~~~Rockhound Out!~~~

what up everyone I'm leaving and i started a new blog bcuz nobody reads this one and i crave validation so umm read it the url is swifternews.blogspot.com SWIFTER NOT SWIFTIE ok its an inside joke deal with it so umm bye for the last time unless you read my other blog

~~~Rockhound Out!~~~

Ulexite

What up everyone its the Crystal Chick!This rock is called ulexite, however it has a more common name-TV rock. it is called this because if you look at it form straight up and down over a paper or something with words on it, you can see through it to the paper and it looks like the words are being projected on a tv, hence the name.

This isn't the best sample since it has a lot of impurities, but you get the idea

Normal looking- it's actually clear!

this is a really short post but it looks cooler in real life and I don't really have anything else to say about this so... basisians will have to wait for my presentation to see those ;)

sneek peek into next week: my birthstone, an awesome (mostly red) stone that can vary from a light green to light pink to red in color.

~~~Rockhound out!~~~

Cryscolla

Hey guys its the crystal chick! So this week's post is about a stone called cryscolla. the name means glue in Latin (i think). It is called this because if you lick your fingeer then touch the rock, it will stick to your finger. and I don't mean just like stuck because of the moisture. I mean like full-on-shake-your-hand-around-and-it-will-not-fall-off kind of stuck.

Like this.

Or this.

Sneak peek into next week: it's name is shared with a popular electronic, and it looks like it too!

~~~Rockhound out!~~~

Desert Rose

What up everyone it's the crystal chick! Ok so this post is about a cool rock that is allied a desert rose. I'll bet when you hear that you think of a plant right? Nope it's actually a kind of galena, which has forms ranging from selenite (I have a lamp I'm my room made out of it) to desert rose.

Desert roses can range in size and number from a single tiny rose no bigger around than a dime...

To really big ones that have hundreds of roses up to a few inches accross!

I got this cluster of desert roses on a trip to Utah I went on the summer before last. Don't even ask how I got this thing through the airport in my carry-on! 

Most look about like this or smaller. I see a lot of them that are a single rose to about three or four that are about an inch in diameter each. That's a normal size for these. 

This is selenite, one of the other forms of galena. And before you ask 8Se people NO it is not selenIUM it is selenITE. Big difference. It comes in everything from wands like this to lamps or carved into spirals or pillars. 

So in the next couple weeks I will be doing more rock posts and less story posts since I want to get through a bunch of rocks before my presentation on the 21st XD. I at least want to be able to do a few demonstrations. You can see what those are later :).

Sneak peek into next week: It is blue it is green and it's name means glue. It sticks to your finger and it's really cool too!

~~~Rockhound out!~~~

Awesome Ammonite

Ok so the name might be a little lame (hey that rhymed!) but I absolutely love this rock/fossil. its called an ammonite and omg they are amazing. It is actually a fossilized ancient snail. Sounds weird I know, but one you see them, they're actually really awesome.

So this picture is an ammonite I got last year in Tuscon. I love this one because it isn't split in half like so many others are.

This is another really small one i have that wasn't split open. 

Size comparison between the two and a ruler, just for reference.

I have always wanted to get a really big one of these like two feet in diameter, but I never have enough money for one... or a place to put it, since I would need a stand of some sort and a place to put it... maybe when I'm older and have a whole house of space for my rocks... my room is already overflowing.

In case anyone wants to see it, I revised my pyrite post and put a picture of a rock I have and love. You can read about it on that post!
Sorry it accidentally re posted so you will see two posts tonight but it really is only one and pyrite reposted when I tried to revise it. 

Sneak peek into next week: It looks like something living, and is named after it, but is no more living than a rock in the DESERT.

~~~Rockhound Out~~~

HALLOWEEEEEEEEEENNNNN

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!

I know this isn't a real post or even related to my blog at all but I had to do a Halloween post. 

So umm random halloween stuff...

Pumpkin carving

Costumes

And most of all... CANDY!!!

so that was my halloween with my friends :) ok umm 

~~~Rockhound Out~~~

Geocaching

If you don't know what geocaching is, you are just.... a muggle. That is the literal term for it I kid you not. So basically, geocaching is an online/outdoor treasure hunt. you download coordinates from this site geocaching.com onto a GPS (or the geocaching app if you have a smartphone) and follow the coordinates to a location. They are all over the world. There is even a geocache in the International Space Station! So once you get to the location, you have to look for a container of some kind, whether it be an ammo can or a thing we call a "nano" which is this really super tiny container that is smaller than a dime around, cylindrical, and like a half an inch long.
So inside these containers, there is a log, which people who visit and find the cache sign, and depending on the size, there may be SWAG (stuff we all get) which is just little toys or trinkets that you can trade inside the caches.
When you find a cache, the first thing you should do is sign the log with your team name, which you make at the website. this keeps track of all your finds and places (if you decide to place any) and tells you where new caches are that you can find. My family and I have found over 300 caches, which may seem like a lot, but there are some people who have over 25,000 finds.
pic of geomate
How I first got started on this was one Christmas my family got me a Geomate Jr., a GPS designed especially for geocaching. We went to the park next to my house immediately after we finished opening, me with my new GPS and my younger sister with her new bike.( I live in Arizona, so there wasn't any snow.) We found two caches that day just at the park. The next day we left for Quartzite, a small town in the middle of nowhere in the desert in AZ. There are a ton of caches there, since there are tons of places to hide even bigger caches in the desert. We climbed "Q" Mountain in search of one, before realizing that the cache was actually down the other side near an abandoned mine shaft entrance. We didn't find it, since my mom thought it wasn't safe for my sister, 4 at the time, and I, 9 at the time, to be near an open abandoned mine entrance. Ehhh, well now I kind of see her point, but at the time I was pretty disappointed. It was my first DNF (did not find).
While we were in Quartzite, we also tried gold panning in the desert but had no luck where we tried.

So that's this week's story, hope you enjoyed!

 

