This weekend - Rock Hunting Plans

This weekend is supposed to be PERFECT for rock hunting!
Here is a photo I took of the area around Alcova Reservoir in Wyoming.
Its about a 2 1/2 hour drive from here.

There are fossils and some fantastic banded ironstone (tiger iron) in this area.
I hiked the dinosaur trail and got some great photos.

the area has a lot of bentonite deposits, where I have found the early beginnings of rocks becoming Septarian Nodules.  

Here is one of those stones I found.  The brown calcite in the cracks is very delicate and the rock can easily fall apart.   Perhaps if this stone laid beneath the ground for another 10-20 years, it would become a solid Septarian Nodule.

These are mostly found in Utah and I live near the Montana / Wyoming border, so I was suprised and delighted to find this here.

 

 Her is another I found.

 Here is a road cut exposure showing the various geological aspects of the area.

This shows Alcova Reservoir and one area that contains a lot of Bentonite Clay (the gray).  The water is a little cloudy on the edges due to the clay run-off.

Hiking on these clay hills is fun and can be challenging.

A large boulder there.

 

Another roadcut.  Note the various layers of rock and earth.  Many fossils have been found in this area, and the soil is loose, which makes for easy fossil hunting!

and then.............there is Castle Gardens.  Another favourite rock climbing / hunting place of mine, just over the Bighorn Mountains near Ten Sleep, Wyoming.  Check out the view!!!

I must learn more about the formation of crystals in stone and to understand the patterns and structures they contain.  I googled "patterns of crystals" in stones and found the term "spectroscopy".:

What is spectrocopy? Wikipedia says:

Spectroscopy is the study of the interaction between matter and radiated energy. Historically, spectroscopy originated through the study of visible light dispersed according to its wavelength, e.g., by a prism. Later the concept was expanded greatly to comprise any interaction with radiative energy as a function of its wavelength or frequency. Spectroscopic data is often represented by a spectrum, a plot of the response of interest as a function of wavelength or frequency.

Bronzite Wanna-bes?

I found this rock that has brown feathery crystals formed on it's surface.

The brown crystal pattern on the surface of this rock are different than those on the stone above it.  The crystal pattern in this stone here look like the pattern found in bronzite that I have seen.

This stone is green on surface and reverse side is copper brown.  These crystals are stick-like threads in random patterns.

 Here these rocks are all shown together.

They appear to be of the same basic type of rock, with varying degrees of color from light green to brown.

 

 

Pietersite and Bronzite

Here is a photo of a cabochon made from Pietersite.

 Here is a cabochon made of Bronzite.

It is very hard for me to tell the difference between Bronzite and Pietersite.  Bronzite does appear (to me) to contain mostly browns and golds though.

Here are the Pietersite beads I received today.  They contain some blues, reds, yellows and gold.  These are stunningly beautiful beads and rival the beauty of bronzite beads.

Here is a greyscale image of the same photo.  These photos do not clearly show the patterns of inclusions but give one a hint of them.

Somsak, a fellow blogger.com Blogger, wrote a terrific article about these stones here:

 http://changems.blogspot.com/2007/04/bronzite.html

Below is an exerpt from his blog which makes one want to learn more and more about these stones!!

 

"...bronzite is the result of weather & geological trauma with Iron & Silica, & that it is the middle sibling in a family of crystals called Pyroxenes. The older & younger stones are Hypersthene & Enstatite.  Hypersthene is the oldest known member of this group.  Hypersthene & Enstatite are Magnesium rich silicate (Quartz) crystals. They're found both in igneous (formed by lava or magma) rocks & on meteorites. Enstatite is a green stone called Chrome-Enstatite (referring to it's Chromium content). Some of the Magnesium in the Hypersthene is replaced by Iron which contributes to it's value as a gemstone. In some Hypersthenes, the Iron molecule divides itself into microscopic thin films of oxides & hydroxides. These zones form natural separations within the crystal's structure. When the crystal is cut & polished along these cleavage zones, they exhibit a metal schiller or cat's eye effect.  Both Enstatite & Hypersthene can also form translucent to transparent orthorhombic crystals. These are often faceted into brown, green & black gemstones.  Bronzite, the middle stone between these 2 gemstones is the result of the weathering of Enstatite & Hypersthene. As wind, rain & other elements break down the soft (but strong) crystals more & more of the Magnesium is replaced by Iron, Hematite & Goethite (Iron derivatives). The final result is a dark black, brown or greenish stone speckled & streaked with golden metallic patterns. Like Hypersthene, the finest Bronzite specimens will also exhibit the shimmering chatoyancy effect known as cats eye. However, even the more common pieces capture the eye with flashes from its metallic composition. Bronzite is also identified/classified as Ferroan Enstatite, though it is physically closer to Hypersthene."

