A tourmaline specimen I've been working on.

Hi Everyone:

I thought I'd share a quick photo of a tourmaline (var. rubellite) specimen I've been cleaning up recently. It's from Namibia. The crystal(s) transition from a magenta red to almost black and there are some green/red crystals on the other side.

Enjoy!

Very nice Jenna. Would you be going to mount it on a base, or do you have them sitting naturally ?

Craig:

Right now it's lying face down on a paper towel. When I'm done cleaning it up it will probably be thoroughly photographed, cataloged, and packed away safely wrapped in plenty of padding, with most of my other specimens. Unfortunately I have hard floors, and no way to sufficiently secure the specimens in the event of an Earthquake at the moment....and thanks to a geological survey done to expand our underground rail system, I've recently discovered I'm a few feet away from a major fault line!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/12/2012 11:52AM by Jenna Mast.

Jenna,

Jeez, you can't be squirrelling away all those crystals--they want to be seen! I'm in the SF Bay Area, on fill--engineered, but fill nevertheless--and worst off about a mile away from a bedrock ridge. So you might say I'm in the "surf zone". I got the San Andreas to the west, and the Hayward and Calaveras to the east. I'm in a 3 story townhouse--wood and stucco. Oh, and I have hardwood floors. My stuff is "secured" so to speak, but it doesn't mean much if the cabinet is anchored to a wall that may fall down...

On second thought--you just keep doing what you're doing. I'm grabbing a shovel and going to dig a hole somewhere.

But if you put your rocks in a hole a hole, the ground may open up there and swallow up all those specimens! Luckily, the ground shake here in Ct is minimal, but the sound is crazy!

-Rowan Lytle

son: -picks up huge loose amethyst cluster- "Is this what we're looking for?"
father: "Holy #$@%!

John:

My sister, who's interests one could not say are particularly science oriented, used to live in that part of SF and when she first moved up there she suddenly began talking about geology, seismology, and soil composition. We used to live in Ventura County where the potential for liquefaction is among the highest in the country, and our area there shook harder than some areas of the Valley during the Northridge earthquake. It also triggered two other faults that encircled out city, but most of the structures there were built in the late 70's and we were blessed with sound building codes.

This place I'm in now...eh. I think it was built in the 30's or 40's and I guess it's withstood a few big earthquakes but I can't help but to think all of the layers of paint on the wall have something to do with that.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/07/2012 09:25PM by Jenna Mast.