Rock Blog

Collecting Rocks.

This US Geological Survey General Interest Publication provides a brief overview of how one might collect rocks. In this site, you will find:

– Brief of overview of rock types.
– How to start a collection
– How to Identify Rocks
– Where to find “collectable” rocks
– Equipment one might need.
– How to house a collection.
– Hints on building a collection.

Nice short document. FOr the general interest person the short rock description portion is quite useful.

Minerals Statistics and Information from the USGS

Crystalline Silica Primer

Gemstones: An Overview of Production of Specific U.S. Gemstones

I wanted to avoid doing two weblogs, but “Michelle’s Online Learning Freakout Party Zone” is just getting too laden with rocks and stuff….So.. here we go.. starting another weblog.

Stephen J. Reynolds

Excellent resource for people looking for more information about the geology of specific areas. USGS Geology in the Parks

It also has some really good reusable resources (what a concept! — for all the hype about plenty of available LO’s, boy are the tough to find in this field…

Nice short article with excellent links: National Geographic Explorer (Student Magazine) – Hot Spots

Beautiful photos!

The site reviewed by the Christian Science Monitor in How to make your own natural disaster is of interest to me for my EOSC 311 course.

I like the National Geographic Site that they review; the resource is pretty good — but the more useful part is how the Christian Science Monitor reviews the site — good model!

The primary elements of the site are four parallel exhibits looking at Volcanoes, Earthquakes, Hurricanes and Tornadoes. Accessible through an animated matrix on the index page, as well as through a screen top navigation bar visible throughout the site, each exhibit supplements the basic facts with Forces’ most conspicuous visitor draw – the ability to create your own natural disasters. But in the interests of education, the individual sections only present these interactive phenomena after you’ve learned the basics behind the real things.

You know, I never knew that the term stromatolite is derived from the Greek for “Stoney Carpet”..

Rocking the Cradle of Life provides a brief explanation of stromatolites, and has an interesting interview with an Oxford Researcher… There are some good mineral deposit tie-ins with this article..

When did life begin? One evidential clue stems from the fossil records in Western Australia, although whether these layered sediments are biological or chemical has spawned a spirited debate. Oxford researcher, Nicola McLoughlin, describes some of the issues in contention.