Somsak's article also delves into the metaphysical aspects of Bronzite.  One excerpt says:

"Many live in a state of denial when it comes to the physical impact of emotional pain. Bronzite's high vibrations break through these types of blocks that are preventing you from healing. Be careful, this gemstone's intense nature forces many feelings to the surface. Once you start working with your Bronzite to heal this type of hurt, it will not allow you to turn back."

Somsak has written many other high quality articles with much wisdom and information about many gemstones.  Please check out his blog and articles!

http://changems.blogspot.com 

 

Chatoyant Properties of Stones

Chatoyancy - what is it?  If a stone is chatoyant, it shows a band of bright reflected light caused by aligned inclusions in the stone.

Chatoyant means to shine like cats eyes.

Therefore, the stone has a changeable luster.

It means it gives off shimmering and the color can be changeable, too!

Got that?

One guy says:

Chatoyant stones are some of the most interesting and beautiful of the semi precious stones.  The group of chatoyant stones includes such well known stones as Tiger Eye, Marra Mamba, Pietersite, Binghamite, Silk Stone, and varieties of common semiprecious stones like Malachite, Jade, and Obsidian.  Chatoyant stones are those that can change in luster or color by orienting them differently to a light source.  It is also what causes the Tiger Eye property which is a reflected streak of light from a chatoyant stone that is cut and polished into a cabachon.

Some stones that are chatoyant include:

Seraphinite - terrific stone, gotta check it out!

Eudialyte (a garnet feldspar)

Astrophyllite

Labradorite (don't have any of this, either!)

Charoite (another stone I want to check out!)

Larvakite (Norwegian Moonstone) - also gotta check this out!

I'll add more Chatoyant stones to this list as I learn of them.

Perhaps it is this quality of bronzite that makes it wildly attractive to me.
If I check out some of these other stones, I may find them just as attractive.

However, the BRONZE color of Bronzite is what appeals to me.

I went through a phase where I was loving the color of Rose Gold.

I'm not a silver person, not a yellow gold person, enjoy Rose Gold and Copper, but what i really like is BRONZE! Not brass.

And bronze jewelry is not cheap.

But finding bronze colored beads and stones is cheaper, and I'll make my own jewelry!!

I also went through an opal phase.  I still like opalite and bought a few boulder opals from Mexico which are fascinating.  Wyoming has opals so I need to get down to the southwestern part of the state and go hunting them!

 

I also went through a phase where I was into stones that had wood-grain like appearances.  Above is a sedentary stone I found at Lake De Smet, Wyoming. It is soft and quite fascinating.

I'm also crazy about banded ironstone.  We have a lot of it where I go rock hunting.   What fascinates me about it is the heaviness, the ancient age of the stone, how it was formed and the wood grain - like layers and pattern in the stone.

Pietersite

Pietersite.
What is it?
Is it the same as Bronzite?
 
I discovered it when looking for Bronzite beads.
I ordered some of these golden bronze color Pietersite beads and will post a photo of them once I get them.

 Here is the bead seller's photo of these beads.

And here are some oval ones.

The photos I take of these beads I will post later on this blog once I receive them.

So if these beads are made of Pietersite, is this stone a close relative of Bronzite?


