Rock / Mineral Collecting

Bottom left was the clear winner. The dark red with orange center pattern looks pretty amazing. I'm unsure how I want to touch it up though.

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>>881578
My property is covered in quartz.
Best pic I could take of his one, you can see my fingers with the transparency.
Although it doesn't look like it, if this one was polished it would be as clear as glass (cleanest one I've found).
Most are shades of pink or are milky white.

Sent a couple to a friend who has a rock saw for geodes, but they just shattered.

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>>881716
Most that I collect wind up around my rose bed.
Crappy tablet doesn't show red and pink tones well, but whatever.
I'll usually come back with 5 pounds from my walks directly after heavy rains.

>>881716

That's a pretty impressive piece of quartz there. Don't think I've seen one that opaque.

>>881578
Once found a gurt chunk of celestine, I used to live an old celestine quarry area. Haven't got a picture tho.

This kind of makes me want to go rare mineral hunting. Anyone have experience in doing as much? Turning a profit while going /out/ would be a cool thing to do on the weekends.

>>881578

I recently camped where there had been a big forest fire a few years back. There are crazy rocks all over where the fire cleaned out everything. Pretty cool.

>>881734
I've done a lot of rock hounding being a geologist but i feel the best way to make a buck if you wanted to while /out/ is shroom hunting. At least in da superior state anyways I can't not find some shrooms or chaga.

>>881784
can you tell me a little bit about being a geologist

>>881790
well what would you like to know? I studied hydrogeology but done a bit in most of the sub disciplines here or there or in school. I've worked environmental for the last few years.

>>881801
I'd like to know how the job market is and what you'd be doing in general if you had a job in geology

>>881805
well I still work in environmental remediation but the job market is pretty tough. You're not going to find anything in oil or gas really at the moment. Mining is hit or miss depending on where you want to go and who is retiring. Environmental is the stablest right now for sure but since everything else is down a bit, its flooded with people. The hardest part is getting in to a company and its pretty depressing to see some of these kids get offered 30k/yr for something that in 2009 you could get 40-45 all day. For the most part in my current job I do a little field work still but mostly site planning and data analysis.

I'm doing a day trip out to a local mountain this coming weekend to find some spessartite garnet near pegmatite formations. Post some pictures if I find any good ones.

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I want to start collecting minerals and fossils as an /out/ hobby.
Any pointers as to how to get started? Are there some good books/guides that are worth reading?

>>882124
There's a good thread over in /an/.

>>882124
>>882235

>>>/an/2240996

>>882237
>>882235
Thank you!

>>881720
Visit Arkansas. I have so many of those bastards in my yard that I would pay you to come get them. They're fucking everywhere down here. And they're clear as glass. Literally.

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>>882124
Hasn't steered me wrong yet

>>882377
Are you near Mena by chance? Was there years ago and found shitloads.

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>>881805
What >>881821 said is pretty correct. I'm finishing up my senior year as a geologist with a focus on isotope geochemistry and everyone is feeling pretty pessimistic right now. Hydrogeology will probably be the most stable in the future and petroleum will come back. It's a cycle. Another thing to account for is all of the old guys retiring. It's been one of the more unrecognized options and there will be a gap in demand.

You are also a scientist. It can be a challenging major if you don't put in the hard work.

Also, the most important part is it's a fun major if you want to challenge your self mentally and physically. Sure you can be sedentary and compute models all day, but you have an opportunity to learn how this world operates while in the middle of nowhere. I've seen lost civilizations and continent changing events.

I love what I do. This weekend we went to study deep marine turbidite systems in the Guadalupe Mountains.

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>>882553
Perry county. Sorta close. I have a little farm and raise quail, rabbit, and pheasant for restaurants in the state.

Every now and then I'll post a craigslist ad and a few hippies or families will come out and take most of them. Then the next time it rains or I till for my garden, it's back to fucking crystal mountain.

How do I go about finding places to rockhound near me? I'm in a pretty geologically significant area and only know of one place that's on private property that I've gone. Are there any resources to find good spots?

