav, India, lower Acheulian level,
>390,000 BP: 6 complete quartz crystals from
different crystal ﬂowers and probably transported
to site (D’Errico et al 1989; Bednarik 1994)
Data provided by James Harrod,

Is our brain designed to prefer order, i.e., do we like crystals,
because crystals were among the ﬁrst items to be collected?
or
Do we collected crystals almost one million years ago because
our brain was already designed to prefer order*?
Is the impact of crystals on culture due to the fact that they are
ﬁrmly linked to the birth of art, symbolism and conscience?
* that would favour the understanding of nature and thus may be evolutively
important

Thank you

Crystals and Art. Juan Maguel Garcia Ruiz

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