Slag or not slag
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Occasionally, if I get bored and have the urge to go rock hounding, I have to hike all the way to the back of our store where we have several tons of rocks we have acquired throughout the years. The other day was one time.
The trip is not so bad. It's the exploring that can be dangerous. One wrong move can result in an avalanche
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We have people come in to sell rocks to us almost on a daily basis. I never seem to have the time to sort and put them in a proper place. The result is chaos. We have several sections with rocks piled up in flats or buckets.
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Back to the piece I found during one of these excursions. I found what I thought was slag.
I could clearly see that there was Turquoise (copper oxide) in it
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But with closer examination with the stereoscope much more was revealed.
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Blue Apatite crystals were found inside some of the minute vugs throughout the stone.
Garnets were also found that seemed to have been coated with the Apatite.
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I thought this was quite a curiosity until I did further exploring.
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In this picture, the apatite was melted and re-solidified. This explains Why some garnets were coated with it.
So this specimen is volcanic, explaining why I initially thought it was slag. Definitely not slag.
I think you need to tidy up ! You may even find some gems in there ;)
You think??? :-D I've cleaned that room multiple times. Just when I think I've got a handle on it, I acquire some collection or another. The last one took three trucks, three days to get it all to the store. These pics barely scratch the surface of what we have. Our rear entrance looks like a storage room. I constantly have customers come in and appolgize because they didn't think they were supposed to come in that way. I thought when things would slow down I could start working on both rooms. That slow down, which usually occurs at the end August, didn't happen until two days ago. Not that I'm complaining. I did manage to get started on it, but a good portion of my time has been taken up on a Christmas play that I am now directing. More on that in a soon to be posted blog. Save it to say, I'm continually finding new items I didn't know I have :-)
That sounds as bad as the storeroom in the bookshop where I work
That is an interesting piece. What fun a rockhound could have in your shop! I think I would get lost for hours in there.
Thank You
Love the blue, nice seeing stones from other regions.
Keep on writing and stay curious!