Slice from

septarian
nodule

Opal Garnet-chlorite schist

Gypsum desert rose

Cinnabar Hematite Granite

Wenlock
limestone with
trilobite fossils
Cut
tourmalines
 E Y E W I T N E S S

ROCKS &
MINERALS
WRITTEN BY
Dr. R. F. SYMES
and the staff of the
Natural History Museum,
London

Pyrite

Geothite Obsidian

Labradorite

Nephrite
“tiki”

Sulfur In association with

THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM
 REVISED EDITION
Magnifying lens
DK LONDON
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FIRST EDITION
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Museum, London) and Andreas Einsiedel
Editorial Consultants Dr. R. F. Symes
(Natural History Museum, London)
and Dr. Wendy Kirk (University College London)
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Contents
Cut citrine

Barite
6 desert
Clear topaz
Our rocky planet rose

8
Rocks and their minerals

10 Cut
Rock formation amethyst

12
Weathering and erosion

14 44
Rocks on the seashore Crystals

16 46
Igneous rock Crystal growth

18 48
Volcanic rock The properties of minerals

20 50
Sedimentary rock Gemstones

22 52
Limestone Decorative stones

24 54
Metamorphism Other gems

26 56
Marble Ore minerals

28 58
The first flint tools Precious metals

30 60
Rocks as tools Cutting and polishing

32 62
Pigments Starting a collection

34 64
Building stones Did you know?

36 66
The story of coal Rock or mineral?

38 68
Fossils Find out more

40 70
Space rocks Glossary

42 72
Minerals Index
Our rocky planet
Earth is thought to be about 4,600 million Precious metals
Platinum, silver, and gold
years old. The word geology comes from the are valuable,
rare metals.
ancient Greek for Earth and study. The many Gold in
different types of rocks found on our planet quartz vein

hold valuable details about Earth’s long history, Crystal habits

so geologists study them and figure out the The shape of a
crystal is known
processes and events that produced them. as its habit.

Cubes of
pyrite
EARTH’S STRUCTURE
Mineral ores
These are the
Crust, 4–43
sources of most
miles (6–70 km)
thick useful metals.

Cassiterite
(tin ore)

Solid mantle,
about 1,800 Cut citrine, a
miles (2,300 variety of
km) thick quartz
Molten outer core,
about 1,430-mile
Solid inner core,
(2,300-km) radius
about 750-mile
(1,200-km) radius Diamond in
kimberlite
Earth consists of a core, mantle, and crust.
The crust and upper mantle form vast plates
Gemstones
that move slowly over the mantle beneath. The
Rare, hard-wearing, and Quartz
closer to the center of Earth, the greater the
attractive minerals may crystals
temperature and pressure.
be cut as gemstones,
mainly for jewelry.

MOVING PLATES
Where plates collide, mountain ranges may form. Where they pull
apart, magma wells up to form deepsea ridges. Where one sinks
beneath another, volcanoes erupt.
Continental plate Crystals
Oceanic Basaltic Many minerals
plate magma from Oceanic Volcanic
the mantle ridge range form regular-shaped
solids with flat surfaces,
known as crystals.
Fossils
These rocks
contain the remains
of, or impressions made by,
former plants or animals.

6
Seashore pebbles Satellite image of
Ganges Delta
These are formed by the
weathering of larger rocks Igneous rocks
by wave action. The most common
types of rocks have
formed from Ganges River
Quartzite
beach pebbles molten magma.
Rocks and
sediment
flowing into sea

Granite
Bay of Bengal

Ganges Delta
Volcanic rocks India’s Ganges River carries debris
Volcanic activity produces eroded from rocks and deposits it in
a number of different the delta and sea. The debris may
types of rocks and lava. slowly form sedimentary rocks.

Hawaiian
ropy lava

Lake Amboseli,
a dry lake
Ingito Hills on edge of Chyulu mountain
East African Rift Valley range, Kenya

Carboniferous
limestone

Sedimentary rocks
Rocks such as limestone, formed
by the accumulation and
compaction of loose
sediments that have built
up in layers, are called
sedimentary rocks.

Anthracite, the Mount Mount Pangani Glaciers

hardest form of coal Meru Kilimanjaro River valley of Kibo

Coal Landsat image of East Africa

Shelly One type of sedimentary This area shows a range of landscapes
limestone rock, coal has formed from formed from different rocks, such as
the fossilized remains of volcanic rocks forming volcanic Mount
prehistoric plants. Kilimanjaro and evaporites in dried-up lakes.

7
 Rocks and
their minerals
Rocks are natural aggregates or combinations of one or more minerals.
James Hutton
(1726–1797), one Some rocks contain only one mineral, but most consist of more. Minerals
of the founders of are inorganic solids with definite chemical compositions and an ordered
modern geology
atomic arrangement. Here, two common rocks—granite and basalt—are
shown with specimens of the major minerals from which they are formed.
Quartz

Quartz
Granite and its These quartz

major minerals
crystals have milky,
etched faces.
Minerals’ size and texture vary with how a
rock forms. In the coarse-grained rock
granite, the major minerals are visible to
the naked eye: quartz, mica, and feldspar.

Mica

Feldspar

Etched
Mica face
Black biotite (a form Feldspar
of mica) crystals can be Crystals of orthoclase (a feldspar)
split into thin sheets. are pale pink or milky white.

Pyroxene
This well-developed, single
Augite crystal Basalt and its
black crystal of augite (a major minerals
pyroxene) comes The main minerals in basalt are olivine and
from Italy. Augite pyroxene. The crystals in fine-grained
crystals are basalt can sometimes be seen without a
found in microscope. This olivine basalt was
various collected from volcanic rocks in Hawaii.
igneous
rocks. Olivine
Transparent crystals
of olivine that are large
Rock enough to be used in
matrix jewelry are called “peridot.”

Dark pyroxene Green olivine crystal

8
Diverse forms
Rocks are not always hard and resistant—loose sand and
wet clay are considered to be rocks. The size of minerals
in a rock ranges from millimeters in a fine-grained
volcanic rock that cooled quickly to several meters
in a rock such as a granite pegmatite that
cooled slowly underground.

Yellow and white calcite

crystallized in cracks

Rocks formed within rocks

This sedimentary rock specimen
is a claystone septarian nodule.
Nodules such as this form when
groundwater redistributes
minerals within a rock and forms
a rounded nodule. This nodule
has been taken out of the rock
that surrounded it and broken
open to show the yellow and
white mineral calcite inside.

Cross-section of Utah
septarian nodule formed
Mesolite during the Cretaceous period,
50–70 million years ago
Natural zeolites like
this fine spray of mesolite
Lighter bands
crystals on rock form where of pyroxene and
volcanic rocks and ash layers plagioclase feldspar
react with groundwater.

EYEWITNESS
Giant crystals
Dark layer
Giant gypsum crystals, some taller than a man, were of chromite
discovered in 1999 in the Pulpí Geode, Spain, by Juan
Garcia-Guinea. They formed from salty water
underground. Evaporation of sea water leaves
deposits of salt that can form evaporite rocks.

Rocks that form in layers

Norite is an igneous rock made of the minerals
pyroxene, plagioclase feldspar, and chromite. In this
specimen, the dark and light minerals have separated
into layers. The dark chromite layers constitute an
important source of chromium.

9
Rock Andesite formed from a

formation
volcanic eruption in the
Solomon Islands

Geological processes work in continual cycles, Rocks from magma

redistributing chemical elements, minerals, Rocks formed within Earth from
molten magma are called intrusive
and rocks. These processes are driven by igneous rocks. Those that cooled
slowly, deep under the surface
Earth’s internal heat and, at its surface,
(such as granite), are called
by the sun’s energy. plutonic, after Pluto, the Greek
god of the underworld.

Volcanic Gabbro, a
basalt, from
activity Finland
When rocks of the crust Granite
and upper mantle melt, they
form magma, which volcanic
activity brings to Earth’s surface
as extrusive igneous rocks. Basalt Melting
is the most common. Occasionally, high temperatures and pressures
Ropy basaltic cause rocks to partially melt. If the rock is then
Granite
lava from Hawaii squeezed, snaking veins may form. Migmatites
are mixed rocks with a metamorphic host, such
as gneiss or schist, cut by veins of granite.
EYEWITNESS
Igneous mountain
Sugar Loaf Mountain
situated in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil, is
made of intrusive
igneous rocks.
The softer rock
that covered it has
worn away to leave
the mountain we
see today.

Survivor
Le Puy de Dôme,
France, is the
plug once at
the core of an
ancient volcano.

10
Weathering Sedimentary rocks
As wind, rain, ice, and heat act on rocks, they Sedimentary rocks are
may lead to chemical changes or cause the formed by the accumulation
rocks to fragment and form sediments, and compaction of loose
such as sand grains, clays, muds, and silt. sediments or other rocks
that have been worn
down. Sediments are
transported by rivers,
or by the wind in
desert regions,
and eventually
deposited. They
may build up in
Pure quartz sand Clays produced by layers and may
formed from weathered weathering are critical contain fossils.
granites or sandstones for soil formation
Layered sandstone
from the USA
THE ROCK CYCLE
Sedimentary
There is no starting point in this cycle, which has been banded claystone
River
going on for millions of years. from Uganda transport
Rivers move rock
Volcanic
activity debris from one area
to another. Each day,
Transport
the Mississippi River
Weathering (right) deposits
Igneous thousands of tons
rocks of debris into its delta.

Deposition
Melting

Sedimentary
Metamorphic
rocks
rocks Metamorphic
Magma
Desert sandstone
rocks
from Scotland Quartz vein stands
out in this schist rock
Gneiss face located in the
Geoscope geological
park in central France.
Mica schist formed from
metamorphosed
claystones

Quartzite, a
sandstone,
altered by
heat and
pressure

Metamorphism
Rocks deep within Earth experience greater
pressure from the overlying rocks and higher
temperatures. Pressure and heat cause the rocks
to change or “metamorphose” as the minerals
Gneiss, a banded recrystallize. The new rocks (such as gneiss, mica,
metamorphic rock and quartzite) are called metamorphic rocks.

11
Weathering
and erosion
All rocks at Earth’s surface break down. Weathering, chemical or
mechanical, breaks them down where they are. Erosion breaks them
down further as they are moved by the action of water, ice, or wind.

Weathering due Onion-skin weathering

Wind erosion to temperature
Changes in temperature
cause the surface layers of
Sediment-laden wind may rock to expand, contract,
The expansion and contraction of rock as the
slowly grind away at a rock. and peel away.
temperature changes causes it to break up.
Water expanding in the rock as it freezes can
cause frost-shattering.

Sandstone
made of sand
accumulated
200 million
years ago
in a desert

Monument Valley, Utah and Arizona

Landscapes are changed by
weathering and erosion. Wind
has helped weather away the Fine-grained rock
surrounding rock, leaving large
“buttes” that look like monuments. Peeling layers, like
onion skins, expose
the underlying rock
Desert erosion
Abrasion by In deserts, where sediment
the wind is carried by wind, rocks are
Softer layers often reddish and composed
of rock are worn of rounded sand grains.
away, leaving
the harder ones Sand from a present-day
protruding. desert in Saudi Arabia

Sand blasting
Faceted sand-
blown desert
pebbles are called
“dreikanters.” Desert environment
Wind and temperature changes cause
continual weathering, eventually breaking
down rocks to barren sandy landscapes, Onion-skin
such as here in the Sahara Desert. weathered rock

12
Chemical Fresh, unaltered
granite (left)
weathering
Minerals dissolved
by acidic rainwater at
the surface may be
carried down into the
soil and rock below.

Granite tors, UK
Altered minerals Tors are weathered,
Granite is hard but becomes soft rounded rocks left when
and crumbles after weathering. surrounding rock has
been eroded away.

Coarse,
weathered granite

Secondary
minerals

Rock altered by
percolating groundwater

Chemical changes Tropical weathering

EYEWITNESS These bright-colored In the tropics, quartz is
“secondary minerals” were dissolved and carried off, while
Parthenon, Athens, Greece formed from deposits of feldspars are changed to clay
The limestone foundations and marble dissolved minerals from minerals that may form a
columns of this ancient Greek temple were weathered rocks higher up. surface deposit of bauxite.
built between 447–432 bce. Chemicals such
as carbon dioxide in the air cause “acid rain.”
This can react with stone such as limestone
and cause weathering of monuments. Ice erosion
As a glacier moves, it picks up fragments of rock,
which form part of its icy base. The moving, frozen
mass causes further erosion of underlying rocks.

Large rock Scratches

fragment caused by a
glacier

Scratched rock
This limestone rock from
Grindelwald, Switzerland,
was scratched by fragments
of harder rock in the glacier
Swiss glacier
that flowed over it.
Glaciers are a major cause of erosion
in mountainous regions.
Glacier deposits
A till is a deposit left by a
melting glacier and contains
crushed rock fragments. Ancient tills
formed into hard rock are called “tillite.”
This specimen is from the Flinders
Ranges in South Australia, which was
glaciated some 600 million years ago.

13
Rocks on the seashore
Many seashores are backed by cliffs. Coarse material
Large, coarse
that has fallen from above is gradually broken up by pebbles

the sea and sorted into pebbles,

gravel, sand, and mud. These Graded grains
On the beach, these
various sizes are then deposited pebbles are sorted by
separately—to be recycled as waves and tides. The
sand is pure quartz—
different sedimentary rocks. other minerals were
washed away.

Irregularly
shaped pyrite
Skimming stones Mica schist
nodule
The best skimming stones
are disc-shaped and are
probably sedimentary
or metamorphic
rocks, as they split
into sheets.

Slates

Hidden
crystals
Pyrite nodules are
common in chalk
areas. The dull,
Local stones knobby outside
These pebbles are metamorphic rocks that have been worn breaks open to
into flat discs on the beach where they were collected. reveal glistening
crystals inside.

Amber pebbles Foreign material

Amber is the fossil Not all beach rocks are
resin of extinct of local derivation. This
coniferous trees that porphyritic igneous rock was
lived thousands of probably carried across the North
years ago. It is Sea from Norway to England by
especially common ice during the last Ice Age.
along the Baltic coasts of
Russia and Poland.

