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Post by vegasjames on Nov 15, 2024 10:04:39 GMT -5
This is the common opal I collected from my recent trip.
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Post by victor1941 on Nov 15, 2024 10:31:53 GMT -5
Really like the colors!
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hplcman
spending too much on rocks
Looking forward to my Friday Night Barrel Clean out!
Member since August 2022
Posts: 492
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Post by hplcman on Nov 15, 2024 11:31:46 GMT -5
Wow. You find the most interesting rocks! Nevada seems to a paradise of beautiful rocks!
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Post by vegasjames on Nov 15, 2024 11:36:07 GMT -5
Wow. You find the most interesting rocks! Nevada seems to a paradise of beautiful rocks! Yes, and always finding new types of material. We even have rubies, sapphires, tourmaline, emerald and other beryls, etc. here. Even diamonds have been found close to Las Vegas, by a prospector back in the 1800s, but he never found the location again. |
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rockinronda
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since December 2023
Posts: 220
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Post by rockinronda on Nov 15, 2024 14:01:10 GMT -5
Nevada is listed as the most radioactive state, I wonder how that affects the geology there. Are there mutant rocks? Combos of stuff or colors that don’t exist elsewhere? Now gonna Google some stuff…and what abt Chernobyl rocks. Hmmm…Google more things…
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Post by vegasjames on Nov 15, 2024 14:44:47 GMT -5
Nevada is listed as the most radioactive state, I wonder how that affects the geology there. Are there mutant rocks? Combos of stuff or colors that don’t exist elsewhere? Now gonna Google some stuff…and what abt Chernobyl rocks. Hmmm…Google more things… Not surprised. We do have various uranium minerals in our soils. I have a lot of carnotite (potassium uranium vanadium hydroxide) specimens, and some beautiful radioactive copper ore specimens from the same area.
Here is a report of radioactive deposits in Nevada. I have been to many of these mines and dug, but as still alive and cancer free.
We also have a lot of radioactive fallout from the years of above ground nuclear testing not far from Las Vegas at the Nevada Test Site, formerly known as Yucca Flats.
And there was a fire at a low level nuclear storage facility about 100 miles North of Las Vegas a couple years ago that sent a radioactive cloud across the highway.
I guess if the radioactivity does not get us, the abundance of asbestos in our soil here will.
Radiation will color diamonds by creating vacancies in the crystal lattice. Not sure about other stones. The carnotite specimens I have are associated mainly with a greenish chalcedony and occasionally a red opal. I have never seen that particular green in chalcedony before, so I do wonder if the radiation from the uranium played some role in creating the color.
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rockinronda
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since December 2023
Posts: 220
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Post by rockinronda on Nov 15, 2024 15:06:23 GMT -5
Yes! All those things and combined, yikes! Wow I’ll knock on wood for ya!😆
Google AI and Chat GPT said the same things and used a new word I hadn’t heard before “metamictic”.
“Metamictic refers to a condition in which a mineral's crystal structure has been damaged or destroyed by radiation from radioactive elements (e.g., uranium or thorium) within the mineral itself. While the mineral retains its external crystalline form, its internal structure becomes disordered, and it often behaves like an amorphous material.” -ChatGPT
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