I found this information about Pietersite:

Pietersite was discovered by Sid Pieters in 1962 while he was prospecting some farmland in Namibia, Africa. After his discovery, he registered the find in the mineral records of Britain. His discovery was published in 1964, and the material was named pietersite. Currently there are only two known sources of pietersite:  China and Africa. These two forms of pietersite are similar but still somewhat different from each other. The Chinese pietersite's fibrous mineral is a magnesium rich alkalic amphibole. The African (Namibian) variety is mainly crocidolite.

The China form of pietersite is said to have been discovered in 1993, but did not come to market until 1997. This China pietersite exhibits slightly different color variations from Mr. Pieter's original mineral, but both are beautiful and are now universally recognized as pietersite.

The material found in China was formed from a mineral very similar to crocidolite, named torendrikite. Chinese pietersite has striking combinations of gold, red and blue color segments which sometimes also includes a deep golden brown color.

Regardless of the source, pietersite will always have brecciated, fibrous bands of blue, gold and/or red tiger eye type fibers in quartz. The fibrous structure in pietersite has been folded, stressed, even fractured and/or broken apart via the Earth's geologic processes.

The fibrous materials have then been reformed and naturally recemented together by quartz. Stones and crystals that go through this process are referred to as brecciated, creating a finished product with multiple colors, hues and superb chatoyancy.

While pietersite has the lovely chatoyancy of tiger eye, it is not found in continuously structured bands or fibers, more in swirls, swathes and fibrous (sometimes linear) segments. Thus the structure of the fibrous streaks in pietersite may appear rather chaotic, and can flow or exist in many directions side-by-side like bold paint strokes.

Colors include various blues, golds and reds, that may appear together or alone. Blue is the rarest color, followed by red. The blues range from a baby blue to dark midnight hue. Golds can be light to very deep and rich, sometimes having a reddish hue. All fibrous color variations will have a superb and striking chatoyancy, the bright and subtly changing shimmer of color that moves along the surface of a gemstone as it is viewed from varying angles.

Fuchsite

Lastly, here is fuchite I found last weekend!

What a terrific specimen for my collection!  This measures 7' x 5' x 1.75'!!!

Lepidolite

Oh yeah,
I forgot to mention the Lepidolite I got the other day.
It is mined right here in Wyoming!

Check these humongous specimens out!

 

This one is 7' x 6' x 3.5'!!!

 

This photo shows the color better.

 

 

Orthopyroxenes and Bronzite

Orthopyroxenes are a group of minerals.  Amongst them, there is a sub-group called the Orthorhombics.  The Orthorhombics in the Orthopyroxene group include Bronzite, Enstatite and Hypersthene.

To understand these minerals, one must learn a little bit about Crystallography, which is the science that studies the structure and properties of crystals.  It studies the bonding and arrangement of atoms in crystalline solids and the geometric structure of crystal lattices.  It analyzes the diffraction of x-rays by crystals serving as optical gratings.  Using x-ray crystallography, chemists can determine the bonding arrangements and internal structures of molecules and minerals, including the structures of large complex minerals such as DNA and proteins.

 A crystal lattice is a lattice from which the structure of a crystal may be obtained by associating with every lattice point an assembly of atoms identical in composition, arrangement, and orientation.

A crystal lattice is a 3-dimensional configuration of points connected by lines used to describe the orderly arrangement of atoms in a crystal. Each point represents one or more atoms in the actual crystal. The lattice is divided into a number of identical blocks or cells that are repeated in all directions to form a geometric pattern. Lattices are classified according to their dominant symmetries: isometric, trigonal, hexagonal, tetragonal, orthorhombic, monoclinic, and triclinic.

An orthorhombic crystal system is a type of crystal system or 3-dimensional geometric arrangement where there are 3 unequal axes at all right angles.



Wikipedia says: 

"In crystallography, the orthorhombic crystal system is one of the 7 lattice point groups. Orthorhombic lattices result from stretching a cubic lattice along 2 of its orthogonal pairs by 2 different factors, resulting in a rectangular prism with a rectangular base and height. . . All 3 bases intersect at 90° angles. The 3 lattice vectors remain mutually orthogonal."

