Vesuvianite: the Mineral of the Volcano

     Vesuvianite is named for Vesuvio, the Italian name of the volcano Mount Vesuvius, a place where the mineral can be found. Vesuvianite crystals are tetragon-shaped prisms, that is to say, they are prisms that look like rectangles that have trapezoidal end caps. Vesuvianite can also be found in a wide variety of colors such as, brown, amber-colored, red-brown, purple, violet, blue-green, yellow, yellow-green, green, colorless, white, or blue. In addition to its many colors vesuvianite also displays what is known as zoning. The term zoning is applied to a single crystal that exhibits different colors in different parts of the crystal. Some other minerals that exhibit zoning are rubies, and fluorite. Vesuvianite was once called idocrase, and the name is still used to some degree, so don’t let the two confuse you: vesuvianite and idocrase are actually the same mineral; it just has two names.
     Vesuvianite is used as a gemstone. It is rarely faceted as it is soft and people don’t like cut gems that display patches of different color. Vesuvianite is used to make cabochons and beads and its natural, uncut crystals are used to make jewelry as well. As a gemstone vesuvianite is occasionally called idocrase, especially when clear. Translucent green vesuvianite is sometimes called californite after the state in which it was discovered. In addition to its use as a gemstone vesuvianite is also sought by collectors, but it has no technological uses.
     One of the most notable historic sources of vesuvianite would be Mount Vesuvius in Italy, for which the mineral was named. Other sources include: Quebec, Canada; Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Sweden, Pakistan, Kenya, Namibia, Texas, Arkansas, and New Hampshire.
     Vesuvianite is a worthy addition to any collection, just be careful when collecting on volcanoes!

Okenite: God's Cotton Balls

     Okenite is a mineral that has very small crystals. Okenite crystals are usually acicular, that is, they look like needles, and are white, yellow-white, or blue-white in color. Okenite crystals are small, usually no more than a millimeter or two in length, and usually grow together as spherical aggregations of crystals that are often found in a radiating pattern. These spheres are made of okenite crystals that are packed closely together. Some crystals manage to protrude from this mass and give the little spheres a hairy appearance. Such aggregations of okenite are often called “cotton balls” because of their resemblance. Okenite can be found as single, blade-like crystals very rarely. Okenite crystals also exhibit a property that is quite rare in minerals: they are flexible. If you happen to have a specimen of okenite and would like to see the crystals’ flexibility then you can try bending one of the tiny crystals with something like a sewing pin, but DO NOT TOUCH THE SPECIMEN! The tiny okenite crystals can be crushed and stained easily by the human hand. In fact I do not recommend testing the elasticity of the okenite crystals at all, I am merely relaying the directions that I received from those who sold the okenite to me. I assume that these directions are safe enough, but I don’t want to risk damaging my fuzzy cotton balls. This brings up an important tip for collectors: it is a good idea to store okenite specimens in a way that they are safe from harm. I keep mine in a plastic case called a “perky box” so as to protect it from being mistakenly touched. I also glued it to a piece of Styrofoam that fits into the bottom of the case so that it won’t roll.
     Okenite is prized by collectors for its unique crystals and its rarity. Okenite is not used in jewelry because it is so soft, not to mention that its crystals are far to small to facet. Scientists are studying ways in which okenite might be used in industry, but so far nothing has been found.
Places where okenite can be found include: India, Germany, Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand, Israel, parts of the United States, and even Antarctica.
     Okenite is really unique among minerals. Its crystals are very small, and they are even flexible, I don’t know of any other minerals that are! Okenite can form whimsical cotton balls which look soft and inviting to touch, but please do not touch them!

Coal: Mineral Collectors Actually Want it in Our Stockings!

  
     Christmas Eve is upon us. It’s the night that Santa makes his worldwide run to reward good children with presents and bad ones with coal. Seeing as this rock has been given a spotlight during this time of year, I thought that it would be appropriate to write about it this evening.
Coal is a sedimentary rock that is formed by the compression of dead, rotted plant matter. Coal is somewhat of an example of a native element (that is, an element that is found in its pure, uncombined state in nature) A lump of coal contains nothing but the element carbon and a few impurities. Coal forms no crystals structure and is therefore amorphous (having no regular shape) Coal is soft and is black or blackish-brown in color.
     Coal is known to form by the compression of dead plants or other plant matter such as wood. In many cases coal is thought to form when plants and other plantlike materials die in a waterlogged area where their supply of oxygen is limited. The plants rot very slowly and are eventually converted into peat by natural compression. Peat is a brown, spongy mass or rotted plant matter. More pressure eventually turns the peat into lignite. Lignite, or “brown coal,” is a brownish black form of coal that is very soft. Lignite is about 30% carbon with a great deal of water making up the rest of it. More pressure eventually turns into bituminous coal, which is harder than lignite but is still soft, leaving a black smudge upon everything that it touches. Bituminous coal is about 60% carbon in composition. Further pressure turns bituminous coal into the highest grade of coal, which is called anthracite. Anthracite is the hardest type of coal and has a very shiny surface. Anthracite is the highest quality coal, being composed of 90% carbon. The process of coal formation as described above is said to, by some scientists; take millions of years to occur. I, however, do not believe this because wooden bridges have been found in America in which parts of the bridge had been turned into coal. For those who want to know the scheme by which coal is classified is known as codification.
     Coal has been used as a fuel for a very long time. Before the Industrial Revolution coal was used mainly by blacksmiths who used needed it to keep their forges hot enough to heat the metal that they worked with. Coal was also used to heat homes. Today some blacksmiths still use coal, but there are not as many blacksmiths around now as there used to be. Coal is not burned in people’s fireplaces anymore because it of its smoky scent and the fact the prolonged exposure to coal smoke (which contains potent gasses such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and sulfur dioxide) can lead to health risks. The primary use of coal today is as a fuel in power plants. Since coal is burned to make electricity one can say that it is still used to heat home, albeit indirectly. Coal is also burned to make coke, a substance which is used in metallurgy. Coal extracts are also used to make dyes, nylon, animal feedstock, and mint candies.
     Coal is found in large deposits all over the world. In fact, there are very few places on earth that do not contain at least some coal. I have found a good deal of  coal in the area where I live that was not mined, but was in its natural state.
     The notion that Santa Claus punishes bad kids with a lump of coal has given the rock a poor reputation. In reality coal is a magnificent rock. Its sable color and broad usefulness make it a rock that I am glad to have. So, I wish a merry Christmas to all who read this, and if you are a blacksmith or a mineral collector I hope that you get some coal in your stocking!

Ulexite: TV Rock

     Ulexite is a colorless borate mineral that was named for the German chemist George L. Ulex. The term borate mineral refers to any mineral that contains the elements boron and oxygen in its chemical makeup. Ulexite crystals are colorless and have a vitreous luster (that means that their surfaces reflect light in the same way that glass does) Single ulexite crystals are rare; ulexite crystals are usually found growing together in nodular, rounded, or lenticular aggregations (I.e. they look like knobs, spheres, or lenses) of fibrous crystals. These aggregations can be white or cloudy, are translucent, and have a silky luster.
     Ulexite has a rather strange property in which its fibers transmit images somewhat like a television screen. If you place a piece of ulexite on top of a page of text the ulexite crystals somehow transmit the image so that it looks like the letters are sitting on top of the mineral! It will do this with any image, even three-dimensional objects. I do thing that the ulexite specimen must have its top and bottom faces polished to do this, but I do not know. Because ulexite can transfer images like this it is often called “television rock” or “TV rock.”
I know of only one use for ulexite and that is as a collectible mineral.
     Ulexite is usually found in dry places where there is a good deal of boron present. Some of the usual places where ulexite is found would be dry lakes, and marshes. Ulexite is an evaporate mineral, which means that it crystallizes as a result of evaporation, so it makes sense that it is found in dry places (where water evaporates rather quickly) Some of the best places to find Ulexite are: Nevada, California (a place that is famous for its borate minerals), Chile, and Canada’s Maritime Provinces.

