My Collection of
Minerals, Crystals and Rocks

This paper is going to be a lot of fun for me to write because it is about many of the rocks and crystals that I own.  I’ve always loved pretty rocks.  I remember going to an old mine in New Hampshire when I was a little girl and enjoying it very much.  I have nothing left from that time but vague memories.  I wouldn’t call myself a collector because many of my rocks are un-labeled and I just like looking at them.  I like rocks better in their natural formation although I have many that are formed into beads and other shapes. This will be a simple paper as I am not as knowledgeable as rock hounds and geologists. 

Minerals are that from which the Earth is made.  They are inorganic chemical compounds. Some are simple and some are very complex and are naturally formed within the crust of the Earth. Rocks are made up of these minerals (Shaffer & Zim, 2001).  Sometimes one can see the individual minerals in the rock and sometimes they are so small they can only be seen with a microscope (Dixon, 1992).

Amethyst crystals are also quartz crystals. They are also non-metallic, light, hard (H=7), with no cleavage.  Amethyst’s streak is white (Covey, 2006).  The purple color is caused by impurities from iron or manganese (Friedman, 2005).  Amethyst was used as “a decorative stone before 25,000 B.SC. in France and has been found with the remains of Neolithic man different parts of Europe.”  It was used in Egypt before 3100 B.C. (Sofianides, 1990).  Amethyst was once highly prized, and priced, till large amounts of it were found in Brazil (Shaffer & Zim, 2001).

Amethyst, purchased on eBay  in 2003.  A bit more than 2” long. à

Originally from Mexico.

ß          Various small amethysts. Most are from Mexico.

Some were given to me by friends;

the one that is a tiny cluster was purchased from eBay.

One of them was apparently run through one of those rock tumblers.

Various amethyst clusters given      à
to me in 2003 by my friend. I believe they are from Brazil; I know they are from South or Central America. They are 2", 2 ½", and almost 3".  One of them is light in color because it was left in the sun.  Now I know to not leave amethysts in the sun.

The r ose quartz on the right was purchased from

eBay in 2003. It came from somewhere

in the USA; and is almost 2 ½” across.

The pink color is caused by iron and titanium impurities.  No one knows why, but rose quartz rarely forms into crystal points. (Covey, 2006). 

In the book by Shaffer and Zim they say the pink color is from dumortierite (2001).

“The pink to rose red color completely unique, unlike any other pink mineral species.  Brazil is also the only source of true well formed crystals of rose quartz. So amazing are the rose quartz crystals that the first ones discovered were dismissed as fakes by mineralogists from around the world” (Covey, 2006).  

Rose quartz point crystals, when found, are extremely valuable (Friedman, 2005).

Various small rocks given to me, purchased, or found, 2004 to 2005. Most of them have teen tumbled. They are: black tourmaline, calcite, granite with mica (or a schist), snowflake obsidian, hematite, and several smoky Quartz pieces.

The inside of the box above measures approximately 2" by 3".

Crystals/Rocks Contained in the Box

Black Tourmaline: White streak, hardness is 7 to 7½; tourmaline can be transparent or opaque, and it comes in many colors.  It has no cleavage. It can have a vitreous luster, but when it is black or brown it can be dull (Friedman, 2005).  Most people think tourmaline is one mineral but it is in fact a group made up of several minerals (Covey, 2006).  A silicate of “aluminum with boron and several other metals, it is occasionally abundant with mica and feldspars in granitic rocks” (Shaffer and Zim, 2001). Mine is columnar and striated. All I can see is that black tourmaline is called black tourmaline; no other strange names.  I was told that this one comes from Italy.

            Calcite: I have only this tiny little piece of calcite; it is a chunk off a longer calcite that broke into several pieces.  I know that it will fizz up if I were to put HCL on it, but I don’t want to do that.  I know that it has quite good cleavage, because when it broke, it broke into flat planes. It’s definitely less than a five in hardness. It’s non-metallic and light in color. 

            Granite with mica (or schist): See page 17, about Schist. Found during a walk in Taos.

            Snowflake obsidian: Obsidian is Volcanic Silica Glass. It has iron and magnesium in it.  “Inclusions of small, white, radially clustered crystals of cristobalite in the black glass produce a blotchy or snowflake pattern producing Snowflake Obsidian” (Sofianides and Harlow, 1990).   See more about obsidian on page 15 and 16.

            Hematite: See hematite on page 14.

            Smoky quartz pieces: These have all been tumbled in a rock tumbling machine.  They are all quartz but they are dark in color and are called smoky quartz.  See quartz information starting on page four to view properties.