Preserved waves
Visible at low tide, ripple marks form
under water from sand carried by
currents. This Finnish specimen
preserves long-ago ripple marks
in sandstone.

14
Black volcanic sands
In areas of volcanic activity,
beach sand may be rich in dark
minerals. The olivine sand comes
from Scotland; the magnetite-
bearing sand is from Tenerife. Black volcanic ash beach on north
Dark olivine sand Magnetite-bearing sand coast of Santorini, Greece

Medium-sized, coarse Small, fine pebbles Finest pebbles Quartz sand

pebbles
Marcasite interior reveals
crystals radiating outward

Found in chalk
Because flint nodules
are hard, they resist
abrasion and may be
seen on beaches in
chalk areas (right).
White Cliffs of Dover, UK
Marcasite nodule,
split in two
Granitic origin
In granite country, beach
pebbles tend to be
made of quartz, an
abundant vein
mineral, or pink
or gray granite.
Flint nodules from below chalk cliffs

Other pebbles
Over many years, trash
such as glass and broken
bricks can be worn and
Assorted glass pebbles rounded by wave action.

Brick
pebble

15
Igneous rock Giant’s Causeway
When basaltic lava cools, it often
These rocks form when magma from deep within Earth’s forms hexagonal columns. Around
crust and upper mantle cools and solidifies. Intrusive 40,000 such basaltic columns
form the Giant’s Causeway in
igneous rock solidifies underground and is later exposed Northern Ireland. These
interlocking pillars were formed
by erosion. Magma that reaches Earth’s surface and nearly 60 million years ago.
erupts is called extrusive igneous rock or volcanic rock.

Biotite granite Graphic granite Red granite

Long, angular quartz

Black grains are crystals look like
biotite, a form ancient writing against Red coloring due to the high
of mica the larger, pale-pink proportion of potassium
feldspar crystals feldspar in the rock

Granite
An extremely common intrusive rock, granite consists mainly of coarse
grains of quartz, feldspar, and mica. The grains are large because they
formed as the molten magma cooled slowly deep in Earth. Generally
mottled, granite varies from gray to red, according to the different
proportions of constituent minerals.

Pitchstone Obsidian
Formed when volcanic lava Like pitchstone, obsidian is a
cools very quickly, pitchstone glass formed from rapidly cooled
contains some crystals of lava. It forms so quickly, there is
feldspar and quartz, but it has a no time for crystals to grow. Its
dull, resinlike appearance and characteristically sharp edges
may be brown, black, or gray. made it useful as an early tool.

16
 Gabbro
Phenocryst
An intrusive rock, gabbro consists of dark
of feldspar
minerals, such as olivine and augite. It
Feldspar porphyry has coarse grains, as large crystals
Porphyries are rocks that formed when the magma slowly cooled.
contain large crystals called
Calcite vein
“phenocrysts” within a medium-
grained rock. This particular
sample contains feldspar Serpentinite
crystals and comes from Wales. This coarse-grained,
red and green rock
is named after its
dominant mineral,
serpentine. It is streaked
with white veins of
calcite. Serpentinite
is common in
the Alps.

Vesicular
Basalt volcanic rocks
Formed from solidified lava, In the volcanically active
basalt is the most common islands of Hawaii, vesicular
extrusive rock. It is similar in volcanic rocks formed
composition to gabbro but when bubbles of gas
finer grained. When the lava were trapped in hot lava
cools, it may split into many- scum. Vesicular basalt is
sided columns, as seen at St. light and full of holes
Helena’s Needle and Northern known as “vesicles.” In
Ireland’s Giant’s Causeway. amygdaliodal basalt (shown
here), the holes were later
Green olivine Dark filled in with minerals.
crystals pyroxene
crystals
EYEWITNESS
Quartz crystal cluster
The world’s largest known
quartz crystal cluster was
discovered in 1985 in the
Otjua mine in Namibia.
The excavation
took three years.
It weighs 15.5 tons
(14,100 kg) and is
10 ft (3 m) high,
Peridotite almost twice
A dark, heavy rock mainly the height of a
containing the minerals person. It is on
olivine and pyroxene, display at the
peridotite is thought Kristall Galerie
in Namibia.
to lie under layers of
gabbro 6 miles (10 km)
beneath the ocean floor.

17
 Volcanic rock
Rocks formed by volcanic activity can be divided into
pyroclastic rocks and lavas. The first are formed from either
solid rock fragments or “bombs” of lava that solidify as they fly
through the air. Lavas may be thick, sticky, and flow very slowly.
More fluid, fast-flowing lavas spread out over vast areas.

Pyroclastic rocks Agglomerate

Pyroclastic rocks consist of rock and lava pieces formed close
that were blown apart by exploding gases. to a vent
Ejection of lava from
Eldfell, Iceland, 1973
Volcanic bombs are
shaped while they fly
through the air

Volcanic bombs Intrusion Jumbled pieces

When blobs of lava are thrown out of a breccia formed The force of an explosion may cause
volcano, some solidify in the air and land within a vent rocks to fragment. The angular pieces
on the ground as hard “bombs.” These land inside or close to the vent and form
two specimens are shaped like footballs, rocks known as agglomerates.
because they spun in the air, but bombs
may be spherical or irregular in appearance.

INSIDE A VOLCANO
Magma flows through a central vent or side vents.
Underground, it may form dykes that cut across rock Ash
layers or sills parallel to them.

Bedded tuff (a hardened ash)

Wind-blown particles
Central
vent
Side Volcanic ash can travel
vent thousands of miles in the
atmosphere. Where it
Magma
Sill settles and hardens, it
forms tuff. When Mount
Dyke St. Helens erupted in
1980, coarse grains were
blown 3 miles (5 km); fine
particles were wind- Eruption of Mount St. Helens,
carried 17 miles (27 km). Washington State, 1980

18
 Viscous lavas
These sticky lavas may erupt or solidify
in the volcano’s vent, trap gases, and
erupt explosively, producing pyroclastic
rocks, volcanic bombs, and ash.

Vesuvius, 79 ce
This famous eruption produced a nuée
ardente, a fast-moving cloud of magma
and ash, and destroyed the Roman town
of Pompeii. Natural glass
Although chemically the
same as pumice, obsidian
has a different texture.
Aphthitalite Obsidian is a natural glass
that cooled too quickly for
Floating rocks crystals to form. Because of
Pumice is solidified its sharp edges, primitive
lava froth. Because the humans used it for tools,
froth contains bubbles arrowheads, and ornaments.
of gas, the rock is
peppered with holes.
Pumice is the only rock
that floats in water.
Molasses-like lavas
Rocks from gases This light-colored pink or
Inactive volcanoes are called “dormant,” gray, extrusive igneous
but escaping volcanic gases may form Grains of rhyolite rock is called rhyolite. The
are very small distinctive bands formed as
minerals, such as yellow sulfur and blue
the sticky, viscous lava flowed
aphthitalite.
for short distances.

EYEWITNESS
Basaltic lavas
Santorini These lavas flow smoothly, forming flatter
The Aegean island of Thera (now called volcanoes or welling up through cracks in
Santorini) was devastated by a volcanic the ocean floor. As a result, the vent does not
eruption around 1600 bce. The Minoan
get choked, and gases can escape. Volcanoes
town of Akrotiri was buried under lava
with basaltic lavas are not as explosive as
and ash. New volcanoes are growing
those with viscous lavas, and although there
under the sea, where the center of the
is plenty of lava, gases can escape, and few
island was blown apart. Runny lavas
Basaltic lavas are fast-flowing and so pyroclastic rocks are formed.
quickly spread out to cover vast areas.
This specimen of basalt was deposited
by the Hualalai volcano on Hawaii.

Colorful
crystals
Sparkling points in Ropy lava
Remains of a Minoan this basalt include As lava flows, the surface cools
settlement in Akrotiri green olivine and black and forms a skin that wrinkles as
pyroxene crystals. the fluid center continues to flow.

19
Sedimentary rock
Gypsum crystals
growing from a central
point like daisy petals

Weathered and eroded rocks break into smaller Evaporites

Some sedimentary rocks are
pieces of rock and minerals. This sediment may formed when saline waters
be transported to a new site (often a lake, river, (often seawater) evaporate
and leave deposits of minerals.
or sea) and deposited in layers that become Examples include halite and
buried and compacted. Cemented together, gypsum. We get table salt from
halite (rock salt). Gypsum, used
the particles form new, sedimentary rocks. in plaster of Paris, is called
alabaster in its massive form.
Hole-filled, irregular-
shaped rock

Clay Gypsum
Formed of microscopically
fine grains, clay feels Reddish cast caused by
sticky when wet. Halite impurities in the salt
When it is compacted Calcareous tufa
and all the water is An extraordinary-looking evaporite,
forced out, it forms this porous rock is formed by the
hard rocks called evaporation of spring water and is
mudstone or shale. sometimes found in limestone caves.

Sandstones Bedded
Grains of sand cemented volcanic ash
together form sandstones. The In many sedimentary
red sandstone comes from a rocks, individual layers
desert, where wind rubbed and of sediments form visible
rounded the quartz grains. Grit bands. Here, the stripes are
is rougher—its more angular layers of volcanic ash. The
Red grains were buried before they surface has been polished
Grit sandstone could be rubbed smooth. to highlight this feature.

20
Rock builders
Foraminifera are microscopic marine organisms that
secrete lime. When they die, the shells fall to the
ocean floor, where they eventually become chalk
and may become cemented to form limestone.

Shelly Flint
Chalk
limestone A form of silica (like quartz),
lumps of flint are often found
in limestone, especially chalk.
They are gray or black but
may be covered in a white, Ammonite in limestone
powderlike material. Like Ammonite shells often show up
obsidian, when flint is broken, against the mud that buried them.
Gastropod it has a “conchoidal” fracture. Ammonites are now extinct. This
limestone fossil was found in limestone.
Remains of
Oolite
gastropod shell
Algal limestone
Limestones “Muddy” limestones, like
Many sedimentary rocks consist of the remains of this one bound together
organisms. In these shelly and gastropod limestones, by algae, are also called
the remains of animals are clearly visible in the rock. “landscape marbles”—
Chalk is also a limestone, formed from the skeletons when the minerals
of tiny sea animals too small to see with the naked eye. crystallize, they may
Oolite, another limestone, forms in the sea as calcite produce patterns in the
builds up around grains of sand. As they are rolled shapes of trees
back and forth by waves, the grains become larger. and bushes.

Sedimentary layers
The Grand Canyon, in Arizona, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, carved
out over millions of years by the Colorado River as it weathered and
eroded the rocks. The sides of the canyon are mainly layers of softer
sedimentary rocks, including limestone, sandstone, mudstone, and
shale, above a harder, older basement of mainly metamorphic rock.

Flint pebble
Breccia
Conglomerate Like conglomerate, breccias
The flint pebbles in this rock were contain fragments of rock;
rounded by water as they were however, these are much
rolled about on river or sea more angular as they have
beds. After they were buried, not been rounded by water
they became cemented or carried far from their
together to form a rock original home – often at
known as conglomerate. the bottom of cliffs.

21
Limestone
Limestone caves, lined with dripping stalactites
and giant stalagmites, are formed when slightly
acidic rainwater changes the limestone’s
chemistry. This makes it possible for the
rock to dissolve in water and
be washed away.

Tufa
A type of rock known as a
precipitate, tufa forms when
lime is deposited from water
onto a rock surface in areas
of low rainfall.

Coral-like
structure

Plan de Sales,
France
Limestone pavements
of flat blocks occur
where weathering
leaves no insoluble
residue to make soil.

LIMESTONE LANDSCAPES
Rainwater dissolves calcite in limestone, producing deep, narrow cracks
(“grikes”). In time, the water enlarges them into passages. Flowing
water dissolves the rock, producing “swallow holes” at the junctions
between grikes. Underground streams form lakes in the caves.

Swallow hole through

Limestone pavement consisting
which surface water
of large, jointed blocks
flows underground

Stone Forest, China

The staggering landscape of the Hunan
Stalactites Province of China is typical of “karst”
scenery. Named after the limestone
Caves
area of Karst in Yugoslavia, the term is
applied to many limestone regions,
including the Cumberland Plateau,
Tennessee; parts of the Blue Mountains,
Australia; and the Causses, France.
Underground lake Stalagmite

22
 Top section attached to
the roof of the cave

Stalactites
Stalactites are formed in caves by
groundwater containing dissolved lime
dripping from the roof and leaving a
deposit as it evaporates. Growing
downward a tiny fraction of an inch each
year—shown in annual growth rings—they
may slowly reach many feet in length.

Stalactites may take

hundreds of years to form

EYEWITNESS
Ease Gill Caves,
England
In 1946, Bill Taylor
and George Cornes
discovered the first
entrance to the largest The newest
cave system in the UK. growth is at
The forest of fine the bottom
stalactites forms the
most spectacular part of
this complex cave system.

Point onto which

Pamukkale Falls, Turkey overhead drips fall

Beautiful travertine terraces are

formed from the precipitation of
calcite from hot springs in limestone
areas. Travertine is quarried as a
decorative building stone.

Stalagmites
Stalagmites are formed on the floor of caves where
water has dripped from the roof or a stalactite
above. As with stalactites, they develop as water
containing dissolved lime evaporates. If stalactites
and stalagmites grow together and join, forming
pillars, they are often described as “organ pipes,”
“hanging curtains,” and “portcullises.”
Metamorphism
Metamorphic rocks are igneous or sedimentary rocks altered
by heat and/or pressure. Such conditions can occur during the
mountain-building process, as buried rocks are subjected to high
temperatures and squeezed or folded, creating new minerals.

Marbles
When limestone is exposed to very high
temperatures, new crystals of calcite grow and
form the compact rock known as marble. This
can look similar to the rock quartzite, but
marble is softer and easily scratched with a
knife. Some medium-grained marble looks
sugary or “saccharoidal.”

Pyroxene-bearing
marble

Nodular
gray marble
Saccharoidal
marble
Eclogite
Produced under very high
pressure, eclogite is extremely
Spotted slate dense and is thought to form in
the mantle—far deeper than most
other rocks. It contains pyroxene
and small, red crystals of garnet.

