Crystals, Rocks, and Minerals

[Intemporal_Reverie]

I have always been interested in Crystals, Rocks, and Minerals, ever since I was a child. I have a vast collection of many different types from all over the world. Some of which are quite rare. I also have some which are cosmically related. I created this thread so others who share this interest can participate.

 

[Aalo]

Ooh! I'm really interested in geochemistry, the ways same chemical compounds can create vast different strenght structures in different t/p conditions in different formation processes. I never found rocks in particular that interesting, as chemical traces can not be measured easily by eye, but I too have some rare (odd or perfect) crystals and some rocks that are just beautiful or have somehow interesting formation process or extraordinary mineral coalitions. I'm actually really lousy at naming rocks, but give me name and I can tell chemical formula and optical and structural types of that specimen.

One of my favorite minerals is fayalite and I especially like silicon trioxides.

Tell us about your favorite rocks

 

[Intemporal_Reverie]

There are so many varieties and I often have trouble choosing which to discuss. I suppose we can start with quartz varieties since there are so many kinds, since quartz is known for it's beauty, and because its so highly abundant on earth. I have so many different kinds. Including some laboratory quartz (commonly called aqua aura, or aqua quartz) It's basically fused with gold, which is what gives it the blue color. I have a double terminated sample it's clear and blue.

What is your favorite type of quartz?

 

[_Josh_]

Have always been hugely interested in Geology and Paleontology and the hunt and collection of rocks, minerals, and fossils. It was once an obsession of mine. It's no longer an obsession but still, I'm hugely interested and still have most of my collection. Sadly a good portion of the minerals I had collected though was stolen when I took it to school back in the 7'th grade. My teacher obviously did a piss poor job of safeguarding it. I still hold a grudge for that. I'm from central Kentucky which sits on mostly Ordovician through Devonian limestone bedrock and has an abundance of fossils from the shallow reef that existed at that time. What got me started collecting was a find I found when I was ohh, say 10 or so, I found a huge chunk of Rugose coral in my uncle's field right smack in the center of Kentucky. Blastoids are a favorite of mine to hunt for when I do hunt for fossils anymore. There's a flood control lake nearby that when at winter pool allows the collection of a vast abundance of a huge variety of different fossils. Through the summer when the lake is full alot of fossils get dissolved out of the limestone and are able to be collected individually rather than in limestone concretions. This talk is making me want to go collecting again. HAHA (I'm not an educated geologist or paleontologist so don't give me hell for any wrong terms I may have used BTW)

 

[Intemporal_Reverie]

What got me started collecting was a find I found when I was ohh, say 10 or so, I found a huge chunk of Rugose coral in my uncle's field right smack in the center of Kentucky.

That's cool that you have an interest in this to an extent. Your story reminded me of one of my own childhood experiences. I used to live in the Northeast U.S., and where I lived at that time there was a vast abundance of slate in the back yard. Ideal for primitive tools of many kinds. I used to work with the slate for fun. I would shatter the slate, chip the slate, and create things from the slate that was just around and it was a great deal of fun as a child. I would also visit the Smithsonian Institution Museum of Natural History frequently as a child as well, and was amazed by the Gem exhibit they have there.

 

[Aalo]

favorite type of quartz?

Petrified wood would be my answer. It's fascinating how rings of trees annual growth get substituted by quartz retaining that pattern.
I can't really be bond to quartz because it metamorphoses so easily and oxygen just goes up in the air and not really returning into a system. But I have to like that greasy lustre.

Sadly a good portion of the minerals I had collected though was stolen

Just why would someone do that! Why do anyone think they need rocks!

I have quite small rock collection, and I'd like to have some particular formations (I.e. trilobite!), but buying them won't be happening. Some of them would be easily found nearby, but as earth has cooled since big bang, and some high temperature rock will not form anymore, I might never found some I liked in theory.
So I might keep mostly into theoretics. Anyway I couldn't bring whole northern Caledonian crust my home.

 

[_Josh_]

Just why would someone do that! Why do anyone think they need rocks!

I have quite small rock collection, and I'd like to have some particular formations (I.e. trilobite!), but buying them won't be happening. Some of them would be easily found nearby, but as earth has cooled since big bang, and some high temperature rock will not form anymore, I might never found some I liked in theory.
So I might keep mostly into theoretics. Anyway I couldn't bring whole northern Caledonian crust my home.

