Radical Rocks

Rocks or Minerals What’s the Difference How to Guide As a rockhound you love rocks and minerals, but we refer to our collections as “rocks”. Sometimes we say “hey let’s go kicks some rocks” or “Lets fill up a bucket of rocks” yet everything is not just rocks. I know even I am guilty as our branding is “Radical Rocks”. Truly many of our most prized “Rocks” are truly minerals. Now if you’re not a rockhound and you just stumbled across this article, hang on because we will attempt to set the matter straight in terms that the layperson should be able to understand. Rocks and minerals make up our world and everything we use either came from them or was planted in them or ate the plants planted in them. If you’re not a rockhound , by default you still are a rock and mineral collector of sorts, because just about everything you need and use day to day relies on rocks and minerals, from the car you drive to the gas you put in it, to the food you eat, that is farmed with equipment, fertiliz...

Minerals of Pikes Peak Colorado Pikes Peak when seen from the “Garden of the Gods” is a majestic and beautiful site to behold. This area is a famous rockhounding area that attracts serious collectors and scientist from all over the world to this mineral diverse area. There a many area and collecting spots covering the Colorado Front Range that includes the Pikes Peak Region. These areas go near Colorado Springs on the south to west of Denver to the north. This area mostly a large mass of granite that covers about 1,200 square miles. Areas that cracked and were refilled through time have left cone formations, and at times continued out to form a skin of minerals or fine grained granite, through this process many crystals may be formed, within the boundaries   of these cones and the ring shaped zones around the edges of an intrusive center. These pockets are called “miarolitic cavities” and those are the cavities we like, and we get to be the dentist that does the extracting! ...

How to be a Rockhound Have you ever gone on a walk off the beaten path, maybe in the desert or mountains, alongside a stream or the ocean, only to see the pretty rock, maybe it was shinny or a color that jumped out at you or it was a unusual shape or pattern? Me too. It’s no wonder that rocks and gemstones have fascinated humans since the very beginning. I had a friend from work approach me and said, “hey you’re a rockhound aren’t you?” Proudly I said yes, I even have rocks in my head. Next he told me about this rock he had found and I asked him to bring it in. It  was a nice wulfenite crystal and I invited him to go hunting for shark teeth with me at Ant Hill (now closed off for housing tract). He and another work mate found some teeth and they became full-fledged rockhounds from that adventure. Well, if the above sounds something like you, then you are a budding rockhound, congratulations! In this article I will attempt to give you a basic guide to get started so that you can...

Jaspers with Orbs How to Guide I don’t know anyone who doesn’t enjoy looking at the amazing orb jaspers, the patterns of orbs, with the shapes of oval, round, egg as found in the “porcelain jaspers” are rare and favorites of collectors. Yet there is mystery on how these orb type jaspers were formed. There is a wonderful book by Marco Campo-Venuti, Genesis and Classification of Agates and Jaspers; a New Theory (Tipografia Luciani, Rome,2012) That the author presents a in depth discussion of jaspers and the major types, classified into four groups: Ocean Jaspers, Volcanic Jaspers, Jaspers Paedomorphic on Fossils, and Chemicals Jaspers. Orb Brecciated and Jasper-Agates. History  The name Jasper means "spotted or speckled stone" coming from Hebrew and likely Greek definition and possible even Persian. In Israel the first stone on the High Priest's breastplate, was a red jasper, whilst  Tarshish , the tenth stone, this dates to 1300 BCE. We know that Jasper occur in...