Aggregates
of carbon
Spotted
hornfels
From slate to hornfels
The irregular speckles in spotted slate
are small aggregates of carbon, formed
by heat from an igneous intrusion.
In rocks closer to the intrusion, the
temperature is considerably
higher, and needlelike crystals
of chiastolite form in the slate.
The rocks become so hot that
they recrystallize and form a Elongated Red garnet
tough, new rock called hornfels. Chiastolite slate chiastolite crystals crystals

24
Slate Schists
During mountain Schist is formed from shale or mud but
building, shale was at a higher temperature than slate. The
squeezed so hard that its garnet-muscovite-chlorite schist was
flaky micas crystallized exposed to temperatures of at least
at right angles to the 932°F (500°C). Kyanite-staurolite
pressure. The resultant schist forms under high pressure,
rock—slate—splits easily 6–9 miles (10–15 km) below ground.
into thin sheets.

White
muscovite mica
Garnet-
muscovite-
Green chlorite
chlorite schist
mineral

Blue, bladelike
crystals of kyanite
Kyanite-staurolite
schist
Pink granitic rock
Dark host rock

Crystals of a
green variety Migmatite
of pyroxene
Under intense heat, parts of rocks may start to
melt and flow, creating swirling patterns. This
is very often shown in migmatites. They are
composed of not one rock but a mixture of a
dark host rock with lighter-colored granitic rock.
This sample is from the Scottish Highlands.

Light-colored layer
containing quartz
and feldspar
Biotite-kyanite
Banded gneiss
gneiss
Black biotite
crystals

Dark band
of biotite

Gneisses
At high temperatures and pressures,
sedimentary or igneous rocks may be
metamorphosed to gneisses. These rocks
have coarser grains than medium-grained
schists and bands of varying minerals. These
layers may be irregular where the rock has Blue kyanite
been folded under pressure. crystals

25
Marble EYEWITNESS
Medici Madonna
Italian sculptor Michelangelo sculpted
this statue from Carrara marble in
Marble is a metamorphosed limestone, but the 16th century. He personally
checked the marble to be used
its name is often used in the stone industry from Carrara and Pietrasanta
for a variety of other rocks. All are valued for and chose particular stones for
their shape and size.
their attractive range of textures and colors,
Jesus on Virgin Mary’s lap
and because they are easily cut and polished.

In the raw
A true marble, this
unpolished, coarsely
crystalline specimen of
Mijas Marble is from
Malaga, Spain. Polishing
will give it a smooth
surface.

The marble from

Carrara was used to
make iconic buildings,
such as the Pantheon
in Rome

Carrara quarry
The world’s most famous marble comes
from the Carrara quarry in Tuscany, Italy.
Greek connection It was the local stone for Michelangelo.
Originally from the Greek
Island of Euboea,
streaked Cipollino Italian speciality
marble (above) is Gray Bardilla marble (left)
now quarried in comes from the
Switzerland, Carrara quarry.
the island of
Elba, and
Vermont.

Italian
elegance
Another striking
Italian marble
(right) is the black
and gold variety
from Liguria.
Tuscan
stones
The distinctive
texture of the Italian
decorative stone Breccia
Violetto was the reason for its use
in the Paris Opera House in 1875.

South
African swirls
Polished travertine
has beautiful swirling
patterns. This piece is from
Cape Province, South Africa.
Taj Mahal, India
Built by around 20,000 artisans,
this monument is made of
ivory­white marble. Swiss origins
The limestone breccia
known as Macchia­
vecchia is quarried in
Mendrisio, Switzerland.

Detail of
marble inlay on
the Taj Mahal
African copper
Quarried in Swaziland,
Green Verdite’s
vivid color is
caused by the
presence
of copper.

Algerian rock
Breche Sanguine or Red
African (bottom) is a red
breccia from Algeria.
The Romans used it in the
Pantheon in the 1st century ce.

27
The first flint tools
Because flint splits in any direction, fractures to a Leather thong
securing flint and
sharp edge, and is fairly widespread, it was used in antler sleeve to handle

prehistoric times to make tools and weapons.

TOOLS FROM FLINT

Flint tools were shaped by striking a flint nodule
or fragment with another stone or hitting it
against a rock to break off flakes of flint.
Sharp-pointed flint
tool used for cutting
the skin from animals

Stone-on-stone Pressure-flaking
Sharp-edged flint
Striking the flint Pointed implements such
tool used for scraping
Crude with a stone created as antler bones gave tools and preparing the
early sharp, jagged edges. sharper cutting edges. animal skins for use
chopper
Rough
cutting
Hand axes edge Large, sharpened
hand ax
Cutting
Palaeolithic hand axes were used to smash edge
animal bones, skin hunted animals, and cut
wood and plants. The well-developed, dark Light­
colored
ax is 70,000–300,000 years old. The
hand ax
lighter-colored ax dates to around
70,000–35,000 bce.

Dark­
colored
hand ax

Early men using

hand axes

Flint flakes Sharp cutting Sharp cutting

and chippings edge edge

28
 Ninth-century obsidian Danish ax Ax
ax from Mexico
and dagger Flint
Mesolithic dagger
The shape of this
adz
Early Bronze Age ax,
Antler
sleeve found in the Thames
River in the UK, shows
it was imported.
Polished with care, it
was clearly an object
Obsidian of value. So, too, was
Like flint, obsidian was used in early tools the Early Bronze Age
because it breaks with sharp edges. flint dagger (2300–
1200 bce).

Spearhead with obsidian

blade from the Admiralty Arrowheads
Islands, off Papua New Guinea The bow and arrow was invented in
the Mesolithic period and was still
used for hunting in the Early Neolithic
period, when leaf-shaped arrowheads
were common. Later, in the Beaker
Cutting edge
period (2750–1800 bce), barbed
of flint
Adz from the Mesolithic arrowheads were characteristic.

Flint
period (10,000–4000 bce)
mounted
directly Neolithic
onto arrowheads
handle

Sickle
Flint sickles show crops were cultivated. The
Beaker
long, slightly curved blade was swung from
Reproduction
arrowheads
side to side to harvest crops. A “gloss” on their
wooden
handle
cutting edge shows repeated harvesting. This
one is Neolithic (4000–2300 bce). Flint daggers
Rare and made with care, these
two daggers from the Beaker
period were not just weapons
Woodworker but status symbols too.
shaping a
chair leg using
a modern adz

Adz is held by the

handle and swung
Modern up and down
wooden
handle
Cutting
edge of
an adz

Hafted adzes
Adzes were made by fitting a shaped flint directly to a
handle made of wood or antler. The cutting edge of an
adz cuts or chops meat and wood. Adzes are still used in
the modern day in agriculture and furniture making.

29
 Rocks as tools
Archaeologists have found lots of rocks that have been
shaped by people from many different cultures around
the world. Some were used as weapons or status
symbols, others as farming or household tools.

Brazilian stone ax
Side view of battle ax
Wedge to stop the made of diorite
stone from moving

Bored
quartzite pebble

Neolithic ax showing a
highly polished surface
Stone axes Top view of battle ax
These stone axes date
back to Neolithic Britain
(4000–2300 bce).
Highly polished and
tougher than flaked
flint axes, they were Hammer end

Neolithic ax made of traded over long

diorite, an igneous rock distances—the source
rocks were far from Ax end
the places where the
axes were found.

Digging stick
During the Mesolithic Dual-purpose
and Neolithic periods granite ax-hammer
Neolithic ax made of
rhyolitic tuff, a volcanic rock (10,000–2300 bce),
sticks weighted with Battle axes
pierced pebbles were used These axes with holes in them are
to break up the ground to from the Early Bronze Age (2300–
Reproduction
plant crops or dig up roots. 1200 bce) and are so well preserved
wooden stick
that they could have been status
symbols for display as well as for
Sharpened use as weapons. The bottom one
South African digging stick with
wooden point
for digging
horn point and stone weight was both an ax and a hammer.
hard ground

EYEWITNESS
Stone maul
This carved stone maul (a war club
or mace) in the form of a bird’s
head was made by Haida Indians.
The Haida are a North American
tribe who live on islands off British
Breaking up Columbia. They are known for their
ground with a craftsmanship and trading skills.
digging stick prior
to planting

30
 Stone whorl
with a hole

Marble make- Stone spindle

up palette whorl
Romans used powdered To spin wool or cotton
lead and chalk to whiten into thread, the Romans
skin, red ocher to tint weighted a bone or
lips and cheeks, and soot wooden spindle with
Engraved Viking forge
to darken eyebrows. a stone whorl. The
stone made of soapstone
and used in metalworking Small amounts were put weight and rotating
on a stone palette or in a motion help twist
Whetstones stone bowl and mixed the thread, which
Bronze implements A bird-shaped with water, tree resin was then
were sharpened by mortar carved by (gum), or egg white wound on to
rubbing the blunt Haida Indians to make a colored the spindle.
edge against a paint or paste.
whetstone. These
two are Bronze Age
(2300–700 bce)
and were worn Handle
on a cord.
Hole for
the grain

Roman rotary quern

A quern was used for grinding corn
between two stones. The upper
one was held in place by a
spindle and was rotated by
a handle. Grain was fed
through the hole in the
upper stone, and the
rotary motion forced
it between the two
grinding surfaces.

Upper stone is
rotated using
the handle

Grain is crushed
between the stones

Lower stone
Grain ready does not move
for grinding

31
Pigments
Brown clay

For body and rock art, early humans

crushed local rocks and mixed the Powdered
brown clay
powders with animal fats to produce
a range of pigments. Over the Earthy hues
Green Clays were widely used
centuries, as trading routes grew, clay Powdered by early artists because
green clay they were easy to find,
artists had new colors to work with. soft, and easy to crush.

Umber paint

Ocher paint

White chalk Shades of white

The first white pigment
was chalk or, in
some areas,
kaolin (china
clay) instead.

Cave painting
The earliest known artworks were
made with a mixture of clays, chalk,
Powdered chalk
dirt, and burned wood and bones.
Color variation in a mineral
Many minerals are uniformly colored, but
some come in a range of colors. For example, Orange and brown ocher
tourmaline (above) may occur as black, Black charcoal
brown, pink, green, and blue crystals or from the
embers of fire
show a variety of colors in a single crystal.
Chalk white
paint
Bison from Grotte de
Color clues Niaux, France,
c. 20,000 bce
A useful aid when
identifying a mineral Orpiment
is the color that it
produces when you Cinnabar
crush it. Or simply
scrape a sample across
an unglazed white tile— Crocoite
many minerals leave a
distinct, colored streak, Chalcopyrite
which may or may not Black as coal
be the same color as the Hematite Still popular with artists today, Powdered
mineral; others have no charcoal was well known to charcoal
discernible streak. cave painters—from the
Molybdenite
embers of their fires. Lampblack
paint

32
 Powdered
hematite Powdered
realgar

Iron red
The earthy variety Egyptian
of hematite, an iron ore, orange
produces a rich reddish-brown Red paint About 1,500
pigment. Very finely powdered, it bce, Egyptians
was also used as makeup for skin. Arsenic first crushed
orange paint realgar, an arsenic
compound found in hot
Powdered spring deposits, to form
orpiment an orange pigment.

Powdered
malachite

Bright gold
Medieval artists used
orpiment, an arsenic
Brilliant green compound, to make many
King’s
yellow paint
Bronze-Age Egypt first Malachite colors and to imitate gold.
used malachite, a copper Green paint
compound, for green.

Ultramarine
paint

Powdered Powdered
Powdered lapis lazuli
cinnabar
azurite
Precious blue
The rich blue (and expensive) ultramarine
paint was called “Persian blue,” as it was
originally made in Iran (formerly called
Persia) from Persian lapis lazuli.

Vermilion
paint Modern ocher
More than 70,000
Classical Intense years ago, our Stone
blue red Age ancestors used
natural rock pigments
The copper The bright,
such as ocher to make
compound azurite vermilion red of
cave paintings. In the
produced a highly cinnabar (mercuric
Azurite 19th century, Dutch
prized blue pigment blue paint sulfide) was used in
artist Van Gogh
that was widely used in prehistoric China but only came into
used ocher in his
classical antiquity. widespread use in the Middle Ages.
still-life paintings.
 Building stones
Most of the great monuments of the past survive because
they were made from tough, natural stone. Generally, local
stone was used, but sometimes stone was transported
Quarrying in the early 19th century long distances and even across seas for building projects.
was still done almost entirely by
manual labor.

Nummulitic limestone
Formed 40 million years ago,
nummulite is a famous
limestone made up of
fossils called foraminifera.

The pyramids at Giza, Egypt,

were made of local nummulite
limestone. Tooling
marks

Foraminifera
fossils Portland stone
After the Great Fire of London in 1666,
St. Paul’s Cathedral was rebuilt with this
English limestone. The marks are made
by “tooling,” a decorative technique. Granite
Polished granite is
often used to cover
large buildings,
Christian mosaic as in much of the
Small fragments of local imperial city of St.
Welsh slate stones were often used Petersburg, Russia.
for mosaic floors.

160-million-year-old
limestone used
for roofing

Slate
Unlike most
building materials,
roofing stones must
split easily into thin
sheets. Slate is ideal,
but where it was not
available, builders used
local, often inferior, stone.
 Notre Dame, Paris
This famous cathedral in Pantile
Paris, France, was built
from local limestone from
the St. Jacques region of the
city, between 1163 and 1250.
The catacombs in Paris are
old quarries.

Sandstones
Various colored sandstones make
excellent building stones, as seen in Interlocking
many fine Mogul monuments in India. roof tile

Materials
Many modern buildings are
made of bricks, tiles, cement,
concrete, and glass (from silica sand).

Roofing tiles
In many parts of the
world, roofing tiles are
made from clay.