My only theory would be kleptomaniac tendencies. Some people will steal anything. I've always wondered why someone (or multiple people, who knows) would steal my rocks too. I had a bit of mercury in a glass ampule from an old thermostat, pure silver liquid mercury too, not the red stuff in thermometers, which I really do miss. It was awesome. I kind of hope in a revenge sort of way that whoever stole it busted open the ampule and played with it, meanwhile poisoning theirself. Is that twisted? LOL

I'd love to find a trilobite too. They can be found where I live but mostly much further east (in the Appalachian Mountains) than where I've collected in the past. I've always found that strange too since the fossilized reef communities which I've collected from existed in the same time period that trilobites were around, they lived in the same shallow sea conditions among the same species I have collected in abundance, but the experts say that trilobites can't be found where I gather, gotta go further east in the mountains they say. I do have to admit, they seem to be right though as I've never found even what could be identified as a fragment of one. That would be amazing to me, finding a trilobite, especially a considerable sized whole one. I could never buy specimens either. It just wouldn't be satisfying like hunting, finding, collecting, cleaning, and studying myself.

 

[Intemporal_Reverie]

My only theory would be kleptomaniac tendencies.

It shines, it sparkles, it's all mine!

 

[Intemporal_Reverie]

Any fans of Tektites?

I have many kinds. Some of which include: Moldavite (my favorite) and Tibetan Tektite. Perhaps I will eventually post some images of samples from my collection. Not sure when, but it was a thought.

 

[epath13]

I do love rocks, crystals and all that stuff, but I am, by all means, not an expert. When I was very little I wanted to become a geologist. I dragged all the interesting rocks I could find into the house. One time I found one really interesting rock - I wish I didn't leave it at my parents house - it was small without any special features but I picked it up anyway. When I picked it up, it fell apart in my hands, and when I looked inside there was a blue, perfectly shaped triangle. I kept it as a symbol, I wasn't sure what it symbolized but, somehow, I felt it had something to do with my future

 

[Intemporal_Reverie]

I do love rocks, crystals and all that stuff, but I am, by all means, not an expert. When I was very little I wanted to become a geologist. I dragged all the interesting rocks I could find into the house. One time I found one really interesting rock - I wish I didn't leave it at my parents house - it was small without any special features but I picked it up anyway. When I picked it up, it fell apart in my hands, and when I looked inside there was a blue, perfectly shaped triangle. I kept it as a symbol, I wasn't sure what it symbolized but, somehow, I felt it had something to do with my future

That sounds highly significant, and I would imagine it has some kind of important symbolic meaning for you.

 

[Spinning Compass]

Michigan is a great state for anyone interested in rocks and minerals. If you're ever in Houghton, in the Keweenaw Peninsula, Michigan Tech's Seaman Museum is a MUST-see! I don't get into collecting as much as I did when I was younger but I still pick up things that catch my eye.

During the Devonian period the Lower Peninsula was a lot like Florida so there are a lot of corals and related fossils that can be found in gravel pits and road cuts and stuff. It's a lot harder now to get permission to enter such places than when I was younger. And I hear the mine dumps of the Keweenaw are likewise off-limits. That's a shame because I have some beautiful specimens of "poor rock" that were taken out of the copper mines and discarded because their ore content was too low. Anyway, I found my first Petoskey stone (Devonian coral) on the gravel road where I live when I was in third grade and I still have it. Funny because I never found any near Petoskey, all of my Petoskey stones are from gravel pits and construction sites down in southwest Michigan. Although I did find some nice fossils up by Mackinac. One had what looked like a bird track. Unfortunately that one has been long lost. But I have some corals and crinoids and brachiopods and even a trilobite. It's a different species than what's commonly portrayed but undeniably a trilobite. And of course I have Lake Superior agates, amethyst and thompsonite.


All my rocks are those I have collected myself, I don't buy them. Each one has a particular meaning to me. Such as the garnet-embedded mica schist that I collected from the banks of the Chattahootchee River north of Atlanta at a roadside park on US 41. I still remember how the river banks shone silver in the sunlight from all that mica. Those are things no bought rock can provide.

 

[Intemporal_Reverie]

All my rocks are those I have collected myself, I don't buy them. Each one has a particular meaning to me. Such as the garnet-embedded mica schist that I collected from the banks of the Chattahootchee River north of Atlanta at a roadside park on US 41. I still remember how the river banks shone silver in the sunlight from all that mica. Those are things no bought rock can provide.

I've found some local crystals here in FL. It's a highly rewarding feeling to be able to find these. In Florida, if you know where to look, you can obtain yellow calcite crystals from old solidified shells. You just have to find one and break it open to reveal it's treasure. Sometimes you find crystals and many times you don't. You never know which will contain them unless you find an obvious shell (those are the best) with a more yellow crystallized exterior, which is indicative that it contains calcite crystal.

 

[_Josh_]

I've found some local crystals here in FL. It's a highly rewarding feeling to be able to find these. In Florida, if you know where to look, you can obtain yellow calcite crystals from old solidified shells. You just have to find one and break it open to reveal it's treasure. Sometimes you find crystals and many times you don't. You never know which will contain them unless you find an obvious shell (those are the best) with a more yellow crystallized exterior, which is indicative that it contains calcite crystal.

That's really interesting. I've always loved finding geodes here in Kentucky. I've never heard of old (fossilized?) shells with crystals in them. That's really cool.

