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5wRe: EDSReply from Peter Nancarrow in General.The simplest way to answer that is to suggest that you view the Wiki article on Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy at:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy-dispersive_X-ray_spectroscopywhich includes a number of links giving further details about the various instruments such as microprobes ...
6wRe: Mount Etna Sicily Coin in LavaReply from Peter Nancarrow in Fakes & Frauds.And they are not always minerals, let alone from the claimed locality.An aunt brought me one of those souvenir sets stuck to cardboard from Naples back in my student days, supposed to be "Minerals of Vesuvius", one of which was a piece of synthetic silicon carbide!
6wRe: Mount Etna Sicily Coin in LavaReply from Peter Nancarrow in Fakes & Frauds.It looks like there is/(was?) quite an active production as tourist ...
6wRe: To many opals!Reply from Peter Nancarrow in Identity Help.Iron-stained quartz pebbles.
8wRe: Erroneous listing of native Hf and Ta from the Brockman REE ProspectReply from Peter Nancarrow in Improving Mindat.org.I suspect that many of these errors arise when someone views a map of "Mineral Resources of X" type (see links below), and simply transcribes the listed ores/commodities to the nearest corresponding Mindat localities.Not an easy issue to monitor, and it will probably need constant ongoing ...
8wRe: A very puzzling rock or a pallasite /mesmosiderite or a nothing burgerReply from Peter Nancarrow in Meteorites.Malcolmh Smith ✉️4.5kg/m3.That is not a meaningful bulk density for any solid matter as it's about double the density of carbon dioxide gas at STP, so obviously a gross error there! .Other than that, assuming that its density is actually more like 4.5g/cc, I ...
8wRe: Calcite from "Tavistock".Reply from Peter Nancarrow in General.Keith,It is not incorrect to state that the The Virtuous Lady Mine is "near Tavistock" as described in the title of the Min. Mag. article you mention, because it is only a few km from that town. However, as it lies within the parish boundary of Buckland Monachorum, a small village about 5km south ...
8wRe: Wrong ident / possibly fake, synthetic !?Reply from Peter Nancarrow in Photos.The crystals look distinctly octahedral - much more like synthetic chrome alum than pyrargyrite to me.
9wRe: Identity Requests (split from Branko's request for messageboard change)Reply from Peter Nancarrow in General.I totally agree with Frank on this.When an identity request consists of a good or at least reasonable photo of what is apparently a mineral specimen, accompanied by some relevant background, such as a known locality and some sensibly logical (even if very simple test results) such as observations ...
9wRe: Home pages of deceased users - suggestion for standard modificationReply from Peter Nancarrow in Improving Mindat.org.As one recovering from a recent heart attack, this topic has a certain resonance with me, and I feel I have the right to put 2 metaphorical fingers up to the grim reaper.However, regarding the cross suggestion, as I don't believe in spirits or the afterlife or follow any religion, I certainly ...
11wRe: Cleaning minerals using normal tap water vs distilled waterReply from Peter Nancarrow in Techniques for Collectors.We have very hard water here, so limescale is a serious problem in hot water systems, washing machines, kettles etc, but also of course (with mineral cleaning in mind) it significantly reduces the effectiveness of detergents.However, distilled water isn't the only alternative to tap water. I use ...
12wRe: West coast ScotlandReply from Peter Nancarrow in Identity Help.If the light coloured tubular parts have a visible chamber or cellular structure then it could be a coral. Their diameter looks to be too large for bryozoa, which are typically of the order of mm rather than cm in diameter, but if the material is simply granular/sandy in appearance, then it could ...
12wRe: My boys found this when we were living in the Finger Lakes in NY.Reply from Peter Nancarrow in Fossils."crinoid stems will be straight, regardless how long they are"--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- That is not so; crinoid stems are often ...
12wRe: Possibly fluorapatiteReply from Peter Nancarrow in Photos.Erik,I certainly don't disagree with your general observation that the edges of adjacent faces don't always align perfectly in real crystals (as opposed to idealised diagrams), even when considering simple pairs of forms such as the hexagonal prisms and pyramids of apatite. However, quartz is ...
13wRe: This rock was found in a newly built business park in South Africa, GautengReply from Peter Nancarrow in Identity Help.To me it looks like a piece of granite, with grey quartz and white feldspar. It's difficult to say what the metallic looking mineral is, as it's not the sharpest of photos. It could be a sulphide, but more likely it's a pale mica such as muscovite. Try scratching it with a needle and ...
15wRe: Suspicious Manchester apatiteReply from Peter Nancarrow in Photos.Dale Foster Manager ✉️To have these sorts of localities make a mockery of the reason for the database.I absolutely agree!When I first noticed Manchester appearing as a new locality, I was interested to see if there had been some mineral discoveries in a tunnel, road cutting or ...
15wRe: Listed as English, but possibly German fluorapatite with fluorite & quartz locality help needed!Reply from Peter Nancarrow in General.It isn't possible to attribute the colour of apatite to any particular element without an analysis as it may be due to various combinations of transition elements or REE's, but according to Deer et al. (1996, p 321), in some apatites, a pink colour has been attributed to Mn2+ (presumably ...