     I find ulexite very interesting because it can do something that few other minerals can: namely to transmit images like a TV set. In the Bible it says that God created everyone to be different according to the tasks that He has assigned us (Check out 1Corinthians chapter 12) It appears that the same is true with minerals.

Sphalerite, I Zinc it's Great!

  
      Sphalerite is a sulfide mineral that is also rich in the metal zinc. When a mineral is called a sulfide that means that one of the major components in its chemical makeup is sulfur. Sphalerite is made up of only two elements: sulfur and zinc. Sphalerite crystals are usually tetrahedral prisms (prisms that have four faces) but can also be octahedral (having eight faces) or dodecahedral (having twelve faces) and the faces of its prisms are usually rounded. Sphalerite can be golden brown, yellow, reddish brown, yellow-orange, red, brown, green, black, or rarely colorless or white in color. Sphalerite is also known by many nicknames. Some of my favorites are: zinc blende, honey zinc, black jack, and ruby jack. Sphalerite also displays what is called trboluminescence. When a mineral is triboluminescent it will give off flashes of orange light when it is scratched with a metal object. In addition to emitting orange flashes of light when scratched, sphalerite also smells like rotten eggs! Sphalerite’s name is derived from the Greek word sphaleros, which means “treacherous” or “deceitful.” It was given this name because it is often confused with the mineral galena, another sulfide mineral.
     Sphalerite’s main use today is as an ore of the metal zinc. Zinc is the fourth most widely used metal today, surpassed in use only by iron, copper, and aluminum. Zinc is used to protect steel from rusting by coating it in a process called galvanizing, and is alloyed with copper to make the metal brass. Zinc has also been used to make the core of the American penny since the early 1980s. Sphalerite has few other uses beside that of an ore stone, but it is sought by collectors and occasionally cut as a gemstone. Sphalerite is far to soft to be used as a wearable gemstone and is really only cut for gem collectors.
     One of the best locations that I know of where sphalerite can be found is certain deposits in Tennessee. Sphalerite is found in many places throughout the central United States including: Illinois, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri. Other American locales include Idaho, Alaska, New Jersey, Colorado, and Utah. Sphalerite is also found outside the United States in such places as: Bulgaria, Austria, Italy, France, Spain, Germany, and China.
     Sphalerite is important both as a collectible mineral and as a source of a very useful metal.

Turquoise: the Mineral That Captures the Color of the Sky

     Turquoise is a blue mineral that is found in dry regions of the earth. Turquoise is almost always a shade of greenish-blue (even the name turquoise has become synonymous with this color) but I have heard rumors of a white turquoise, but I don’t know if it really exists. Turquoise can also have black lines running throughout it in uneven patterns. When this happens the stone is called “spider web turquoise.” The shades displayed in turquoise can vary depending on its content of iron or copper (the more iron present the greener the stone will be and the more copper present the bluer the turquoise) Large crystals of turquoise have never been found; instead turquoise is usually found in massive amorphous lumps made up of thousands of tiny grains. Turquoise is light and very fragile and breaks with a conchoidal fracture. When a mineral is said to have a conchoidal fracture it breaks in a pattern that resembles a conch shell. Most minerals that break with this kind of fracture can be made into arrowheads and knives, but turquoise is too soft for this kind of use. Turquoise is also very light.
     Turquoise has been used as a decorative stone since ancient times and is still used for such a purpose today. Decorative stones are used to make jewelry and other decoration, but are not valued as highly as gemstones. Turquoise has been a popular decorative stone for many years. The Aztecs, Navajos, and Persians used it to make jewelry and carvings and the stone was used in Europe as soon as it was brought there via Turkey (the name for turquoise was actually derived from the word Turkish) Today turquoise cabochons make popular settings for silver rings (especially in the western United States where spider web turquoise is very popular) In most places people consider bluer turquoise more desirable than greener pieces.
     Turquoise is found mainly in dry environments such as deserts, therefore most of its sources are arid countries. The oldest known source of turquoise is Iran where turquoise has been mined for over three thousand years. The Aztecs mined their turquoise in the southwestern United States, which is where most of the world’s turquoise comes from today. Turquoise is also found in Mexico, Australia, Chile, and Turkmenistan. Though not a dry area, turquoise can also be found in Cornwall, England.
     Turquoise, thought not as valuable as certain gemstones, is still a beautiful mineral. I like to think that the Lord decided upon its color so as to remind us of the sky on cloudy days!

Galena, Beautifal, but Dangerous

     Galena is a mineral that is composed of sulfur and lead. It is silver or gray-colored and is very shiny. It is said to have a metallic luster, which means that its surface shines in the light like metal. Galena crystals are usually cubic but they can also be shaped as a combination between a cube and an octahedron. Fibrous galena crystals exist, but they are very rare. Galena crystals have perfect cleavage. Cleavage, in the mineral world, is a term that is used to describe the way crystals break (or cleave) along certain planes. Galena crystals cleave in three directions which leaves the broken surface smooth and flat. When galena crystals break they usually have a stepped surface, though the designation of perfect cleavage still applies because they surfaces of these steps are still smooth, the mineral is merely breaking along many small planes. Due to the fact that one of its two main components is lead galena is very heavy and has a high specific gravity (read more about specific gravity in Barite: the Mineral That’s Used to Make Milkshakes, another post that I made at an earlier date, which you can find in my blog archive under December) Galena’s high lead content brings up an important point: galena is a poisonous material. Lead is a toxic metal and many of its compounds are poisonous as well, galena is no exception! As a rule you should always wash your hands after handling galena.
     Galena is used primarily as an ore of lead. Lead can be extracted from galena quite easily. In fact, ancient Greek and Roman writers described how rocky outcrops of galena could be reduced to lead during wildfires. Lead was once used to make many things, especially plumbing solder and pipes (the word plumber comes from the Latin word for lead, plumbum) However, it is used less frequently today because we have come to realize that it is a dangerous material. Nevertheless, lead is still used to make car batteries (which are also called “storage batteries”) ammunition, and solder designed for uses other than plumbing. Lead is also used to make stained-glass windows. Galena can be a source of silver because it is often found in the mineral as an impurity.
     Galena is found in Italy, France, Austria, and Germany. The ancient Romans mined the mineral in Spain and England. It is also found in Peru, Bolivia, and Mexico. The United States is also a good source of the mineral. There are 36 U.S. states that have significant galena deposits. Missouri is one of the best that I personally know of.
     Galena certainly makes a nice addition to any collection, but be warned: it is poisonous. You should always take special care when handling it!

