Talk:Mica

Too much jargon

This article contains too much jargon to be accessible to people who are uninitiated in mineralogy/geology. I'd like to see a simple explanation to compliment the technical one soon please, otherwise I'll be tagging it as being too technical, which will eventually result in your work being deleted/heavily modified or totally replaced. As it is it barely conforms to wikipedia standards, with many key terms not linked and no glossary to substitute. This is to be expected with a new article but for gods sakes please get round to formatting it properly some time before the next ice age. --Badharlick 12:00, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

I agree. The science is important, but I think it would be more beneficial to put at least some of it in layman's terms. After all, someone with a strong background in geology probably wouldn't need to research using this article. IrisWings 07:49, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

I came here looking for information on exploited mica laborers in Southeast Asia... is that appropriate to add here? I'm not sure since most of the article is more scientific, although there is the "primitive" section.--Applespeachespumpkinpie (talk) 08:48, 17 July 2012 (UTC)

---

Sheets of mica called eisenglass were used in place of window glass(eisenglass curtins you can roll right down- From The Surrey with the Fringe on Top - Rogers and Hammersteins' "Oklahoma"

Removed from the article, pending some kind of explanation of its relevance:

Renowned Buddhist monk, Acharya Nagarjuna, is said to have discovered Mica in the vicinity of Guntur, India around 200 BC.

I supplemented and kept, it should instead read something like

Acharya Nagarjuna, Buddhist monk, is said to have discovered mica in the vicinity of Guntur, India around 200 BC.

and should probably indicate which kind of mica.
But i frequently discover mica somewhere when hiking; i discovered it all over a parking lot in Wyoming in the 7th grade; i can't but imagine that it's been discovered and used over and over throughout human history, so it is irrelevant to the article in the absence of more context.
--Jerzy(t) 13:24, 2004 Jul 27 (UTC)

Mica is/was used in toasters as insulation. It does not conduct heat very well in the direction perpendicular to the cleavage planes. I'm not sure that it is used as much for this as it was in the past. --

Mica is used as an electrical insulator in some capacitors, allowing two conductors to be held in close proximity and hence have a high capacitance. I imagine this is less prevalent in the 21st century. Dizzley (Peter H) 13:26, 27 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Mica is described in this article as having highly perfect basal cleavage. How can something be highly perfect? Surely its either perfect or its not.(harrymousse- 05/06/07)

?

Where is mica found in the u.s. or not? where?!?! Where is mica found? Is it in the u.s.?

Sign your comments. Don't know about the U.S., but you find plenty of it in Cordoba, an Argentine province. Slartibartfast1992 23:03, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

What good is signing your comments if you're not going to use your real name?? Anonymous is just as credible as "Slartibartfast1992." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.207.242.34 (talk) 14:34, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

It's not about credibility, it's about identifying who said what in a comment thread. Captain Quirk (talk) 18:20, 13 June 2020 (UTC)

Correction ?

"hydro-muscovite with H₃+ along with K in the X site."

I do not believe that the H3+ ion exists.

Was H₃O+ intended?

Michael H 34 16:52, 26 March 2007 (UTC) Michael H 34

Fixed, thanks - you could have fixed it yourself, that's what this wiki is about. Cheers, Vsmith 17:22, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

______________________________________________________________________________

I just wanted to add that the reason I just searched for Mica to look at its properties in cosmetics. Most of the products that Bare Escentuals make are made with mica as its primary ingredient. I thought this would be something you may want to look at.24.21.53.251 20:18, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

_____________________________________ The mica found in the "pyramid of the sun" was mined in Brazil... which is 2000 miles away, you can see the deposit on the map provided with this article. 2000 miles is not local to the area of the temples and pyramids. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.80.66.202 (talk) 22:20, 28 November 2009 (UTC)

Map

Does anyone understand what "This map is consistent with incomplete set of data too as long as the top producer is known" actually means? It does not make a great deal of sense to me. Also data should not be published if it is incomplete. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.157.127.176 (talk) 21:52, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

Mica Hypothesis

Someone says that life originated between mica sheets. It's on LiveScience.

Luna''keet'' (talk) 15:04, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

Link to article

Perhaps the info. in this paper may be used in the article. MP ^{(talk•contribs)} 11:22, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Glitter

Isnt it used as a glittery pigment in cosmetics? Only there is mica in my lipgloss. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.79.224.9 (talk) 13:21, 25 October 2008 (UTC)

Role in primitive life?

