minerals

All minerals are rocks, but not all rocks are minerals.

Christmas Rhodochrosite
A cluster of crystals that has square red crystals on a shiny green surface, with white and lavender puffballs scattered across the whole cluster. A nice display of Christmas colors.

Ex. J. Vorpahl Mineral Collection, http://www.themineralgallery.com/rhodoroom.htm

This gorgeous crystal specimen is perfect for Christmas! It has red rhodochrosite crystals on a green matrix (green pyrite?), with pale lavender fluorite cyrstals that look like little snowdrifts. From Steve’s Pocket, Fluorite Raise, Sweet Home Mine, Alma, Colorado.

Antlerite

What is a reindeer’s favorite copper sulfate mineral? Antlerite! Antlerite is named after the Antler Mine in Arizona, but was more often found in Chuquicamata Mine in Chile. That mine has been closed, so antlerite is pretty rare now. This is a close-up of a specimen from the Chuquicamata Mine measuring 7.4 x 3.8 x 2.2 cm.

The whole plate, with fingertips included for scale.

Apatite

Apatite is a general name for a group of very soft phosphate minerals that form big crystals that are fun to collect. This red and green double-terminated apatite crystal is 21 inches long! It was found on the Miller Property in Eganville, Ontario, Canada during a CCFMS (Central Canadian Federation of Mineralogical Societies) field trip in July 2002. For more photos and information, and a cute poem about collecting apatite, check out the website linked in the photo, http://www.rocksforkids.com/R&M/apatite.htm

UPDATE 2017/06/02: Rocksforkids.com reorganized their website and the apatite page is no longer there. So, here is the apatite poem.

A Poem about Rock Collecting – Digging for Apatites in Eganville, Ontario

DUST CLOUDS

The peaceful silence of the northern woods, interrupted by a wail,
A soaring screaming roar, louder than a stomped on tigers tail.
A cloud of dust obscures a man, how can he see to use that tool,
With nothing to cover his nose and ears, I think the man’s a fool.
Suddenly the screaming noise stops, I think I have gone deaf.
The dust cloud drifts on by, but I keep on holding my breath.
Out of this swirling maelstrom, staggered a large ghostly form,
Coughing and hacking, he lugged a saw that had caused this dusty storm.
I guess he had some trouble; his saw had broken down.
Behind the mask of dust, his face displayed a worried pasty frown.
I guess Nick was finished for the day; the Apatite can wait.
However, Elfi kept finding more crystals; and they were looking great
The best laid plans of mice and men sometimes go awry.
Nick had brought that saw along and he just had to give it a try.
While he cut one out for his wife, the others were finding more.
Soon Nick had a full time job, I began to hate that rock saws roar.
Crystals of Apatite, some of exceptional size, like something from a dream.
They cleared off a Calcite vein they looked like salmon going up a stream.
Now there is a quandary, do we go or do we stay,
The planned trip was interrupted, they stayed another day.

Part of us stayed to the plans, we took the scheduled trip.
More than half went back to the trenches, old Frank near had a fit.
Two more days of pounding, another broken saw,
More large crystals were being located, there ought to be a law.
Well this trip is finally over and we missed a place or two,
I cannot say it wasn’t interesting and I’m really not too blue.
Nick’s planning went out the window, next year will be better I am told,
I hope your appetite for Apatite is sated Elfi, next time pick on gold.

by Dick Stata Aug. 24th. Thinking back on the 2002 CCFMS summer trip.

Cinnabar

Shiny red cinnabar from Germany. Also known as HgS, mercury (II) sulfide, cinnabar used to be mined to extract the mercury (mercury is only found in ores like cinnabar, calomel, and livingstonite) or to be mixed with sulfur and used as red pigment. Due to mercury’s toxicity, it is no longer allowed in paints, pesticides, batteries, and many other products. In fact, the United States and many other countries have stopped mining mercury because of the environmental hazard and a decrease in demand.

If you own a cinnabar specimen, keep it in a glass cabinet or enclosed box, wash your hands after touching it, don’t break it and inhale the dust, and don’t let children or pets eat it.  These are good rules for your entire rock collection.

Thanksgiving Rock Dinner

Happy Thanksgiving! To whet your appetite for dinner, here are some pictures of rocks and minerals that look like food. This is a traveling exhibit, so maybe it will be at a rock show near you.

This looks like a fruit salad containing strawberries, blueberries, mandarin oranges, kiwis, slivered almonds, and whipped cream. It is actually rocks.

Bill and Lois Pattillo: http://rockfoodtable.com/index.html

Start off with a tasty fruit salad.

This looks like a slice of ham (needs gravy, though), a yam with the skin on, and a side of shiny lima beans, but it is actually rocks.

Bill and Lois Pattillo: http://rockfoodtable.com/index.html

The main course: ham, a yam, and lima beans.

This looks like a slightly translucent slice of pale yellow cheesecake with small red cherries on top. It is actually a slice of rock with rocks on top.

Bill and Lois Pattillo: http://rockfoodtable.com/index.html

Cherry cheesecake for dessert.

This looks like a huge spread of all sorts of food: bread baskets, muffins, popcorn, nuts, cheese, smoked salmon, fresh fruit, and more. It is actually all rocks.

Bill and Lois Pattillo: http://rockfoodtable.com/index.html

The whole spread.

Happy Agate
An agate slab with a happy smiley face in its brown bands.

Smiley face agate photo by Cobalt123 from https://flic.kr/p/dVdpEA

An agate dressed up for Halloween, hanging out at the Tucson Rock and Gem Show 2013.  Thanks for following us all the way through Agate Month and learning all about these beautiful minerals!
If you’d like to see a list of even more types of agates, go here: http://stoneplus.cst.cmich.edu/agate.htm

Flame and Frost Agates

These aren’t technically types of agate according to Mindat, but sometimes they will be described this way in rock shops or on rockhound websites.  And these pictures are so great I couldn’t possibly pass them up.  An agate with red, orange, or yellow plumes in just the right arangement can be called a flame agate, because it looks like fire.

Red, orange, and yellow plumes shooting up from a white and transparent agate matrix, looking like flames.

Photo by Vítězslav Snášel from http://www.mindat.org/photo-114774.html

Frost agate describes the cracked finish on these beads (again, it’s not a mineralogical term).  They can also be called cracked agate.  The frost effect is heightened when they are blue. Whatever they are, I would totally wear earrings made with these beads.