Tektites, the Mysterious Little Rocks

     Tektites are a variety of what is called “natural glass.” Natural glass refers to a glassy substance that is made when rocks melt naturally. Obsidian is a famous variety of natural glass and looks very similar to some tektites (especially when polished) but tektites can be distinguished by the fact that they do not contain the microscopic crystals that obsidian does. Tektites are usually green, dark brown, or black in color and are found as little nodules that are usually less than four inches in diameter. Tektites are usually found as spheres, tear-drop shapes, lenses, dumbbell-shapes, discs, and ellipses. Tektites were first discovered in the Moldau River in the former Czechoslovakia and were named moldavites. Today the term moldavite refers to a green variety of tektite found only in that area. The varieties of tektites are named from the places in which they are found. For example: a tektite found in Australia is called australite.
     For a long time scientists did not understand the tektite’s origin. For a long time it was suggested that tektites were formed when meteorites passed through the earth’s atmosphere. When a meteorite enters the earth’s atmosphere it is subjected to a great deal of heat as it passes along (this is why they look like “shooting stars” at night) Tektites were once thought to be leftover blobs that fell off of a meteorite’s molten surface. Tektites were once thought to come from the moon as well. Today it is thought that when a meteorite strikes the earth the intense heat caused by the impact will melt the sand around the meteorite, thus making tektites out of rocks from the earth and not for the meteorite itself. We may never know exactly how tektites are formed, but most theories have something to do with space.
Tektites have few uses outside of the rock and mineral collection. I would assume that they are used in science, but I do not know exactly what they could be used for. Tektites (especially moldavites) are also cut as gemstones occasionally.
     Since tektites are thought to be formed by the action of meteorites slamming into the earth’s surface they could be found, in theory, anywhere on earth where a meteorite has struck. Places where large deposits of tektites can be found include: Russia, the Australian state of Tasmania, Australia, southern China, the Ivory Coast, and the Czech Republic. Tektites have also been found in Thailand.
     Tektites are an amazing and mysterious part of God’s creation. We may never know how they are formed or where they come from, but I don’t think that that will stop people from collecting them any time soon!

Halite: Salt of the Earth

     Halite (which is also called “rock salt”) is chemically the same as common table salt. What differentiates halite from the stuff in our salt shakers is its form and color. Halite grows as large, cubic crystals that are often found growing together as large conglomerate masses. In addition to the cubic shape that the halite crystals usually display they have also been found as octahedrons, and fibers. Halite has also been found as encrustations, stalactites, and hopper crystals. A hopper crystal occurs when a crystals edge grows faster than its face. This results in a crystal that has stepped depressions all over its face. Halite most commonly smoky gray in color, but when absolutely pure it can be white or clear. Impurities can cause it to be red, pink, blue, purple, yellow, orange, and green. Most of these colors are usually very pale, but purple and blue can show very strongly. Like all salt, halite dissolves in water, so if you have any in your collection don’t let it get too wet!
     When thinking about what possible uses there could be for the mineral halite, remember that it is salt and is used in every way that one would use salt. Halite is, of course, used to flavor food and was once used to preserve meats. Halite is also a major source of the salt that places with colder climates use to keep their roads from icing. Halite is also used as a source of the metal sodium which is used to make lye (sodium hydroxide.) It is also used to purify water and in modern food processing.
I have personally seen halite do some interesting things. I once grew a stalactite of salt that was hollow and had angular sides. It was about two and one half inches long. Also, in Acadia National Park, Maine I found a puddle that appeared to be frozen, but when I touched it I found that the white covering atop it was actually crystallized salt!
     Halite is found in many places on the earth, the seashore being the most notable. It is an evaporate (a mineral that crystallizes as the result of evaporation.) Fine specimens can be found in California. Large halite deposits can be found underground as well. There are famous salt mines in Poland and beneath Detroit. There are also mines in New York state. The Great Salt Lake in Utah is a good source of evaporate salt as is the Dead Sea in Israel.
     Halite’s name can be a little misleading, but I don’t mind. It is important to science, the food industry, road safety, and many other such things. Who would have thought that salt can be so important?

Cavansite: a Useless Mineral?

     Cavansite is a rare mineral that is found in only a few places on the Earth. Cavansite is usually found in vesicles (gas bubbles) or cracks in basalt and andesite. Cavansite is usually found as tiny, orthorhombic, blue crystals. So far there have been no examples found in which cavansite that displays any color other than blue, but cavansite does exhibit different shades of blue varying from greenish blue to deep blue and a color that is known as electric blue. Cavansite crystals are very small and are usually found as clusters or aggregations. These clusters can be radiating spheres, tufts, or rosettes, which are shaped like roses. Cavansite is named for the three most prominent elements that make up its chemical formula: CAlcium, VANadium, and SIlicon.
Like many discoveries, cavansite was discovered by amateur collectors. In the fall of the year 1960 a couple was driving through Owyhee State Park in Oregon. They caught sight of a blue mineral in a rock face that had been exposed by a recent road cut. They and another couple collected some samples of the mineral and sent it to Dr. Paul Desautels of the Smithsonian National Museum who said that their discovery was probably a new, undiscovered, mineral. Three years later a man named John Cowels found some the same mineral and sent it to Dr. Lloyd Staples to have it identified. Dr. Staples determined it to be a new mineral. Next time you are tempted to think that you cannot make a contribution to science just because you are not a professional remember this story!
     The last mineral that I wrote about was barite, which is used for a great deal of things. Cavansite contrasts barite fairly well because it has no technological uses. Cavansite crystals are also too small to use as jewelry so the only market in which cavansite sells is the collector’s market. Perhaps the Lord created cavansite simply to add some artwork to the Earth’s rocky infrastructure.
     There is only one source throughout the world in which cavansite can be mined in large enough quantities for collectors and that is in India. My specimen was collected in the vicinity of the Wagholi village in India. It is also found in very small amounts in Oregon, Brazil, and New Zealand’s North Island.
     If there is one thing that this blog has taught us it is that just because something may not be prestigious does not mean that it is useless. Cavansite has small crystals, is too rare for any technological use, and is not used to make jewelry, yet it is certainly not useless. Cavansite is prized by collectors and it is a beautiful mineral. This article can also teach us that an amateur’s discovery may be an important one too!

Barite, the Mineral That's Used to Make Milkshakes

    
     Barite is a mineral that is often found near hot springs, in lime stones, and in lead and silver mines. Barium crystals are usually orthorhombic, that is to say they are like little peaked roofs with ends that face inward, and they are usually white, gray, colorless, yellow, gold, brown, red, and blue. Barite is also found in many other forms. Barite forms a “cock’s comb” when its crystals are flat and rounded like a comb on a chicken’s head. When barite is found in form that resembles a flower it is called a “barite rose” or “desert rose.” Desert roses usually form in desert terrains (hence the name desert rose) this occurs when water containing dissolved barite evaporates quickly. Barite also has a very high specific gravity (that means it feels heavy for its size. Drawing from what I remember of my high school chemistry classes, I believe that the reason that barite is so heavy is that it contains the element barium, which is heaver than iron. When an element is heavy or dense, its compounds usually are as well, when compared to compounds containing other, less dense, elements.
     Barite is a very useful mineral. Barite is so useful, in fact, that you have probably come into contact with the mineral on many occasions. One of the key uses of the mineral is to make what is called “drilling mud.” Drilling mud is a compound that is used to lubricate the drill heads used in the oil-drilling industry. Barite is used to make a high-refraction glass called leaded glass or leaded crystal. Tiny barite chips are also added to paints, enamels, plastics, and papers to make the glossy. If you have ever read a magazine with a really shiny cover, chances are that barite was used to give it its sheen. It is also possible that you have ingested barite before. If, like myself, you have ever had an x-ray of your gastrointestinal tract taken, and were given the “magic juice” or “barium milkshake” than you have drank barite. Barium has the ability to absorb x rays and gamma rays, so it will stop them from passing through body tissue. When you drink a “milkshake” that contains barium the mineral will be present in your digestive tract and stop x-rays from passing through it, allowing the picture to be taken. Barite is also added to concrete to make “heavy cement,” which is used to store radioactive waste. Barite is also a source of the metal barium, which is used in scientific research.
     Barite is found in such places as: England, Romania, Italy, Texas, China, Mexico, British Columbia, South Africa, and Australia. Not only are fine crystals mined as choice specimens, but barites of less desirable shape are mined in large quantities for such industrial uses as those mentioned above.
     Barite, arguably the most useful mineral that I have written about yet, is certainly an important mineral in our lives today. It is a very desirable mineral for collectors, and for milkshake makers. (I’m joking about that last one!)

