Good stuff there 
Just got a nice piece of Pyrite I'll take pics tomorrow and show pics of the Amber I got
Just got a nice piece of Pyrite I'll take pics tomorrow and show pics of the Amber I got
Community The Rock & Fossil Collecting Thread
- Thread starter Nekoban Ryo
- Start date
Nevermind heres the pics.
Heres pics of some Dilithium opps I mean Quartz I got months ago
Very cool crystals, there. Think you could take them in natural light so we can see them better?
Here's another piece of Stigmaria (Lycopod root fossil) that I just found yesterday:
Here's another piece of Stigmaria (Lycopod root fossil) that I just found yesterday:
Neat! No dino stuff around here (Carboniferous pre-dates dinosaurs).
Pics would still be blurry if I did use Natural Light though
heres 2 pics of the rare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bixbyite
heres 2 pics of the rare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bixbyite
Pics would still be blurry if I did use Natural Light though
What kind of device are you using to take your pics? Almost any camera will produce dark, grainy, blurry photos in indoor lighting, but even low-quality cameras can do a pretty good job with natural light. It's best if you take your items outside so natural light will surround them, but sometimes taking the item to your uncovered window works. Try to avoid too much light, though, else your photos will become overexposed (too bright) and hard to make out. Light but overcast days are generally the best times to take photos. If your camera has a Macro setting, use that to take photos of smaller items.
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Not much new since my last post, but I did find this brachiopod fossil by the creek. Unlike most of my brachiopods, this one isn't preserved in limestone (Mississippian-age), leading me to believe that this one may be more local than the others (Pennsylvanian-age). There's another small lump next to it that may be another, smaller brachiopod.
I also found a small patch of gravel by the garage that had never caught my eye before. Unlike the gravel in my driveway, these were brought in before I moved here and are generally darker in color. There I found this brachiopod and a cool crinoid stalk (my most in-tact crinoid fossil yet). (Crinoids, or sea lilies, are starfish-related animals that Lileep and Cradily are based on.)
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What kind of device are you using to take your pics? Almost any camera will produce dark, grainy, blurry photos in indoor lighting, but even low-quality cameras can do a pretty good job with natural light. It's best if you take your items outside so natural light will surround them, but sometimes taking the item to your uncovered window on a bright day works.
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Not much new since my last post, but I did find this brachiopod fossil by the creek. Unlike most of my brachiopods, this one isn't preserved in limestone (Mississippian-age), leading me to believe that this one may be more local than the others (Pennsylvanian-age). There's another small lump next to it that may be another, smaller brachiopod.
I also found a small patch of gravel by the garage that had never caught my eye before. Unlike the gravel in my driveway, these were brought in before I moved here and are generally darker in color. There I found this brachiopod and a cool crinoid stalk (my most in-tact crinoid fossil yet). (Crinoids, or sea lilies, are starfish-related animals that Lileep and Cradily are based on.)
Very nice sideview crinoid! Back home in southern Idaho we have a lot of Devonion-age limestone and dolostones that have these funky cheerios.
I went on a Memorial Day camping trip to the north Cascades in WA state, and since I don't have any of my current rock collection with me here, I figured I'd collect some of my favorites from places I've been before just so I could share them with y'all.
So I am a structural geologist, which means I study deformation of rocks whether that is via faulting, fracturing or folding. These two pictures I have here are both samples of rocks that have been deformed via faulting but they look entirely different. It all depends on the mineral composition, heat and pressure conditions, and the rate of strain (how quickly the rock is getting deformed)
This first one is a mylonite, which is a rock that has been metamorphosed, by being friction heated along a fault zone at great depths. The minerals within the rock have been heated to the point where they flowed ductile-ly. The length of some of the individual minerals, particularly the quartz have been stretched to a 20:1 ratio, with some crystals being nearly a foot and a half long. This implies a slow deformation rate as any faster rates would have caused fracturing of the minerals before they became elongated. This mylonite doesn't look like much in hand sample, and since the weathered color makes it difficult to discern individual minerals, this is often confused with petrified wood. The direction of the minerals alignment gives us information on the direction the fault was moving at depth where this formed. In this hand sample, the apparent motion is from the right to the left, but since it has been moved from being in situ, that doesn't tell us much about the fault.
