Back when I had a house (and money) I used to collect rocks, minerals, and meteorites. Did you see that when that town in Kansas, Greensburg, was flattened by that "wedge" tornado that they lost a meteorite museum too? I was glad to see they were able to dig up what was, I guess, their prize specimen.
I used to study the shapes of crystals, and try to get samples of each. Here is a list of what are called "crystal habits" (a habit indicating how they are structured; it gets that name because crystals "tend" to "grow" in a certain way, hence they have a "habit.")
Here is a list of crystal habits that I used to have samples of, but had to get rid of:
Equant or blocky (Microcline, cassiterite).
Columnar (tourmaline, beryl, quartz).
Acicular or needle-like (natrolite, Millerite).
Barrel-shaped (sapphire).
Bladed (kyanite).
Tabular or flattened (ruby, Barite).
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2 comments:
Fascinating stuff. My oldest daughter used to study and collect crystals. She was disappointed when rocks were never a subject at school.
When we began homeschooling, the first thing she did was a project on her rock collection.
God bless
I know, isn't it a letdown that one of the most fun and hobby like subjects are not taught in school anymore? And they wonder why kids don't go into science in enough numbers. I love homeschooling, good for you!
I still have my "first" two crystals. One is a fantastic geode type broken open to display the internal crystals, one of which is bluish-white quartz! That one was found by a family friend at a nearby waterfall when I was a child. My second crystal is one I bought, again as a child, of white florite. It's the perfect shape with each of the four directions of cleavage so it's eight sided.
Nice to hear from you, blessings.
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