Molybdenite, What a Softy!

 
     Molybdenite is a mineral that is shiny, and silvery-gray in color. It’s color is actually very similar to that of lead. Molybdenite crystals are hexagonal and are very thin, far thinner than paper, but they are usually found bunched together to make larger pieces in the same manner as the mineral group mica. And, just like mica, these thin sheets can flake apart with only a little effort. As the headline suggests molybdenite specimens are very soft. So soft that they bend easily so their hexagonal shape is often destroyed and they are often found in an amorphous state (which means that they have no regular shape, kind of like gold nuggets) In addition to being subject to distortion molybdenite can also wear very easily. In fact it will leave a silvery-gray smudge on almost anything that touches it so it’s probably best not to let molybdenite touch any expensive clothing! Molybdenite’s name comes from the Greek word molybdos, which means lead. This is because when the ancient Greeks discovered molybdenite they thought that they had found some new and strange form of lead.
     Molybdenite is the chief ore of the metal molybdenum, which is used to make certain steel alloys such as tool-steels. For some time now, I have wanted to attempt to extract pure molybdenum from a small piece of molybdenite via either chemical reaction or a process known as electrolysis, but have not yet made this attempt. I do not recommend that any readers do so either until they have taken all necessary safety precautions and have researched the topic thoroughly.
     Molybdenite is found in many places including: Sweden, Norway, Chile, Korea, England, the western United States, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and Queensland, Australia.
     Molybdenite is, in my opinion, a visually appealing mineral. After all, there are very few minerals that I know of that look like pieces of metal! I am very thankful to own a piece of this mineral, even if it is a bit soft.

Aragonite, the Mineral With a Patriotic Name

    
     Aragonite is named for the Spanish province of Aragon. Aragonite crystals can be fibrous, acicular (needle-like) or prismatic, but they often display what is known as crystal twinning. Crystal twinning is a mineral phenomenon in which crystals grow together and sometimes appear as one. In the case of aragonite these crystals can form as columns or large needles that radiate from their base. Aragonite can also form as stalactites. As is the case in many mineral types aragonite is clear when pure, but impurities can cause it to become yellow, blue, pink, green, brown, orange, and rarely purple. Aragonite can be confused with the mineral calcite, but it can be easily distinguished by its greater specific gravity. The specific gravity loosely defined is the ratio of a mineral’s weight to its size. Minerals with a higher specific gravity feel heavy for their size. So a piece of calcite will weigh less than a piece of aragonite that is the same size.
     Aragonite has some use in jewelry, but due to aragonite’s softness this use is limited. Aragonite is used to make beads and small carvings. Aragonite is sometimes polished though I cannot elaborate on what it looks like polished because I have never seen it. However, I have seen a polished slice of an aragonite stalactite that was quite pretty. The picture that I saw had alternating layers of white, yellow, brown, and orange. The layers were uneven and looked as if they had been folded. Aragonite is also used in the making of cement and in glass-making applications. Aragonite is composed of a chemical that is called calcium carbonate, which is used to neutralize acid in industry. Aragonite is also used to make calcium-rich fertilizers for agriculture, animal feed, and white pigments.
     Aragonite is found in many places, but I personally doubt that any source can be considered more famous that that of Aragon, Spain. Aragonite is also found throughout the western Mediterranean region, England, Colorado, Mexico, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Australia. Though I did not come across this source an any of the books that I read I have known New Mexico to be a good source.
     Aragonite is certainly a captivating mineral and I am glad to have learned so much about it. Also aragonite inspires the idea of naming a mineral that one discovers after the region in which he or she lives. If ever you come across a blog about the mineral michiganite, you’ll known that I’ve done just that!

Quartz, the World's Most Common Mineral (Part Four--Quartz With Inclusions)

     
     Quartz, the World's Most Common Mineral (Part Four--Quartz With Inclusions) is the final installment of the series of blogs that I've written about the subject of quartz. I hope that by the time that you have come to this final piece I hope that you have gained a great deal of knowledge about the world's most common mineral!
     I have already covered inclusions, but for those who have not read the blog in which this information can be found I will touch onto the subject again. When a mineral is said to have an inclusion that means that something else is trapped inside of it. This could be a bubble of gas or liquid, or it could be an entirely different mineral. Inclusions are fairly common in quartz and while bubbles and vesicles are common we will focus mainly on other minerals being trapped inside of quartz.
    The first inclusion that I will mention is that of black tourmaline. Black tourmaline crystals are often prismatic or acicular (needle-like) in shape. When quartz contains inclusions it is often given different names. Quartz containing tourmaline is called tourmalinated quartz. Possibly the most famous quartz inclusion, crystals of rutile are common in quartz as well. Rutile crystals are almost always acicular and are usually red, black, or metallic yellow in color. Quartz with rutile inclusions is called rutilated quartz or sagenite. Quartz can contain gold (gold-bearing quartz is known as “gold quartz”) and silver. Silver inclusions are often dendrites and are usually silver of black in color. Quartz has also been known to the iron-bearing minerals pyrite and goethite. I have found one piece that I believe might contain hematite, but I am not sure if it is truly hematite or another iron mineral. I have also found quartz that contains what I think is biotite mica, but again I am not completely sure.
    Quartz with inclusions serves only two uses that I know of: carving stones and a collector’s pieces. Quartz with inclusions can make very interesting carvings because of the appearance that the crystals found inside of it may bestow. Many rock and mineral collectors love quartz with inclusions because it is breathtaking to look at perfect crystals that are completely enclosed within another crystal.
Again quartz can be found anywhere so quartz with inclusions can be found anywhere hypothetically. I have found samples of quartz with inclusions in South Dakota, New Hampshire, and Michigan. Other sources include: Madagascar, Brazil, South Africa, India, Sri Lanka, Germany, and Switzerland.
   Like all minerals, I think that quartz with inclusions display the artwork of God. After all, there is no rear reason why one mineral should form within another; it is simply another wonder of creation. Perhaps the real purpose of minerals like quartz with inclusions is to draw our minds into a state of thankfulness toward our Creator, who could have made the earth a drab and dull place, but chose to fill it with wonder instead. Let us thank Him for this gift today!

