What could be a plausible scientific explanation for a man who has skin made from rock and can manipulate the molecular structure of natural minerals?

Okay, so I want you to think of someone similar to Clayface here, only he's not limited to just clay. What I got for him so far is that he was once an ordinary man until a cluster of specifically-programmed nanites merged his skin with rocks and other minerals in the ground. Obviously, human muscles would be too weak to support I rocky epidermis so the nanites would have to form a some sort of special fiber of sorts, with carbon nanotubes maybe. As for his powers, he is able to merge with various minerals and other materials in the ground and be able to shift their molecules around to form intricate shapes with them and maybe even combine them to form compound elements (or is that only at the atomic level?) As for how he would do this, my thought is that he'd have yo obviously be touching whatever he wants to merge with and then his nanites would be sent electrical signals from his brain in order to know how he wishes to shape them, almost like am extended muscle, but of course, with no nerve cells. The nanites would have to self-replicate and move themselves at an incredibly fast rate in order to manipulate the molecules of the minerals. With all that being said, there are still some basic laws of physics I want to keep consistent here:

1. Conservation of mass: this means that unlike Clayface, he can't just grow or add mass to himself out of thin air. He needs to be touching whatever he wants to merge and shift around with. So for instance if he were to merge with the ground and wanted to make a giant fist out of dirt, the fist would have to pop out from the ground and there would be a fist-shaped hole in the ground equal to the mass of the fist he made.
2. Conservation of energy: Obviously doing something like this requires an IMMENSE amount of energy, probably stronger than anything we could find on Earth. I'm thinking the nanites that power him are of alien origin and somehow draw the power they need from the sun itself through quantum entanglement (maybe, someone might have to explain that better to me) to provide the energy this guy needs to do his thing. Since more energy is required to move more mass, he would need more energy from the nanites to shift around the molecules of materials with a denser molecular structure, such as rocks, concrete, etc. And although even though the sun may have massive amounts of long lasting energy that the nanites could tap into via quantum entanglement (cuz being solar powered only wouldn't be enough), due to their size, I'd imagine they could only process a certain amount of energy at a time before overheating, meaning he may also need to absorb water to use as a coolant and/or a mechanism to vent out the heat through small cracks in his skin.

So with all that said, what do you guys think I could add to make it more scientifically feasible? Feel free to correct me on any scientific inaccuracies I included here too.

posted almost 5 years ago

Strivs‭

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