Textured buff brick

Oolitic 230-million-year-old sandstone

limestone
This building stone
formed some 160 Skyscrapers
million years ago. New York skyscrapers
are made of granite,
sandstone, and
Red sandstone from
manufactured
Scotland used to give
materials.
a covering layer
to buildings

Bricks
Easily molded clays are fired to make
bricks. Impurities in clays produce
various colors and strengths.
EYEWITNESS
Great Wall of China
The world’s biggest
construction, 1,500 miles
(2,400 km) long, uses Smooth red brick
various natural and
manufactured materials Cement
that change with the It is made by
landscape it passes through. grinding and
Parts include brick, granite, heating limestone.
and various local rocks. Cement mixed with
sand, gravel, and water
produces concrete.

35
The story
of coal Plant roots

The coal we burn is millions of years

old. In the swampy forests of Asia,
Europe, and North America, rotting
leaves, seeds, and dead wood became
buried. Overlying sediments squeezed
the water out and compressed the
plant matter into peat and then coal,
layer upon layer. As pressure and heat
grew, other types of coals were formed.

Fossilized wood
Jet is hard, black, but very light and is
derived from driftwood laid
down in the sea.
Polished and
carved, often for
jewelry, it has
been used since
the Bronze Age.

Coal as
jewelry
A major source of jet
is Yorkshire, in northern
England. These Roman
pendants, found in York,
were probably made of
local jet.

Oil shale
A sedimentary
rock, oil shale
contains kerogen,
an organic substance of
plant and animal origin. The
rock smells of oil, and when heated,
kerogen gives off a vapor from which
oil is extracted.

36
 Leaf The beginning The origins
of the story of coal
In areas with thick layers of Carboniferous
vegetation and poor drainage, swamps may
such as swamps or bogs, dead have looked
Stalk plants become waterlogged. similar to this
Seed case They start to rot but cannot black-and-
decay completely. white drawing.

The peat layer

Peat is a more compact form of Cutting peat
the surface layer of rotting plants. This Irish turf-cutter
Some roots and seed cases are is using traditional
still visible. Newly formed peat can methods, but others
be cut, dried, and burned as a fuel. use big machines.

Brown coal
Naturally compressed peat forms
crumbly, brown lignite that still
Deposit of coal
contains recognizable plant within layers
remains. Undried peat is of rock
90 percent water; lignite is
50 percent. Coal seams
Layers of coal are
called seams. They are
“Black gold” sandwiched between
Under pressure, lignite is converted into layers of other
bituminous or household coal. Hard and brittle, material, such as
it has a very high carbon content. A charcoal-like sandstones and
powdery substance makes the coal dirty to handle. mudstones.

Children in
a mine, 1842
During the Industrial
Revolution, miners and
their children worked
long hours underground,
in terrible conditions.

Mining for coal

Coal has been mined since the
Middle Ages. Some mines are
open-cast, at the surface, but
most are several hundred yards
beneath the land or sea.

The hardest coal

The highest-quality coal
is anthracite. Shiny, harder
than other coals, and clean
to touch, it contains more
carbon than the others,
and it gives out the most
heat and little smoke.

37
Fossils
Fossils are the evidence of past life preserved in
the rocks of Earth’s crust. When an animal or plant
is buried in sediment, usually the soft parts rot away,
but the hardest parts remain—most fossils consist of
the bones or shells of animals or the leaves or woody
parts of plants. In some marine fossils, shells may be
replaced by other minerals, or an impression of the
insides or outsides may be preserved. Fossils are found
in sedimentary rocks, especially limestones and shales.

Muddy
rock
Fossil Leaf imprint
leaf About 40 million years old,
this fossil leaf (far left) is
similar to the modern
beech leaf.

Beech
leaf

Impression
of leaf

Plant fossils
Many fernlike fossils are found in coal-
Neuropteris—
bearing rocks. Formed in the Carboniferous a seed fern—
period, they are called Coal Measures fossilized in
fossils. Many are strikingly similar to ironstone
the ferns that grow today.

Fronds of a fern called

Asterotheca preserved
in stone

Present-day fern
 Buried bones
Ancient ancestors Dinosaur bones buried in
Ammonites were sea creatures that had hard, sediments such as mud may Skeleton partially
coiled shells and are now extinct. Because slowly turn into rock. The fossil embedded in rock
ammonites changed rapidly and lived in many bones may be replaced by
areas of the world, they can be used to determine minerals, such as calcite and silica. Fossilized skeleton
the relative ages of the rocks in which they occur. of Gryposaurus
The nearest modern equivalent to the ammonite
is the nautilus.

Fossil hunting
The abundance of
fossils on seashores
made collecting a
popular pastime in
the 19th century.

Garden
snails

A graveyard for snails

This piece of limestone contains
the hard spiral shells of marine
gastropods (snails) from about
120 million years ago.

Impression of
interior of shell

Gastropod
shell
Space rocks
Gray interior
Thousands of meteorites that weigh consisting
more than 1 lb (450 g) fall to Earth every mainly of
the minerals
year; most land in the sea or on deserts. olivine and
pyroxene
Only a few are recovered annually. As
they enter Earth’s atmosphere, their
surfaces may melt and form a crust,
protecting the stony or metallic interior.

Pasamonte fireball
Photographed in New Fragment of a
Mexico, this fireball fell to stony meteorite
Earth in March 1933.
Meteorites are named after Earth’s
the places where they fall— contemporary
this one in Pasamonte. Dark, glassy The meteorite above fell at Barwell,
The fireball broke up in the fusion crust
Leicestershire, UK, on Christmas Eve,
formed during
atmosphere, leading to 1965. It formed 4,600 million years
passage
the fall of dozens of through Earth’s ago, at the same time as Earth but in
meteoritic stones. atmosphere another part of the solar system. Of
every ten meteorites seen to fall,
eight are “stones” like Barwell.
Iron meteorite
The Canon Diablo meteorite is an iron meteorite that
fell to Earth about 20,000 years ago in Arizona. Iron
meteorites are made of iron and nickel from the core Metal and stone
of the asteroid. The Earth’s core is also made of Stony-irons form a
iron and nickel. separate group of
meteorites. This slice
of the Thiel Mountains
meteorite (below) shows
bright metal enclosing stony
material. It was found in
Antarctica, where meteorites
have lain for about 300,000
years, largely encased in ice.

Crystals of the
mineral olivine
Explosion crater
The Canon Diablo meteorite Nickel-iron
metal
weighed 16,535 tons (15,000
metric tons). On landing, it
exploded leaving about 33 tons Stony part
(30 metric tons) of meteorite
fragments scattered in the area. Nickel-iron
The explosion left a large circular metal part
hole about 0.75 mile (1.2 km)
across and nearly 600 ft (180 m) Stony part Fragment of a pallasite
deep, named Meteor Crater. type stony-iron meteorite

40
 Fragments of stardust that
predate our solar system
Halley’s have been found in
this rock
Comet
Water-bearing
meteorites may
have come from
comets, such as
Halley’s—here
depicted in the
11th-century
Bayeux tapestry.

ASTEROID STRUCTURE
Many meteorites come from the collision
of asteroids that orbit the sun. The type of
meteorite that lands on Earth depends on
which part of the asteroid reaches us: iron
meteorites, like Canon Diablo, are from the core
of the asteroid; stony-iron meteorites, like Thiel
Mountains, are from the core-mantle; and stony
meteorites, like Barwell, are from the crust.

Crust
Core-
Water
mantle bearers
The Murchison
meteorite fell in Australia
Mantle Meteorite in 1969. It contains carbon
contains dozens
of amino acids,
compounds and water, similar
Core to the nucleus of a comet.
many of which are
not found on Earth Such meteorites are rare.

Rocks from the moon and Mars Mars meteorite

Five meteorites found in Antarctica are known to have The Nakhla stone fell in Egypt in
come from the moon because they are like lunar 1911. Only 1,300 million years old, far
highlands rocks collected by the Apollo missions. Eight younger than most meteorites, it
other meteorites are thought to have come from Mars. probably came from Mars.

EYEWITNESS
Moon rocks
Almost 400 moon rocks (lunar
meteorites) have been discovered
on Earth. They are fragments of
more than 30 different meteorite
falls. Scientists know they come
from the moon because they
compared these meteorites with
moon rocks that were brought
back from the lunar highlands to
Earth by astronauts such as Jack
Schmitt on the Apollo 17 mission. Jack Schmitt
on the moon

41
Minerals CRUST’S MAKEUP
The eight major elements that
make up the Earth’s crust, in
98 7
6
5
order of their weight, are
Eight elements make up nearly 99 percent of oxygen (1), silicon (2),
4
3
Earth’s crust, combining to form minerals that aluminum (3), iron (4), 1
calcium (5), sodium (6),
form rocks. Certain mineral groups are typical potassium (7), and 2
magnesium (8). All other
of certain rocks. Silica minerals predominate in elements (9) make up only Composition
most common, mostly igneous, rocks. about 1 percent of Earth’s crust. of Earth’s crust

Silica minerals
Minerals in granitic rocks Also called silicates, these minerals
Feldspars, the most common minerals, plus quartz, include quartz, agates, and opal. Quartz
micas, and amphiboles form granitic and dioritic rocks. is one of the most widely distributed
minerals, occurring in igneous,
Group Single sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks.
of black hornblende
prismatic crystal
crystals Feldspars
with Orthoclase is found in many
calcite
metamorphic and igneous
rocks. Its lower temperature
form is microcline.
Colorless
quartz (rock
crystal)

Amazonite, a
microcline
Twinned crystals of
feldspar
Hornblende, an white orthoclase
amphibole, common feldspar
Silvery, radiating,
in igneous and some needlelike crystals
metamorphic rocks

Tremolite, common Thin section of a diorite

in metamorphic Viewed under the special light of a
rocks petrological microscope, this diorite
reveals colored amphiboles, plain
gray to white quartz, and lining
of gray plagioclase feldspar.

Biotite mica

Amphiboles Micas
This group of minerals is widely There are two main types of mica:
Muscovite
found in igneous and metamorphic dark iron- and magnesium-rich
mica
rocks. They can be distinguished biotite mica and white or silvery-
from pyroxenes (opposite) by the colored aluminum-rich muscovite
characteristic angles between Silvery mica. All have perfect cleavage,
their cleavage planes (p.48). tabular crystals splitting into thin flakes.

42
Basic rocks Olivine
This silicate of iron and magnesium is
The minerals shown here are all typically found in silica-poor rocks, such
found in basic rocks like basalts as basalts, gabbros, and peridotites. It
and gabbros. often forms as small grains or large,
granular masses.
Pink crystals of anorthite
plagioclase feldspar Crystals of olivine, Single crystal
Green
olivine from Vesuvius of augite
White crystals of albite crystals
plagioclase feldspar Anorthite
with calcite
Calcite

Albite

Prismatic crystal
Nepheline, a of enstatite with
Thin section of a basalt
feldspathoid, biotite
Olivine basalt reveals brightly
with calcite
colored olivine, brown-yellow
Greenish-black
pyroxene, and minute gray
Plagioclase prismatic
plagioclase feldspars.
feldspars augite crystals
Common in
igneous rocks,
Volcanic
these minerals rock
(above) contain
sodium and calcium. Pyroxenes
The most common
Feldspathoids pyroxene is augite, a silicate
These minerals have less silica than Crystal of leucite, of calcium, magnesium, and
feldspars and typically form in volcanic lavas. a feldspathoid iron. Enstatite is less common.

Other groups Montmorillonite

Carbonates and clays are two more
groups of rock-forming minerals.

Carbonates
Calcite is the
most carbonate
mineral. Carbonates
are rock-forming Illite
minerals in
sedimentary
rocks, such as Kaolinite (china clay)
limestones, and formed from partly
marbles, which decomposed orthoclase
are metamorphic
rocks. Clays
Part of the sedimentary rock sequence,
Dolomite, a carbonate, found in some sedimentary clays form from the weathering and
deposits usually interbedded with limestones alteration of aluminous silicates.

43
Crystals EYEWITNESS
Cave of crystals
The Giant Crystal Cave at Naica, Mexico, was
found by miners looking for lead, zinc, and silver.
The word crystal comes from the Greek word It took more than 500,000 years for the giant
crystals of the mineral selenite gypsum to grow
kryos, meaning icy cold—rock crystal, a form of slowly from very hot fluids underground.
quartz, was once thought to be deep-frozen ice.
In fact, a crystal is a solid, with a regular internal
structure. Due to the arrangement of its atoms, it
may form smooth external surfaces called faces.
Many crystals have commercial uses, and some
are cut as gemstones.

Crystals oriented
in random growth
directions
Light reflecting on
the crystal face Well-developed “Ice” sculpted by nature
faces
Plane of This well-formed group of rock
intersection crystals, found in Isère, France, consists
of a large twin crystal and many simple
crystals. The narrow ridges and
furrows across some of its faces
are called striations. These were
formed when two different
crystal faces tried to
develop at the same time.

44
Crystal symmetry What’s the angle?
As the angle between
Crystals can be grouped into seven systems according to corresponding faces Reading
their symmetry, which is shown in certain regular features of a particular mineral of angle
of the crystal. For example, for every face, there may be is always the same,
another on the opposite side of the crystal that is parallel scientists measure the
to it and similar in shape and size. But in most mineral angle with a contact
specimens, it can be difficult to determine the symmetry goniometer to help
because crystalline rocks may not always show individual identify the mineral.
crystals with well-developed faces.

The angle
between
crystal
faces being
measured

Triclinic Cubic Tetragonal

This system’s crystals display the Metallic pyrite forms cube- Dark-green vesuvianite
least symmetry, as shown by this shaped crystals, but other crystals (also called
wedge-shaped axinite crystal. cubic mineral forms include idocrase), zircon, and
octahedra and tetrahedra. wulfenite are examples
One variety Crystals in this system exhibit of crystals in the
has silky luster the highest symmetry. tetragonal system.

Rhombohedral (trigonal)
Orthorhombic
Smaller secondary crystals have
Common crystals
grown on this siderite crystal.
in this system
Quartz, tourmaline, corundum, and
include olivine,
calcite belong to the same system.
topaz, and barite
(right), the
source of barium
for medical use.

