Here are some really good pictures. They are everywhere throughout the whole rock scattered. I have more I didn’t take pictures of from this rock. Thanks!
Here are up close pictures!
Here are up close pictures!
Oh one more thing. Isn’t it unusual to have the colors red yellow and blue quartz all in one rock? Those colors make up all colors. Their primary colors! I do have some red in their. I have orange and yellow and green white and blue quartz like all in one rock. I really did not know that was possible usually. I found all these colors in the rock as is. Please correct me if I’m wrong about seeing all these colors in one rock different. Thanks
I am by no means an expert im this area so correct me if i am wrong.
Quartz is a larger family of minerals, so I wouldnt be surprised if their were multiple varieties of quartz in that specimen.
Best,
Daniel
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the gold colored minerals look like they are cubic. Mostly likely to be pyrite or chalcopyrite. If so, the rock has altered by hydrothermal fluids that deposited the drusy quartz… the Eastern San Juans in Colorado were all rhyolitic caldera forming eruptions. veins and secondary minerals, including drusy quartz were deposited in fractures. Some of the pyrite is gold bearing but only in minute amounts.
I strongly recommend NOT buying online any mineral specimens that are not sold with a verifiable type locale origin. Without a good background in mineralogy and rocks, you are a set up for being ripped off for a rock that is not what the seller says it its… sometimes amatuer sellers and traders themselves don’t know what they are selling. A local rock club with experienced members and/or a local rock shop will be far more reliable…
Looks like the pyrite i find here id second the opinion
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thank you for everyone’s insight!!! I really learned a lot.
agree completely with your assessment. pyroclastic breccia felsic with secondary vein filling alteration. Could very well come from the eastern San Juans in Colorado.
Don’t buy anything on line unless you have verifiable proof of what it is… most of what is sold isn’t what it is claimed to be… either out of ignorance of the seller (probable) or worse…
Thats my problem I’m optimistic and ignorant (inexperienced).
so I feel guilty to the point of giving it away cause I’m probably wrong.
I don’t trust myself to sell it
you’re a pro member.
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Thank you. I have some purchases from the past. I’ll be more careful on the future. Thanks!
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So i can take the classes.
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i’m too busy to take the classes now. I need to review the basics: mineralogy first. If you know mineralogy, you will know a lot more about gems… most gems are mineral crystals… only a few exceptions including organic (amber, coral, pearl) and rock (lapis lazuli), and hydrated non crystalline silica (opal)… everything else is either a crystal or a massive cryptocrystalline form of a mineral (agate, jade, turquoise)… the crystal system gives you the optical axes. mineral data includes SpG, refractive indices along crystal axes, chemistry, crystal structure and much more… Mindat.org is open source mineral data but gives only the most basic information… you can start an online search from there.
Thanks i have found i am focusing far more on minerals but some information that i wanted was here and it was a great deal on a 1 year sub when Christmas came around so my partner got it for me. I dont expect to be able to be certified in a year i do expect to get enough to justify the cost. Its all about the value ypu place on the information and the community it comes with. And you my friends, have been worth your weaght in platinum. It literally saved my interest in the hobby.
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You have to know minerals first before knowing gems. The inclusions in gems are most often other minerals such as rutile in sapphires that gives them asterism… peridots can be source identified by iron oxide inclusions…deep diamonds that are included are the geologist’s best friend… they preserve high pressure mineral phases than don’t exist on the surface of earth… don’t be afraid to google each mineral and gem separately… Wikipedia sometimes has very good source materials and other times not. The geological literature does but may be too technical for the average beginner to understand…nonetheless they are worth struggling thru. or at least the abstracts where everything is condensed…all I can say is keep up your interest and keep on reading…
I am a spacial thinker(i think in patterns and abstractions) (basicaly i have a jarvis in my head and I have hyperphantasia) with asd/adhd and on a mission.
Not to mention my stepfather set gems as a hobby and his passion is was what i got when he passed.
My special interest and study was various of natural science. as a female with asd some of us collected special interests.
My conditions left me isolated and abused but oh-boy did i read. Its slowed down since the Narcolepsy got bad. But for 30 years i focused on sociology, celular biology. Botany and theology. With an expertise in family and consumer science with presidential recognition. And human sexuality.