-----------------------

I remember my father studied crystals and grew some of his own.  He suspended a thread in a small glass cup containing a mixture of various chemicals and crystals would grow.

The one paperback book he had that he used to perform these experiments was "Crystals and Crystal Growing" by Alan Holden and Phylis Singer (published by Anchor Books, Doubleday & Co., Inc. in 1960, Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 60-5932).

I actually have a copy of this paperback so you can still find copies out there.  It contains photographs of crystal growing experiments you can perform at home.

---------------------

What first got me interested in Orthopyroxenes is that I discovered the mineral Bronzite.  I read that this mineral can be found in Wyoming, where I live and purchased a ring with a large Bronzite cabochon in it so I could examine it closely and know what to look for when I was rock hunting.

Last weekend, while rock hunting in Wyoming I came across some rocks that I thought for certain were Bronzite!

I also ordered some beads made of Bronzite and a pendant with a Bronzite cabochon, which I received in the mail today.  The photo above shows the rocks I found along with the pendant and beads.

The reason I thought for certain the rocks were Bronzite was because of the crystal structures that displayed on the surface of the rocks.

Here is a close-up photograph of the green colored stone. I believe the stone contains green fuchite but also has these three dimensional prominant hair like crystal threads on the surface.

Here I modified the photo, removing the color and making it greyscale, and then highlighted the three dimensional surface crystals to see if any pattern exists.  It appears the crystals are random and contain no certain pattern.

Here is a close-up of one stone where the crystal structure most definately appears to be identical to those in the bronzite pendant and bronzite beads.  The brown color is also identical.

Supposedly ancient Romans ground Bronzite into powder which they used for  protection against mental illness and confusion and to strengthen one's nerves.

Bronzite is considered a semi-prescious stone.  It has reflective inclusions that give it a metallic sheen.


Metaphysical Qualities:

It is used for protection as it not only repels but also sends back negative energies to the sender.

It is said to assist one in  achieving a state of certainty without willfulness, allowing you to easily adapt to the best path to take.


Bronzite is said to be a "stone of focused action", that it helps dispel uncertainty and helps one take control of our actions. It can also help one to think ahead about things, enhancing the ability to take control of our own lives.

It is also called a “stone of courtesy” aid is especially helpful to those who greet and assist the public.  It supposedly even instills a polite nature in those around you.

Bronzite is a good grounding stone and promotes change in a harmonious way.

Emotionally, it is said to promote a loving and unprejudiced discernment within you and it provides the ability to resolve unsettled emotions in one's life.

Mentally, it is said to provide one with the courage to act on your thoughts and feelings and it instills the courage to follow through with life path decisions.

Physically, it can be used to bring an alkaline body state to the acid condition, helping to fight off infections.  It can increase the assimilation of iron and provides an improved duration of iron within the physical body.  It aids the body in the normal transformation of cycles.  Bronzite is used to heal illness related to the solar plexus chakra, assimilation of iron, lessening muscular tension, dispelling restlessness caused by emotional and psycho-physical ailments.

Bronzite is actually a weathered ferriferous (= contains Iron) variety of Enstatite and is correctly called "altered Enstatite".  Enstatite is commonly found in meteorites.

Enstatite is one of the few silicate minerals that have been observed in crystalline form outside our Solar System, particularly around evolved stars and Planetary Nebulae such as NGC 6302.  Enstatite is thought to be one of the early stages for the formation of crystalline silicates in space and many correlations have been noted between the occurrence of the mineral and the structure of the object around which it has been observed.


 Wyoming is such an exciting place to live for rockhounds like myself!  There are so many semi-prescious stones to look for:  diamonds!  iolite!  I love the banded iron (tiger iron)!  There is kyanite, labradorite, amber (I found one piece), rubies, peridot, garnet, opal, gold, and so much more!!

However, now that I'm hooked on Bronzite, that will be my main focus in my rock hunting trips until I move on to a different stone!! Although the banded iron is so gorgeous I can't help but pick up a nice specimen when I find one.