This (left) is my lapis lazuli stone, which is 1½" from top to bottom.  I bought this stone from the Gem and Mineral Shop in Taos and had it made into a necklace.

Lapis-lazuli is rich in lazurite and it sometimes has pyrite inclusions in it.  It is used as an ornamental stone (Shaffer and Zim, 2001).

Lapis lazuli is a silicate of sodium and aluminum and it contains sulphur. It has a hardness of 5 to 5.5, its cleavage is cubic, it is non-metallic and it is dark.  It is opaque and vitreous (Borelli and Cipriani, 1986).  The name comes from medieval Latin word for “stone” and from the Arabic word for “blue,” from which the word azure comes (Borelli and Cipriani, 1986). It is an aggregate from several minerals and metamorphically formed.  Therefore, it is a metamorphic rock. It “is unrivaled among blue stones” (Pearl, 1965).

     Fluorite comes in many different colors.  The composition of fluorite is calcium fluoride; the hardness is four, its streak is white, it has a vitreous to glassy luster (Friedman, 2005).

It can be transparent to translucent (Friedman, 2005). “The perfect cleavage parallel to the octahedral faces can sometimes be "peeled" off to smooth out a crystal into a perfect octahedron (Friedman, 2005).”  Fluorite occurs in both sedimentary and igneous rocks. “Mexico, China and Russia are the largest producers of fluorite.” Sometimes quartz or calcite are included with the veins of fluorite. Sometimes these can contain lead, copper or zinc (Shaffer and Zim, 2001).

ß     This fluorite tower was purchased on eBay in 2005; it is 8” tall and it came from China . It is not its natural shape; it was cut into a six-sided tower from a larger piece. This is no longer mine; I gave it to a friend.

“Fluorite is a halide or a fluoride” (Pearl, 1965) and is a fragile stone and comes in many colors (Sofianides and Harlow, 1990). “The word "fluorescent" is derived from the mineral Fluorite” (Friedman, 2005).  It

displays the fluorescent property

vividly (Sofianides 1990).

This beautiful cube  fluorite (right) was purchased from the rock and gem shop in Taos in 2004. It has some purple amongst the green.  It is 3¼” across and came from Namibia in Africa. This is no longer mine, I sold it.

Fluorite “is used in making high-test gasoline, Freon, and many other chemical products.”  Fluorite has a good octahedral cleavage (Shaffer and Zim, 2001).  It is also used as a flux in steel making and as a source of hydrofluoric acid (Pearl, 1965).

            The violet or purple fluorite was originally called blue-john by gemologists and was very much in demand for “vases and other carved ornamental objects” (Pearl, 1965).  Fluorite is made up of two chemicals, calcium and fluorine (Pearl, 1965). “It may be referred to as a fluoride, or a halide because fluorine belongs to the halogen group of elements, which also includes, chlorine, bromine, and iodine” (Pearl, 1965).

These were purchased and gifted to me. There are also some pieces of white sage in the box. They are: rough turquoise, rough malachite, double pyramid of violet fluorite, small dome of black hematite, treated quartz, piece of opal, and rose quartz sphere. 

The inside of the box is about 2½ by 2½ inches and contains the following.

Turquoise:  Turquoise may have been the first gem to be mined and the first to be imitated. It has been found as Egyptian beads as early as 4000 B.C. It is suggested that mines were in production on the Sinai Peninsula before 3100 B.C. (Sofianides 1990).  Turquoise is hydrated copper aluminum phosphate.  It is, of course, turquoise in color.  Hardness is 5 to 6; streak is white with a greenish tint; it is opaque and dull to waxy, sometimes vitreous luster (Covey, 2006). “Good quality turquoise is rare. Cheap stones are often dyed blue” (Shaffer and Zim, 2001). This small piece of turquoise was given to me and came from somewhere in New Mexico.

Malachite: This is one of my favorite stones.  Malachite is hydrated copper carbonate.  It was used in Egypt since 3000 B.C. It rarely occurs as crystals and it is usually massive or fibrous. It is soft and brittle and not very durable (Sofianides, 1990). It is dark green or sometimes banded light and dark green.  It is opaque, its streak is green, it’s non-metallic, hardness is 3.5 to 4, and it is dark with no cleavage. (Covey, 2006)  Malachite and azurite are often found together (Shaffer and Zim, 2001). This little piece of malachite was given to me at the Gem and Mineral Store in Taos; I seem to remember it came from Africa.  I also have a necklace made of malachite but I have no clue where it came from.

Violet fluorite:  This is a small octahedron of violet fluorite. See information about fluorite page eleven.  I bought this somewhere in Taos and it originally came from Illinois.