Quartz, the World's Most Common Mineral (Part Three--Brown Quartz)

  
      So, by this time we have read about quartz that is clear, white, and pink, but did you know that there are still other colors and varieties of quartz out there? Indeed there are, and today we will focus upon a group of quartzes that have been dubbed brown quartz.
     I assume that most people probably think that brown quartz is brown in color, and that is partly true: some of it is. Other colors that fall under the brown quartz category are grayish brown and black-colored. Quartz that is brown, light brown, or grayish brown is called smoky quartz, and black quartz is called morion. Brown quartz is also called cairngorm when it is found in the Cairngorm Mountains in Scotland. No one knows for sure exactly how brown quartz is formed, but scientists have observed colorless quartz crystals become brown when exposed to radiation. This has led many scientists to adopt the theory that brown quartz was given its color by exposure to natural radiation. I do not know of any properties of brown quartz that are too different from that of its colorless counterpart, save for its brown color. Brown quartz grows with the same crystal structure that colorless quartz follows, and very large crystals at that. In Brazil people have found crystals of brown quartz that weighed as much as 650 pounds!
     Brown quartz is used mainly as a decorative stone. It is used to make carvings and cameos and occasionally it is used as jewelry. Morion is black, so I imagine that it has been used to make morning jewelry, but I have never heard whether or not this is true. Brown quartz, like any mineral, is also prized by collectors. One important thing to know is that a great deal of the brown quartz that is on the market today was produced artificially by exposing rock crystal quartz to radiation.
Like all quartz, brown quartz could be found anywhere on earthy, but it is usually found in certain locations. Some of the best locations in which brown quartz is found are Brazil, Madagascar, the Swiss Alps, and Colorado.

Quartz, the World's Most Common Mineral (Part Two--Rose Quartz)

  
      Rose quartz is a member of the quartz family of minerals. Its chemical makeup is the same as that of colorless quartz and it possesses most of the same properties, though it is different in the fact that it is very brittle and does not usually from as crystals, but as massive lumps. As its name might imply rose quartz is pink in color; this color is thought to be the product of titanium impurities, which makes sense to me because rutile, a titanium mineral, is found inside quartz crystals very often! Rose quartz is almost never transparent because it is usually filled with cracks, but every piece that I’ve seen has been translucent. When something is called translucent that means that it allows light to pass though it, but one cannot see through it.
Rose quartz has little use outside of rock and mineral collecting. It is occasionally used as jewelry, but it is not very popular. Rose quartz is also used to make decorative carvings, and, like its colorless counterpart, is occasionally used in landscaping.
     Rose quartz possesses one very interesting quality, which I think is worth mentioning here. If you have two pieces of rose quartz, try taking them into a dark room and ramming them together rapidly for a few moments. Eventually they will start to spark when they collide. Though the are many interesting aspects of rose quartz, I have to say that this is my favorite!
     Since it is a quartz mineral, rose quartz could theoretically be found anywhere in the earth’s crust. However if you want the highest quality pieces the place to find them would be Madagascar, but it can be found in greater quantities in Brazil. Other sources include Spain, Scotland, and the former USSR. Colorado is a good source of rose quartz in America and I own some pieces that I believe to be from Arizona. Whether or not rose quartz is found in the next location that I am about to mention, I do not know, but if you want to buy rose quartz there is no better place on earth (in my opinion) than Custer, South Dakota. There are many rock and mineral shops in that area and there I saw tables laden with boulders of rose quartz twice the size of bowling balls! I like rose quartz and am glad that our Creator chose to create it!

Quartz, the World's Most Common Mineral (Part One--Colorless or White Quartz)

    
     Quartz is the most abundant mineral in the earth’s crust and is found everywhere in the world. Many rock collectors have probably started their collections with quartz because it is very common, and therefore can be found easily or purchased at a very low price. Today’s blog will focus upon what is probably the most famous sort of quartz, colorless and white quartz. Pure quartz is colorless, in fact some crystals are as clear as glass. Colorless quartz is called “rock crystal.” Quartz crystals are hexagonal with pyramidal ends, but, like many minerals, quartz is often found as broken pieces, water worn pebbles, and massive agglomerations. I have personally seen a boulder of quartz that measures about two feet across, but even larger specimens have been found. Quartz can also be reduced to very tiny pieces as well. In fact, most white or beige-colored beach sand is composed mostly of tiny grains of quartz. Quartz can also be given a milky white appearance by tiny bubbles of gas and liquid that have been trapped within the stone. This quartz is called “milky quartz.”
     Quartz serves a variety of uses, some of which are in jewelry, but most are less glamorous. Clear quartz can be faceted and used as a gemstone, but it is very common and therefore not as desirable as some rarer rocks and minerals. Quartz is more often tumbled to make lumpy polished stones that are sold for a fairly low price or carved as beads, cameos, or small statues. Quartz has been used as a building stone in years past, but it has been replaced by brick and was never the most prominent building stone anyway. Quartz breaks with what is called a conchoidal fracture (that means that when quartz chips or breaks its chips resemble conch shells) and can therefore be honed into a very sharp edge and be used to make tools and weapons. I came by an arrowhead that was made of milky quartz in the Stanton, Michigan area (pictured) It was made by Native Americans long ago and is a good example of the use of quartz as a tool-making material. Quartz is also used in modern landscaping to make walkways or any other area requiring a blanketing of stone, and larger quartz pieces can be used as centerpieces in landscaping applications. Quartz can also be used in watches and precision instruments as well as lamps. When melted and mixed with other compounds quartz is used to make glass. Quartz is also a source of the metalloid chemical element silicon, which is used to make microprocessor chips in computers and other devices. Because of its hardness quartz can also be used as an abrasive.
     Quartz is found everywhere as it is the most abundant mineral in the earth’s crust. The best sources of rock crystal include Brazil, the Alps in France and Switzerland, and the USA. I have personally seen a great deal of rock crystal quartz in its natural state in the vicinity of Custer, South Dakota. Though quartz may be the most common mineral in the world it is certainly not the least fascinating!

Zircon, a Source of Exotic Metals and a Source of Delight

    
     Zircon is a mineral that receives its name from the Arabic word zagrum, which is derived from the Persian word for “gold colored”. Indeed, some zircon is honey-brown in color, but light blue, light green, yellow-green, blue, and clear varieties are also common. Zircon crystals are tetragonal, but many zircon samples are found as broken pieces, water worn pebbles, and large stepped crystals. A stepped crystal is a crystal that exhibits different layers that extend further than one another like a tiny staircase. Zircon crystals can also be damaged by the decay of tiny amounts of the radioactive metals thorium and uranium that are found within them. Zircon crystals that have been damaged by radioactive decay are said to have a metamict structure. Metamict zircons are also known as “low” zircons.
     Zircons also display some curious optical properties. Colorless zircons can exhibit a fire more brilliant than that of a diamond and some zircons will also reflect light in such a way as to display a rainbow-colored flash within them. The color of a zircon can be changed by heating it and zircon can sometimes display what is called mineral fluorescence. Minerals that display mineral fluorescence (which are called fluorescent minerals) actually appear to change color and glow beneath an ultraviolet or black light and will even glow! I have personally seen my own sample of zircon become pink and glow under an ultraviolet light. There are a great many minerals that possess interesting optical properties, but it is safe to assume that zircon just might have out-classed all of them!
     Zircon is also a very useful stone. Zircon has been used as a gemstone for a great deal of time (it has been used in India for centuries) Colorless zircon can be used to imitate diamonds, but zircons can be distinguished from diamonds by their more brilliant fire, and the fact that zircons will chip and scratch while diamonds will not. Zircon also has a number of industrial and technological uses. Great amounts of zircon can be used to make ceramics, firebricks, and molds for metal casting. The metal zirconium was discovered within (and named for) zircon and the stone serves as the chief ore of zirconium today. Zircon also serves as a source of hafnium and thorium as well. Zirconia (zirconium oxide) can be extracted from zircon. Zirconia can be used to make cubic zirconia, which is used to imitate diamonds.
     Zircon has been mined in Sri Lanka for about two thousand years. It is also found in Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Brazil, Nigeria, France, the Australian state of Tasmania, and the American states of Florida and Georgia. Zircon is both an ore stone and a gemstone as well as an interesting collection piece. It ranks among the most interesting of minerals in the scientific respect in my opinion.

