Rocks — Geo

~wolf Wed, Jul 7, 1999 (22:38) seed

This topic is for those of you who collect rocks. Be they minerals, river stones, lunar stones, meteorites, diamonds, or part of The Wall, share your collection with us. For you, Marcia!

~MarciaH Wed, Jul 7, 1999 (23:12) #1

Rockhounds of the world, Unite! Wolfie dear, you're super!!! I have a chunk of Canterbury Cathedral -that has to qualify as especially choice. Lest you turn me over to Scotland Yard, let me reassure you I took it, with permission. It was in a dump truck which was hauling away stone which had been so badly eaten by acid rain that they were replacing it - most often statues. This piece has nothing carved on it, so I was allowed to "take as much as you want, Ma'am!" But, it is the original stone w ich was there when Thomas Becket was murdered therein!

~MarciaH Wed, Jul 7, 1999 (23:16) #2

Oh yeah! I need a Moon Rock. We had a piece of it here, and it looks just like the dense lava core of an A'a flow! It even had tiny craters in it!

~alyeska Wed, Jul 7, 1999 (23:27) #3

Did anyone find a piece of the meteor that exploded ove NZ yesterday?

~MarciaH Wed, Jul 7, 1999 (23:57) #4

No! I had not heard about it! Did it actually strike earth or did it burn off in the atmosphere as so many do? Lucie, let us know what you find out. I shall ask AnneH and see what she knows. Thanks for the news!

~wolf Thu, Jul 8, 1999 (09:49) #5

i hadn't heard about that either. thanks for stopping by, lucie, do come back!

~MarciaH Thu, Jul 8, 1999 (14:57) #6

Let's see, two new Firthians know there is more to TheSpring than Drool. Very good. Now, I shall work on prying some more loose - even if I have to send them to my *shudder* Babe topic.

~aschuth Thu, Jul 8, 1999 (15:49) #7

Why shudder? Nice kneecap!

~MarciaH Thu, Jul 8, 1999 (15:58) #8

Thanks, Alex...you made my day! Hmm...should I put my rock wish list here now...the one with the coprolite, gastrolith, meteorite and moon rock on it?! Oh, and the complete creature in a chunk of amber.

~KitchenManager Thu, Jul 8, 1999 (16:58) #9

let me think on that...might be redundant, don't you know!

~wolf Thu, Jul 8, 1999 (17:07) #10

methinks you already did *grin*

~MarciaH Thu, Jul 8, 1999 (21:36) #11

Re the New Zealand Meteorite, I just got this from a Firthian in Perth, Australia: It was on the news last night. A burst of light just above the surface in New Zealand did not say where I expect the Astronomers want to get the pieces pristine. Apparently although it did fall to the surface in small pieces no one was hurt.

~MarciaH Thu, Jul 8, 1999 (23:14) #12

*grin* Yes, I did, didn't I...*grin*

~wolf Thu, Jul 8, 1999 (23:49) #13

re response 11: thank God for that! marcia, do you have any websites for rock collecting info? or perhaps any literature titles devoted to it? i'll do some research myself and see if there are any legitimate sites out there. you know, in junior high (ah, so long ago), our science class touched on geology and i remember whenever the family would go on a drive, i'd look at all the landscape and jutted rocks or places where they cut through to put a road and be a little more knowledgeable about what happened to the earth. it really is cool!

~MarciaH Fri, Jul 9, 1999 (00:03) #14

Wolf, I have half of my Netscape Bookmarks used by Geology - from volcanoes (big over here), Earthquakes (part of the same and we have 'um quite regularly), Tsunamis (caused by the EQ's)and all sorts of US Geological Survey sites. What would you like? List the URLs or email them to you?

~MarciaH Fri, Jul 9, 1999 (00:22) #15

I just did an AltaVista search for Rocks and Minerals and came up with over 2,000 Web pages. The first few are very good for minerals and what they look like...and there are all levels of intellect, too, from little kids to us big ones. Any questions and I will check it out and report back here!

