okay so here we have axel he's about to
explain to Gardner here what he's doing
in terms of the Rock staining process we
have amaris over here running the timer
for the timing process and so with that
you want to explain to us what you're
doing
axel? oh it's relatively simple. It's just
an easy step-by-step process here we
have
hydrofluoric acid, amaranth and sodium
cobaltinitrate. The basic
process is relatively simple. We dunk
it in some of the hydrofluoric acid to etch
a clean surface and then clean it in
the water bath for it, dunk it in
amaranth for about three to five seconds
and you should be very careful because
this stuff stains very heavily it'll
stain a red glove even more red.
You rinse it in a bath for a few
seconds and then this is the important
part
dunk it next in the sodiumcobalti
nitrate but instead of three to five
seconds this is for an entire minute I
think it doesn't stain as well and then
after that rinse for just a few more
seconds to get all the excess chemical
off. okay. It's important to remember also
I forgot to mention about their dunking
in each bath you have to let it you have
to let the surface dry off so you don't
contaminate the cobaltinitrate with
the amaranth.
Okay and I'll bet Gardner you're
probably curious about why we're going
through all this? yeah, what's the point of it? Well, we want to
identify the K-feldspar from the plagioclase so the amaranth is the one that
stains the plagioclase pink,
and then it stains it red and then the
cobaltinitrate is the one that stains
the K-feldspar stains in yellow. 
This way we can tell very easily the
different compositions of the rock and
the amount of each. Great thank you