Lapis Lazuli, Rock On!

  
      It’s finally time for my first blog about a rock and not a mineral. Lapis lazuli is a blue rock that has been prized since ancient times. What makes a rock differ from a mineral? you may ask. A mineral is an inorganic substance with a definite chemical formula. A rock is simply a mixture of minerals. You can think of a mineral as a simple substance such as sugar or salt and a rock would be a mixture of other substances like a cake or salad dressing. Lapis lazuli is a rock that is composed of the minerals lazurite, sodalite, hauyne, calcite, and pyrite. Lapis lazuli receives its blue color from the mineral lazurite and the pyrite present within the rock will sometimes dot the stone with brassy flecks. The mineral calcite is sometimes visible as streaks of white material throughout the rock. Being a rock lapis lazuli has no crystal structure, but is instead found in giant amorphous lumps. The word amorphous means ‘without shape’ or ‘no shape’ and means that the thing in question has no definite shape and is found in random chunks. A few minerals have been known to form amorphous specimens, but these huge lumps are composed of a great deal of tiny crystals that all have definite shapes. Lapis lazuli has no definite shape because it is a mixture of minerals.
     I only know of a few uses for lapis lazuli. The first is as a decorative stone. Lapis lazuli has what I would call a medium hardness (it measures about 5 ½ on the Mohs’ Scale) so it can be carved and polished fairly easily. Both the ancient Egyptians and the Babylonians used lapis lazuli to make carvings. I have personally seen photographs of mosaics, scarabs, and figurines that were made from lapis lazuli in ancient Egypt. Tutankhamen’s mask was inlaid with the stone as well. Lapis lazuli was also ground to make a blue-colored paint in ancient Persia, though this was a very rare use of the rock because the mineral azurite was softer and a lot less expensive than lapis lazuli. Today Lapis lazuli is still used to make carvings and rock and mineral collectors also love to have natural, un-carved, pieces in their collections.
Lapis lazuli is found in Argentina, Chile, the former USSR, and the United States. The most famous source of the blue rock is Afghanistan where it has been mined for thousands of years. Most of the lapis lazuli that was used by ancient peoples probably came from Afghanistan. In fact, the lapis lazuli that is found upon King Tutankhamen’s mask came from that country.
     Lapis lazuli is beautiful when compared to most other rocks, and even when compared to some minerals. It is certainly the only blue rock that I know of!

Hi-Ho Silver!

     Silver is a silver-colored metal that is found between copper and gold on the Periodic Table of the Elements. It is very soft and tarnishes easily in polluted air; silver is also the best conductor of both heat and electricity among all of the metals. Now, by this time I am sure that you are beginning to wonder why I thought to include silver in a blog about rocks and minerals. After all silver is neither a rocks nor a mineral: it is an element, one of the building blocks of minerals. A great deal of the elements do not occur uncombined in nature, they are always found as compounds and must be extracted. There are some elements that do occur in pure, solid form not combined with any other elements. These are called native elements, and native elements are sometimes classified as minerals. These include: copper, gold, sulfur, bismuth, and silver.
Native silver is often found as natural wires or as dendrites, and it is occasionally found as nuggets. The term dendrite refers to a crystal that grows like the branches of a tree. Native silver is found as these tree-like structures, as is native copper. In Michigan’s Copper Country native silver and native copper are sometimes found growing together! These crystals are quite rare and are prized by collectors.

     No one knows when people first began to use silver, but I am willing to guess that they might have done so right out of the Garden of Eden. Since silver is soft, melts at a lower temperature than many metals, and is found as a native metal, silver has always been a popular metal to craft objects from. Silver was, and still is, used to make decorative objects and jewelry. Since silver is so soft and will tarnish easily other metals are often added to it to keep it from wearing out or tarnishing. When 20-25% silver is added to gold the alloy is called electrum. When 7.5% copper is added to silver the alloy is called sterling silver. At the end of the Middle Ages silver was valued as highly as gold, but now an ounce of silver is worth about fifty to eighty times less than gold, though it is still quite valuable when compared to other metals. Silver has also been used to make coins for quite some time, but most countries no longer use precious metals like silver to make their coins. Silver possesses greater electrical conductivity (the ability to allow electricity to pass through it) than any other metal. In fact, when the electrical conductivity of a metal is judged it is actually measured against silver. Because of this silver is used in some electrical applications, specifically those in which the need for perfect conductivity outweighs the cost of silver!

     Silver is found in many places throughout the world, but it is usually found as an ore. The best sources of native silver include China and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Historically Norway has been the best source of native silver. A good deal of native silver was found at Kongsberg, Norway in the 17and 1800s.
Silver, both a metal and a mineral, is as useful as it is beautiful. Now I know why it is so valuable!

Rubies: World's Most Valuable Gem

     Rubies are a red variety of the mineral corundum. Pure corundum (a form of aluminum oxide) is colorless, but different impurities can alter the mineral’s color. Rubies are turned red by impurities of iron and chromium. Rubies can be any shade of red including pink, purple, and reddish brown, but a bright red is the most desirable. Ruby crystals usually form as hexagonal prisms with flat or tapered ends. However rubies are not always found as these perfect prisms, but as rounded pebbles in gem-rich gravels in gravel pits and river beds. Ruby crystals often form crystal twins when they grow naturally and will sometimes fracture because of it. Crystal twinning is a term used to describe a growth pattern in crystals in which two or more crystals appear to intersect one another symmetrically. Other than twinning rubies are also known to display what is called asterism. Asterism is a phenomenon that occurs in some crystals because of the stones’ internal features such as cavities or fibrous crystal inclusions. When the light reflects off of these cavities or crystals a star shape appears in the stone (this is most visible when the stone is cut en cabochon --cut and polished with a domed surface like a lens) When a stone has two sets of parallel crystals a four-rayed star is produced. When there are three sets of parallel crystals present a six-rayed star is produced (this continues onward!) Rubies also display what is called zoning. Ruby crystals grown in layers and sometimes the layers can be different shades of the same color. When different color variations are present in the same crystal this is called zoning.
     Rubies are a rare and valuable type of gemstone so they are used mostly in jewelry. Rubies are very hard (second only to diamonds in their hardness), they are a very attractive color, and are quite rare, so they are good candidates for the gem industry. This may be hard to believe, but gem quality rubies are actually the most valuable gemstone in the world, worth more than diamonds of the same size! Besides gemstones rubies have some industrial uses. Because they are so hard, tiny rubies or very small pieces leftover from gem cutting are used to make emery boards and some kinds of sandpaper (or emery cloth). Rubies are also used in medical lasers and some watches.
     Rubies that are not of gem-quality are found in many parts of the world, but true gem-quality rubies are found only in certain places. Myanmar is probably the most historical source, but nowadays most rubies come from Thailand. Most Thai rubies are brownish red in color. The best bright red rubies come from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Vietnam. Opaque rubies are found in Norway, Russia, India, Australia, and North Carolina. I think that their beautiful red color can be a reminder of the undeserved gift of our Savior’s blood that was spilled on our behalf. With this in mind one can think that rubies are very special stones!

