Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Quartz with Petroleum and Bituminous Inclusions


Very cool rock! Dev and I were offered a parcel this by a rough dealer who knows my love of inclusions. It is herkimer like quartz with petroleum (the yellow liquid) and bituminous solid inclusions. This particular piece also has a three phase inclusion of an air bubble that moves with the solid in the petroleum! I think it is my favorite rock of all time. I started a thread on the Mindat.org message boards: http://www.mindat.org/mesg-11-61219.html They are such a wonderful, knowledgeable group. Some of the best mineralogists in the world hang out there!

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

More from Tucson : Amazing Opal Eggs!

We saw the most amazing opal eggs at the InnSuites show! I collect eggs, so I was drooling on the cases.
It is really hard to capture the beauty of opal in a photograph. This show a little of the wonderful play of color in this egg. (If you have to ask how much....)