Collecting Fine Minerals and Specimens
Whether you’re new to the scene or a seasoned collector, we’re bringing you ten tips for collecting fine minerals to help ensure that your purchases are worth the investment. The world is full of passionate collectors, dealers, and investors interested in fine mineral collecting. Some individuals have backgrounds in geology, gemology, mining, and field collecting, […]
Biotite Mica Schist
Schists are intermediate to high-grade foliated metamorphic rocks. They’re highly variable in appearance depending on the mineral content, which is a function of the precursor rock and specific temperature-pressure conditions. Garden-variety Schist forms by the metamorphism of phyllites. Varieties of Schist typically have medium to large-sized crystals, unlike the microcrystalline nature of phyllite and slate. […]
Mica Schist
There are numerous types of Schist rocks, Mica being one of many. Mica Schists are the most common Schistose rocks and the second most common metamorphic rocks on Earth. These rocks are composed mainly of Mica (usually Muscovite or Biotite) and smaller amounts of Quartz. The original protolith or parent rock of Mica Schist is […]
Garnet Mica Schist
Garnet Schist is a gray, silvery, or brown-colored metamorphic rock with layers of shiny mica and well-formed Garnet crystals. If you’ve seen Mica Schist before then you’ve seen Garnet Schist because the only difference is the Garnets. From time to time, readers will ask me what the parent rock is and it’s usually Shale, Mudstone, […]
Green Petrified Wood
Petrified wood gets its colors from various elements or compounds present when it forms. Over the years rockhounds and specimen collectors have favored green Petrified Wood because of its rarity. Here’s a little background on how Petrified Wood forms just in case you didn’t know. Petrified wood is a type of fossilized wood that forms […]