Velvet Beauty

This is the actual name of this magnificent specimen. It is an important piece, one gotten from a private collection and displayed by a vendor at the Tucson Rock and Gem Show. It was found in 1890 at Bisbee, Arizona, long a world-known site for azurite and malachite as well as copper.

The photo was taken through glass, and the vendor held up a flashlight for me to take this picture. Velvet Beauty can be yours for a mere $25,000. It is the finest specimen I have ever seen of one of my favorite minerals. I believe the chunk weighs about 3 pounds and is about 9” in diameter.

Photo by cobalt123

Geodes + Bookends = Geeky Delight!

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sarahmagdalena:

Blue and funky, Rosasite with Hemimorphite.

sarahmagdalena:

Blue Euclase.

The Fukang Pallasite.  Pallasites are a type of iron meteorite, quite rare, made out of large olivine crystals in an iron-nickel matrix. Olivine is a a magnesium iron silicate quite common in our planet’s subsurface, but which weathers fast when exposed to the surface. An anonymous finder recovered a 1003 kg specimen near Fukang, China in 2000.  These extra-terrestrial gemstones mirror the stellar beauty of the cosmos. The Fukang Pallasite is a specimen that clearly out shines all meteorites of its class.  See more photos here.

mineralia:

Elbaite from Afghanistan

sarahmagdalena:

A green little mix of Fluorite and Quartz. 

mineralia:

Clinochlore var. Kammererite from Turkey

mineralia:

Beryl from Colombia

mineralia:

Cerussite with Pyromorphite from China

mineralia:

Chrysocolla after Gypsum from Arizona

mineralia:

Calcite with Chalcopyrite and Dolomite from Missouri

mineralia:

Corundum var. Ruby from Sri Lanka

mineralia:

Legrandite from Mexico

mineralia:

Rhodochrosite with Tetrahedrite from Colorado