Natural Curiosities Thread

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Vanadinite. Near Midelt, Mibladen, Khenifra, Morocco.

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Cavansite on a heulandite matrix w/ small blades of stilbite and calcite rhombs. Nasik, Maharashta, India.

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Barite on mica on quartz, w/ a single cube of fluorite. Yaogangxien Mine, Yi Zhang County, Hunan, China.

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>>2249790

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Zinkenite. San Jose Mine, Bolivia.

I bought this just because I liked the habit and it was half off at the mineral warehouse, but I now realize that there's something of a dearth of good specimens on the market. Lucked out big time.

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Can anyone identify this mineral? I git it as a child and have no idea what it's called

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>>2249877
might be gyrolite

>>2249886
I don't know, it has none of he chrystals.

>>2249894
doesn't necessarily have to. It can manifest just as plain white balls with dull luster.

>>2249897
Alright, thank you! Is it in any way toxic?

>>2249898
If it really is gyrolite then no. My assessment was based on the habit, the color/luster, and the traprock-y looking matrix it's on. Someone with more experience than me could probably make a better guess.

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"Pele's Tear" bombs from Panum Crater. You're not supposed to collect stuff there, so I must emphasize that these were definitely, totally, 100% collected prior to whenever the hell that law was passed, and I definitely won't tell you that if you happen to visit the crater that if you follow the path from the parking area, once you're past the ejecta ring and onto the dome itself, there will be a rust red hill on your left where bombs of all sorts can be found in abundance.

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Pyrite in slate, Amador Co., CA.

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>>2250887
Most are pretty euhedral.

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Skutterudite. Azaunico mine, Cobalt, Ontario, Canada.

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>>2250892
>>2250887
>>2249988
>>2249886
>>2249877
>>2249797
>>2249792
>>2249790
>>2249780
>>2249768
very nice

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Coral Agate. Honeymoon Island, FL

>>2251060
Pretty cool.

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I don't have many rocks, but I have this nice specimen of Galaxite. Bought it from a mineral stand in a fair at a local church.

man i thought this whole board was about dogs and shit
i was so incredibly confused when i saw rocks

>>2251359
Animals and nature, /an/. Rocks are nature

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To all of you, these are such nice minerals.

Here is an odd looking flower.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orchis_italica

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I've got another one that I don't know what the hell it is. Any guesses? 1" tungsten cube for scale again.
So far this thread has been super helpful in IDing my unknown rocks, so thanks again.

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Muh flourite. I don't think I posted this one last time. Would love to see these become regular threads, I love seeing what other anons have got.

>>2251681
>>2249886
It looks a lot like this, are there any other minerals that form white balls like that?

>>2251825
I would have guessed that >>2251681 was aragonite, var. "cave calcite". You could try a scratch test on an innocuous portion of the sample, it should be about a 4. It should also effervesce very strongly if you hit it with a drop of 5% HCl, but again, do it on the "bottom" or some portion that isn't nice to look at. Don't spoil your specimens aesthetics.

>>2251825
Aragonite can form structures like this. In german this variant is called "eisenblüte", meaning iron blossom.

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Brochantite (green) and chrysocolla (blue). Ore zone, Bald Eagle deposit, Kaiser Mine, Eagle Mountain, CA.

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>>2252018
The little square bits are pseudomorphs after fluorite.

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Chromian clinochlore, Kopdag, Turkey.

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Phengite on glaucophane schist. Glaucophane Ridge, near Panoche California.

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Scolecite. Nasik, India.

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I posted this once before but I think it deserves a little closer inspection.

Assorted tourmaline species in quartz, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

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>>2252055
On one side you have watermelon tourmaline, with real watermelon colors no less, composed of rubellite (elbaite w/ +3 Mn in it) in the core and verdellite (elbaite w/ +2 Fe and +4 Ti combined in it) on the rim.

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>>2252059
On the other side you have schorl, some of it displaying the classic bow-sided triangle shape of tourmalines. You can see growth lines of the quartz highlighted by the light glinting off it on the left.

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>>2252061
In some portions the quartz is glassy enough that you can see deep enough into it to see tourmaline crystals completely enclosed by it.

>>2250887
>>2250892
Hnnng

Idk why but I like the look of this

>>2251661
Elves!

>>2252164
I think the color contrast is a big part of its aesthetics

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>>2252171


lel

bunnies too


unfortunately, I am unable to find an English page to name these flowers.

I have some neat sundew gifs though.

>>2252228
they are called Utricularia sandersonii
a pretty commonly available Utricularia sp.

>>2251899
All I've got handy is some 30% and no distilled water, I'll chip a grain sized bit off the bottom and test it, thanks.

>>2252055
goddamn that's a big peice, how much does it weigh? Beautiful.

