Mineral Guides

Quick answer: Flint is a hard, dense form of microcrystalline quartz (a type of chert) that forms as nodules in

Quick answer: Pietersite is a brecciated tiger’s eye: fibrous quartz and amphibole that was shattered by geological forces and recemented,

Quick answer: Ice is a mineral. It is naturally occurring, inorganic, solid, crystalline, and has a defined chemical composition (H2O),

Quick answer: Nucleation decides crystal size. When a mineral-rich fluid is only slightly supersaturated, few crystal “seeds” (nuclei) form, so

Quick answer: Epitaxy is when one crystal grows on another in a fixed, aligned orientation because their atomic lattices match

Quick answer: Bridgmanite, a magnesium-iron silicate with a perovskite structure, is the most abundant mineral on Earth, making up roughly

Quick answer: A rock’s surface often looks nothing like its interior. Desert varnish is a thin, dark coating of clay

Quick answer: Shocked quartz is quartz containing microscopic parallel planes of deformation (planar deformation features) that form only under the

Quick answer: Kimberlite pipes are carrot-shaped volcanic conduits that carry magma from more than 150 kilometers deep in the mantle

Quick answer: Gold collects in river bends because it is about 19 times denser than water and roughly 7 times