Jan 2024Re: is my love of collecting minerals a passion or hoarding an obbsessionReply from Peter Nancarrow in General.I have been collecting minerals for almost 60 years, and like many of us here, my specimens range from a fully identified, catalogued and labelled systematic collection, through drawers of locality material with labels such as "To be identified, trimmed and culled" or "For SMLS tombola prizes", to ...
Jan 2024Re: Tools for field collectReply from Peter Nancarrow in Field Collecting.Additional to general collecting kit (as above, + things like gloves, mini-grip bags, hand lens, notebook, etc) one of the things I sometimes carry when micros may be expected is a small bag with a selection of gelatin capsules of various sizes, which are great for small crystals or rock ...
Dec 2023Re: Educational videos on British mineral collections especially those from Cornwall, and ScotlandReply from Peter Nancarrow in General.Melanie, I have sent you a message regarding one option which might be of interest to you.
Dec 2023Re: Cornish quartz - locality?Reply from Peter Nancarrow in General.Melanie,The apparent iron oxide coating you refer to is often an iron-oxide (probably hematite) rich outer zone just under the surface of the crystal, and although those crystals are quite common, there are many other colours of quartz found in the St Austell area, sometimes quite close ...
Dec 2023Re: Driggith Mine (Driggeth Mine), Caldbeck, Allerdale, Cumbria, England, UKReply from Peter Nancarrow in Localities.Paul, this discussion, and particularly your statement that ". . . the curved green specimens that have been added to the Driggith page are definitely from the open-cut." has prompted me to have a look at my relevant "Driggeth" specimens.I have two specimens of almost identical colour and ...
Dec 2023Archiving ink - fade test resultsPosted by Peter Nancarrow in Techniques for Collectors.Here are the results of a 10-year+ fade test to see which ink i wanted to use for mineral labels, writing numbers on specimens, etc. The paper was left on a south-facing windowsill (in England) from July 2012 until summer this year.As you can see, standard ballpoints such as Bic Biro, Parker ...
Dec 2023Re: Ranking of minerals by number of photosReply from Peter Nancarrow in General.I suspect that one of the reasons for quite a few new minerals having no photos published is simply because the type specimen material is unphotogenic.Either because it consists of colourless or dark opaque massive or powdery material, or only occurs as tiny grains, perhaps as inclusions in another ...
Nov 2023⚠16 imagesRe: Fashion StatementReply from Peter Nancarrow in General.A car windscreen sticker I had in my college days (late 1960's) was "I Dig Acid Rock".It could be read one way by geology students, or another by those who knew I ran a disco and played a bit of bass in a combo hovering somewhere in style between the blues and psychedelia, and ...
Nov 2023Re: Prince of Wales Mine (Wheal Pleasant), Harrowbarrow & Prince of Wales Mines (Calstock United Tin and Copper Mines), Calstock, Cornwall, England, UKReply from Peter Nancarrow in General.And a very lucky moggy - I don't suppose many humans would survive a 100 ft fall into a mine shaft!
Oct 2023Re: 'Incrustations on vegetables.'Reply from Peter Nancarrow in General.Maybe referring to something like this?https://www.mindat.org/photo-555157.html(Using the word "vegetable" in its very widest possible sense to include any plant material!)
Oct 2023Re: Magnetic specular hematite?Reply from Peter Nancarrow in General.In terms of its generally observable physical properties, hematite is effectively "non-magnetic" with respect to conventional Fe magnets.However, some modern magnets such as the Nd ones mentioned by Dalibor above are so powerful that most minerals with a significant quantity of Fe in them will be ...
Oct 2023⚠13 imagesRe: Home Made Mineral TrimmersReply from Peter Nancarrow in General.Steve - pm sent
Sep 2023Re: The importance of recreational mineralogists to mineralogyReply from Peter Nancarrow in Education.I don't see any need to label people as amateur, recreational, collector, professional or any other sub-category. If so, as I am now retired , I would have to describe myself as a "Former professional researcher now amateur collector"!Whether they are novice or experienced ...
Sep 2023Re: This even a mineral(one from Demir Kapiya hills)Reply from Peter Nancarrow in Identity Help.It could also be a zeolite. e.g. scolecite can look very similar to this (although it is much harder)Seehttps://www.mindat.org/photo-17017.html
Aug 2023Re: Galena? Unknown locationReply from Peter Nancarrow in Identity Help.I agree that its conchoidal fracture and lack of visible cleavage means that it is not galena, and that it does look very like silicon.However, elemental silicon has distinctly low density for a metallic-looking material, but the OP describes it as "heavy" (Despite answering the question "Is it ...
Jul 2023Re: What is the red background mineralReply from Peter Nancarrow in Photos.As the specimen is named as tennantite-(Hg) and cinnabar is on the list of minerals reported from the locality, that would be my best guess!
Jul 2023Re: Are Certain Healing Crystals Toxic? Phenacite/Fluorite/ Infinite StoneReply from Peter Nancarrow in Education."There is no good with fluorine or fluorides".As Steve wrote, that is a false statement; although excess amounts can be harmful of course, the best-known beneficial use of fluoride is that it has been proven to help prevent tooth decay, which is why it is a component of many brands of ...