~MarciaH Fri, Jul 9, 1999 (00:37) #16

A good place to start is the Volcano Update from the Island of Hawaii where I am It has updates and links to other volcanoes and other neat stuff http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/volcanowatch/ Use this URL for live images refreshed every 30 seconds of Etna, Vesuvius and Stromboli in Italy http://www.iiv.ct.cnr.it:80/files/cam_index_stromboli.html Current Earthquake information world-wide http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/QUAKES/CURRENT/global.html

~KitchenManager Fri, Jul 9, 1999 (02:09) #17

any good plate techtonics sites?

~KitchenManager Fri, Jul 9, 1999 (02:11) #18

(sorry about the spare h)

~wolf Fri, Jul 9, 1999 (10:54) #19

thanks for your research, marcia. i know if i lived in a volcano/earthquake prone area, i'd have all those bookmarks too!

~KitchenManager Fri, Jul 9, 1999 (14:46) #20

instead, all of yours are to water gauges, right, Wolf?

~wolf Fri, Jul 9, 1999 (14:56) #21

got that right! flood markers all over the yard too! *grin*

~stacey Fri, Jul 9, 1999 (19:11) #22

i have a friend who is quite into geology and collects rocks from everywhere. we spent quite the evening looking at her collection under black light!

~MarciaH Fri, Jul 9, 1999 (19:37) #23

Plate Techtonics (adult) www.earth-resources.net Plate Techtonics (kids) tuweb.ucis.dal.ca/~jmerry/basinview/plate.htm (JASON project) Plate techtonics for the truly curious - contains the meter sites where they measure contintal drift (some of these David has helped install) www.udayton.edu/~geology/FieldTrip/psites.htm

~MarciaH Fri, Jul 9, 1999 (19:41) #24

Stace, I'd love to have a shadow-box cabinet in which to display my fluorescent rocks. I hope all of you who can get hold of a "black light" for viewing this phenomenon know not to look at the light source. It will damage your retina, and your retina is not into self healing. You lose it, you are blind. Please be careful.

~MarciaH Fri, Jul 9, 1999 (19:47) #25

Pardon the dead links. These should work: The one for adults http://www.earth-resources.net/p1832.htm the one for kids http://tuweb.ucis.dal.ca/~jmerry/basinview/plate.htm The metering sites http://www.udayton.edu/~geology/FieldTrip/psites.htm

~MarciaH Fri, Jul 9, 1999 (19:57) #26

This is for those of you who live in natural-disaster-prone areas (Tornado, flood, hurricane and such), this is the Natural Disasters Website of the University of Colorado (one of the very best!) http://www.Colorado.EDU/hazards/

~wolf Fri, Jul 9, 1999 (22:50) #27

what? flourescent rocks? i have a black light bulb...hmmm...should i go out in the drive and pick up pebbles? when i lived in kansas, i found a couple pieces of crystal. they were cool!still have them, but don't remember where they are. think they're in the middle of a jar of shells!

~MarciaH Fri, Jul 9, 1999 (23:01) #28

Lots of things flouresce. Plug a light bulb socket (any hardware store has them) or cheap lamp into a l o n g outdoor extension cord, turn it on and look around. If you are wearing polyester anything or blend, even you and your shoes will fluoresce.

~MarciaH Fri, Jul 9, 1999 (23:08) #29

Sorry about this misspelling it is Fluorescence (like the lights in an office) and certain chemicals (everything is made of chemicals) emit electromagnetic radiation which is visible to the human eye. Lots of things do exhibit this quality, but our visible spectrum is rather narrow in comparison with other animals.

~wolf Sat, Jul 10, 1999 (14:15) #30

i knew about white clothing really blaring under black lights...hmmm, am gonna have to have a black light alligator pool party in my backyard!

~MarciaH Sat, Jul 10, 1999 (14:21) #31

Please tell me you are not looking for shredded remnants of clothing left by sated gators! and promise me you will not join them - BTW, be really careful around water. You could get a really nasty shock!!! And, remember to protect those little one's eyes from the bulb.

