Earth Sciences The Rock, Fossil, Mineral, and Gemstone Collectors' Thread

[Pickle Juice]

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[mlp]

There's so much beauty in the world. I think these minerals are so much more beautiful than diamonds - it's funny how we choose to value things.

 

[beancounter]

Beancounter, I think my daughter would marry you for those!

Trying to marry her off, are you? . I'm twice her age. I don't think any amount of minerals are worth living with a "old" guy. .

Here's a couple of unimpressive, but big minerals my son and I dug up at Ruggles Mine. Pure amorphous quartz. Although the one on the left may be partial citrine. Haven't tested it yet, though. I'd say the one on the right is almost 20 pounds. Probably try my hand at turning them into book ends. If not, they'll be great door stops.

 

[beancounter]

There's so much beauty in the world. I think these minerals are so much more beautiful than diamonds - it's funny how we choose to value things.

Diamonds are mineral!

 

[mlp]

Diamonds are mineral!

Yes, I realize that - my point was that these minerals are more beautiful than diamonds, but are not at all valued, comparatively.

 

[beancounter]

A couple more

 

[Digger]

Nice collection, Beancounter!

 

[beancounter]

Nice collection, Beancounter!

Thanks!

 

[beancounter]

 

[Calliegirl]

I love rocks and I'm constantly picking up interesting ones. Unfortunately, I don't know a lot about them and what they might be, other than quartz, pyrite and a couple of others. I know these aren't as nice as the other collections displayed here, but I enjoy my plain jane collection.

One of the few things I like about living in the desert is the variety of rocks. These are some of the ones I've collected. There is a ton of pyrite out here and some places have a lot of jasper. I'm not sure what any of these are except the quartz and the really glittery pyrite ones. If anyone knows what type of rocks/minerals they might, I'd be interested to know.

My camera doesn't do macro photography very well, so the wonderful sparkliness of these doesn't show very well. They are full of pyrite.


Does anyone know what the black and red rock could be?

 

[beancounter]

A mineral dealer I buy from occasionally is retiring soon and he's offering discounts on some of his stock.

He has a wide selection, and an entire section of $5 minerals.

http://www.dalerocks.com/

 

[Digger]

The black rock might be basalt. It's hard to tell from photos.

Yep.

 

[Digger]

I've always loved the sparkle of quartzite.

 

[beancounter]

Muscovite from Ruggles mine.

 

[beancounter]

apopyllite and stilbite

 

[beancounter]

Double terminated quartz from China

 

[beancounter]

Stellerite from Kazakhstan

 

[beancounter]

Calcite on Prehnite from India (despite how it looks in the pic, the prehnite is not reddish)

 

[beancounter]

Calcite from Russia

 

[beancounter]

Paulingite from the Czech Republic