ROCKS and FOSSILS GALLERY
All of the specimens shown on this website are taken from my personal collection. Click on the thumbnails for more images.

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> ROCKS and MINERALS

Boulder opal, Queensland, Australia






This is a very cool effect. Simply roll the cursor over the image before clicking on it. (It may take a few seconds to download; be patient... it'll be worth it.) What you are seeing is the phenomenon known as fluorescence. When exposed to UV light (shortwave, in this case), certain electrons become "excited," jumping from a low-energy state to a high-energy state and back again, releasing visible light of different wavelengths (i.e., different colors), depending on which minerals are present. This large specimen, which comes from the famous old Franklin zinc mines of Sussex County, New Jersey, contains a beautiful combination of bright fluorescent calcite (orange), willemite (green), and hardystonite (blue-violet).

"Fulgurite"
When lightning strikes beach or dune sand, the generated shock wave and intense heat instantly vaporizes much of the quartz (silicon dioxide), and converts the rest into natural glass that fuses together small rocks and pebbles within its matrix. The fragile hollow tube that results is called a fulgurite. Most are very small, but occasionally large specimens like this are produced. Rarely, some have intricate branches and loops where the lightning traveled around obstacles.














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