>>2252531
I'd say maybe 60-70 lbs, maybe a little more. Two men can move it without too much strain.

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Salterella in shale. Campito Formation, White-Inyo Ranges, CA.

You can find trilobites, usually disarticulated, at the same outcrop, but it's rather picked over and all I found were these little mysteries.

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>>2252755

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>>2252756
That slab only preserves impressions from where the dissolved tests were. This one has preserved mineralized individuals, but much fewer of them.

>>2252049
I thought that was a really rare steak from the thumbnail. I love it when rocks look like food.

>>2251359
Dogfags really need a containment general

>>2251686
Can I use that as toothpaste lol

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Breadcrust bomb from the same locale as >>2249988
I call this one the "baguette" because it has a slightly rounded and tapered shape from having been spun as it was flying through the air.

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>>2252919

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>>2252921

Aside from ebay, etsy and taxidermy.net's forum(which has been dying for awhile) where else do you guys by things from?
Skullsunlimited is ok to me for 'unique' things and B grade skulls. Moscow Hide and Fur is aight. Glacierwear has some good things at ok prices. I'm just looking for more sites to buy skins and bones.

>>2252924
I work in a college lab and we buy things from a site called The Bone Room.

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This bomb has a pretty distinct fold in it.

>>2252924
I'm more of a rocks and minerals guy than anything that was alive at one point, so this is more just a general tip I guess. Most everything I have that I didn't find myself comes from Jewel Tunnel Imports. They're a direct-from-mine wholesaler that opens to the public about once a year for a half-off sale. I've also done some trading and purchasing at shows and other rockhounding events. For example, Gem-O-Rama up at Searles Lake (where I collected that hanksite and borax) also hosts a few dealer booths. The only time I buy mineral specimens on the net is when the above two avenues haven't yielded what I'm after. Ebay sellers tend to really gouge you, and all the metaphysical crystal-healing-chakra-harmonizing-positive-energy-flow crap is driving up the price of certain minerals even more lately.

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>>2252228
>>2251661
Y'all like these pretty flowers, eh? Well, take a look at these parrot flowers, Impatiens psittacina.

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Biotite, Eganville, Ontario, Canada.

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Andesine in monzonite porphyry. Judith Basin, Montana.

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Hauynite (aka just Hauyne) in basalt. Vogelsberg, Germany.

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Heulandite w/ laumontite. Prospect Park, NJ.

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Wulfenite w/ an unusual pale yellow color, some calcite. Mapimi, Durango, Mexico.

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Krohnkite w/ minute brochantite. Chuquicamata, Chile.

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Thank you to all sharing these things.

I am seeing all sorts of things I have never seen before. I had no idea a mineral collection could have such diverse wonders.

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Some fossilised fish

>>2253784
what species is that? I've always wanted to see a bioluminescent mushroom IRL but they never grow around where I live

>>2249988
Are they even worth monies?

>>2253656
What a gorgeous color.

>>2254071
Of course not the government is just pedantic as hell about these things.

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Forgot to post this last week.

Azurite, Gila Co, AZ

Dioptase and wulfenite, Tiger, AZ

>>2254448
That looks absolutely gorgeous

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>>2254449
The machines are in rebellion...

>>2252049
All the rocks you've posted look delicious for some reason

I won't allow this thread to die yet!

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Large chunk of highly vesicular obsidian w/ rhyolite rip up clasts, Obsidian Dome, Mono County, CA. On the lower right you can see in the flow lines how one of the rip ups was spun by the lava flow.

Obsidian Dome is actually pretty well known for how shitty the obsidian is. Too impure and included to be of use for anything. Lookout Mountain obsidian is much better for tool making and the like.

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What's the best place to buy rocks and minerals online besides eBay?

>>2256120
See >>2252933
tl;dr : mineral shows, rockhound gatherings, dedicated "natural history" stores

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Erythrite. Alamos, Sonora, Mexico.

>>2256120
I've been surprised at the amount of decent specimens you can find on etsy mixed in with all the jewellery and whatnot. Ebay really is oftentimes your best bet, in spite of how poorly the prices can compare to what you see at trade shows. The key is to jump on sales from people who are selling their dead uncle's collection without really knowing what it is or how much it's worth. John Betts, Open Adit, and Minfind all have really good stuff, but goddamn if it isn't expensive.

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Kernite, Kramer, CA.

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Green-yellow barite on chert w/ saddleform dolomite and chalcopyrite sphenoids. Joplin, MO

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>>2257730
Cube of galena embedded deep in the dolomite. Also sphalerite I think but the label doesn't mention anything else.

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Calcite on barite. Durham, England.