Removed the following from the article:

== Role in primitive life ==

Helen Hansma, a research scientist affiliated with the University of California, Santa Barbara, has proposed that the unique properties of Mica enabled the formation of life in the oceans of the distant past.<ref>[http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071204102500.htm Life On Earth May Have Originated As The Organic Filling In A Multilayer Sandwich Of Mica Sheets<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> <ref>[http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17007216 NPR: Life on Earth May Have Begun In Between Rocks<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> In atomic force microscopy, biological samples are placed on mica because it is atomically flat. Even bare DNA molecules may be seen as small ridges. Inspecting mica under the microscope, bits of algae and other organic materials suggested to her the possibility early life molecules could have evolved within mica sheets in a communal fashion eons before the evolution of cell membranes or lipid vesicles. Mica might have provided a secure place with time and space and protection from the open ocean. Some earliest evidence for life's most primitive cells is in Akilia Island, Greenland, where biotite, a common mica, is also found. Potassium ions, which hold the sheets of mica together, are also required by cells. Primordial soup with amino acids and simple building blocks of life might have seeped between the water-loving mica sheets. The large planar area between sheets might have facilitated the building of long chain molecules. Negative spaces holding the potassium ions on mica are 0.5 nm apart, as are the single stranded DNA molecules (letters of genetic code), as well as amino acids in proteins. Clay also provides spacing that might encourage this process, but the planar area might better encourage the process. Expansion and contraction caused by temperature changes and ocean currents might provide mechanical energy to help rearrange the molecules and trigger the formation of chemical bonds.

Seems a bit overdone for a hypothezised concept based on a "press release" type reference. Needs better refs and updated info if included. The Greenland-biotite links are maybe WP:SYNTH? Yes, there is biotite from Akilia Island - it was used to date the igneous gneiss. So was there biotite in the banded iron formation sediments that contain the carbon isotope evidence for ancient life? Rather tenuous connection seems to me. Solid refs needed. Vsmith (talk) 02:19, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

Flawed citation

The cite for "The largest sheet of mica ever mined in the world came from a mine in Denholm, Quebec, Canada." -" ^ "Denholm" (in French). MRC de La Vallée-de-la-Gatineau. http://www.mrcvg.qc.ca/textes/mun-denholm.shtml. Retrieved 2008-08-27." does not mention either the largetst piece of Mica; or anything else about mica (and yes I read french fluently). Either provide a real citation or get rid of this tidbit.76.75.84.52 (talk) 02:07, 24 June 2010 (UTC)

Indeed. Fixed. Materialscientist (talk) 03:17, 24 June 2010 (UTC)

Another flawed citation

"The mica found in the pyramid of the sun has been identified as mined in Brazil, that is 3400 km from the pyramid complex." That's just plain wrong. The citation at the bottom (http://books.google.com/books?id=sIYpx9mzd4gC&pg=PA102&hl=en#v=onepage&q=mica&f=false) is telling us the exact opposite of what is written in the article. The mica came from a local quarry near Teotihuacan, not from Brazil. This should be fixed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.224.6.12 (talk) 22:21, 8 July 2010 (UTC)

Removed controversial statement. Materialscientist (talk) 22:33, 8 July 2010 (UTC)

use as a dry lubricant?

From time to time one hears of a substance called "motor mica," a fine white powder used as dry lubricant in some types of electric motors, among other things. It is similar to powdered graphite in some of its properties, but is a dielectric.

Is this a powdered form of the same substance the main article discusses, or is it something else entirely? The article mentions a number of uses for mica and speaks at length about its properties but if it is a useful dry lubricant when finely ground, the article does not tell us. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.41.40.21 (talk) 18:57, 29 August 2010 (UTC)

wrong formula

The formula for mica in English seems incorrect. It seems the formula is double the amount it should be as compared to the articles in other languages, as well as compared to the specific mica formulas found in English articles like biotite, muscovite, etc. Could someone with knowledge in this subject please update this, as I am not expert enough, and don't want to change things that are so specifically sourced (although source from 1966, and not internet accessible could use an update anyway)

English: X2 Y4–6 Z8 O20(OH,F)4 German: D G2,3 [T4 O10] X2 French: A C2-3 T4 O10 X2 Dutch: (AB2-3X,Si)4 O10(O,F,OH)2

Not really bothered to make all subscripts appear as subscripts (just visit the different pages yourself if they confuse here) 217.122.71.201 (talk) 18:23, 24 August 2014 (UTC)

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China was the top producer of mica with almost a third of the global share

How can this be and in the next paragraph China doesn't even appear on the list of major producers? Gjxj (talk) 13:25, 18 November 2019 (UTC)

Theresienstadt Ghetto

Sheet mica was one of the products of forced labour at this establishment. As the place has its own article, details of the workers and the production methods there are off topic in this article dealing with the mineral itself. I propose deletion. --AntientNestor (talk) 08:43, 1 September 2022 (UTC)

It's done. Thanking the IP contributor.--AntientNestor (talk) 06:10, 4 September 2022 (UTC)