Here’s my embryonic rock/mineral/fossil/artifact collection. I’ve been collecting them forever but never quite realized I was a collector. Some were family items, others were gifts or long forgotten purchases so most have no provenance but all are interesting to me.

 

At top, left in tray and here is beautiful amethyst, the purple version of omnipresent SiO2, silicon dioxide. Be sure to keep it out of direct sunlight.

This specimen is marked MADE IN BRAZIL on base. The ancient Greeks believed amethyst protected its wearer from drunkenness.

Next is grossularite or garnet from Mexico, grossularite is the calcium-aluminum form of garnet. I’ll photograph and post on it later.

The light green crystals are apophyllite which I posted about here. Closeup below.

 

The small shimmering blue/green/black stone is unpolished labradorite. Per Wikipedia: Labradorite ((Ca, Na)(Al, Si)₄O₈), a feldspar mineral, is an intermediate to calcic member of the plagioclase series.

I was given a hand sized, polished slab of massive labradorite so I’ll get closeups of both in a later post. Both display beautiful shimmering colors-again per Wikipedia: Labradorite can display an iridescent optical effect (or schiller) known as labradorescence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next is pyrite, sometimes called iron pyrite or fool’s gold.  It’s an iron sulfide, FeS₂. With the luster and shine of real gold, it could fool you except it’s too hard and light to be gold. Oddly, it is sometimes found in association with gold.

 

Finally, for this post, is a crystal of fluorite, the halide mineral form of calcium fluoride, CaF₂. I bought this for $20USD at Denio’s flea market from a middle eastern fellow who might have seen me coming.

My Denio’s mineral man, Chris, deflated the newbie collector by saying, “you know fluorite doesn’t terminate in a point like that. My rocks are less commercial than his”. He was right too, but it’s mighty pretty.

 

Next geology post I’ll continue with the next row down in the tray: obsidian, agate, ammonites, trilobites, shark’s tooth and animal coprolite.

 

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