Monoclinic Hexagonal
The most common crystal Beryl, including this
system includes gypsum (from emerald variety, crystallizes
which we make plaster of Paris), in the hexagonal system,
azurite, and orthoclase. as do apatite, ice,
and snowflakes. Snowflakes

Twinning Contact twins

The mineral cerussite crystallizes in
Penetration twins
Staurolite is also an orthorhombic
In cavities in mineral the orthorhombic system, like this mineral. In this cross-shaped
veins, crystals may group of twin crystals (left). specimen, one twin appears
grow in groups. to penetrate into the other.
Sometimes two
(or possibly more)
individual crystals
appear to intersect
in a symmetrical
manner and are known
Twinned gypsum crystals
as “twinned crystals.”
get their common name,
“swallow-tail,” from their
arrow shape.

45
Crystal growth
No two crystals are exactly alike because
the conditions in which they develop vary.
They range from microscopic to several
yards long. The shape of a crystal or
Coral-like
aggregate of crystals constitute its “habit.” shape

White coral
Fine crystal
Radiating needles “needles” Aragonite, named after the Spanish
Slender, elongated crystals province of Aragon, can sometimes have
are said to have an “acicular” a “coralloid” (coral-shaped) habit.
(needlelike) habit. In this
scolecite specimen, gray
acicular crystals radiate Metallic “grapes”
from the center. Some chalcopyrite crystals grow
outward from a center, and such
aggregates appear as rounded
Sparkling aggregate nodules. The habit is “botryoidal,”
meaning like a bunch of grapes.
Hematite occurs in several
habits. When it forms shiny,
reflective crystals, it Long, rectangular prism faces
is said to have a Short, hexagonal
terminal face
“specular” habit,
at each end
as in this
aggregate.

Crystal columns
“Prismatic” crystals, such as this beryl crystal, are
much longer in one direction than in the other two.

Mica schist
Soft strands
These crystals of
tremolite are known to
Equant garnet
be silky and fibrous. crystals

Thin sheets
Certain minerals, including
mica, split into thin sheets and
are said to be “micaceous”
or “foliated” (leaflike)
Equal sides
or “lamellar” (thin
Many minerals develop crystals that
and platy).
are essentially equal in all dimensions
and are then said to be “equant.”
This specimen of garnet in mica
schist is a fine example.
Dual form Sandy
cubes EYEWITNESS
Pyrite crystals form as cubes and as
crystals called pentagonal dodecahedra, Salt lake, Cyprus
with 12 faces (“dodeca” means 12), each This shallow salt lake on
the shape of a pentagon (“penta” means the Mediterranean island
five). Grooves called “striations” may of Cyprus dries up in the
form on the faces. heat of the sun, leaving a
crust of salt crystals
behind. Repeated
Stepped crystals replenishment by salty
water and drying out by
This halite contains evaporation builds up
numerous sand grains. layers of salt.
It grew along preferred
axes, forming a stack of
cubic crystals in steps.

Parallel lines Stepped

faces
During crystal growth, a series of crystals
of the same type may develop growing in
the same direction. This calcite
Metallic pyrite aggregate shows a number of
tapering pale pink and
gray crystals in perfect
Double decker parallel orientation.
Chalcopyrite and Hopper growth
sphalerite crystals The mineral halite (salt) is cubic,
have similar but crystals can grow from
structures. Here, solution faster along the cube
tarnished, brassy edge than in the center of the
chalcopyrite crystals faces, resulting in the formation
have grown in parallel of “hopper crystals” that have
Top of
on brownish-black glistening pink stepped cavities in each face.
sphalerite crystals. calcite crystal
group

Base of gray
Sphalerite crystals
Chalcopyrite calcite crystal
crystals group

Branching metal
In a restricted space, as between two beds of rock, Outline of
native copper and other minerals may grow chlorite
in thin sheets. Its characteristic
branchlike form is described
as “dendritic.”

“Branches”
of copper

Phantom growth
The dark areas within this
quartz crystal formed when a
thin layer of chlorite coated
the crystal at an earlier stage
of its growth. As the crystal
continued to grow, the chlorite
became a ghostlike outline.

47
The properties Model showing how
one atom is bonded
to four others

of minerals
Diamonds

Most minerals have a regular crystal structure and a

definite chemical composition. These determine the chemical
and physical properties that are characteristic for each mineral
Diamond
and help geologists identify it and see how it was formed. In this cubic mineral formed
under high pressure, each
carbon atom is strongly
Model of bonded to four others to form
Structure graphite structure a rigid and compact structure.
Some chemically Diamond is extremely hard
(Mohs scale 10).
identical minerals exist
in more than one Carbon atom
form. For example, the
element carbon forms Carbon
two minerals: diamond atom
and graphite.

Graphite
specimen
Graphite
In this hexagonal mineral formed under high temperatures, Model of diamond
each carbon atom is closely linked to three others in the same structure
layer. Built up of widely spaced layers only weakly bonded
together, graphite is very soft (1–2 on the Mohs hardness scale).

Cleavage Thin lines

Shell-like
conchoidal
When crystals break, show cleavage fracture
some tend to split along planes
well-defined cleavage
planes, due to their atoms’
orderly arrangement.
Smaller crystal
growing with
Perfect rhomb larger crystal
This yellow-colored calcite
has such a well-developed
rhombohedral cleavage that
a break in any other direction
is virtually impossible.

Fracture
Crystals that break leaving
Perfect break uneven, rough, or shell-shaped
Barite crystals show two perfect (conchoidal) surfaces that are
cleavages. If this crystal were broken, not related to their atom
it would split along these planes. structure are said to fracture.

48
Hardness THE MOHS SCALE
The bonds holding atoms 10
together dictate a mineral’s The scale created by Friedrich Mohs classifies minerals
hardness. In 1812, mineralogist based on their hardness (scratchability). The intervals
Friedrich Mohs devised a scale between the minerals in Mohs scale are not equal.
of hardness that is still in use Diamond (10) is about 40 times harder than talc (1).
today. He chose ten minerals The difference in hardness between corundum (9)
9
8
7
as standards and ranked them and diamond (10) is more than the difference 4 56
so that any mineral on the between talc (1) and corundum (9).
1 23
scale would scratch only
those below it.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Talc Gypsum Calcite Fluorite Apatite Orthoclase Quartz Topaz Corundum Diamond

Magnetism Optical Specific gravity

Only two common The optical effect as light passes through Specific gravity is defined as the ratio of
minerals, magnetite a mineral is due to light’s interaction with the weight of a substance to that of an
and pyrrhotite (both atoms in the equal volume of water. Determining the
iron compounds), are structure. specific gravity may aid identification.
strongly magnetic.
Magnetite lodestones Size vs. weight
were used as an early The nature of the atoms and internal
form of compass. atomic arrangement of a mineral
determine its specific gravity. These
three mineral specimens are different
Clusters of
iron filings sizes but weigh the same, as the atoms
in quartz and galena are heavier or more
closely packed together than the atoms
in mica.

Mica

Galena

Double image
Light traveling through a calcite
rhomb is split into two rays, which
makes one daisy stalk seem like two.

Natural magnet Fluorescing

Permanently autunite
magnetized magnetite Viewed under
attracts iron filings and ultraviolet light,
other metallic objects, certain minerals
such as paper clips. fluoresce. Quartz

49
Gemstones
Gemstones are minerals of great Diamond
beauty, rarity, and resilience. Diamond is named from the Greek
word adamas (“unconquerable”).
Light reflects and refracts with It is the hardest mineral of all
and famed for its lasting fiery
the minerals to produce the brilliance. The quality of a gem
intense colors of gems, such as diamond is measured by the
four Cs: its color, clarity, cut,
ruby and emerald, and the “fire” and carat weight.
of diamond. Color, fire, and Kimberley diamond
Diamond crystal mine, South Africa
luster are revealed by skilled
cutting and polishing for use Diamonds in rock
Kimberlite is the source rock for most
in jewelry. Gems are usually diamonds. It is named after Kimberley in
South Africa, where it occurs in a volcanic
weighed by the carat, equal pipe that has its roots 100–200 miles
(160–320 km) deep in Earth’s crust.
to one-fifth of a gram.

Kimberlite

Treasures in gravel
Until 1870, diamond crystals and
fragments came from river gravels,
mostly in India or Brazil. Then South
Africa’s diamond-rich kimberlite
made it the leading supplier.

Colors of diamonds
Diamonds range from colorless Crown jewel
through yellow and brown to pink, The Koh-i-noor Indian
green, blue, and a very rare red. Table, diamond, worn here by
rose, and brilliant cuts display their Queen Mary, was given to
fire and luster to best advantage. Queen Victoria in 1850.

Beryl
Beautiful, hexagonal beryl crystals are found in many
countries. Emerald and aquamarine, two major gem
varieties, have long been exploited. Egyptian emerald Cut
mines date back to 1650 bce. emerald

Roman beryl Emeralds

Yellow The earrings and The best
heliodor Aquamarine necklaces contain emeralds come
cut emeralds. from the emerald
Colorful beryls mines in Colombia.
Pure beryl is colorless. The colors are due to small Perfect emeralds are
amounts of impurities (trace elements). Pink very rare, and most
morganite is colored by manganese. Yellow heliodor crystals contain small
is named after the sun, and aquamarine is named imperfections (called
after the color of the sea. Colors can be improved “flaws”), such as marks,
with heat treatments. Pink morganite cracks, or mineral inclusions.

50
Corundum Sapphire crystal
Ruby tends to form in flat
Gems in jewelry
The oldest jewelry
Ruby and sapphire are varieties crystals, while sapphire comes from burials
of the mineral corundum, which tends to be barrel-shaped 20,000 years
is colorless when pure. Tiny or pyramidal, ago. This late-
quantities of chromium make often with 16th-century
ruby red. Iron and titanium zones of blue enameled,
give the blues, yellows, to yellow gold pendant is
and greens of sapphire. color. decorated with
rubies, emeralds,
and diamonds.
Star sapphire
Stones with fine, needlelike
crystals orientated in three River jewels
directions can be cut as Most sapphires and rubies
star rubies or star come from river gravel, where
The Edwardes Ruby
sapphires. gems are sorted by river
This exceptional crystal weighs
currents. They are denser than
162 carats. It is almost certainly
rock surrounding them and so
from the famous gem deposits
get concentrated in the gravel.
of Mogok, Myanmar (Burma).

Pink Clear
Cut ruby
sapphire sapphire

Gem sources
Australia supplies the most blue and yellow sapphires.
Rubies are mined in Myanmar, Thailand, and central Blue Colorless Yellow Mauve
Africa. Sri Lanka is famous for blue and pink sapphires. sapphire sapphire sapphire sapphire

Opal White opal Color variations in opal

Opal’s blue, green, yellow, and red iridescence
Opal probably gets its name from India, is caused by light from minute silica spheres
from the Sanskrit word upala within the mineral. The “body” color can be
(“precious stone”). Roman clear, milky, white, or either gray or black
jewelry used opals from the in its most precious form.
Czech Republic. In the
1500s, opal came from
Fire opal
Central America. After
The finest fire opal comes
1870, Australia from Mexico and Turkey
became the and is usually cut as
leading faceted stones. It is
supplier. valued as much for its
intensity of color as
for its iridescence.

Iridescent black opals

EYEWITNESS
Opal mining
An Australian miner
uses a hammer to
remove a thin layer of
Opal’s rocky origins
Most opal forms over long periods of time in sedimentary opal. Australia produces
rocks, like this sample from Australia, but in Mexico and about 95 percent of the
the Czech Republic, it forms in gas cavities in volcanic world’s precious opal. It
rocks. Opal is often cut as cabochons, but the veins in is the country’s official
sedimentary rocks are often thin. Slices may be glued national gemstone.
onto onyx or glass to form doublets and capped with
clear quartz to form a triplet.
51
 Decorative
Lapis lazuli
This blue gem consists
mainly of lazurite and

stones
sodalite minerals with
white calcite and specks
of brassy-colored pyrite.

Turquoise, agate, lapis lazuli, and jade are

all gems made up of many crystals. They
are valued mainly for their color, evenly
distributed, as in turquoise, or patterned,
as in an agate cameo. Agate and jade are
also tough, ideal for fine carving.

Vein of

Turquoise
turquoise

Found in the earliest

jewelry, turquoise
gives its name to
“turquoise blue,” a
pale greenish-blue.
Its color is largely
due to copper and
traces of iron. The
Lapis crafts more iron that is
Long used for beads and present, the greener
carvings, lapis has been known the stone.
for more than 6,000 years and
is named from the Persian word
Lazhward (“blue”).
Turquoise ornaments
This artifact may be of
Persian origin. The
double-headed
serpent (below)
Egyptian amulet
is from an
Many fine carvings
Aztec necklace.
have been recovered Purest samples
from the tombs of The best lapis lazuli is
Egyptian pharaohs. mined in Badakhshan, Cut turquoise
Afghanistan, where it The finest sky-blue turquoise has been mined
occurs in white marble. in Nishapur, Iran, for 3,000 years. Another
ancient source, known to the Aztecs, is in
the southwestern US, which now supplies
most of the world’s turquoise.

Mesopotamian mosaic
Lapis was used to decorate the wooden box known
as the Standard of Ur (detail above), c. 2500 bce.

52
Chalcedony Agate
Banded agates form
Carnelian, onyx, chrysoprase, in cavities in volcanic
and agate are all forms of rocks. Uruguay and
chalcedony. Pure chalcedony Brazil are the
is translucent gray or white main sources.
and consists of thin layers of
tiny quartz fibers. Impurities
create the patterns in agate.
Crystals

Ancient favorite Polished sliced agate

Apple-green chrysoprase Microscopic crystals
has been used in jewelry formed in bands as hot, silica-
since pre-Roman rich solutions filtered through Deep-colored
times, often as cavities in porous rocks. band
cameos or
intaglios.

Stone landscape
The pattern in moss
agate or mocha
stone is shown to
Cameo portrait advantage in this
Chrysoprase This bloodstone delicate cabochon.
cabochon shows a Roman
emperor.
Ornamental knife
Carnelian is a reddish-brown
chalcedony and has been
used in jewelry and inlay
work throughout history.