Hematite:  Hematite is an iron oxide and sometimes contains titanium; its hardness is 5 to 6; hematite is opaque; luster is metallic to dull; colors vary from black, gray, silver-gray, brown, reddish-brown to red.  Its streak is red to reddish-brown.  Hematite is weakly attracted to magnetic fields (Friedman, 2005). It is a very important ore of iron (Sofianides 1990). Zim and Shaffer also say that hematite is the most important iron ore; it contains about 70% iron. (2001). I purchased the black dome-shaped hematite pictured on page 13 on eBay and it originally came from Alaska.

Treated quartz: The tiny piece of treated quartz in the box on page 13 is called “Aqua Aura Quartz.”  I bought it from alienufoart.com.  “Aqua aura is produced by bonding the nuclei of molecules of pure gold to the quartz by the natural electrostatic charge of the crystal. This mysteriously produces a celestial shade of blue, which is part of the crystal and cannot be scraped off” (McDonald).  I seem to remember the quartz crystal came from Brazil.  It has the same properties of quartz crystals on page four.

Piece of opal: Opal is hydrated silicon dioxide. Opal is very precious and fragile and can be scratched very easily. Opal contains water which may evaporate and cause the opal to crack, get stressed or get smaller.   Hardness is 5.5 to 6.5; there is no cleavage but it is brittle; luster is vitreous to pearly. In the 1800’s it became associated with bad luck (Sofianides 1990). “Opal derives from the Sanskrit Upala and the Latin opalus, meaning ‘precious stone’” (Sofianides 1990). “Color is white, colorless, pale yellow, pale red, gray or black when impurities are common. Diffraction can cause flashes of any color of the rainbow (opalescent)” (Covey, 2006). It is transparent to translucent. Its streak is white (Covey, 2006). This piece of opal was given to me by a friend.  It came from someplace far away, like Australia or someplace like that.

Tiny rose quartz sphere:  This was given to me by the same friend who gave me the opal.  See more about rose quartz on page eight.

Obsidian is a natural volcanic glass and has been often used as arrowheads and primitive cutting tools.  It can be easily polished into semi-precious beads and stones (Shaffer and Zim, 2001).

(Right) Obsidian Sphere purchased in May of 2006 at the Taos Flea Market. About 1¾” across. He called it “rainbow obsidian”.  It came from Colorado.

Obsidian is often used in jewelry.  It can be transparent to opaque.  It comes in several other colors but is usually black.  “Snowflake, or flowering, obsidian is a black variety with white inclusions.”  Its other colors are brown, green, yellow, red, blue and mahogany.  (Sofianides, 1990)

Jasper is a variety of Quartz crystal (Sofianides, 1990) and is part of the chalcedony family (Borelli and Cipriani, 1986).  “The qualities are hardness and durability.  They are superfine grained rocks; the grains are not visible to the naked eye” (Sofianides, 1990). Jasper is an opaque quartz and is usually red, yellow or brown or sometimes two or more of these colors together. It lines cavities, fills cracks and forms crusts (Shaffer and Zim, 2001). Its hardness is 6.5; it forms in “concretionary deposit” (Borelli and Cipriani, 1986).  “In spite of its commonness, jasper has been carved into a number of rather valuable art objects, particularly in Russia, where Siberian material with alternating red and green stripes has been much used” (Pearl, 1965).

Red jasper, natural rock (left)

Purchased on eBay Jan. 2006.

It is about 7¾” long and 

came from Michigan.

Very cool schist rock found during March 1, 2007 field trip at the gravel pit. It is 3¾” wide.

Schist rocks are metamorphic rocks.

Schist is found in ancient rock mountains that have been highly eroded. Schists and the minerals in them vary greatly and this depends on the original rock and how it was metamorphosed.  There is nearly always mica present.  If it has more mica then it’s probably was originally shale or mudstone.  If it has less mica and more feldspar or quartz then it most likely started out as a sandstone (Dixon, 1992)

In the book by Shaffer and Zim (2001) they call my schist (left) a garnet mica schist. 

Schist is “usually a highly metamorphosed shale composed mainly of many small

flakes of mica, oriented roughly parallel,” with quartz. 

There are also garnets if it is a garnet mica schist.

Texture can vary from fine to course (Shaffer and Zim, 2001).

To the left is a schist with garnets which I found by a bridge

at Orilla Verde very near the Rio Grande near Pilar

on April 9, 2007.  It is 2¾” tall.

Pyrite or “fools gold” is an iron sulfide mineral that is very common and found throughout the world.  Sometimes it is called “marcasite” when used in jewelry.  It is not marcasite.  It is opaque “with a brass-yellow color and bright metallic luster” (Sofianides 1990).