~~~Rockhound out!~~~

Amazing Agate

What up crystals! so this post is gonna be about this week's "featured rock" which is Agate! I love how it looks when its polished but its even more awesome when its just rough and hasn't been polished or cut or anything.

This is one of my favorite agates that I have. My grandparents got it for me as a Christmas present last year and I was so excited! (I know, who gets excited about rocks for Christmas? Answer: Me) but I got these and a few smaller polished ones and I was so excited!

These are called fire agates because of their fiery red color and the pattern of the stripes on them. I got these along with the bigger agates above.

this is another way that you see agates, and its a lot more common than the other two. Personally, it is my least favorite of the three.
What do you think? comment below which one you like best!

Another random one that I love is called snakeskin agate because of the color and pattern on the outside.

Sneak peek into next week: they look like a rock and are one, but didn't used to be. They now dwell on land but used to live in the sea.

 

~~~Rockhound out!~~~

You had what?!?!

Hey there crystals! Ok so this post is gonna be personal experiences that are semi relevant :) Ok so last year when I went to the tuscon rock show (I know I talk about this too much but I go every year for a weekend since I was 6 so I have lots of experiences there) and when we (me and my mom) were at the gas station at COSTCO for goodness sake there was a guy in a jeep in front of us. That wasn't the weird part though. What was weird was what he had in the trunk of his car. It was a Tyrannosaurus Rex skull. Like an actual fossil dinosaur head in the back of his jeep. Me and my mom were just cracking up at this and I wish I had taken pictures but I didn't cuz my phone was dead :/. So when I told my stepdad first my mom was upstairs unpacking and then he was like I don't believe you so I just said ask mom. And he did and she said it actually happened and I was just sitting there like I TOLD you it happened... Seriously. Ok sorry this post didn't have any pictures I promise the next one will.

 ~~~Rockhound out!~~~

Volcanoes and Vacations

Hey everyone its the crystal chick! ok so I'm pretty sure you guessed from the title, but this post is about lava. Well, its cooled forms anyway. Once it is cooled, lava can take on many different forms, such as various crystals, a type of glass called obsidian, and pumice or basalt.

This is what you generally think of when you see a volcanic rock right? well that's not all there is to volcanic rocks.

This is one of my favorite volcanic rocks. Its either called olivine or peridot, and is the birthstone of August. It is normally green with black pieces in it. I actually almost went to a place in Hawaii that had a beach entirely made of olivine. ALMOST. Well, I wish I did. It was "too hard of a hike" for my 8 year old sister with asthma, and since I couldn't go down the mile long, extremely steep hike alone, I didn't get to go.

This is volcanic glass, also known as obsidian. I actually did go to a beach made of this on my trip. it was called Punalu'u Beach and the entire beach was pitch black.

See what I mean by pitch black? This was a picture I sent to my best friend when I was at the beach sitting in the sand. I was watching the sea turtles sleeping on the sand and when the tide came up, they let the water carry them back to the ocean.

Ok, little off topic there, but I just thought I would share my relevant experiences on Tuesdays and have my "featured rock" on Fridays. This post is combined because sorry I was busy on Tuesday (too much homework ugh) and couldn't find time to post.

Sneak peek into next week: it's striped,curly,curvy,or straight and it comes in all the colors of the rainbow!

~~~Rockhound out!~~~

Perfect Pyrite

What up crystals! Ok so this post's featured rock has got to be one of my absolute favorites of all time. Even though it is normally called by its more common name "fool's gold" it is actually its very own kind of rock. You guessed it, its Pyrite!

One of the things I love about this so much is how many different shapes it can take and still be the same rock! These pictures of cube pyrite occur like this in nature all on its own, and it wasn't carved or anything!

So this is a picture of one of my favorite rocks that I have in my collection. It's fluorite(purple) with quartz(white) and Druzy pyrite(gold) on it. Druzy just means it is a bunch of small crystalline structures bunched together. 

 Sneak peek into next week: Its black, grey or green, or somewhere in between, and can be rough or smooth all over. Try to figure that one out! See you next week I post every Tuesday and Friday!

~~~Rockhound out!~~~