Jade Mughal dagger

Mughal craftsmen
Chinese art
The toughness of
Named from the Spanish carved pale green and jade was known to
piedra de hijada used to gray nephrite into the Chinese more than
describe the green stone dagger handles, bowls, 2,000 years ago, and
carved by the Indians in and jewelry, often this was exploited in
Central America, jade inlaid with rubies and their delicate carvings.
refers to two different other gems.
rocks—jadeite and
nephrite. Rare jade
Jadeite can be white, orange,
brown, lilac, or the translucent
green “imperial jade.”

EYEWITNESS
Nephrite boulder
Tutankhamun’s mask
Nephrite is more common
In 1922, a British archaeologist
than jadeite and is generally
unearthed many artifacts from
green, gray, or creamy white.
the tomb of the ancient Most nephrite and jadeite
Egyptian King Tutankhamun. occur as rounded waterworn
One of them was the pharaoh’s boulders, as in this example
death mask, in which blue lapis, from New Zealand.
reddish-brown carnelian, black
obsidian, colorless or white
quartz, and colored glass are
inlaid in gold.

53
Other gems
Black
Prince’s Ruby
The large red
stone in the
Imperial State
Crown was
In addition to well-known gemstones such as mistakenly called
a ruby, but it is
diamond, ruby, sapphire, emerald, and opal, a spinel.
many other minerals have been used for human
adornment. These are just some of the stones
frequently seen in jewelry, but the full range
of luster, fire, and color is extensive.
Small ruby

Spinel Blue
Red spinels resemble spinel
rubies and were once
called balas rubies,
after Balascia, now
Badakhshan in
Afghanistan. There is
also a range of pink, Pink spinel
lilac, blue, and bluish-
green stones. Mauve
spinel

Spinel

Topaz
Occurring chiefly in granites and pegmatites,
some gem-quality topaz crystals are very
large, weighing many kilograms. The largest
stones are colorless or pale blue, but the most
valuable are golden-yellow imperial
topaz or pink topaz.

Imperial
colored topaz

Topaz ring
Pink topaz is one of the rarest and most
valuable varieties of topaz. Yellow topaz
Yellow topaz Blue topaz
is heated to turn it pink. Pink topaz was
also popular in Victorian times.

Tourmaline
Tourmaline shows the greatest range
in color of any gemstone, and some
single crystals are multicolored. “Watermelon” Parti-colored Yellowish-green
The crystal forms and electrical tourmaline tourmaline tourmaline
properties are different at each
end of a crystal—this polarity is
sometimes reflected in color
differences, especially pink
and green. Cut stones can
show this variation Mauve-gray Blue Pink Brown Green
to advantage. tourmaline tourmaline tourmaline tourmaline tourmaline
Garnet EYEWITNESS
Garnet is a group name for
a diverse set of gems that Byzantine relic c. 955 ce
includes almandite and Many Byzantine artifacts were
pyrope (red and purplish-red), made of gold and decorated
spessartite (orange-red), with precious stones. Crafted
Grossularite in Constantinople, the Limburg
grossularite (orange, green, or colorless), garnets
and demantoid (green). Fine green Staurotheke is a container for
demantoid garnet has a bright emerald holy remains. Featuring nine
Rose-cut
color and is the rarest and most enamel panels, it depicts
stone
angels surrounding Christ on
expensive of the garnets.
a throne, the Virgin Mary, and
St. John the Baptist.

Greek diadem
This section of a Hellenistic
Zircon
diadem dates from the 2nd Garnet earrings Named from zargoon, the Arabic word
century bce and is inlaid with Rose-cut stones for golden colored, zircon occurs in many
garnets. Its design is common to make attractive colors, including reddish brown, golden
many Greek artifacts of that time. jewelry when set in yellow, yellow, green, blue, pink, and
gold, as shown
colorless. Brown zircon can be heat-
by these 18th-
treated and irradiated to colorless
century earrings.
or blue stones popular in jewelry.

Almandite Essonite Pyrope

Pink Green Yellow Heat-treated

zircon zircon zircon and irradiated
blue zircon
Demantoid
Demantoid garnets Peridot
This is the transparent gem variety of olivine.
The proportion of iron in the mineral
Amethyst determines the shade of color. The
Purple amethyst is a variety of more valuable golden-green
quartz. Colorless, transparent and deep-green stones
rock crystal is the purest form of contain less iron than those
19th-century with a brownish tinge.
quartz, and the colors of
amethyst Peridot has been
amethyst, citrine (yellow quartz), necklace
and rose quartz are caused by used in jewelry since
iron or titanium impurities. classical times and
originally came from
St. John’s Island in
the Red Sea.

Cut
Cut amethyst peridots

55
Ore minerals
Mined, quarried, or dredged from lakes and rivers, ore
minerals are crushed and separated and then refined and
smelted (fused and melted) to produce metal. Copper was
Bronze ritual food
in use well before 5000 bce. Around 3000 bce, tin was vessel from China from
added to make a harder metal, bronze. Iron was even harder about 1000 bce

and was widespread by 500 bce.

Chalcopyrite—
copper ore
Bauxite— Colorful copper
aluminum ore Brassy, yellow chalcopyrite and
bluish-purple bornite are
common copper ores.
Because it is a good
conductor, copper is used in
the electricity industry, and
because it is malleable (easy to
shape and roll), it is good for
household water pipes. It is also
Aluminum used in alloys with zinc (brass)
Lightweight kitchen foil and with tin (bronze).
aluminum
Aluminum is lightweight, a
good conductor of electricity,
not easily corroded, and used
in power lines and saucepans.

Tough iron
Hematite is the most Stacks of
important iron ore. Iron is aluminum ingots
tough and hard, yet easy to
Steel Copper
work. It can be cast, forged,
screw plumbing joint
machined, rolled, and alloyed
Bornite—
(mixed) with other metals.
copper ore
Steel is made from iron.

Airliner partially
constructed from titanium

Strong titanium
Rutile and ilmenite are the main ores of
titanium. Usually found in igneous or
metamorphic rocks, these two minerals
form deposits with other minerals, many
of which are extracted as by-products.
Hematite— Rutile— Lightweight yet very strong, titanium is
iron ore titanium ore widely used in aircraft frames and engines.

56
Sphalerite— Durable nickel Nickeline—
zinc ore
Nickel comes from deposits in nickel ore
large, layered gabbroic intrusions
and from deposits formed by the
weathering of basaltic igneous
Galvanized rocks. Nickeline occurs in small
nail amounts in silver and uranium
deposits where nickel is a
by-product. Nickel is used
in corrosion-resistant alloys,
such as stainless steel, and in
high-temperature, high-
strength alloys suitable for
aircraft and jet engines.

Nickel alloy battery

Black jack zinc
Cinnabar—
Sphalerite or “black jack,” as it was known by
miners, is the most important zinc ore and is
mercury ore Red mercury
found in deposits in volcanic and sedimentary The poisonous mercury ore
rocks. Zinc is used in galvanizing—coating cinnabar forms near recent
sheet steel with a thin layer of zinc to prevent volcanic rocks and hot
it from rusting. springs. Mercury is very
dense, has a low melting
point, and is liquid at
Lead solder
room temperature.
Soft and shiny lead It is widely used in drugs,
Galena, the main lead ore, is pigments, insecticides,
worked chiefly from deposits in and scientific
limestones. Lead is the densest instruments.
and softest common metal, with
a high resistance to corrosion, Mercury
but it is not very strong. It is thermometer
used in storage
batteries, gasoline,
engineering and
plumbing,
and with tin
in solder.

Crystalline
19th-century tin mine in
cassiterite—
Cornwall, UK
tin ore

Workable tin
The tin ore cassiterite is hard, heavy,
and resistant to abrasion. Modern
uses of tin are based on its resistance
to corrosion, low melting point,
malleability, lack of toxicity, and high
Tin can, more conductivity. It is used in solder and tin
often made plate. Pewter is an alloy with roughly
Galena—lead ore of aluminum 75 percent tin and 25 percent lead.

57
Precious metals
Silver
Long used in coinage, but less
valuable than gold or platinum,
silver easily loses its
shine and becomes
Gold and silver were among the first metals discovered. tarnished. Sterling
and plated silver
Valued for beauty and rarity, they—and platinum in the last
is made into
100 years—are used in coins to prove wealth, buy, and sell, jewelry and
ornaments.
and in jewelry and other objects.

Platinum
Popular in jewelry, platinum is also used in
oil refining and in reducing pollution from
car exhaust.

Sperrylite crystal
Platinum is
found in several
minerals, one
being sperrylite.
This is the largest
known sperrylite
crystal, found in South
Africa c. 1924.

Platinum grains
Most platinum minerals
occur as tiny grains in Silver
nickel deposits. These branches
grains are from Colombia, Occasionally, as
where platinum was in this specimen
first reported in the from Copiapo,
18th century. Chile, silver
occurs in
delicate,
Imperial coins Platinum nugget branchlike
Platinum has Large nuggets of platinum dendritic forms.
been used as are rare. This one, from
coinage in Nizhni-Tagil in the Urals,
several weighs 2.4 lb (1.1 kg), but
countries, the largest on record
including weighed 21 lb
Russia. (9.7 kg).

Religious bell
One of a pair, this
silver Torah bell
was made in Italy
in the early 18th
century and was
Delicate silver wires used in Jewish
Silver is now mostly ceremonies.
extracted as a by-product
from copper and lead-zinc
mining. Until the 20th
century, it was mostly
mined as native metal,
like the famous silver
“wires” from Norway.

58
 Gold
Today, this metal is used in jewelry, electronics, and dentistry,
but more than half the gold mined is buried again—in bank
vaults, as investments.

Crystalline
chalcopyrite

Fool’s gold
Pyrite and
South Africa
chalcopyrite’s
Traditional gold mines
brassy color
were labor-intensive.
can be mistaken
The Great Gold Rush
for gold. But
Prospectors flocked to
chalcopyrite, the
pan gold in 19th-century
main ore of copper,
California; the Yukon,
is more greenish-
Canada; and Australia.
yellow, more brittle,
and harder than
gold, although not
as hard as pyrite.
Chalcopyrite

Cubes of
pyrite

Vein gold Pyrite

Gold may Pyrite mostly
occur in quartz forms cubic crystals.
veins. It is Crystalline rocks that
extracted by crushing don’t show a crystal
the ore for a concentrate, habit are called
which is then smelted. “massive.” Pyrite is
closer in color to
“white gold” or electrum,
Tutankhamun’s
an alloy (mixture) of
collar
Gold grains gold and silver, than
Gold is also to pure gold.
produced by
smelting particles Massive
that have been pyrite
dredged or panned
and then separated
out from gravel
and sand deposits.
EYEWITNESS
Largest golden nugget
Replica of
In February 1869, miners John Welcome Stranger
Deason and Richard Oates
Egyptian craft found the world’s largest
The ancient Egyptians were gold nugget, Welcome
one of the first civilizations Stranger, in Australia. It
to master the art of was 24 inches (61 cm)
goldsmithing, using solid, long and weighed
beaten gold. Nowadays, 159 lb (72 kg), as
copper and silver are often much as an adult.
added to gold (measured
in carats) to make it harder.

59
Cutting and polishing
The earliest gemstones were rubbed together to
produce a smooth surface, which could then be
engraved. Skilled workers, called lapidaries, cut and
polish gemstones, choosing the best way to keep
them as large and beautiful as possible, sometimes
helped by using computers. Grinding and polishing agates in
a German workshop, c. 1800

Cutting gems Hollow drum

rotated by rollers
Tumbling
When mined, gemstones often look Amateur lapidaries use a
dull. To create a desirable, sparkling tumbling machine to rub
gem, the lapidary must cut and pieces of mineral with
polish it to enhance its natural coarse grit and water for
qualities, allowing for any flaws within. about a week, then with
finer grits until the
Rollers
pebbles are rounded
and polished.

Belt
driven by
motor

The hardest cut

Rough diamonds are marked with
india ink before the first break or
cut is made.

Rough unakite
POPULAR CUTS mineral pieces ready
for polishing

Tumbling action
Grits and As the drum rotates, pebbles
polishes are rubbed smooth and round.
Table Rose Grinding grits are used
cut Cabochon cut in sequence, from the
coarsest to the finest. Polished
unakite pieces
after tumbling
Water
added
with grits
Emerald or Pear Round
step cut brilliant brilliant

The first, simple cuts included

table and cabochon cuts. More Cerium oxide, fine
complex, faceted cuts include the polishing powder,
round brilliant cut for diamond. Coarse grinding finally makes
grit used in first Fine grinding grit for pebbles smooth
tumbling second tumbling and sparkling

60
 Rough quartz ready to be broken Quartz
for tumbling and polishing
Because of its abundance and
hardness (and hence its ability to
polish up well), the silica group of
Amethyst minerals including quartz is the
Amethyst makes attractive most commonly used for the
polished stones, with areas of production of tumbled stones.
lighter and darker purple and
colorless patches.
Fragments
Polished of rose
rose quartz quartz

Polished rock crystal

(colorless quartz)

Polished
amethyst Necklace
Colorful tumbled
stones can be made into
necklaces and bracelets.

Rose quartz
Fragments The pink variety of quartz, rose
of amethyst
quartz, is far rarer than milky
Carved quartz or amethyst. Most rose
alabaster quartz comes from Brazil, but
stone the US is also a key producer.

10
Carved stones
8
Intaglio Cameos have a raised
9
seal design, carved in relief,
while intaglios are
Intaglio showing hollowed out. 6 5
detail of a horse
carved into
an onyx locket 6
7
3
2
Cameo showing 4
a scene from the
myth of Hercules
1
Thomsonite
Color-banded Assorted stones
thomsonite fragments Various mineral and rock
produce unusual species are suitable for
patterns and “eyeballs” tumbling. Some of the most
when tumbled. The attractive include tigereye (1),
best material is found blue aventurine (2), amazonite
in Minnesota. (3), snowflake obsidian (4),
Thomsonite is a Apache tears (5), moss agate
reasonably widespread (6), red-banded agate (7),
silicate mineral and Polished Thomsonite sodalite (8), crazy lace agate
occurs in basalt flows. thomsonite rock (9), and snakeskin agate (10).

61
 Starting a collection
Collecting mineral and rock specimens is a rewarding and
popular pastime. It dates back to the amateur geologists of the
19th century, many of whom amassed impressive collections.