>>882804
USGS is a great resource. They have maps of all sorts and where I live, they have the geological bands that go across the state. Combine that with an overlay of a topo map, and you'll have a good idea of where to start. May not be as easy, but it brings a lot of satisfaction. I display my best finds in a shadowbox with a paper copy of the map of the area, my notes, and usually a photo of the landscape.

I really want to start fossil hunting but it seems you really got to know where to look. I live in DC and I know you can find some thing in VA, but like I said it looks really tough.

>>881801
Im almost finished with a bsc. In geological sciences. Do you have ms in hydrology or bs? If ms, were you able to find a entry level job while working towards ms? What do you think was more valuable while in school: research or internships?

>>881720
>Don't think I've seen one that opaque
you might want to check your dictionary, anon.

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From quarry in ny

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Same outcropping, this shows the layer of what I think is pyrite underneath

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Garnet

>>884738

Nice collection. Have you checked to see if that pyrite is magnetic? If not it could be gold. Gold is often found near layers of quartz.

http://geology.com/articles/herkimer-diamonds.shtml

>>884738
>>884747
pretty sure its not gold, it looks like it crystalized in certain structures which is rather untypical for gold. it would rather by squeezed in some tiny interstitial spaces.
also the color doesn't fit. I cant see it very well from the picture but you can tell if it's pyrite or chalcopyrite by the color. pyrite is more greyish and chalcopyrite is in a stronger cat-piss yellow. if you have a sample of one you can hold it against it and check if there is a color difference.

>>884738
also the green/violet part could be flourite i think

>>881578
Yup, ever since 7 so 30 years concurrent

>>884738
This is a really cool specimen. The shiny golden shit off to the left looks like pyrite. The shiny stuff in the middle looks more like....chalcopyrite maybe?....Definitely not gold.

I'd wager that the green stuff is fluorite. Try taking a penny and scratching it with the green portion. If it gouges it, it might be fluorite.

>>882566
Where do you go to school?

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When I was out at Oak Flat I did some networking and found an awesome dude named Stevie Joey that hade a claim at Peridot Mesa in the San Carlos Apache reservation. Paid a small fee, collected a bucket of samples from Peridot Mesa, where the ground is like green glass. Beautiful area, he even took me on a tour of the rez afterwards and talked about life there.

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Awww yisss rock thread


Stand aside, peasant coming through with the goods. Wish I was at my collection, you'll have to deal with old photos I took.

>purple calcite

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>>881720
Wot
I know you mean ones you've found or seen found in areas where they don't really have rocks, but look at this;

>double terminated quartz

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>>882124
If you're collecting ones you find yourself you'll need to go all over the world to get a good collection, or at least all over the states. If you're just collecting them, a rock shop is a good place to start.


>gem quality epidot, actinolite in quartz

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Agates are pretty common, but some of them look really nice

>plume agate

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More agates/quartz/jasper, aside from the cabochons I found all of these.

Clockwise from the jasper cabochon(the very top middle)

>Picture Jasper
>Plume Agate
>agate from Washington
>Blue druzy agate from Oregon
>White agate from Arizona(these are everywhere)
>agate from Washington(terminated if such a thing were possible with agate)
>blue lace agate w/ quartz from Washington
>blue agate from Oregon
>center is blue lace agate w/ quartz from Washington

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Emeralds and an Aquamarine

They're both a type of Beryl

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Terminated peridot with rutile. The rutile is the lines running through it.

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Terminated smokey quartz with Rutile

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>>886238
This could actually be something besides rutile, epidot or actinolite or any number of similar asbestos-like mineral

>terminated quartz with a lot green actinolite

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Regular quartz with green rutile

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Tourmaline is good for picking up frequencies and used in phones. It's also great to crush up brittle blue tourmaline and use as a screen in your bong. It's becoming more popular. All of this is tourmaline.

Clockwise from the big purple thing in the top left;

>Terminated Rubellite
>Terminated very dark Teal Tourmaline
>Terminated pink tourmaline
>tumbled watermelon tourmaline
>center is terminated watermelon tourmaline

>>886238

nice, I'm jealous

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>>886253
Don't be, I gave that piece away. I got it from trading some guy running a booth in Venice Beach, gave it to some guy at a festival. I don't even know why.

