Rockhounding Tales; What Made you Keep That Pretty Rock?

[Molly4US]

36325


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Here is a portion of the rocks which my children and I collected from camping and daytrips to the desert and ocean throughout the years. I will take a close-up photo of each occasionally, and then describe to you what kind of rock it is and why we collected it. Most are igneous, both intrusive and extrusive ones because I live in California.

I hope you will enjoy the thread and enjoy sharing pictures and stories of your favorite or unique geologic, archaeological finds, and gem-trails which you have traversed.

[LadyRavenHeart]

Most beautiful thing I ever found on the beach was a perfect heartshaped piece of rose quartz. Have it tucked away in a little box in my cupboard. <3

[mojo]

Hi and nice collection, a favorite topic of mine as well.

[Molly4US]

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Above is a picture of some Quartz Crystals my children and I found while rockhounding on a dry desert-like trail in the Sierra Nevada range. The big one is the largest one we found and it appears to be slightly "smoky" which can be a sign of some aluminum mixed with the silicon and oxygen. We had so much fun climbing over rocks and walking along sandy trails looking to spy a glint in the sun in hopes of finding a crystal. When one of the faces hits the sun just right, no matter how small the crystal is, there can be a little gleam which helps you find your little treasure. It was always nice to finish a desert evening, everyone dusty and a bit sun-burnt.

[Molly4US]

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Igneous Extrusive Rocks: The above rockhounding finds are igneous extrusive, pyroclastics which shot out of the top of various volcanos in California.

1. The airy-porous extruded magma rock to the back is very abrasive and light in weight, yet it is a bit heavier than pumice which simply has more spaces made by gasses when the magma was still molten. We found it near Cindercone Mountain in Lassen, California.

2. The very striped glassy one, as well as the gray and black glassy one are pieces of obsidian which blasted out (extrusive) of a volcano near Goose Lake, California. Obsidian was used to make knives, and arrowheads by native American Indians. If you look closely at the black and gray one you can see the circular type breakage lines. Each color variation is a product of the variation in gas and mineral content.

3. The Obsidian to the front of the picture in black and reddish-orange is very characteristic of the obsidian one finds near Clearlake, California. Just driving on the HWY pass toward Clearlake one begins to see bright flashes while looking out the window. At first I thought people had done a lot of littering of glass, or that a truck had dropped part of it's load, but once pulling over it was the red and black obsidian which we were seeking on this specific trip.

4. The tiny, smooth, black stone at the fore is an Apache tear. A tiny droplet of molten glass which blasted out from a volcano (pyroclastics) and solidified in the coolness of the air. We found this while walking along a sandy, dirt trail near Boron, California.

California has a lot of volcanism to enjoy. I don't have an example, but the hexagonal shaped columns of Basalt (very dense and heavy due to the high ferro-magnesian content) of Devils Postpile are the neck of an old volcano. Super neat to see. Fun treasures to find.

[Molly4US]

Hi and nice collection, a favorite topic of mine as well.

Hello mojo, I would love to see some of your rock specimens. Where have you been rockhounding?