Here's a thought - scanned rocks!I started doing this in 1995, when I got my first flatbed scanner.
Simply put the rock (slabbed and polished,
preferably) onto the scanner. |
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| Click on the images for larger views. |
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 Rapakivi Granite Finland (?) |
| This specimen was "collected" from a construction site in Del Mar, California. It was an irregular chunk left over after being cut for flooring. After checking around, I find it looks very similar to a commercial granite called "Baltic Brown", available from several suppliers in Finland. |
 "Picture" Sandstone Arizona |
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| I bought this sandstone from Ye Olde Gifte Shoppe at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. I think they called it "picture rock", or some such. No matter - I like it. Sometimes I collect rocks for scholarly purposes, but usually I pick them up 'cause they're pretty... |
 Snowflake Porphyry British Columbia |
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| Porphyroblasts (bigger crystals) of plagioclase feldspar in an Andesite groundmass. |
 Petrified Palm Root (?) California |
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| From the Mojave Desert near Barstow. I bought this from a friend's dad in Lakewood, along with about 1000 pounds of other rocks, plus saws and other periphernalia. |
 Orbicular Rhyolite possibly from East Ord Mtn., Mojave Desert |
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| 26 May 2013 Dave from Bakersfield just sent me an E-mail identifying this. Thanks, Dave! |
 Coprolite Utah |
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"Fossil Dinosaur Coprolite It's real Dino Dung! Morrison Formation, Utah Jurassic |
| (card that came with it called it Cretaceous) |
 Malachite |
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| Malachite ( Cu2CO3(OH)2 ), apparently from a speleological (cave) environment. Purchased at one of my favorite shops, on the "B" concourse at Denver International Airport. |
 Rhodonite |
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Rhodonite (MnSiO3) is the pink stuff. The
brown may be Siderite (FeCO3), and the black is probably Pyrolusite (MnO2). |
 Fine-grained Sandstone |
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| A fine-grained sandstone slab that was part of the Lakewood purchase. The height of the image is about 2-1/2 inches. Interesting cross-bedding. |
 Labradorite Bear Fetish |
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| Here, carved as a Hopi fetish, is labradorite, one of my favorite minerals. It is a sub-species of plagioclase feldspar which displays a play of colors called labradorescence, the result of light being scattered by extremely fine exsolution lamellae. |
 Fossil Fern Imprints |
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| Purchased at good old Denver International Airport. I don't know Genus/Species, formation/age, etc. |
 Fossil Fish Kemmerer, Wyoming |
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| In addition to being widely renowned as the home of the world's first J.C. Penney store, Kemmerer has a quarry that has produced a lot of Eocene fish fossils. This is Knightia species, named for Professor Knight of the University of Wyoming, to whom I was introduced in 1965, when I was a mere 19-year-old stripling. |
 Back... |
 Arizona Tiles Page |
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