rocks

Most of the specimens featured here, unless they are fossils

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.

Gold Sheen Obsidian
A dull gold oval-shaped stone resting comfortably in a person's palm. It is highly polished and reflects the overhead lights, and appears to have depth.

As viewed at the November 2014 meeting.

This is a gold sheen obsidian from the personal collection of our members M. Mueller and C. Maazouz. Obsidian is an igneous rock, which means it is formed from lava as it cools and solidifies. Obsidian is usually black. However, some types of obsidian have gas bubbles that create a gold or silver sheen like this.

Fall Gem and Mineral Show in KC
Two men holding rocks and standing in front of a table covered in boxes of colorful crystals. Behind them is a sign that reads,

Photo by Stephanie Reed

We had a great time selling rocks at the 36th Annual Shows of Integrity Fall Gem & Mineral Show in Kansas City!  If you missed it, mark your calendar now for the spring show on March 13-15, 2015 (same location, the KCI Expo Center).  It will be even bigger!

A smiling young woman sitting behind a large wooden spinner with eight sections. She is wearing an ammonite necklace and a shirt proclaiming that the Kansas City Gem and Mineral Show

Photo by D. Reed

When you spin our wheel, every spin is guaranteed to win a prize. This year, the prizes included turquoise, shark teeth, and Apache tears.

A group of 5 rock collectors who just finished packing up the show materials and cleaning up after the event ended.

Photo by Stephanie Reed

Some of the rockhounds who helped set up and run the booth.

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.

Cloud Agates
Photo from Heart of Stone Studio at http://www.heartofstonestudio.com/Wind-Cloud-Agate-Druzy-ZN536
Photo from http://www.northlincolnagatesociety.org/

Cloud agates look like they contain clouds. They can have a gray or transparent matrix and the inclusions are usually white and foggy to look like clouds.  The one on the left has a bit of a drusy effect which makes it look like a puffy cumulus cloud.  The cloud agate on the right has a blue “cloud” inside.  The North Lincoln Agate Society has given its friend some googly eyes.

Chinese Rain Flower Agates

Chinese rain flower agates are found in Nanijing, China in the bed of the Yangtze River.  They can also be called Yuhashi or Yuhua stones.  The river polishes them smooth, and people often display them in a small bowl of water to bring out the colors.  They look very similar to Lake Superior agates, and like Lake Superior agates, they are named after where they came from.

Landscape Agates
http://adorepics.com/dendritic-quartz-reminds-me-of-tree-agate-only-golden-and-black-instead-of-white-and-green-like-the-autumn-version-of-tree-agate-_/
I could only find this one on a bunch of Pinterest pages.
Montana Agate Museum Permanent Collection of Jewelry Pieces, http://www.godspaintingsinstone.com/Jewelry2.html
http://www.godspaintingsinstone.com/
http://bellenaturephotos.over-blog.com/article-agate-paysage-2-40707690.html
Taken by Kevin McGee at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington D.C. https://flic.kr/p/eYKVi2

A landscape agate is any agate with inclusions that appear to be a landscape scene.  This usually includes plumes or dendrites, because they look so much like trees. I was unable to find the original sources for some of these cabochons, but I think the beautiful photos speak for themselves.  Which one is your favorite?

Enhydro Agates
A blue-gray polished agate with circular swirls. You can't see it, but there is water inside.

Photo by Verity Woolf, from collection of Jo Woolf.  Retrieved from: http://the-hazel-tree.com/2014/01/06/enhydro-agate-a-secret-water-chamber/

Sometimes, agates will have a little bubble of water trapped inside.  This is called an enhydro.  The water inside is millions of years old!  The water can be seen if you shine a light on the agate from behind, or heard if you shake it.  Eventually, the water will work its way out and evaporate via small capillaries, but the hollow part will still remain.  It is also possible that water could enter the agate through the same capillaries.  Enhydros can be found in watery places where agates are found, such as Brazil, Indonesia, and Oregon.  Photos don’t show this very well, but on the link in the photo, the owner has some videos that show off the water inside.

For more information about enhydros, go here: http://www.rocksinmyheadtoo.com/Enhydros.htm