Geologist’s
Satchel with hammer
rock specimens (1 lb/0.5 kg)
EYEWITNESS
Careful planning Young rock collectors
Plan any field work and collecting trips in Anyone interested in rocks can
advance, using geological guidebooks, maps, Geologist’s become an amateur rock collector,
trimming or a rockhound. They can start their
and internet searches before your visit.
hammer collections by gathering rocks based
Download useful apps (such as a compass and
map) onto your phone. Make sure that you can on their color, shape, or texture.
get a signal and that your phone is charged. Rare rocks are found sometimes, such
as this agate from Brazil that resembles
Get permission to visit any area or site on
the popular character Cookie Monster.
private land. Check tide times if
you are visiting a beach to
Collecting
Blue agate
make sure that you kit
don’t get cut off by Pack a geological
the tides. Never enter hammer, but
old mines or cave don’t hammer
systems. Do tell unnecessarily.
someone where you are Take photos rather
going and when you than specimens,
expect to be back. unless you really
need a few
Map specimens for
your collection.

Protective clothing
Strong gloves
To prevent injury from flying rock
Compass and metal splinters, wear the
Safety helmet
protective gear shown
here, sturdy shoes
or boots, and
strong,
waterproof
clothing.
Guide
book

Protective
goggles
 Warning Recording a find
When rock collecting, there are certain Number the specimen by placing a label with the
rules you should follow at all times: specimen before you wrap it. Make a note of exactly
check that collecting is allowed and where you found it, with a comment or sketch in your
always obey the local rules, ask notebook, or take notes and a photo as a reminder.
permission before entering private land, Try to include something, such as a coin or your
avoid disturbing wildlife, wear suitable hammer, in your photo to show the size of rocks
clothing, use proper equipment, and and where you
avoid creating hazards for others. found the
specimen
before you
Pen remove it.

Identification
In the field, use a x10
magnification hand lens.
Indoors, a binocular Notebook
microscope will reveal
finer details.
Camera

Pencil
Spatulas
for fine Surgical knife for
work, fine preparatory Sample bag Newspaper
such as work on fossils
cutting Bubble
around Transporting wrap
fossils
Wrap each specimen
individually to avoid
chipping or scratching.
As crystal groups are
Palette
knife for usually very fragile,
extracting pack them in
small crystals tubes or boxes with
from soft fossils wrapping and carry
in collecting bags.

Cleaning Plastic tube

To remove surplus rock from a specimen,
wash it in water and scrub lightly with a soft
brush. Or sift crumbly rock like clay for small
Curating your
crystals and bits of rock. collection
To prevent damage to
Trowel for digging Sieve for sorting specimens, store them in individual trays
soft rocks material
Paintbrushes or boxes in shallow drawers. Keep in mind
for cleaning their individual needs—some minerals
specimens deteriorate in damp, heat, or light.

Sealable
plastic bag

Boxes for storing Labels for documenting

specimens specimens

63
Did you know?
AMAZING FACTS
After astronauts returned from the moon, On some coastlines made up of soft
scientists discovered that the most rocks, the sea carves away yards of land
common type of lunar rock is a basalt also every year. Some villages, such as
found on Earth. Dunwich in Suffolk, UK, have partly fallen
into the sea as cliffs collapsed.

Ice can shatter rock. Granite, one of

the hardest rocks, can be split by water
in cracks, expanding as it freezes. The
combined weight and movement of
a glacier (a river of ice) can hollow
out a whole mountainside.

Unaware it was poisonous, women in

ancient Rome used the mineral arsenic
as a cosmetic to whiten their skin.
Spider fossilized in amber
Graphite, used in pencils, is also used
in nuclear power stations. Huge graphite
Amber formed when sticky resin oozed
rods help control the speed of nuclear
from trees millions of years ago, sometimes
reactions in the reactor core.
trapping insects before it hardened.
Obsidian is a black, volcanic rock that is
The deeper into the crust a tunnel goes,
so shiny, it was used as a mirror in
the hotter it becomes. The deepest gold
ancient times. Fossil of Archaeopteryx
mines in South Africa have to be cooled
down artificially so that people are able to Rocks are constantly
In 1861, a quarryman discovered the fossil
work in them. changed by erosion and
of a birdlike creature with feathers that
forces deep inside Earth.
lived 150 million years ago. Archaeopteryx
Water and wind have
may link prehistoric reptiles and today’s
carved out this sandstone
birds. Minerals don’t only exist in rocks.
arch over millions of years.
Your bones are made of minerals too!

Obsidian
Prebischtor sandstone arch, Czechia

Devil’s Tower, Wyoming

Devil’s Tower, in Wyoming, is a huge rock

pillar made from lava that crystallized inside
the vent of a volcano. Over thousands of
years, the softer volcanic rock surrounding
the vent wore away, leaving the Tower.

More than 75 percent of Earth’s crust

is made of silicate minerals, composed
mainly of silicon and oxygen.

64
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
What are the most common rocks in Are there any new rocks forming
Earth’s crust? on Earth?

Volcanic rocks, such as basalt, are the most New rocks form all the time, some
common crustal rocks. Basalt forms from from layers of sediment, others from
the more fluid type of lava as it cools and volcanic activity under water and on
hardens. It makes up the ocean floors, land. Rock is constantly recycled by
which cover 68 percent of Earth’s surface. heat, pressure, weathering, and erosion.

How do we know that dinosaurs existed? What is a desert rose made from,
and how did it form?
Dinosaur bones and teeth have been found
Fossilized footprint of a dinosaur
as fossils all over the world (as have other Desert rose is made of gypsum.
animals and plants). Even their footprints It formed when water quickly
and dung have been preserved in rock. If pumice is a rock, how come it can float evaporated, leaving impurities that
on water? formed crystals shaped like petals.

Pumice is hardened lava froth from

volcanoes on land and under the sea. It is
full of tiny air bubbles—the air trapped
inside these bubbles makes pumice light
enough to float on water.

What made the stripes on the desert

rocks in Utah?

The rocks are made of layers of sandstone.

Chinese nephrite dragon Over millions of years, hot days, cold nights,
floods, and storms have worn away the
softer layers of rock, creating stripes in the
What is jade, and why does it have more
landscape.
than one name?
Desert rose
In 1863, this rock was found to be two What are the oldest rocks on Earth?
different minerals, now called jadeite and
The oldest known rocks came
nephrite.
from space as meteorites. RECORD BREAKERS
This chondrite is 4,600
Why are the pebbles on a beach so many
million years old, as old as • Most valuable metal
different colors?
Earth, and even older than Rhodium followed by palladium
Pebbles are made up of many types of rock, the first rock to form on are the most valuable metals of
washed up from many places. Their colors Earth about 4,200 million the platinum group. Platinum is
show what kinds of minerals they contain. years ago. Chondrite rarer than gold.

• Biggest gold nugget

The Welcome Stranger found in
Badlands, Australia in 1869 weighed 159 lb (72 kg),
Utah as heavy as an adult.

• Hardest mineral
Diamond is the hardest known
mineral and cannot be scratched
by any other.

• Biggest stalagmite
A stalagmite in Son Doong Cave,
Vietnam, is 230 ft (70 m) tall.

• Biggest rock
Uluru (Ayer’s Rock) in Australia is the
biggest freestanding rock in the world.
It is more than 2 miles (3.6 km) long.

65
 Rock or mineral?
Geologists classify rocks according to the way
in which they were formed, in three main types:
Geologist’s igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks.
tools

IDENTIFYING ROCKS

Igneous rocks Metamorphic rocks Sedimentary rocks

Igneous rocks are made from New metamorphic rocks form Sedimentary rocks are usually made
hot, molten rock from deep within when sedimentary, igneous, or from particles weathered and
Earth that has cooled and solidified. existing metamorphic rocks are eroded from other rocks. The
The more slowly a rock cools and transformed by heat and/or particles, from sand grains to
solidifies, the larger the crystals pressure in Earth’s crust. Different boulders, are deposited in layers
can form. minerals form, depending on the (strata) and slowly become rocks.
amount of heat and/or pressure. These rocks can contain fossils.
Large, coarse
pebbles cemented
together
Large crystals
of quartz,
feldspar, and
mica that
formed as the
rock cooled
slowly
Conglomerate
Granite
Crinkled
layers Iron oxide
gives orange
color
Folded schist
Fine grain size

Large crystals
that formed as Sandstone
Gabbro
the rock cooled
slowly Angular fragments of
rock held together by
a fine, sandy material

Dark,
fine-grained
volcanic
rock that Slate
formed
from lava Dark and light Breccia
bands of color
Basalt

Formed from
Glassy the skeletons
volcanic rock of micro-
that cooled organisms,
too quickly chalk has a
to form soft, powdery
crystals texture

Obsidian Gneiss Chalk

66
 IDENTIFYING MINERALS

Each mineral is different and may have a characteristic

color or crystal shape that helps us identify it. Some
form crystals larger than a human, while others form
as sheets or lumpy masses or grow as crusts on rocks.

Prismatic
beryl crystal

Beryl
Formed deep in the crust, beryl
is found mainly in granites and
Vitreous, pegmatites. Transparent beryl is
or glassy, a rare and valuable gemstone—
luster Gold emerald and aquamarine are
Quartz Gold is a precious metal and a rare the best-known varieties.
One of the most common minerals, native element. Usually found as
quartz occurs in many rocks, often in yellow specks in rocks, it often Sapphire crystals
mineral veins with metal ores. Quartz with tourmaline
grows with quartz in mineral veins.
crystals usually have six sides with a Occasionally gold forms large
top shaped like a pyramid. crystalline nuggets.
Pearly
luster on
crystals

Corundum
Mass of tabular The pure form of corundum is
Cockscomb barite
albite crystals colorless, but it comes in many
Barite forms in many environments,
colors—rubies and sapphires
from hot volcanic springs to mineral
Albite are two rare forms, mostly found
veins. Cockscomb barite is made
Usually white or colorless, albite in river gravel. Corundum is
up of rounded masses of soft,
is an important variety of feldspar, a extremely hard.
pearly crystals.
rock-forming mineral, and is often
Orange halite
found in granites, schists, and Flat-topped, crystals
sandstones. bright yellow
crystal

Sulfur Halite
Calcite A native element, sulfur Best known as rock salt, halite is one
The main mineral in limestone, crystallizes around hot springs of the minerals called evaporites,
which usually forms in a marine and volcanic craters as a powdery which form when salty water
environment, calcite is also found in crust of small crystals or as large evaporates. It is found in masses
bone and shell and makes stalactites crystals. Pure crystals are always and as cubic crystals, around
and stalagmites. yellow and soft. seas and lakes in dry climates.

67
 Find out more
Rocks are all around you, on the ground, and in walls,
buildings, and sculptures. The best way to find out
more about them is to collect them. Going on a trip
or vacation can also provide a chance to find different
rocks and discover new types of landscape. Here
Collecting pebbles you will find suggestions for museum collections
Pebble beaches, lakeshores, and river banks are
and other good places to visit as well as a list of
good places to look for specimens. See how
many colors and types you can find. Always be useful websites.
careful near water.

Gathering information
Visit your local natural history or geological
museum to see rocks and minerals, rare and
common. Many museums also have displays on Earth lab
volcanoes, earthquakes, and rocks from space.
Identifying specimens
You can take rock samples to some
PLACES TO VISIT museums for help in identifying
them. The Earth Lab at the Natural
THE EARTH GALLERIES AT THE History Museum in London has
NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM, LONDON
2,000 specimens of rocks,
• View amazing specimens of Earth.
minerals, and fossils, plus
THE SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL microscopes, qualified advisers,
MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, and an online datasite.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
• Visit the national collections of more
than 600,000 rocks, minerals and
gemstones.
Displaying your
collection
THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF NATURAL
HISTORY, FRANCE Gently clean your rock samples with
• Visit the galleries used by the water and let them dry, then arrange
Sorbonne University students. them in plastic or cardboard trays or
boxes. For delicate items, line the
TRINITY COLLEGE GEOLOGICAL trays with tissue paper. Put a small
MUSEUM, DUBLIN
data card in the base of each tray,
• Unearth fascinating geological wonders. Cardboard
trays lined with the specimen’s name, where
with tissue Specimen labels you found it, and when.

68
 Historic
USEFUL WEBSITES
gemstones
• Access one of the world’s finest mineralogy collections on the and jewelry
website of the Natural History Museum, London: A good place to look for
www.nhm.ac.uk/our-science/collections/mineralogy-
jewelry and other objects
collections.html
carved from rock is at a
• Rockwatch is an online club for young geologists and includes a
museum of decorative
library and games:
arts, such as the Victoria
www.rockwatch.org.uk
and Albert Museum,
• YouTube series Every Rock Has a Story by Prof. Ethan Baxter from
in London.
Boston College helps children unearth the wonders of Earth
through an online curriculum:
www.youtube.com/channel/UCl0Zrg9JFh5o4SPg94veh0w

Aztec jade
necklace

History in the rocks

Sediments were laid down between
about 75 and 28 million years ago,
building up in layers—seen as darker
and lighter bands. The oldest is at the
bottom and the youngest at the top .
Uncovered and carved out by more than
500,000 years of weathering and
erosion, they form the landscape
of the Badlands National Park.

Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Sculptures
People in ancient Greece and Rome
used marble for their finest statues
and buildings. Look at statues closely
to see whether they are made from
marble or another type of stone.
Marble statue of Pieta,
St. Patrick’s Cathedral,
New York

Giant’s steps
At Fingal’s Cave in Scotland, visitors can see hexagonal
columns of rock and a 230-ft (70-m) sea cave. In legend, the
giant Finn McCool scooped a handful of rock from Northern
Ireland and threw it across the sea toward Scotland, making
a Giant’s Causeway, from Northern Ireland to Fingal’s Cave. In
fact, the columns formed when basalt lava cooled and
shrank, and erosion by the sea formed the cave.

