rusting photos on Flickr

Rust is the common name for a very common compound, iron oxide. Iron oxide, the chemical Fe2O3, is common because iron combines very readily with oxygen -- so readily, in fact, that pure iron is only rarely found in nature. Iron (or steel) rusting is an example of corrosion.

When a drop of water hits an iron object, two things begin to happen almost immediately. First, the water, a good electrolyte, combines with carbon dioxide in the air to form a weak carbonic acid, an even better electrolyte. As the acid is formed and the iron dissolved, some of the water will begin to break down into its component pieces -- hydrogen and oxygen. The free oxygen and dissolved iron bond into iron oxide, in the process freeing electrons.

The chemical compounds found in liquids like acid rain, seawater and the salt-loaded spray from snow-belt roads make them better electrolytes than pure water, allowing their presence to speed the process of rusting on iron and other forms of corrosion on other metals.

Rust 1 by Peter Zabulis

40 21

Sea defences, Mundesley, Norfolk, 2015.

Rust maiden by Lawrence Sibley

18 6

This is a photo of iron rust stains that have seeped out of a coastal rock in a pattern that remarkably resembles a sketch of the human figure.

Rust and dust by Peter Müller

47 16

rust belt by minions & myrmidons

92 2

rust.red by Frank Henkemeyer

72 7

Raketenstation Hombroich

The Rust Belt by Feldore McHugh

20 7

Rust, more rust and even more rust, at Dungeness.

Rust Garden by Berny Sackl

71 7

abandoned power plant of a steel manufacturing company

rust and lichen on bolt by Janine

42 5

Rust by libra1054

47 24

for the theme "Rust / Óxido" in Looking close... on Friday!

Rusted Truck by Marcelo Madroñal

26 4

Camión abandonado

Rust in Peace. by Richard

32 45

On the side of the road in Delaware County, NY

Rust and crust by INNES

86 19

I wandered up over the brow of a gravelly track, not realising it was a front drive. The white haired woman (Fiona McTaggerty Taggert, without beards) met me as she stepped out of her elderly Hyundai. She explained the rusty old truck was her son's. He's now 50 if she remembers rightly and he bought it to do up one day. Somehow that day seems to have slipped by and his dreams of a restored old truck lie rotting away in an out of sight quarry behind the Tioram cafe. She explained some vandals got to it and smashed it up. I imagine it was pristine before that

rusting by M C WALSH

35 7

I like a bit of rust.

Rust blisters by Lawrence Sibley

29 2

This is a photo of rust blisters and streaming rust stains on the side of a metal tank. I love their rather alien and marine quality.

Rust on blue by Eric Flexyourhead

37 11

Sunset Beach, Vancouver. November 1, 2020.

Rust in pieces by Malcom Lang

65 7

General Motors Holden FJ production years 1953-1956