 

[Intemporal_Reverie]

That's really interesting. I've always loved finding geodes here in Kentucky. I've never heard of old (fossilized?) shells with crystals in them. That's really cool.

Yeah, it's awesome. Discovered this by accident as a child way back. The discovery was made while I was randomly breaking rocks with a hammer. Finding that was really interesting. Yup, turns out to be yellow calcite crystals.

 

[gotenskates]

Hi there,
I'm new to this online group and I love rocks. I am a Geology student at the moment after many years of avoiding what I really like doing to get a "proper" job as my parents put it and am sad to say my knowledge on the subject was once quite good when I was young but feel as if I am starting from scratch again. I used to have a rock collection but my parents threw it out years ago.
Where does everyone get their collections from? I'm in New Zealand and there isn't really anywhere to buy items from except from overseas and as a student I can't currently afford it.

What would you say your best find is? I once found a fossilized leaf, some type of fern. It was when I was about 7 years old (I am now 24) so don't remember much about it.

 

[Aalo]

Nice to hear gotenskates, good luck with your studies! Hopefully it'll all come back. And welcome to ac. I almost, krhm, graduated BSc in geology, physics as a minor, but ended up changing field a bit. Gladly I now got geology covered as optional modules for my current studies.

As I live in Finland and our crust is mostly silicatic precambrian deep ingenous type consisting mostly of quartz- and granodiorite. It has been estimated that here is only 0.1% of total volume being limestone deposits. In order to find those I'd not need to travel far, just Estonia or England would be great for start. There'd be so many reasons, in addition to rich geological sites, to travel all over the world, but carrying rocks in a suitcase doesn't sound a good idea to me, I'd need a butler for that. So to say, perfect collection awaits itself. Also, butler recommendations via PM, thank you.

Despite that I'm way more into structural geology (changes in solid rock: plastic movement and breakages, and it gets interesting when there's post- and pre-events in many minerals at one piece or stone), I'd in fact be really interested to find more about bioerosion, as there hardly is any where I live and it's completely stranger to me. Yet it's completely common in many neighbour countries. Though it'd involve biochemistry, which can get bit too applied for my brains not to hurt.

 

[gotenskates]

I live in New Zealand, our geology is rather interesting though I must admit, I have more or less mastered the art of being a hermit and don't get out as much as I would like to. In saying that I would love to travel to our South Island as the alpine fault is there creating the magnificent Southern Alps. Most of the South Island is made of a rock known as greywacke. It contains fossils that show that the island was once under the sea and pushed up due to this area of tectonic activity. In the west and south, the rocks have been transformed to a rock called schist. Due to the orogeny the strata are often displayed in wonderful ways which would be great to photograph (as I am also interested in landscape/nature photography)

Greywacke also forms most of the North Island, although much of it is covered by layers of newer rock, such as volcanic rock, and a rich history of different ores with gold and coal being the main two I believe, but where I am there are supposedly some great agates to be found along the beaches, so I had better get out there I guess!

Lots of catching up to do, feels like not enough time to see it all and do it all. We used to have a great store for collectors but it closed down some years ago (I only found out very recently of this) and haven't quite come to terms with it as I was looking forward to visiting there once again. More incentive to get out collecting myself I suppose!

 

[Intemporal_Reverie]

Hi there,
I'm new to this online group and I love rocks. I am a Geology student at the moment after many years of avoiding what I really like doing to get a "proper" job as my parents put it and am sad to say my knowledge on the subject was once quite good when I was young but feel as if I am starting from scratch again. I used to have a rock collection but my parents threw it out years ago.
Where does everyone get their collections from? I'm in New Zealand and there isn't really anywhere to buy items from except from overseas and as a student I can't currently afford it.

What would you say your best find is? I once found a fossilized leaf, some type of fern. It was when I was about 7 years old (I am now 24) so don't remember much about it.

Which rocks did you have in your discarded collection?

My best find has been yellow calcite crystals here in FL. More specifically (from my previous post):

"In Florida, if you know where to look, you can obtain yellow calcite crystals from old solidified shells. You just have to find one and break it open to reveal it's treasure. Sometimes you find crystals and many times you don't. You never know which will contain them unless you find an obvious shell (those are the best) with a more yellow crystallized exterior, which is indicative that it contains calcite crystal.

Many of the crystals, rocks, and minerals I obtain from other sources via. internet, trading companies, gem shows, etc. That was when I had more funds and more time. Since then, my collection has remained the same but eventually I will add more to my collection.

 

[Arashi222]

I have a decent crystal and rock collection. I used to have big Tupperware containers full but when my old house flooded I lost a lot of them. I still a few small ones that I love. I also use crystals in my practice with Wicca. I Love the colors. I took physical geology in college while it was hard I did enjoy it (I think my visual impairment made it harder to see all the things)