LABRADORITE A Feldspar Mineral with a Rainbow Inside

Collectors often dig labradorite as a colorful rock, but it is actually a mineral, not a rock. It is one of a half dozen varieties of feldspar divided into two groups that make up the crust of the earth. One group is the potassium feldspars, including microcline. The other group is a plagioclase feldspar, including labradorite.

LEARNING FROM A Legend

VISITS TO LUCKY STRIKE MINE PRODUCE GREAT MEMORIES AND MATERIAL

“ TOUCH THE MOON ” WITHOUT LEAVING EARTH

Discovering Similarites Between Space and the Upper Midwestern U.S.

GOLD MINING IN DAHLONEGA, GEORGIA

History and Panning Adventures

THE NICKEL BEHIND THE NICKEL

The word “nickel” is a homonym with two distinct meanings. It refers to both our five-cent coin and an element. Everyone is familiar with the coin, but not necessarily with the element.

The Golden Iron Mineral

PYRITE’S MANY CRYSTAL FORMS KEEP COLLECTORS FASCINATED

Idaho Star Garnet

Brilliant colors enhance the beauty and add to the value of many of our gemstones, especially those that are clear or translucent. And I like any color… as long as it is red. For that reason, the blood-red ruby is about my favorite gemstone. And in museums around this country and in Europe I have seen carefully cut cabochons containing startling six-rayed stars that seem to slide over the surface of the stone as it is rotated in the light. It is no wonder that, for hundreds of years, the star ruby has been one of the favorite stones of royalty.

New Discoveries in Newfoundland

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND ROCKHOUNDING HELP TO UNCOVER FASCINATING TREASURES AND HISTORY

GEOLOGY IN THE NATIONAL PARKS

The Science Behind the Scenery

A New View of Mineral Museums

This year of 2021 certainly started out to be disappointing for many mineral collectors. We were all looking forward to a host of mineral-related activities. Instead, few mineral shows and mineral activities on the calendar remain, so the first months of this year were devoid of organized mineral activity.

Captivated By Copper

Soldiers’ Discovery Leads to a Century of Mining at Pearl Handle Open Pit

ROOSEVELT DAM AGATE: A Gem Loaded with History

The Roosevelt Dam agate is a very limited-occurrence lapidary material, uncovered during the excavation of the Theodore Roosevelt Dam in Arizona, hence the obvious name of Roosevelt Dam agate.

GEORGIUS AGRICOLA'S: DE RE METALLICA

465 Years Old and Still Relevant

Trisparkle 12 Design Marks New Approach

I want to thank Jim Perkins for his many years of providing outstanding faceting designs for the Rock & Gem readership.

Scientists Looking at a Possibly Undetected Volcano in Alaska

Is there a previously undiscovered volcano within Alaska’s Aleutian chain of islands? A team of scientists recently presented their findings surrounding this possibility during a meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).

QUARTZ

COMMON, BUT NOT CONVENTIONAL

Discovering the Splendor of SLAG

A pile of slag remaining from copper smelting operations of 1930s Cottonwood, Arizona is one area of focus for Minerals Research, Inc. (MRI), the company pursuing a 15-20 year process to remove the pile using innovative recovery technology.

HUNTING FOR THUNDEREGGS

Uncovering A “Ghost” Volcano’s Treasures

CERUSSITE

GALENA’S GIFT OF A STUNNING SECONDARY MINERAL

Anxiously Awaiting a New Museum Opening

With the year 2021 upon us, Arizona collectors are certainly excited about the pending May opening of the University of Arizona Alfie Norville Gem & Mineral Museum in downtown Tucson. Of course, the excitement extends beyond the border of Arizona and to far reaching locales around the globe.

Filling an Empty Space and Enhancing a Cabochon

I often look for a special feature within a slab when choosing the shape to cut into a cab.

Pterodactyls No Longer Birds of a Feather?

For a couple of decades now, feathered dinosaurs have been all the rage.

The Saga of COLORADO GOLD - 53 Million Troy Ounces and Counting

Colorado has been mining gold even before the region became a territory and is still mining it today.

SPECTACULAR NATIVE SILVER - Rarer Than Gold in Specimen Form

When it comes to naturally occurring precious metal specimens on Earth, finding native silver is not as easy as finding native gold.

PEARL OF THE PACIFIC - San Diego's Pacific Rim Park

Did you know, the Pearl of the Pacific was created in 1998 as a symbol of friendship and unity between the United States, Mexico, China and Russia?

POPULAR PSEUDOMORPHS - More Common Varieties Enhance Any Collection

In part one of this two-part series, which appeared in the December 2020 issue of Rock & Gem, we explained pseudomorphs as minerals whose normal form has changed, so they may look like the original but are now another mineral.

New Era Gems - CARVING A PATH AND CREATING A LEGACY

Think back to your 20th birthday; what were you doing? How did you celebrate?

DIAMONDS - A Luxury Gem Steeped in Fact & Fable

The diamond is one fabled gemstone! For example, google “Hope Diamond” to see all the legends associated with just this one stone said to bring misfortune to its owners.

Cleaning Without Chemicals

Do you have specimens like desert roses, quartz crystal clusters, or geode halves that sat for eons in the open before being collected?

Black Ilmenite and “Titanium White”

The bright-white color that we see in everything from highway lines, donut icing, and tooth-paste to paint, paper, plastics, and ceramics comes mostly from titanium dioxide, the world’s most widely used pigment.