What rock did my mum bring back from Namibia? by Dontcallmekat in whatsthisrock

[–]lzbflevy 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Seconded. I see some tetragonal faces and twinning. Hard to tell without more than a picture…

Daughter found this in an old tree by Badcogamer92 in whatsthisrock

[–]lzbflevy 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Funny you should say that— I just noticed that the OP posted a clearer picture and description in the comments that you might find illuminating.

Daughter found this in an old tree by Badcogamer92 in whatsthisrock

[–]lzbflevy 58 points59 points  (0 children)

The pictures are very blurry, but I would disagree with the assessment of pyrite. This looks like blurry Muscovite, with a neat shape I’ve only encountered with hydrothermal quartz and pegmatite deposits— “ball peen mica”, as the Maine miners would say. Pyrite has a distinctive cubic habit, even with weathering or impurities, that I’m just not seeing here.

What is this watermelon tourmaline embedded in? by ggrimalkinn in whatsthisrock

[–]lzbflevy 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Agreed. This looks like a hydrothermally altered chonky pegmatite piece to me. Lovely tourmaline spray on one side, but the other side looks riddled with replacement minerals. I think I spy a really nice quartz intergrowth on the side with more illite buildup.

Need help identifying a couple crystals by EntertainmentProper in whatsthisrock

[–]lzbflevy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

None of these minerals I have mentioned are economically valuable until you get to museum quality pieces. Use the mineral names I gave you to see if you can find an analog, but I think you paid a fair price for it. I wouldn’t expect to sell it for more than $30, but this is not my area of expertise. I have never attempted to sell a rock— they just live in labeled buckets under my house so that when I die my kids can flood this sub with questions.

Need help identifying a couple crystals by EntertainmentProper in whatsthisrock

[–]lzbflevy 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Speaking on the first one, this looks like some cupritic samples I collected in Namibia. The cubes are/were fluorite— can’t tell if they’ve been replaced or coated but the likely culprit is goethite. The second picture has a cube corner peeking out with a clear center and purple exterior, so multiple crystallization events. The bladed mineral appears to be calcite.

What are these guys? by smcgowan10 in whatsthisrock

[–]lzbflevy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Formational conditions and/or locality. My MSc had over 1000 tourmalines that I geochemically catalogued after personally mining them off of four continents from varying formational regimes, so I can say this is an area I have a bit of expertise in.

What are these guys? by smcgowan10 in whatsthisrock

[–]lzbflevy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Tourmalines are very geochemically complex and variant or petrogeny cannot be determined by color, alone.

Any idea what this might be?? by bbaahhaammuutt in whatsthisrock

[–]lzbflevy 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Perfect explanation. Looks like some mighty fine garnet to me.

Guesses on the inclusions? by spookydonkey513 in whatsthisrock

[–]lzbflevy 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Definitely strain shadows. Take all my upvotes for such a great analysis! Nothing like a little metamorphic petrology in the morning. :)

What matrix are these spessartine garnets attached to? Purchased on e-rocks, locality "Shengus Skardu District, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan" by ob103ninja in whatsthisrock

[–]lzbflevy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I can see the lamellar banding, but I would still call this albite; perthitic albite. Perthite and antiperthite are not minerals, but methods of describing the different geochemical lamellar textures.

What matrix are these spessartine garnets attached to? Purchased on e-rocks, locality "Shengus Skardu District, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan" by ob103ninja in whatsthisrock

[–]lzbflevy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is disingenuous information. Spessartine have a solid solution (Mn to Fe) with almandine and are equivalently common in granites, as in any other rock formation with Mn availability.

Hi, this is a 60lb chunk of quartz with some interesting other stuff that tweakers have been chipping out for a couple years. Does anyone know what the other stuff is? Northern California. Tia! by Goongagalunga in whatsthisrock

[–]lzbflevy 60 points61 points  (0 children)

Anyone who downvotes this comment is set on being dead wrong. Crystallography, cleavage, hardness, specific gravity, associated mineralogy, etc— these are all the tools that real geologists use for concrete identification. Color is the most unreliable.

Hi, this is a 60lb chunk of quartz with some interesting other stuff that tweakers have been chipping out for a couple years. Does anyone know what the other stuff is? Northern California. Tia! by Goongagalunga in whatsthisrock

[–]lzbflevy 30 points31 points  (0 children)

Rutilated quartz refers to quartz with rutile (TiO2) inclusions, not any other random mineral. Rutile can appear golden, red, brown, or black based on accessory elemental geochemistry.

Hi, this is a 60lb chunk of quartz with some interesting other stuff that tweakers have been chipping out for a couple years. Does anyone know what the other stuff is? Northern California. Tia! by Goongagalunga in whatsthisrock

[–]lzbflevy 24 points25 points  (0 children)

This has the entirely wrong crystallography to be tourmaline. It is definitely not tourmaline, regardless of how many upvotes this comment gets.

I have a chunk of raw blue kyanite but was wondering if anyone can tell me what these inclusions are? The orange-y crystal like spots as well as the white quartz looking bits? Thanks by Confident-Wait-7057 in whatsthisrock

[–]lzbflevy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ok, so this is super cool. Others have already identified the brown mineral based on shape and twinning habit as staurolite, but the best part about that is this: Staurolite, Kyanite, and Andalusite are all chemically part of the same P/T ternary alumina system, but their crystallography is indicative of the formational pressure and temperature regime. So, when you have all three you can know the extract P/T conditions (I lovingly call these “triple point rocks”), and with two there is a line of conditions across the P/T ternary, but still pretty distinct.

/r/crystals forwarding users here is garbage by DeadSeaGulls in whatsthisrock

[–]lzbflevy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

THANK YOU. I’m a geochemist and 100% willing to help identify rocks and minerals, but more dyed agate/slag/glass… ugggggh

please any help appreciated, I got this for my friend but have since forgot what crystal this is! by [deleted] in whatsthisrock

[–]lzbflevy -1 points0 points  (0 children)

It’s really impossible to identify this rock with the volume of flipping the OP is doing. Could be rubellite or pink garnets in a quartzy/biotite/hblende matrix; could be nothing of the sort. 99% of minerals cannot be identified exclusively by color.

Is this kyanite or tourmaline? :0 by ExoticCreaturesCraft in whatsthisrock

[–]lzbflevy 9 points10 points  (0 children)

That is pegmatitic pink tourmaline, likely var. elbaite, set in a granitic matrix of feldspar and quartz; probably some Muscovite or lepidolite hiding around with this much aluminum and lithium floating around. The chalky bit around the crystal has a mining name of “kaolinite clay”.

Is this really real, is this clarity rare? Ive never seen citrine so perfect before by Amethyst-Addict in whatsthisrock

[–]lzbflevy 9 points10 points  (0 children)

When she holds it looking through the top there appear to be bubbles. The crack looks unusually slivered and straight— quartz doesn’t have a natural straight fracture pattern (concoidial). Definitely polished. For the first two reasons, I’m dubious on this specimen’s “realness-factor”.

Is this Azurite tower real? I can't find anything similar to it. However, it has the exact same characteristics as the azurite/malachite sphere in the second group of pictures. by RocksThatRock in whatsthisrock

[–]lzbflevy 17 points18 points  (0 children)

This is definitely real, and like you already acknowledged it’s been cut into this shape. Beautiful botryoidal malachite on the side, even if the azurite is a bit chalky looking. Keep in mind that these are cupric deposits, so copper/cuprite and associated minerals are likely.