~KitchenManager Sat, Jul 10, 1999 (14:24) #32

so, Wolf, what do you think? Should Marcia host a geology conference?

~casanova Sat, Jul 10, 1999 (16:35) #33

im new here so just burry me please

~casanova Sat, Jul 10, 1999 (16:36) #34

~wolf Sat, Jul 10, 1999 (17:49) #35

welcome to rock collecting, casanova! wer: i believe marcia is an expert on geology and would be perfect for her own geology conference!! marcia: i promise to be extra careful *grin*

~MarciaH Sat, Jul 10, 1999 (18:42) #36

Send them over if necessary. If you cannot baffle them sufficiently I can try to snow them under completely! BTW, I wrote a cute intro for the Geo Conference which got lost somewhere between my keyboard and my returning image. Oh well. Off to create topics for discussion...and thanks, I think, for your faith in my abilities and expertise. I am thinking seriously about comandeering my son to help with the Geoecology part - that is his field.

~KitchenManager Sat, Jul 10, 1999 (20:07) #37

figured you would...

~MarciaH Wed, Oct 20, 1999 (17:48) #38

I need this to be linked to Topic 21 in Geo Conference. Going to look for some help in this endeavor - and perhaps we can breathe some life back into both of them. (It would be 21, right?)

~terry Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (10:01) #39

For example, when you're in telnet, to link a topic 30 in the austin conference to the news conference, go to the news conference and type li 30 austin

~terry Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (10:01) #40

Ok: help link **** LINKFROM **** Syntax: li_nkfrom Description: This will link items in the specified range in the given conference into the current conference. This can only be done by a fair-witness of the current conference. A link can be erased with the kill command. Link commands are logged to the conference log file.

~MarciaH Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (13:01) #41

Thanks, Terry. I shall try that as soon as I am more awake. I noted where my other links are indentified in the conf log because I found the ones which were done for me earlier before I had seen that they were an actuality!

~MarciaH Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (18:55) #42

I tried in telnet to do as you instructed and the following appeared: Ok: li 29 springark Cannot access conference 29. I got the same response when I tried to link the other one, as well. Do I need to be cfadm to do this? I have not been so named. Suggestions?

~terry Wed, Oct 27, 1999 (06:51) #43

I got the syntax backwards, it must be li springark 29

~MarciaH Wed, Oct 27, 1999 (14:48) #44

Thanks Terry...(picky computer language...*grin*). It works beautifully and so easily when one knows the right command..! Both are now linked!

~patas Wed, Oct 27, 1999 (20:12) #45

Hi Marcia, I was looking for new posts in the geo conference and there popped this topic! Telnet magic, I guess :-)

~MarciaH Wed, Oct 27, 1999 (21:06) #46

Yes! I managed to link two topics - one from SpringArk and one from Collecting. Of course, Terry had to tell me what to do, but now I know...watch out world! Btw, I love the little world you promised me for my next birthday on Drool 72 =)

~terry Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (09:42) #47

Cool!

~MarciaH Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (14:44) #48

Now there will be people posting who never dared to venture into Geo before. It is rather nice in here and we get off topic as much as any other place does. Check us out...there is a lot of really cool stuff in here.

~patas Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (15:55) #49

(Marcia)Btw, I love the little world you promised me for my next birthday on Drool 72 =) Oh no, it wasn't a promise. I couldn't wait for your birthday so it was a non birthday present. Or a party favour, if you like :-)

~MarciaH Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (16:48) #50

Might I save it and use it in my topics, then? I noted it was from a Portuguese (?) language web graphics site. Thanks!!! It is darling!

~wolf Fri, Oct 29, 1999 (21:56) #51

what is it? i can't wait to see...

~MarciaH Fri, Oct 29, 1999 (22:44) #52

Its a cute little globe...she is giving me the world! (I think it might fit in theat capture ring you have which has interchangeable spheres...-*grin*

~patas Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (05:08) #53

(MarciaH) I noted it was from a Portuguese (?) language web graphics site. I think Swedish, not Portuguese... Rather the opposite end of Europe :-) Here's the page's url, they say you can use their graphics and ask that you link to them, so...