Diamonds: Are They Really Forever?

         

          Diamonds are the hardest mineral on earth; they cannot be scratched by anything except other diamonds. Diamonds are one of the four allotropes of the element carbon. When elements are said to have different allotropes that means that they can exist in different forms. There are four known allotropes of carbon: graphite, amorphous carbon, fullerenes, and diamonds. Solid allotropes exist as different crystal structures and diamonds are the strongest crystal structure present in carbon. Diamonds are formed in the earth’s mantle (about ninety miles below the earth’s surface) where heat and pressure arrange carbon atoms to form a compact structure. This compact arrangement of atoms is the source of the diamond’s hardness and its shape. Diamond crystals are usually octahedral like the mineral fluorite, but they have rounded edges and convex faces. Diamonds are brought to the earth’s surface by volcanic eruptions and are often found in volcanic rocks, most notably kimberlite. Diamonds often make their way into rivers where they are sometimes mistaken for worthless pebbles!

          As I said before, diamonds are the hardest mineral on earth. The only way to cut a diamond is to do so with another diamond, such as a diamond wheel or a diamond drill. Diamonds will not be broken down by acid either. Because they are so hard and acid will not dissolve them diamonds are often thought to be indestructible. That is why they are so often used as a symbol of marriage because “diamonds are forever.” Unfortunately this is not true. While it is impossible to scratch a diamond with anything other than another diamond there are ways to destroy them. Since they are nothing more than carbon, diamonds will burn (anybody see the movie Fireproof?) Diamonds can also be broken if they are struck with a sharp, hard blow.
          The most popular use of diamonds is that of jewelry. Diamonds are the symbol of engagement, as well as the official gemstone of 10^th and 60^th wedding anniversaries. Clear, flawless diamonds are the most popular, but black, green, pink, gray, red, and blue varieties also exist. As gemstones diamonds are graded by the “Four C’s:” cut, clarity, color, and carat. As well as their hardness diamonds also have a brilliant “fire” and luster. Other than as gemstones diamonds are used in industry, where their extreme hardness makes them very valuable cutting tools. Diamonds are used to make polishing wheels, drills, and saws. Lower-grade diamonds are usually the ones used in industrial applications because they cost considerably less. The least expensive diamonds that are often used include black or “bort” diamonds and a microcrystalline variety of diamond called carbonados. The term microcrystalline refers to a mineral that exists as a giant mass of tiny crystals instead of one large crystal. Jasper is a microcrystalline variety of the mineral quartz. Carbonados are composed of many tiny diamond crystals and are used mainly in industry due to their unattractive appearance.

          Diamonds are found in many African countries such as: Ghana, Sierra Leone, Zaire, Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa. They are also found in the former USSR and the United States. Today most diamonds come from Australia.

          Diamonds are certainly interesting stones, after all nothing on earth can scratch them (save for other diamonds), acids have no effect on them, and it requires great force to break one. But remember, as hard as they are diamonds are not indestructible.

Fluorite, the Mineral that You've Probably Eaten!

Fluorite, which was once called fluorspar, is a very soft mineral. On the Mohs’ Scale, which is a scale of mineral hardness that goes from 1(softest) to 10(hardest), fluorite measures at only 4. Fluorite has been used for many years and for many different purposes. It is still widely used today and you may have ingested some without even knowing it!
Like many minerals fluorite can have many colors. Fluorite can be yellow, purple, green, clear, or blue. Like tourmaline, single fluorite specimens can display more than one color, but unlike tourmaline which does so in an orderly fashion, when fluorite displays different colors it is usually banded and has many layers of alternating colors. When fluorite forms as a banded mixture of blue and yellow it is called “blue john.” Fluorite crystals are usually shaped like cubes, but when they are broken they become perfect octahedron, which have eight faces and are diamond-shaped (you can think of an octahedron as a shape that is like two Egyptian pyramids fused together at their bases) In rare cases fluorite has been found to have a botryoidal habit. If a mineral is described as having a botryoidal habit, it resembles a bunch of grapes. The word botryoidal was derived from the Greek word for “a bunch of grapes.”
As I said before, fluorite has many different uses. Its first use is a common one among colorful minerals: it is used as a gemstone. Since it is both soft and beautiful fluorite has been used to make carvings since ancient times. The ancient Egyptians used fluorite to make statues and scarabs and the people of China have used fluorite to make carvings for more than 300 years. Fluorite still has use as a gemstone today, but this use is limited due to fluorite’s softness. Sometimes fluorite cabochons are protected from scratching by coverings made of quartz crystal. Fluorite has also been used as a flux in the steel industry for a long time. A flux is a chemical that is put into a crucible along with metal or metal ores during the melting process to remove impurities from the metal. Fluorite makes a chemical reaction with some of the impurities in iron during the melting process to form slag. The slag can easily be skimmed off of the surface of molten iron and therefore removed easily. Fluorite has been used as a flux for many years and is still used today. The next use of fluorite is, in my opinion, the most interesting. Minerals are nothing more than pure chemical substances that have common crystal structures and fluorite is no exception. Fluorite’s chemical name is calcium fluoride, which is a common ingredient in fluoride toothpastes! If you check the ingredient lists on the tubes of many fluoride toothpastes, I am sure that you will soon come across one that lists calcium fluoride as its main active ingredient. That is why I said that you might have ingested fluorite and not even known it!
The name fluorite comes from the Latin word fluere, which means flowing, referring to the fact that fluorite can be melted easily. Fluorine, a gaseous chemical element, was named for fluorite since the gas was first discovered in fluorite. This brings up an important point: never treat fluorite with acid, if you do it will often release fluorine gas, which is highly poisonous!
Fluorite can be found in many places such as: Canada, the United States, South Africa, Peru, Thailand, Mexico, China, Eastern Europe, Norway, and the former Czechoslovakia. England is the main source of the “blue john” variety of fluorite.
By now you can probably see that fluorite is a very useful mineral. It has been used as a gem, a flux, and even as an ingredient in toothpaste. Fluorite has such a simple chemical makeup that it was easy for scientists to isolate and discover the element fluorine just by treating the stone with acid. Fluorite is also a good example of God’s handiwork, showing that even the things that God makes for less glamorous purposes, He still likes to make into marvelous shapes and dazzling colors.