>regular terminated Peridot

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Spessartine Garnets

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Last picture for now, clockwise from the black rock

>Terminated Black Tourmaline, most common type of tourmaline
>Blue Kyanite, most common type of Kyanite
>emerald bit, black part is Micha
>purple thing is corundum, Corundum is what rubies and sapphires are

>>886244
>green rutile
Embarrassing, meant to say Green Actinolite. The only places I've seen green actinolite from are Madagascar and Brazil. I don't know if green rutile exists.

I have a very nice piece of ocean jasper but I'm too lazy to take a pic.

Any geologists have any good stories about why they love what they do? I need the inspiration to get through calc II.

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Found a good spot to get crystals in NM usa

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I got out alot. I have found some large and interesting crystals and fossils.

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>>887637
>>887637
All found in the same mountain range in NM usa.

>>887629
>>887637
>>887646
I live in NM, gib location

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Went urbex recently and found some like these wtf are they /out/?

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Check mine tailings for good minerals. I personally don't worry too much about minerals because I'm more interested in rare rock types or odd combinations.

Pic related is precambrian schist intruded by Cretaceous felsic dike with epidote induced by contact metamorphism.

t. Geologist

>>888738
Oh man that's a nice find
Precambrian rocks are almost always the coolest
You got any pegmatites?

>>886207
Are you sure it isn't fluorite? It appears to have 90º cleavege instead of 60º

I was innawoods in Wyoming. Just kinda scrambled up a steep incline (small mountain, big hill, not sure which it would count as) and it's just a sea of sparkles and metallic flashes and, "ooh what's that?" Filled my pockets and had to butt scoot back down with two big 'ol rocks, one in each hand. Got down and smashed the big rocks open. Not sure what all I have but there's for sure quartz, chert and granite (looked shiny) . Will have to post pics later cuz my phone is a bastard.

>>885893
NMSU

Pretty good geo program.

>>886207
Looks like fluorite. If you have some dilute HCl you can see if it effercesces.

>>886248
>crush up brittle blue tourmaline
>use as a screen in your bong.

U wat, m8?

>>890274
>NMSU
Filthy Aggie get out, Lobos for life

>>888738
Caballo Mtns?

>>890280
My professor could kick your professor's ass!

Although, might check out grad school up there.

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Damn, you guys inspired me to crack open the collection.

Gabbro from kilborne hole

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Travertine that I did not snag from a quarry near Belen on the left and an anorthoclase pegmatite from Mt. Erebus.

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Geode, gypsum, bornite, copper, and fluorite.

Everything but the bornite is from NM


I don't like buying anything. Usually just collect when /out/, or if gifted to me.

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Not really sure if this is the thread for this but can anyone tell me what these are? All I can determine is that they both have enough iron in them to have a magnet stick to em. Found them both along the train tracks not too far from my house. I suspect the one on the right is just slag or something but I only seem to find them on portions of the track near rivers which seems kind of odd.

>>886215
I'm from the iron range in mn and agates are about all you find up here I swear lol

>tfw live in Illinois and there's nothing here but dirt and limestone
A-at least I can dig through landscape rock to find fossils...

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Geode chunk found in a creek bed.

>>892779
Dum dum you live right by one of the best fossil beds in america, if not the world. Hit up the Mazon creek formation and get yourself some fossils. I have some really neat pyrite and fossil bearing siderate nodules from there.

Do some research you silly.

>>893150
>you live right by one of the best fossil beds in america
Southern Illinois, not Chicago area. That's like 4 hours away. My best bet here is popping over to Missouri I think.

>>893200
Sure. But mazon has great fossils and rocks to collect and it isn't that far. That's a day trip. The hike itself is ok, and you have to get off the trails to find good fossils, but it's fun. Especially in the fall when the ticks are sleeping.

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>>892875
aw man that's cool. i never find anything but rocks. maybe i'll get lucky and find a neat flat rock or a neat round rock.