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Barite w/ a really unusual habit. Wanlockhead mine/New Glencrieff Mine, Dumfriesshire, Scotland.

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Psilomelane. Walcha, New England District, New South Wales, Australia.

>>2257740
It looks like a giant blackberry.

Why do so many of these rocks look delicious?

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Blue halite, Carlsbad, NM.

>>2257780
I don't know, but everyone I know is always saying how everything I work with looks like candy. Makes me a little nervous about letting them too close to my collection...

>>2252049
it looks simiular to amethyst

>>2253656
>Krohnkite
B E A U tea full

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Platy hematite w/ mirror-like luster. Locale unknown.

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Rutile and chlorite in emery (now known as corundite). Chester, MA.

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Pink sapphires, North Carolina.

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Very euhedral benitoite crystal.

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>>2258130
It occured to me the other day that I can finally demonstrate the fluorescence of these things now that I have a sw lamp.

It's also worth mentioning that all of these
>>2258130
>>2257740
>>2257738
>>2257737
>>2257730
Came from the collection of Mr. E Klopfenstein. The focus of his entire collection seems to have been on barium-bearing minerals.

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Wulfenite and green mimetite filled vug. Ojuela, Mexico.

Is the anon who has access to the big zoological collection still kicking around? I'd love to see more insects.

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Cerussite on galena w/ barite, Mibladen, Morocco. This stuff fluoresces yellow under LW UV but my eight dollar black light spits out so much violet light that you can hardly see it.

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Dioptase from the Altyn Tyube deposit, Kazakhstan. Seems kind of inadequate compared to the specimen from the Nichols Collection...

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Rubellite in lepidolite, Pala Chief Mine, Sand Diego, CA.

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Dravite (brown tourmaline), locale unknown.

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Cluster from a granitic pegmatite: blue tourmaline (color:Fe 2+), quartz, albite, and muscovite. Rollstane Hill, Fitchburg, MA.

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Aquamarine beryl in quartz, Royalston MA.

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Astrophyllite, St Peter's Dome, El Paso Co, CO.

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Idocrase, aka vesuvianite, (I think idocrase sounds cooler), CA.

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Garnets, 10 mi sw of Bishop, CA, in Sierra Nevada Foothills.

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Bisbeeite, Bisbee, AZ.

This mineral has a weird history. It was originally accepted as a valid species, described by its discoverer as of the same composition as dioptase, but with distinct optical properties. The original research specimens were lost at some point, and the species was discredited after "bisbeeite" from a mine in SW Africa was discovered to be just a mixture of chrysocolla and plancheite. It was later succesfully argued that a species could not be discredited based on material not from the type locality, but it's proven extremely difficult to acquire type locality material pure enough to conduct a proper analysis, and people seem to have abandoned the whole inquiry in favor of more lucrative endeavors.

tl;dr I have no idea what this actually is.

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Topaz in altered rhyolite. Locale unknown, but based on the matrix and the clarity of the crystal I'd be willing to bet that it's from Topaz Mountain in Utah.

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One of my own: Knightia sp., Green River Formation, Wyoming.

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Apophyllite, Nasik, Maharashta, India.

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>>2260650
The crystals appear to have grown over some chrysocolla, a fairly common occurrence for this locality.

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>>2260651
There's also a few thin bits of pale stilbite and a single plate of what looks like something in the white mica family present.

>>2260651
>chrysocolla
Chalcedony I mean. Massive quartz. Don't listen to me folks I'm crazy in the head.

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This is some azurite and malachite I have

>>2260898
Nice, the habit on the azurite is great.

>>2260990
Thanks, I really couldn't pass it up when i saw it.

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Cast of a vug that developed in quartz monzonite. The vug was initially filled with blades of biotite, then the rest of the space was filled by quartz, then chalcopyrite.

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>>2261500
Cut surface.
Specimen is from New Cornelia Mine, Ajo District, Pima Co, AZ

>>2249762
I really like the way the artist drew the kayak in this picture. its almost a 3-D render. it shows how the boat curved up at the front(no kayak curves sideways like that)

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Another for you if you're still around Leadville Anon

Galena in quartzite vug. LOX Stope, White Cap 2nd level, Resurrection Mine, Leadville, CO.

>>2261525
That's some nice galena. I want to get my hands on some at some point.

>>2261529
Just be sure to wash them before you eat anything

>>2261537
With the amount of lead I have melted (boiled it once on accident) over my lifetime that's the least of my worries

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Fluorite, cerussite, and calcite encrusted barite. Mapimi, Mexico.

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Barite on galena w/ cerussite. Mibladen, Morocco.

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>>2261597
Just like >>2259615 the cerussite fluoresces yellow under LW UV. My work lamp here has little enough violet interference that you can actually see the color.