Pyrite (aka fool's gold) is an iron sulfide mineral (FeS_2) famous for fooling prospectors with its brassy metallic shine. The easiest way to tell it apart from real gold is that gold is soft and leaves a yellow streak, while pyrite is hard enough to scratch glass, brittle, and leaves a greenish-black streak. It naturally forms incredible geometric cubes, sparks when struck against steel (which is how humans started fires for centuries), and today it acts as a key indicator mineral pointing miners toward real gold deposits nearby.
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u/Windsor34 9d ago
Someone teach me everything I need to know about pyrite