Cave at Melissani, Cephalonia, Greece

Limestone caves and grottoes

Limestone caves are good places to see stalactites. There are blue
grottoes on Mediterranean islands, such as Cephalonia and Malta.
The Lascaux Caves in France have prehistoric cave paintings.
Glossary
ABRASION GEOLOGIST
Erosion caused by water, wind, or ice laden with A scientist who studies rocks and minerals
sediments and scraping or rubbing against the to find out the structure of Earth’s crust
surface of rocks. and how it formed.

ACICULAR HABIT
Having a needlelike form. The shape and general appearance of a
crystal or group of crystals.
ALLOY
A metallic material, such as brass, bronze, or Ground worn away by erosion INTRUSIVE ROCKS
steel, that is a mixture of two types of metal. Igneous rocks that solidify within Earth’s crust
ELEMENT
and only appear at the surface once the rocks
One of the basic substances from which all
CABOCHON lying on top of them have eroded away.
matter is made. An element cannot be broken
A gemstone cut in which the stone has down into a simpler substance.
a smooth, domed upper surface without IRIDESCENCE
any facets. A rainbowlike play of colors on the surface of a
EROSION
mineral, similar to that of a film of oil on water.
The wearing away of rocks on Earth’s surface
CARAT by gravity, wind, water, and ice.
KARST SCENERY
The standard measure of weight for
The rock formations of some limestone
precious stones. One metric carat equals EVAPORITE
landscapes.
0.07 oz (0.2 g). Also used to describe Mineral or rock formed as a result of salt
the purity of gold; pure gold is 24 carat. or spring water evaporating.
LAPIDARY
A professional gem cutter.
CLEAVAGE EXTRUSIVE ROCK
The way a crystal splits apart along Formed when magma erupts as lava, which
LAVA
certain well-defined planes according cools at the surface.
Red-hot, molten rock (magma) from deep
to its internal structure.
within Earth that erupts to the surface from
FACE
vents of volcanoes.
CORE A surface of a crystal.
The area of iron and nickel that makes up LUSTER
the center of Earth. It is about 750 miles FACET
The way in which a mineral shines. It is affected
(1,200 km) in diameter. One side of a cut gemstone.
by how light is reflected from the surface of the
mineral.
FIRE
CRUST
In gemstones, fire is seen as a sparkle of colors
The thin outer layer of Earth. It varies in MAGMA
caused by the dispersion of light as it enters
thickness between 4 and 43 miles Molten rock beneath Earth’s surface.
a gemstone and splits into rainbow colors.
(6 and 70 km).
Diamond has high fire.
MANTLE
FOSSIL The layer between Earth’s core and crust.
The remains or traces of plants or animals It is 1,430 miles (2,300 km) thick.
preserved in Earth’s crust, in rock, amber,
permafrost, or tar. MASSIVE
Group of A term used to describe a mineral that has
natural no definite shape.
GALVANIZATION
crystals
A process that adds zinc to other metals
or alloys to prevent them from rusting. MATRIX
A mass of small grains surrounding large
GEMSTONE grains in a sedimentary rock, or the rock
Naturally occurring minerals, usually in surrounding a crystal.
CRYSTAL
crystal form, that are valued for beauty,
A naturally occurring solid with a regular METAMORPHOSE
rarity, and hardness.
internal structure and smooth external faces. To undergo a change of structure. In rocks, this is
Diamond usually caused by the action of heat or pressure.
DENDRITIC
Having a branchlike form. METEORITE
An object from space, such as a rock, that
DEPOSIT survives its passage through the atmosphere
A buildup of sediments. Sapphire to reach Earth.

70
 Meteorite POROUS STALAGMITE
Able to absorb water, air, or other fluids. A stony spike standing on the base of a
limestone cave. Stalagmites form where
PORPHYRY water has dripped from the roof of the
An igneous rock containing fairly large cave or a stalactite above, slowly building
crystals set into a finer matrix. up lime deposits.
MINERAL
A naturally occurring, inorganic solid with PRECIPITATION STREAK
certain definite characteristics, such as crystal A chemical process during which a solid The color produced when a mineral is
structure and chemical composition. substance, such as lime, is deposited from crushed into a fine powder. The color of a streak
a solution, such as lime-rich water. is used to help identify minerals. It is often a
MINERAL VEIN better means of identification than the color of
A crack in rock filled by hot fluids’ mineral PYROCLASTIC ROCK the mineral itself, as it is less variable.
deposits. Pyroclastic means “fire-broken” and describes
all the fragments of rock, pumice, and solid lava STRIATIONS
MOHS SCALE that may be exploded out of a volcano. Parallel scratches, grooves, or lines on a crystal
A scale of hardness from 1 to 10 based on ten face that develop as the crystal grows.
minerals. Minerals of a higher number are able RESIN
to scratch those of a lower number. A sticky substance that comes from some SWALLOW HOLE
plants and may harden to form amber, valued A hollow in the ground, especially in limestone,
MOLTEN as a gem. where a surface stream disappears from sight
Melted, made into a liquid by great heat, and flows underground.
especially rocks. ROCK
An aggregate of mineral particles. TRANSLUCENT
NATIVE ELEMENT Material that allows some light to pass through
An element that occurs naturally in a free state it but is not clear.
and does not form part of a compound.
TRANSPARENT
NODULE Material that allows light to pass through
A rounded lump of mineral found in it. It can be seen through.
sedimentary rock.
TUMBLING
OOLITES The process of rolling rough mineral pieces
Small, rounded grains in limestone. in a tumbling machine with water and gradated
sizes of grit until the pebbles are rounded
OPAQUE
and polished.
Material that does not let light pass through it.

VEIN
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
A deposit of minerals
The various optical effects produced as light
within a rock fracture
passes through minerals. This is one of the
or a joint.
properties used to help identify minerals.
Stalactites hanging from the roof of a cave VESICLE
ORE
A rock or mineral deposit that is rich A gas bubble or cavity
SEDIMENT in lava that is left as
enough in metal or gemstone for it to be
Rock material of various sizes, ranging a hole after the lava
worth extracting.
from boulders to silt, which is the product has cooled down
of weathering and erosion, as well as shell and solidified.
OUTCROP Veins of calcite
fragments and other organic material.
The area that one type of rock covers on a
geological map, including the parts covered VOLCANIC BOMB
SMELTING
by soil or buildings. A blob of lava that is thrown out of a volcano
The process of melting ore to extract the
and solidifies before hitting the ground.
metal that it contains.
PALEONTOLOGIST
A geologist who studies SPECIFIC GRAVITY VOLCANIC VENT
fossils. A property defined by comparing the weight The central passage in a volcano, or a narrow
of a mineral with the weight of an equal fissure in the ground or on the sea floor,
PIGMENT volume of water. through which magma flows and erupts as lava.
A natural coloring
material often used in STALACTITE WEATHERING
paints and dyes. Many A hanging spike made of calcium carbonate The breaking down of rocks on Earth’s surface.
pigments were first (lime) formed as dripping water precipitates This is mainly a chemical reaction, aided by the
made by crushing Azurite, once lime from the roof of a cave. Over a long presence of water, but it may also be due to
colored rocks and ground into a period of time, stony stalactites build up processes such as alternate freezing and
mixing the powders prized blue in size and may hang many yards from a thawing, or to mechanical weathering by
with animal fats. pigment cave roof. sediment-laden wind or ice.

71
Index
Ganges River, delta 7 M PQ skyscrapers 35
garnet 24, 25, 46, 55 slate 24–25, 34, 66
magma 7, 10, 16, 18 Parthenon, Athens,
gastropod limestone 21, 39 magnetite 15, 49 Greece 13 specific gravity 49
gemstones 6, 50–55 makeup 31, 33 Pasamonte meteorite 40 sperrylite 58
cutting and polishing malachite 33 peat 37 sphalerite 57
60–61
AB charcoal 32
geological processes 10
marble 24, 26–27 pebbles spinel 54
chrysoprase 53 marine organisms desert 12 stalactites 23
adzes 29 geologists 6, 62
African marble 27 cinnabar 33, 57 (microscopic) 21 seashore 7, 14–15 stalagmites 23
clay 9, 11, 20, 43 Giant Crystal Cave, Mars meteorite 41 and wave action 15
agate 52, 53 steel 56, 57
for art 32 Mexico 44 melting rocks 10 peridot 8, 55
agglomerate 18 Stone Forest, China
roofing 35 Giant’s Causeway, Northern mercury 57 Persian lapis lazuli 33
albite 67 Ireland 16–17 22–23
alloys 56, 57 coal 7, 36–37 mesolite 9 pigments 32–33 stone maul 30
see also charcoal glaciers 13 Mesolithic tools and pitchstone 16
aluminum 56 glass 15, 35 stony meteorite 41
amber 14, 64 collecting 62–63 weapons 29 plant fossils 38
gneiss 10, 11, 25, 66 stony-irons 40
amethyst 55, 61 conglomerate 21, 66 metamorphic rocks 11, platinum 58
gold 6, 59, 67 Sugar Loaf Mountain, Brazil
ammonites 21, 39 continental plates 6 24–25, 66 porphyries 17
copper 33, 47, 56 Grand Canyon, Arizona amphiboles in 42 Portland stone 34 10
amphiboles 42 20–21 sulfur 67
anthracite 7, 37 corundum 45, 51, 67 local 14 protective clothing 62
crystals granite 7, 15, 16, 34 meteorites 40–41, 65 pumice 19, 65 sun 10
aphthitalite 19 identifying 66
aragonite 46 giant 9 mica 46 pyramids, Egypt 34
arrowheads 29 growth of 46–47 and its minerals 8 biotite 16, 25, 42 pyrite 14, 47, 59 TVWZ
habits 6 weathered 13 in granite 8 pyroclastic rocks 18
arsenic 33, 64 Taj Mahal, India 27
quartz 17, 44 graphite 48, 64 specific gravity 49 pyroxene 8, 24, 43
ash, volcanic 18, 20 thomsonite 61
symmetry 44 Great Wall of China 35 Michelangelo 26 quarrying 34
asteroids 41 tin 56, 57
twinning 45 gypsum 9, 20, 44 migmatite 10, 25 quartz 6, 16, 42, 47
augite 17, 43 tin ore see cassiterite
axes 28–29, 30 see also gemstones minerals 8–9, 42–43 cutting and polishing 61
titanium 56
azurite 33, 45 daggers 29 HIJKL in basic rocks 43 gold in 59
tools
barite 45, 48, 67 desert, weathering 12 halite (rock salt) 20, 47, 67 carbonates and in granite 8
clays 43 identifying 67 from flint 28–29
basalt 8, 10, 17, 43, diamond 48, 49, 50 Halley’s Comet 41
digging stick 30 in granitic rocks 42 specific gravity 49 from rocks 30–31
64–65, 66 hand axes 28
dinosaur bones 39 identifying 67 quartzite 7, 11, 24 topaz 54
battle axes 30 hematite 33, 46, 56
diorite 30, 42 ores 6, 56–57 tors 13
beryl 44, 50, 67 hornfels 24
pigment 32 tourmaline 32, 54
biotite 8, 16, 25, 42 ice erosion 13 RS
body and rock art 32–33 EFG igneous rocks 7, 16–17, 66 properties of 48–49
recording a find 63
travertine 23, 27
breccia 18, 21, 27, 66 amphiboles in 42 secondary 13 tremolite 42, 46
Earth 6–7 rock art 32–33
bricks 35 extrusive/intrusive 10 from volcanic tufa 20, 22
structure 6 rocks
bronze 56 intaglio 61 gases 19 tumbling 60
Ease Gill Caves, England 23 formation 10–11
Bronze Age weapons and iron 33, 56 mining, for coal turquoise 52
eclogite 24 and their minerals 8–9
tools 29, 30–31 iron meteorite 40, 41 see coal Tutankhamun 53,
Egyptian goldsmithing 59 Roman stone tools 31
building stones 34–35 jade 52, 53, 65 Mohs scale 48, 49 59
Egyptian orange 33 rotary quern 31
Byzantine relic 55 jadeite 65 moon rocks 41, 64
emerald 45, 50 ruby 51 Vesuvius 19, 43
mosaic floors 34
erosion 12, 13 see also jade salt lake, Cyprus 47 volcanic rocks 7, 18–19
mudstone 20, 21
CD evaporites 20 jet 36
museums 68–69 sand 9, 11 and beach sand 15
calcite 9, 22, 43, 48, 67 feldspar 8, 9, 16–17, 42–43, kimberlite 50 sandstones 12, 20, 35, formation 9, 10
cameos 53, 61 67 lapis lazuli 33, 52 65, 66 igneous rocks 16, 17
carbon 37, 48 feldspathoids 43 lavas 7, 17, 18 NO Santorini, volcanoes 19 water-bearing meteorites
carbonates 43 flint basaltic 19 Neolithic axes 30 sapphire 51 41
carnelian 53 nodules 15 viscous 19 nephrite 53, 65 schist 10, 11, 25, 66 weapons 29–30
Carrara marble, Italy 26 silica 21 lead 57 nickel 40, 57 seashore weathering
cassiterite 6, 57 tools 28–29 limestone Notre Dame, Paris 35 pebbles 7
chemical 13
cave painting 32 fool’s gold 59 algal 21 nummulite 34 rocks 14–15
foraminifera 21, 34 for building 34–35 and rock formation 11
cement 35 obsidian 16, 19, 29, 64 sedimentary rocks 7, 9, 11, 14,
chalcedony 53 fossils 6, 38–39, 64–65 caves 20, 22–23 identifying 66 20–21, 38, 66 temperature change
chalcopyrite 46, 47, 56, 59 fossilized wood 36 fossils in 21, 38, 39 oceanic plates 6 serpentinite 17 and 12
chalk limestone 21, 34 landscapes 22–23 ocher 33 shale 20, 25, 38 tropical 13
cliffs 15 see also coal ore minerals in 57 oil shale 36 sickle 29 whetstones 31
identifying 66 gabbro 10, 17, 43, 66 sedimentary rock 7 olivine 8, 15, 40, 43 silica 21, 42 wind erosion 12
limestone 21 galena 49, 57 see also marble opal 51 silt 11 zinc 57
pigment 31, 32 galvanizing 57 lunar rock see moon rocks ore minerals 56–57 silver 58 zircon 55

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