Tectonic activity bends rocks all the time, even hard ones like granite. That takes a ton of heat, pressure and time. It also makes sense that in the right conditions, sheets of rock simply don’t have the room to shatter so they must bend.

Have we been able to do the same in a lab and would it have any commercial use? Bending a random bit of hard rock would be an interesting novelty, for sure.

  • FreudianCafe@lemmy.ml
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    8 months ago

    Really depends on how strict you are in those definitions. Details asside, if you twist a metal fork this is technically bending a rock

    • remotelove@lemmy.caOP
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      8 months ago

      It is loosely defined from my perspective, but I am curious about harder rocks, like granite. Your standard everyday rock tends to be much more brittle and may not have a high metal content. (It will likely have iron in one form or another though.)

      Most metals and rocks are crystals in their “normal” state, so I see what you are getting at.

      • XTL@sopuli.xyz
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        8 months ago

        A crystal oscillator is an everyday very small hard bendy piece of quartz. Does that count? It’s not very visible other than the side effects.

        A piezoelectric transducer would be another. That might even show on a mechanical gauge.

        • remotelove@lemmy.caOP
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          8 months ago

          Your username is basically the notation for a crystal oscillator, so it’s gotta count. (Damn the rules!) Quartz is a rock that bends for a commercial purpose, so thats a really good answer, actually.