TotBlocks: exploring the relationships between  modular rock-forming minerals with 3D-printed interlocking brick modules

Leung, Derek D. V.; dePolo, Paige E.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/ejm-34-523-2022

Articles | Volume 34, issue 6

https://doi.org/10.5194/ejm-34-523-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/ejm-34-523-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 34, issue 6

Research article

|

01 Nov 2022

Research article |

| 01 Nov 2022

TotBlocks: exploring the relationships between modular rock-forming minerals with 3D-printed interlocking brick modules

Derek D. V. Leung and Paige E. dePolo

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/ejm-34-523-2022-supplement

Model code and software

derekdvleung/totblocks: TotBlocks 2022.05 D. D. V. Leung https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5240816

Video abstract

TotBlocks Video Abstract D. D. V. Leung and P. E. dePolo https://doi.org/10.5446/57470

Short summary

Minerals have complex crystal structures, but many common minerals are built from the same chemical building blocks. TotBlocks is a novel, open-source tool for investigating these structures. It consists of 3D-printed modules representing the silica tetrahedra and metal–oxygen octahedra that form the shared chemical building blocks of rock-forming minerals. TotBlocks is a low-cost visualization tool that relates mineral properties (habit, cleavage, and symmetry) to crystal structures.