Pyrite is not like gold either.  The name comes from the Greek root “pyr” which means fire. It produces sparks if struck by iron. Its crystal system is cubic.

It has a hardness of 6 to 6.5 and it is metallic.  It is brittle and will crumble if it is hit by a hammer. (Cipriani and Borelli, 1986).

On the right is a picture of pyrite that I purchased March 10, 2007 at a store near John Dunn Plaza. It is 2½” wide. They said it came from Peru. 

Galena is a sulphide of lead; its crystal system is cubic;

its hardness is 2.5 and its luster is metallic but often tarnished (Dixon, 1992). 

“Glena is a heavy, brittle, silvery-gray mineral [and] has perfect cubic cleavage.” 

It was used in early crystal radio sets (Shaffer and Zim, 2001).  

On the left is a block of galena purchased March 10, 2007

at store near John Dunn Plaza. They say it came from Madagascar.  

It is 1¾” wide.

Rhyolite is light-colored acidic rock which has the same chemical composition as granite.  It has a very fine texture. It has quartz and a glassy feldspar in it. The color is “white to pink to gray, though often reddish from iron stains” (Shaffer and Zim, 2001). Rhyolite is an extrusive igneous rock and is a form of granite.

Acidic means a rock that contains more than 66 percent silica ( Dixon, 1992).  

Rhyolite found along the Taos Ski Valley Road in April of 2007.   à

It is 3” long.

ß     Gneiss rock that I picked up along the Taos Ski Valley Road in April of 2007. It is 4¼” from point to point. This one seems to be a hornblende gneiss.

There are many kinds of gneiss. Gneiss “may be a metamorphosed granite, or a far more complex rock with possibly four or five different origins, either igneous or sedimentary” (Shaffer and Zim, 2001).  It may also be a mixture of igneous and metamorphic at times. Gneiss is coarse-textured generally with minerals in parallel streaks (or bands) (Shaffer and Zim, 2001).

ß    Quartzites that I found along the Taos Ski Valley Road and in Taos. The largest is 3½” long.

Quartzites are sandstones that have been metamorphosed and been re-crystallized so that they break through the quartz grains rather than through the cement like sandstones.

Quartzite is a massive metamorphic rock that is very hard like marble. They are a hardness of 7 and they have no cleavage, very much like quartz (Shaffer and Zim, 2001). 

“If our continental crust were to be melted down and “mixed thoroughly, and slowly cooled, the result would be granite.” It is mainly “feldspar, quartz, mica, and a small quantity of iron ore” (Dixon, 1992).  Granite forms in batholiths deep inside the earth’s crust in mountain chains.  “There is no internal structure or planes of weakness, so it will break irregularly.”  The granite rock above came from along the Taos Ski Valley road in April, 2007 and it is about 4½” long.

I own a lot of rocks and minerals and crystals.  As I said at the beginning of this paper I like picking up pretty and interesting rocks and I like buying pretty and interesting minerals, rocks and crystals.  I did not include them all in this paper because it would have been way to long. This was very interesting doing this research and perhaps I will continue one day with the remainder of my rocks for my own information. 

            I will definitely continue to collect minerals, crystals and rocks.  Well, some anyway.

            I liked rocks before; now I will look at them and rock formations differently and I will wonder what they are, or perhaps I will know what they are.  I know I will buy a rock book for myself.  I’ve never owned one before and the ones I did my research with are all borrowed.

            After this I will probably make a video about my rocks.

Cipriani, Curzio and Alessandro Borelli. Simon & Schuster’s Guide to Gems and Precious Stones.  New York: Simon and Schuster, 1986.

Covey, Steve. Amethyst Galleries Mineral Gallery. 2006. Amethyst Galleries, Inc. 12 April 2007 <http://www.galleries.com/>.

Dixon, Dougal. The Practical Geologist. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1992.

Friedman, Hershel. The mineral and gemstone kingdom: home. 2005. The Mineral and Gemstone Kingdom. 12 April, 2007 <http://www.minerals.net/>.

McDonald, Bill and Lori. Aqua Aura Quartz, Tanzine aura, Angel aura, Titaniium Aura Quartz Crystals, Points and Clusters. AlianUFOart.com. 19 April, 2007 <http://www.alienufoart.com/Aqua_Aura_Quartz_aqua_aura.htm>

Pearl, Richard M. Popular Gemology. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1965.

Shaffer, Paul R. & Zim, Herbert S. Rocks Gems and Minerals: A guide to Familiar Minerals, Gems, Ores and Rocks. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2001.

Sofianides, Anna and George E Harlow. Gems & Crystals From the American Museum of Natural History.  New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990.

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