{"id":3393,"date":"2008-09-09T14:43:28","date_gmt":"2008-09-09T14:43:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/all-geo.org\/highlyallochthonous\/2008\/09\/50-minerals-to-see-before-you-die\/"},"modified":"2008-09-09T14:43:28","modified_gmt":"2008-09-09T14:43:28","slug":"50-minerals-to-see-before-you-die","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/all-geo.org\/highlyallochthonous\/2008\/09\/50-minerals-to-see-before-you-die\/","title":{"rendered":"50 minerals to see before you die"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m not sure I’m really wise in jumping on this meme (started by Chuck<\/a> and taken up by Hypocentre<\/a>, Silver Fox<\/a> and Callan<\/a>), because I have a feeling I’m going to end up feeling a little inadequate; my heavy does of physics as an undergraduate means my mineral identification skills are a little underdeveloped.
\n50 minerals everyone should see (bold<\/b>=seen in the wild, italic<\/i>=seen in captivity, be it lab, museum or some other non-field location):
\nAndalusite<\/b>
\nApatite<\/i>
\nBarite<\/b>
\nBeryl<\/i>
\nBiotite<\/b>
\nChromite<\/b>
\nChrysotile
\nCordierite<\/i>
\nCorundum<\/i>
\nDiamond*<\/i>
\nDolomite<\/b>
\nFlorencite
\nGalena<\/i>
\nGarnet<\/b>
\nGraphite<\/i>
\nGypsum<\/b>
\nHalite<\/b>
\nHaematite<\/b>
\nHornblende<\/b>
\nIllite<\/i>
\nIllmenite<\/i>
\nKaolinite<\/b>
\nKyanite
\nLepidolite
\nLimonite
\nMagnetite<\/b>
\nMolybdenite
\nMonazite
\nNepheline
\nOlivine<\/b>
\nOmphacite
\nOpal<\/i>
\nPerovskite<\/i>
\nPlagioclase<\/b>
\nPyrite<\/b>
\nQuartz<\/b>
\nRutile<\/b>
\nSanidine<\/b>
\nSillimanite
\nSilver (native)<\/i>
\nSphalerite<\/i>
\nStaurolite
\nSulphur (native)<\/b>
\nTalc<\/b>
\nTourmaline
\nTremolite
\nTurquoise<\/i>
\nVermiculite
\nWillemite
\nZeolite<\/b>
\nZircon<\/i>
\n*I have visited diamond-bearing alluvial gravels in western South Africa, but we weren’t allowed to touch anything.
\nI’ve stuck with Chuck’s original list, although I note that, in true geologist style, most peoples’ responses have more than a hint of ‘you didn’t mean that 50, you meant this<\/em> 50!’. Perhaps I should have added in more magnetic minerals – and I am disappointed by the lack of epidote, which is the same colour as pistachio nuts and therefore has pleasurable associations for me.
\nOf course, for some of these, a field identification would be quite an achievement; I’ve doubtless visited outcrops containing thousands upon thousands of zircons, since they are pretty much indestructible and are therefore found in many igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks, but spotting one is a little challenging…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m not sure I’m really wise in jumping on this meme (started by Chuck and taken up by Hypocentre, Silver Fox and Callan), because I have a feeling I’m going to end up feeling a little inadequate; my heavy does … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geology","category-rocks-minerals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/all-geo.org\/highlyallochthonous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/all-geo.org\/highlyallochthonous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/all-geo.org\/highlyallochthonous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/all-geo.org\/highlyallochthonous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/all-geo.org\/highlyallochthonous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/all-geo.org\/highlyallochthonous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3393\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/all-geo.org\/highlyallochthonous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/all-geo.org\/highlyallochthonous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/all-geo.org\/highlyallochthonous\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}