So i found out that the alley way full of glass is actually sphalerite. I have every shade i could dream of just about but how is the best way to differentiate it from glass. Sometimes color sound or shape are enough but not always
I have probably 30 lbs at this point mostly in small crystals. I just don’t know if theres a visual test i can use. Do they ever get conchoidal breaks?
HI: Sphalerite is much softer than glass, has a resinous luster in translucent material and has a perfect cleavage in 6 directions. Another test is put a little HCL on powdered material. If it is sphalerite you will smell h2s. Only a use a amount though as h2s can be toxic. Hope this helps.
If you do the HCL test dilute the acid to 10%.
Some is easy to confirmfor this reason but not all is thanks
Most looks like crushed glass. Possibly other material.
I know some may be but most feels like something other than glass with sphalerite confirmation 2 blocks away where i found most.
it has come from an area of heavy traffic.
Instead of telling me i don’t know how glass looks vs this stuff or implying i don’t do my homework maybe just awnser the question from my post. that alone would help me eliminate some things…
Sorry if that came out rude but it was a little insulting and I have been getting a lot of gaslighting from other places lately. So i was a bit reactionary. My apologies.
No problem. Take care
Wow, just seeing this post. Where the heck is said alleyway (you don’t need to share street level address, but city or part of state would be interesting). Maybe I missed something but it is pretty amazing to me that you found so many of these on the ground. Is that normal in your area? I saw your other post where you found that amazing blue stone (I think it was blue), and between these posts and some “rockhounder” posts, I’m going to give rock hunting a shot. Any suggestions on good web resources where I can learn where to look for stones?