Went into entertainment and office work spent 20 years wit a focus study o the triangulation of societal structure : religious structure: sexual norms. My favorite book … is phalic worship a history of sex and sexual rights. By George Ryley scott with a cr from 1966 … its a utterly beautiful and fascinating read and it is also, very dry. … you know just how sex should be. Lol
My current "obsetion is minerals and crystals and geology with a touch of my first passion … archeology.
I also have over 9 rare conditions and grew up being sited in and reading medical journals …i can take it i only look young i was built in 1980 …
I also was the invisible latch key in isolation so i read encyclopedias and made sure i only got A’s, B was un acceptable
I don’t know why you are telling people publicly so much about your private self. I prefer to keep myself out of public discussions. However, unto each their own. It doesn’t matter to me one bit as I am a retired medical professional, with a very strong neurosciences background. But do not look to me for advice other than geological/mineralogical/ gemological…
Heed my advice NOT to buy online without verification of the material, locale and source… mineral collectors ALWAYS state a place of origin for their specimens, It doesn’t have to be specific to a certain mine or certain location but is specific to a county, or other general location, state and country or the equivalent thereof. Without the proper ID, the specimen loses much of it’s value. Type locale is where a locale is famous for that specific type of mineral… Mindat.org provides you with that kind of information.
I for myself prefer to collect on my own rather than purchase. That way I know exactly where it came from and what it is. When I used to collect, I joined a local rockhound club. We went on expeditions into very interesting places that required outdoor camping. I still do remember where some of these places are… eg. banded blue agate, Apache Creek, Catron County, New Mexico, USA, or tourmaline, var. indicolite, Custer County, SD, USA. I no longer hunt for pretty rocks but for geologically interesting ones… I need more rocks like a need a hole in the head, but I’m still picking up a few that are of petrological interest to me…eg. melilite nephelinite, Manoa Valley, Honolulu, HI…
My childhood interest in rocks and minerals morphed into collecting gems by purchase for making jewelry. There is another contributor to this website who is a professional gemologist and jeweler, whom I’ve met through this website’s sister site, Ganoksin which is for jewelers… My interest in jewelry fabrication and gems put me back to where I started- rocks and minerals… into which I took a deep dive… read textbooks in petrology, starting with igneous rock classification based on major elements, then into isotopes, and into geochemistry in general. I am a lay member of the American Geophysical Union, thru which I can access research papers in the earth sciences. That is where my real interest lies now.
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Sorry if my sharing made you uncomfortable and i certainly didn’t mean to distract from the original topic my apologies to tje person who posted this question
I personally onlt collect my own or buy with strict limitations from shows with legitimate dealers
I have only purchased 8 stones from shows (2 tanzanite, 1 colorado peridot cluster, 2 Ethiopian opals, a "trash emerald"for 3$ lol and 2 aquamarine) the rest were my own finds.
the best way to learn is to google the topic and read as many germaine articles as possible on a single topic. I will print the ones I think that I will need for future reference, so as not to have to search again.
tridymite is a rare silica mineral. It is a high temperature polymorph of quartz and makes is phase transition at 820 degrees C…dull red hot… which is why it is rare and is found mainly in gas pockets within rhyolite flows… it is metastable at 100 degrees C and will gradually revert to alpha quartz at room temperature… any heating to subcritical will make it revert faster. The crystal habit is tabular and not prismatic or hexagonal. Your rock sample shows hexagonal shaped crystals.
So far as your question goes about tridymite, matic, as with normal quartz. It crystalizes as monoclinic and not as a tectosilicate. Cristobalite is an even higher temperature phase… Coesite and Stishovite are other phases that are high temperature and high pressure… Stishovite occurs in shocked quartz… very high transient pressures and very high temperatures due to a meteorite strike…
The geologic setting of Western Pennsylvania does not contain recent extrusive felsic igneous rocks… so it will not be present there…
To study gems, you must be grounded in mineralogy. To study mineralogy you must have at least a modicum of geology, physics and a lot of chemistry… Physical chemistry and thermodynamics are beyond the reach of most amateurs… however, acquiring knowledge in the sciences is not impossible for a lay person, if they start with the basics… what you can learn is that high temperature and pressure environments as in metamorphic and igneous rocks originating at depth will have different mineral assemblages and phases depending on the PT conditions they were created under…common feldspar is transformed into a denser phase by high pressure… that phase is garnet, which is why garnet is found in moderate to high grade metamorphic rocks and some igneous rocks, with continental asthenospheric origin… Go the the AGU website and you will find Youtube lectures that are very basic… it is a good starting point.