Constructive Action of Water

Water:
Water does not always act as a destructive agent; what it breaks down in one place it builds up in another. It does this by means of precipitation. Water dissolves salt, and also dissolves lead nitrate, but if a salt solution is mixed with a lead nitrate solution, a solid white substance is formed in the water. This formation of a solid substance from the mingling of two liquids is called precipitation; such a process occurs daily in the rocks beneath the surface of the earth.

Suppose water from different sources enters a crack in a rock, bringing different substances in solution; then the mingling of the waters may cause precipitation, and the solid thus formed will be deposited in the crack and fill it up. Hence, while ground water tends to make rock porous and weak by dissolving out of it large quantities of mineral matter, it also tends under other conditions to make it more compact because it deposits in cracks, crevices, and pores the mineral matter precipitated from solution.

These two forces are constantly at work; in some places the destructive action is more prominent, in other places the constructive action; but always the result is to change the character of the original substance. When the mineral matter precipitated from the solutions is deposited in cracks, veins are formed, which may consist of the ore of different metals, such as gold, silver, copper, lead, etc. Man is almost entirely dependent upon these veins for the supply of metal needed in the various industries, because in the original condition of the rocks, the metallic substances are so scattered that they cannot be profitably extracted.

Naturally, the veins themselves are not composed of one substance alone, because several different precipitates may be formed. But there is a decided grouping of valuable metals, and these can then be readily separated by means of electricity.

FIG. - From the mingling of two liquids a solid is sometimes formed.

FIG. - Mineral matter precipitated from solution is deposited in crevices and forms veins.