~wolf Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (10:51) #54

cool! thanks!!

~MarciaH Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (14:47) #55

Wolfie, your captured world is in Organic gems, but so you can share it, I'll put it here, also.

~wolf Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (20:55) #56

i like it!

~MarciaH Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (21:07) #57

Is that not the ultimate sphere for your Orbis collection>?!

~wolf Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (21:14) #58

indeed!! *grin* oh, i found an amber colored rock on the beach (at port aransis, texas) and picked it up. maybe i can get it ground and polished up for my ring!

~MarciaH Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (21:16) #59

OOOh...Opaque or translucent?

~wolf Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (21:38) #60

it's kinda translucent and smooth from the water.

~MarciaH Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (00:36) #61

Ummm..darkish reddish orange - Carnelian?

~MarciaH Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (00:42) #62

Check out http://www.jewelry4less.com/parts/carnelian.shtml

~wolf Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (10:09) #63

none of those. it's more of a pale orange. it looked darker on the beach.

~MarciaH Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (14:45) #64

Hmmmm...how hard is it? Does it scratch window glass? Could it be citrine quartz?

~wolf Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:05) #65

haven't tried that yet. um...it has a dark spot on it, like something stuck inside. perhaps i should scan it?

~MarciaH Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:11) #66

Is it very light? Might it be amber??? Scan it by all means!

~MarciaH Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:13) #67

The dark spot is an inclusion of some sort. If it is light in weight and amber it might be a creature or leaf. If it is another inorganic sort, it is what is known as a flaw in diamonds and other precious gems. Interesting!!!

~wolf Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:14) #68

marcia, could it be just a rock? *grin* i'm gonna scan it in a few minutes just to spare you the suspense!

~wolf Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:26) #69

k, here are the scanned images. one side: other side: and i tried to scratch glass and it didn't.....

~MarciaH Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:27) #70

It could evem be part of a beer bottle...*smile* (There is no such classification as "rock"...gotta know what it might be...I am driven to know such things!) Go Wolfie, Go! Scan, Woman!!!

~MarciaH Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:28) #71

Looks like a bit of already-sucked-and-discarded Hallowe'en candy! Hmm...I'll bet it does not scratch because it is rounded. Will a kitchen knife scratch it? (Be careful, dear...!)

~wolf Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:32) #72

all these scientific experiments! lemme try....... there was some scratching from the knife. but it didn't cut into the stone and couldn't tell if i was merely removing dirt!

~wolf Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:34) #73

there's stuff inside but it was hard to show you on the scanned image. if i hold it up to light, i see bubbles and stuff.

~MarciaH Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:38) #74

You mean you did not lick it clean??? What kinda Wolf are you?! *lol* wash the little thing and report back.

~MarciaH Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:39) #75

Bubbles...hmmm...sounds like stained milk glass or glass slag. Any manufacturing of glassware going on around you anywhere? Last century?

~MarciaH Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:41) #76

Too bad there is not an easy way to rig a light box for your scanner bed...like the ones on which you review photographic slides...Hmmm...

~wolf Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:50) #77

what do i wash it with? soap and water or a jewelry cleaner? it's probably just a big piece of glass that didn't get beaten down to a sand pepple yet. there's also a dark line through it. but can't tell you for sure about bubbles because it's kinda milky.

~wolf Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:52) #78

ok, i cleaned it with soapy water and the slight knife marks are still there.

~MarciaH Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:56) #79

Get a tiny flashlight and put the pebble on top and turn it on. What can you see now? It sounds like it is about the hardness of glass (which is also the hardness of knife steel). Wash it when you wash your hands unless you think there is something stuck to it...that is why I keep old toothbrushes. To scrub little things with.

~MarciaH Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (20:57) #80

Ok, of the knife made discernable but not deep marks, it is almost certainly glass.

~wolf Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:06) #81

now that the AM thinks i'm crazy...it has orange colored striations through it.