Jul 2023Re: How does one find the link to his/her message in a thread?Reply from Peter Nancarrow in Education.On each member's personal homepage below the introduction, in the section on "Messaging statistics" the number in the "Total messages Posted" box is a link to a searchable list of all their posts, with drop-down boxes for time, text and forum pages:e.g. yours is ...
Jul 2023Re: Aragonite, but not listed for the locality ... and calcite does not come to mind?Reply from Peter Nancarrow in Photos.I agree that this is almost certainly calcite, because apart from the general question of aragonite not being listed as found at Moonen Bay, the local paragenesis is of infills of secondary minerals in vesicles in basalt, where the zeolites are commonly associated with calcite.Furthermore, the ...
Jul 2023⚠11 imagesRe: Other, more or less geology/mineralogy/mining related (or not...), collecting passionsReply from Peter Nancarrow in General.My other collecting bug related to geology & mineralogy (apart from the obvious shelves full of books and files full of offprints), is geological and topographical maps and similar documents (e.g. geological sections, mine plans etc), either as hard copy, downloaded files, or long lists of ...
Jul 2023⚠54 imagesRe: Share your mineral memes!Reply from Peter Nancarrow in General.One I copied from a web page many years ago, attributed to "Chris Taylor" - I have no other info------------------------------------------------------------You Might Be a Geologist If ... 1] You own more pieces of quartz than underwear. 2] Your rock collection weighs ...
Jun 2023Re: utahReply from Peter Nancarrow in Identity Help.Russell Gillespie ✉️the xrf says lead arsenic nothing else, Assuming that you are probably dealing with a mixture of sulphide(s) &/or sulphosalts, together with some quartz or carbonate gangue, and there is obvious Fe oxide staining present, if your ...
Jun 2023Re: Irish county names the round way wrongReply from Peter Nancarrow in Improving Mindat.org.I'm only half Irish, but when hearing my mother talking about Ireland, and on my occasional visits there, those county names I heard spoken were either just the name alone (Mayo, Galway, Sligo, Wicklow etc) or if the word "County" was also used, it was always put first, never after the county ...
Jun 2023Re: Turitella?Reply from Peter Nancarrow in Fossils.It's a gastropod of some sort, but I don't think that there is enough detail preserved to give a more precise identity.I would say though, that it doesn't look like it's a Turitella, because those have a much more acute apical angle than your specimen seems to have.
May 2023Re: Cobb county georgiaReply from Peter Nancarrow in Identity Help.Probably quartz
May 2023Re: I obtained this egg from a friendReply from Peter Nancarrow in Identity Help.Without knowing the locality or analysing the specimen itself, it's not really possible to give a certain identification, but golden brown inclusions in amethyst are most commonly a hydrated iron oxide mineral such as goethite or lepidocrocite.Se example at:https://www.mindat.org/photo-943388.html
May 2023Re: Mars MauritaniaReply from Peter Nancarrow in Photos.There are no scorpions on Mars!(And the price of your ticket?)
May 2023Re: Where is Rondekop, Erongo, NamibiaReply from Peter Nancarrow in General.Agreed Russ, in terms of a literal translation, but topographically speaking Kop and its variations, including Koppe and Kopje, usually refers to an isolated hill or large rock such as an inselberg.e.g. Groot Spitzkopje [ https://www.mindat.org/loc-68946.html ]
May 2023Re: Where is Rondekop, Erongo, NamibiaReply from Peter Nancarrow in General.I agree with Bruce that the only match with any locality on Mindat appears to be Rundkop, near Otjimbingwe. (Which is in the Erongo Region (=State), but not in the Erongo Mountains per se. Look at the Mindat locality page for Rundkop that Bruce linked to, and zoom in on the central area ...
May 2023Re: Is this how rough Spinel looks from Burma, Myanmar?Reply from Peter Nancarrow in Identity Help.I agree that many of those look like natural spinel crystals, but as for them being offered as gem "rough", most of them are so small that I don't think they would be much use for faceting and polishing material.
May 2023Re: What should we do with our [mineral] collections?Reply from Peter Nancarrow to an article.Uwe Ludwig ✉️Don’t care what will be done with your collection after you past away. It is no more your problem. That's true up to a pont Uwe, but as someone who has been collecting for over 50 years, one of the pleasures of continuing to collect at my age is the thought of ...
May 2023Re: Quartz Vs. Feldspar (crossover point)Reply from Peter Nancarrow in Education.Notwithstanding that the feldspars themselves are members of a complex group of minerals in which there are several series between various members, there is no such series between any of the feldspars and quartz, so there is no "crossover point" between quartz and feldspar where "feldspar ...
May 2023Re: Galena and lead dustReply from Peter Nancarrow in Education.Gojev,You will not get lead poisoning (mild or otherwise) from handling galena, because it is virtually insoluble in water, sweat, soap solution, etc, so the amount of lead which can be absorbed through the skin by that route is as near zero as to be negligible. (See Ben Grguric's post ...
