Rocks.vs.Minerals
Let's learn about rocks and minerals
Gneiss
Gneiss is a high grade metaphoric rock, meaning that it has been subjected to higher temperatures and pressures than schist. It is formed by metamorphosis of granite, or sedimentary rock. Gneiss displays distinct foliation, representing alternating layers composed of different minerals.
Sandstone
Sandstone(sometimes known as arenite) is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains. Most sandstone is composed of Quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the earth's crust.
Obsidian
Obsidian is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed as an extrusive igneous rock. It's produced when felsic lava extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimum crystal growth.
Porphyry
Porphyry is a textural term for an igneous rock consisting of large-grained crystals such as feldspar or quartz dispersed in a fine-grained feldspathic matrix groundmass . The lager crystals are called phenocrysts.
Breccia
Breccia is a term most often used for clastic sedimentary rocks that are composed of large angular fragments(over two millimeters in diameter). The spaces between the large angular fragments can be filled with a matrix of smaller particles or a mineral cement that binds the rock.
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with symbol Au and atomic number 79. In its purest form, it is a bright, slightly reddish yellow, dense, soft, malleable and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal and a group 11 element.
Silver
Silver is a chemical element with symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it possesses the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity and reflectivity of any metal.
Aquamarine
Aquamarine is a color that is a bluish tint of cerulean toned toward cyan. It is named after the mineral aquamarine, a gemstone mainly found in granite rocks. The first recorded use of aquamarine as a color name in English was in 1598.
Emerald
Emeralds are fascinating gemstones. They have the most beautiful, most intense and most radiant green that can possibly be imagined: emerald green. Inclusions are tolerated. In top quality, fine emeralds are even more valuable than diamonds.
Hiddenite
Hiddenite is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in east-central Alexander County, North Carolina. The population was 536 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Hickory–Lenoir–Morganton Metropolitan Statistical Area and founded in 1913.
Peridot
My birthstone is peridot.(/ˈpɛrɨdoʊ/ or /ˈpɛrɨdɒt/) is gem-quality olivine. Olivine is a silicate mineral with the formula of (Mg, Fe)2SiO4. As peridot is the magnesium-rich variety (forsterite) the formula approaches Mg2SiO4.