Period 6 element niobium, occurs in the minerals tantalite, columbite and coltan (a mix of columbite and tantalite). Tungsten, also known as wolfram, is a chemical element with the chemical symbol W and atomic number 74. The word "tungsten" comes from the Swedish language "tung sten" directly translatable to "heavy stone", though the name is "volfram" in Swedish to distinguish it from Scheelite, in Swedish alternatively named "tungsten". A hard, rare metal under standard conditions when uncombined, tungsten is found naturally on Earth only in chemical compounds. It was identified as a new element in 1781, and first isolated as a metal in
Flux melting Flux melting In igneous petrology, flux melting occurs when water and other volatile components are added to hot solid rock. In engineering and metallurgy, flux is a substance, such as salt, that produces a low melting point mixture with a metal oxide. In the same way, the addition of water and other volatile compounds to rocks composed of silicate minerals lowers the melting temperature of those rocks. In subduction zones, the ultramafic rock of the upper mantle is melted by the addition of volatiles from the down-going plate. The subducting slab of oceanic crust carries water and other volatiles into