These second pieces are also faulted rocks, however these formed much closer to the surface. When I say closer, I mean within the first 3 km of crust, as opposed to the mylonite which typically forms below 12 km. These pieces demonstrate a faulting feature called slickensides. The polished flat surface of these pieces are the locations that these samples were in contact with the fault plane. As a fault slides, it grinds and polishes the surfaces of the rocks on either side of the fault. Slickensides commonly contain another feature called slickenlines, which like the minerals in a mylonite, can tell us the direction that the rocks were sliding in along the fault. These samples don't exhibit slickenlines, and the reason for this is due to the minerals that are directly on the fault face. Commonly, hydrothermal fluids will flow along faults and fractures and they bring with them many minerals not native to the rocks the fluid flows through. For this instance, the mineral is epidote, which leaves a lime-green coloration along the slickenside. Due to the lighting, the samples look more yellow than lime colored, but trust me. Unlike the mylonites, these were closer to the surface, and more importantly, the strain rate was faster as well, fast enough that the main source of deformation along the fault was via earthquakes. Sudden movements from earthquakes are able to fracture the rock in distinct planes unlike the mylonites where the movement along the fault was not earthquake driven, but a slow creep that pulled and stretched minerals without fracturing them.
These are the types of rocks I am always looking for when mapping as a lot of geologic history can be recorded in the faces and minerals of these rocks. Yes, rocks do tell me stories, they are quite talkative if you can speak their language.
I use my phone but it only has 3 megapixels most good cameras have 9 i think.
most good cameras have 9 i think.
Thanks.
Wow! It feels like I'm back in class! Nice detailed explanations. I mainly took art and graphic design classes in college, but I'd be really interested in studying geology- paleontology if I ever went back.
3MP is still much better than the 3DS camera (only 0.3MP), which can still take somewhat-decent photos in proper lighting. Here's an example of a close-up taken with a 3MP camera with natural lighting:I use my phone but it only has 3 megapixels
Well my camera must be busted then every time i try to get that close with it in any light its blurry...
Found my first Lepidodendron bark imprint!
I've found the roots (Stigmaria) before, but this is my first time finding a bark imprint of this plant. These fossils are often mistaken for reptiles, such as snakes, due to their scaly texture, hence the name lepido (scale) dendron (tree). I think it would be pretty cool to make a giant snake Fakemon (Rock/Grass or Dragon/Rock) based on it.
I'm not sure if phone cameras have a similar feature, but, when taking photos with digital cameras, you have to hold the shutter button halfway to focus, then push it the rest of the way down when you're satisfied with the on-screen image to take the photo.
I've found the roots (Stigmaria) before, but this is my first time finding a bark imprint of this plant. These fossils are often mistaken for reptiles, such as snakes, due to their scaly texture, hence the name lepido (scale) dendron (tree). I think it would be pretty cool to make a giant snake Fakemon (Rock/Grass or Dragon/Rock) based on it.
I don't think it's busted, it's just having trouble focusing. I can see the stuff behind your subjects well enough. You might have to back off just slightly or try putting your finger in front of the subject right before taking the picture to readjust the focus to the front. You might need to avoid using any zoom features as well.
I'm not sure if phone cameras have a similar feature, but, when taking photos with digital cameras, you have to hold the shutter button halfway to focus, then push it the rest of the way down when you're satisfied with the on-screen image to take the photo.
Any idea what this is? My dad says rough Citrine.
I've no idea, but maybe @Materious17 can help?
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My newest find (from my driveway gravel):
I figured it was either a brachiopod (my most common driveway find) or bivalve, but after having it checked out on a fossil ID forum, most are leaning toward gastropod (snail), specifically Platyceras.
Any idea what this is? My dad says rough Citrine.
Hmm *scratches my non-existent beard* its difficult you know? Without knowing some context behind it, where it was found, how hard is it (can it scratch glass or can you scratch it with a nail?), what does a fresh broken face look like, and having some higher res pictures of it could help with identifying.
My first gut instinct though is that its not a rough citrine. Citrine is still a quartz at heart and weathering quartz down is one of the most difficult minerals to do it with. The 2 pictures you have with what I understand as the fresh-face show a white-pinkish chalky appearance (granted the blurriness of the picture could probably be whats making it look chalky, I would only be able to tell if I had it in my hands). So being able to identify it accurately would be nigh impossible over the pictures.
It does look really cool though, so you have that
I scratched it with my finger nail, didnt leave a mark. My dad got it from a thrift store for 1$
The chalky white part feels smooth and seems to have gray what look like growth rings.
The chalky white part feels smooth and seems to have gray what look like growth rings.
Maybe this site will help? http://www.mineralogy4kids.org/mineral-identification
Might be Kaolinite according to that.
Talked with my Rock guy today says its a very good piece of this:
http://www.crystal-life.com/blog/carnelain/
http://www.crystal-life.com/blog/carnelain/