Pyrite the Impostor

       Pyrite, or iron pyrite, as it is sometimes called, is a heavy mineral that has a metallic lustre. Its chemical name is iron sulfide, which means that it is composed of iron and sulfur. Pyrite is usually a brassy yellow color, but weathering can cause pyrite to display red, purple, orange, and blue colors. Pyrites that exhibit all of these colors are often called "rainbow pyrites" because the layers of color remind people of a rainbow. Pyrite is famous for growing in cube-shaped crystals, but can also grow in "suns" where its crystals radiate outward from a single point to form a circular pattern of long, tapering, triangular crystals that look like sunbursts. Pyrite crystals can also from in strange geometric shapes that have been given the name "pyriohedra." These shapes have twelve pentagonal, or five-sided, faces. Pyrite cubes can be smaller than the head of a pin or larger than an American quarter. Small cubes are often found as crusts on other rocks or bunched together in massive lumps. Pyrite can also replace organic materials to make fossils in a process known as pyratizing. Pyratized ammonites are the most famous example of pyrite fossils, but others ar common as well. I have found pyratized crinoid stems and brachiopods.
       I'm sure a lot of people have heard the term "fool's gold" before. There are a few minerals that have been given this name, but the most common is undoubtedly pyrite. This is because pyrite is yellow in color, like gold. This is why I call pyrite the Impostor, because it is often mistaken for gold. However pyrite can be distinguished from gold by two simple methods. The first way to distinguish pyrite from gold is by the streak test. The streak test is a method used in mineral identification in which one scrapes the mineral in question against a piece of unglazed white porcelin leaving a streak. Each mineral has its own streak color, some streaks are a different color than the mineral that made them. Pyrite is yellow, but it has a green or black streak. Gold has a yellow streak. That test can easily determine whether or not a specimen is gold or pyrite. The second test is one that I have personally developed (I'm not sure if anyone else has done it before, but I don't think that I've ever seen it in a rocks and minerals book) I call it the rust test. Pyrite contains a great amount of iron in its composition and it will rust if it is exposed to too much water so, if you have a specimen that you think might be either gold or pyrite try dropping apiece of it in some water an allow it to sit for a while. It will usually rust after some time if it is in fact pyrite. A word of warning: the pyrite will most likely be ruined in this test!
     Pyrite has had varied uses over the years. When struck with a iron, pyrite will sometimes produce sparks. This is actually where pyrite's name originated. The name pyrite comes from the Greek word pyr, which means fire, referring to the sparks. Because of its tendency to spark it was once used as a component in a firearm. The wheelock gun had a iron wheel that would turn and rub against a piece of pyrite inside the firearm and ignite the powder when one pulled the trigger. I read that you can produce sparks from pyrite by striking it with flint. I have tried this and haven't had any luck so far. Pyrite has been used to make jewelry since ancient times and is still used a little today; all though it is quite brittle and must be cut very carefully. It is not very valuable as a gemstone so it's usually only used to make costume jewelry. In fact pyrite has more use in industry than in most other fields today. Because of its high iron content pyrite is used as an iron ore. Pyrite can also be used to make sulfuric acid because of its sulfur content. Unfortunately in some places where pyrite was mined for use in these industries, too much pyrite power was allowed into the environment and some natural chemical weathering produced some sulfuric acid, which made its way into the areas' water and damaged some of the local wildlife. Fine pyrite crystals are also sold to collectors.
      Pyrite is found all over the world in igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks. Some of the most obvious sources would be areas that are rich in sulfur and iron, like my home. I have found a few cubic crystals, two or three massive conglomerations of tiny cubes, and one crust. Areas around Detroit, Michigan, and Toledo, Ohio are also good localities in the USA in where pyrite can be found. On a rock-collecting trip that my church took to a location in Ohio near Toledo one rock hound found a conglomeration of cubes in which a lot of cubes protruded the specimen and were individually visible. Places where some of the best crystals can be found include, Spain, Peru, Italy, France, Mexico, and Italy. Because of its color, geometrically-shaped crystals, and history as "fool's gold' pyrite is truly an awesome mineral. I'm glad that our Creator has put it in so many places around the earth!

Tormaline: How Can one Mineral Have so Many Colors?

     As the title suggests the mineral tourmaline is very colorful. Tourmaline can be red, purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, colorless, or even black. All of these varieties of tourmaline are transparent, except for the black variety. Perhaps the most interesting thing about tourmaline is that one crystal can have more than one color. The most famous example of this multi-coloration is a variety of tourmaline that is green throughout one part of the crystal and red throughout the rest. This is called watermelon tourmaline. Surprisingly tourmaline crystals can exhibit more than two colors within a single crystal as well. The piece that I own (the one that is pictured) actually has three colors: red, green, and clear. Some tourmaline crystals have been found that contained fifteen sections of different colors or hues. And, like amethyst, tourmaline will sometimes appear to change color when it is viewed from different angles. If you are interested in minerals purely for their colorful properties, be glad that there's tourmaline!
     Many of the different varieties of tourmaline have different names as gemstones. Red or purple tourmaline is called rubellite, blue tourmaline is known as indicolite, the orange variety of the stone has been named dravite in honor of Drave, Australia; colorless tourmaline is known as achroite, and black tourmaline is called schorl. All of these, as well as yellow and green tourmaline, are used as gemstones except for schorl, which is not very popular. Even some of the multicolored crystals are cut for use as gems.
       Tourmaline has one of the strangest chemical makeups that I've ever seen. In one book I own tourmaline is described as a "complex borosilicate." A description that's a bit closer to the truth would be "very very complex borosilicate!" The English philosopher John Ruskin once said that tourmaline's chemical formula looked, "more like a medieval doctor's prescription than the making of a respectable mineral!" After you see the formula written out [Na (Mg,Fe,Al,Mn,Li)3Al6(BO3)3(Si6O18)(OH,F)] I think you'll agree with him!
       Tourmaline is definitely not an ordinary stone. It has an astounding range or color, can appear to change color when held at different angles, and can have several different colors present in just one crystal. How many other minerals can do that?
        Tourmaline is found in Brazil, Russia, Madagascar, Australia, and the southwestern United States. I wish that is was found everywhere so that everyone could have a piece of it because, like all of our Creator's artwork, it is truly something to marvel at!

Rhodonite: a Rose in a Rock

       Rhodonite is a pink-colored mineral that is usually found in a massive habit. When a mineral is said to have a massive habit that means that it forms in lumps with no distinct shape. Rhodonite is occasionally found in crystalline form, but the crystals are usually very fragile. Rhodonite is also known to form as stalactites on other rocks.
      Rhodonite is a somewhat popular gemstone these days. It is usually cut as a cabochon (a shape that resembles a lens) and I have noticed that it is usually set in silver. Pink and red rhodonites are used for jewelry, but samples with black lines of manganese oxide running through them are most popular. Rhodonite is also the state gemstone of Colorado where it can be found and is a popular stone for jewelers. Elsewhere in the nation the stone remains a little less popular because it is not well known.
     Despite its name rhodonite does not contain any of the element rhodium in its molecular makeup; rhodonite is a manganese silicate. The name actually derives from the Greek word rhodos, which means rose. The name refers to the rhodonite's pink color. One of the pieces that I have in my collection is filled with little silver speckles at its center. These might be silver or perhaps pure, leftover, manganese metal that did not react, but I do not know.
     The most prominent sources of rhodonite around the world include the Ukraine, the Australian state of New South Wales, and Colorado. It is an interesting material and I am glad to have a few samples in my collection.

Amethyst--the Tie-dyed Quartz

        Amethyst is a purple-colored variety of the mineral quartz. In pure form quartz (silicon dioxide) is colorless, but impurities can alter its color. The purple color of amethyst is thought to be the product of tiny amounts of iron impurities. Amethyst can also be dichroic, which means that its color can appear to change when it is viewed at different angles (certain inks, such as the one used on the American $20 bill, do this too) Amethyst often has tiny drops of liquid trapped within its crystal structure, as well. The technical term for anything that is trapped within a crystal is an inclusion. In the case of amethyst these liquid inclusions are often called "tiger stripes" because the look like the stripes on a tiger's fur. It is because of all of these color phenomena that I call it the "tie-dyed quartz."
      Like quartz amethyst often forms within natural gas pockets and geodes. Quartz is the most common mineral in the world and is found everywhere on earth, so amethyst could theoretically be found anywhere. However there are certain areas where the mineral is found in abundance, most notably Brazil and the Ukraine. I have personally never found any in nature, but I do have three clusters of amethyst and one geode that contains the purple mineral. I think that amethyst is a beautiful mineral because its color is so uncommon.