~MarciaH Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:10) #82

Oooh...interesting. Hmmm.. thinking... This is the first time I have done remote rock identifying - I think it is exciting. (I know - the house male here thinks I am odd beyond belief.) Could they be stains? If they are semi-regular it might be onyx.

~MarciaH Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:12) #83

I have my Rockhounding Manual in hand and I find that there is incidences of agate (banded is like your stone but probably harder than yours), jasper (dull red-brown) and petrified wood (does not look like that to me.) Hmmm...

~wolf Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:13) #84

i don't know, but it's definitely inside the rock. and i dropped it while trying to examine it and can't find it! (i have a wood laminate floor and it blends in quite well). the AM is trying to fix my keychain flashlight as the other one's light was blinding as it escaped the edges of the rock! will keep looking and try to give you better details. don't know how to zoom with the scanner either!

~MarciaH Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:13) #85

What county are you in, and what is the next state closest upstream?

~wolf Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:16) #86

got the rock back (it went under the computer desk!). i don't know how you can tell what it is or isn't from that picture i scanned!

~wolf Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:19) #87

ok, i found the rock off the gulf of mexico off of port aransus texas. there were lots of pepples and broken shells as the breakers were quite strong.

~MarciaH Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:29) #88

Ah....not in Lousiana...looking...since it was ocean-borne, and there are bubbles in it (they are rare in nature because of the way rocks form, I am guessing on just that evidence that it is glass - that and the hardness and translucency. I would guess also that the striations of orange visible might either be due to its original form and intended to be there as ornamental, or it is due to internal fractures which gathered sediment which (such as oxides of iron) which made the discolorations. The secon I think is unlikely. I think you have a pebble of OLD glass - perhaps from early American or Spanish settlements - hand blown (the only kind they had). It is a nice pebble to keep! But it will not polish...etched glass just does not work that way.

~wolf Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:34) #89

hmmmm....interesting indeed! thanks for your research!

~MarciaH Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:37) #90

How am I telling what this specimen is? Looking at it and your discription allows me to eliminate a lot of things. Your hardness test was precise enough to allow me to ascertain it was about 5 to 5 1/2 on Moh's scale of hardness (check Geo 16 Diagnostics) which is about what window glass is and just a little softer than a steel blade. The bubbles were the most telling detail - as I said previously, because they are seldom found in nature except in rare cases and are really tiny (microscopic). Do I get a passing grade? Its translucency also aided me. You could even have the remant of a broken marble, but I doubt that. I think it is a broken piece of colonial milk glass..either Spanish or American which has been rounded by ages in the harder quartz sand.

~MarciaH Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:40) #91

My pleasure! Over here we hardly ever find anything but coral (sand is crushed shell and coral if it is white) or lava or peridot sand. I once found a small chunk of granite washed up where we launched our sailboat. I still have it. How did it get here? Probably as ballast stones in saliling ships!

~wolf Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:43) #92

i think it's way cool!!

~MarciaH Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:44) #93

*beaming* Me too!

~wolf Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:45) #94

now you got me digging through my older shell collections. i have a few crystal pieces that i got in kansas but can't remember where i put them. also found this beauty that's in the shape of a boot! (it's a rock not a crystal). i'll scan it real quick for you....

~wolf Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:52) #95

here's the boot:

~MarciaH Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:53) #96

Understand, but it could be made of rock crystal which is a real semiprecious stone. The clearest and purest form of glass on earth formed naturally. (I am enjoying this very much!)

~wolf Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:55) #97

well, you know, it would help if i ftp'd it over first!!

~wolf Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:56) #98

sorry, didn't mean to post it twice!

~MarciaH Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (21:59) #99

Yep...then they both show up! Do you think this just happens to look like a foot rather than being off of a leather doll of great age which had procelain hands, head and feet? If it is natural is it translucent at all and is the surface granular or smooth in texture?

~MarciaH Sun, Oct 31, 1999 (22:01) #100

give me 15 minutes to eat dinner - I shall return!