Foo - Mineral for Jon

At our geology department, there's a display of various rocks and minerals. One is very pretty, and usually pink. Manganese carbonate, MnCO3, with its mineral name Rhodochrosite:

http://www.mineralatlas.com/mineral%20photos/R/rhodochrosite7523a.jpg

http://www.element51.com/rhodochrosite.slice.jpg

http://www.minvision.com/mvbthumbs/0115319001132334374543248.jpg

http://facetroughgemstones.com/g/r/rhodochrosite-rough-parcel.jpg

Pretty, huh?

I happen to have some beads made from that just begging to have some jewelry made from it.

looks kind of like pink quartz.

I hate to tell ya but that Rhodochrosite is impure :D

I hate to tell ya but that Rhodochrosite is impure :D

Then it's perfectly fit for Jon.

I hate to tell ya but that Rhodochrosite is impure :D

The true colour of the mineral is a pale pink, but of course most samples found in nature are impure. That's common for a lot of minerals.

I wonder if I could make a sweet pink dagger out of that, so I can pop the tires of middle aged ladies that flip me off on the road. :mad:

either way, that is bling BLOW.

The true colour of the mineral is a pale pink, but of course most samples found in nature are impure. That's common for a lot of minerals.

I thought it was more red in it's pure form no?

Actually, its streak is white, so I suppose you could say that white is the true colour... :D

Rhodonite is the silicate version, much harder than carbonate.


http://www.exceptionalminerals.com/Tuc2006-300rhodonite.jpg


http://www.geoclassics.com/rhodonite_sphere_$48_c.jpg


http://www.airuma.com/images/rhodonite.jpg

Rhodochrosite is the Colorado state mineral. I have a bit that I found at the Portland Mine tailings in Ouray, CO.

In the San Juan Mtns of Colorado there are a few of "rhodonite" mines. I've got several samples of it from trips there. This stuff is quite hard to break with a hammer! According to my mineralogy prof, the "rhodonite" is really pyroxmangite (it showed up on one of our Mineralogy Lab tests).

Bah, the geology around here is boring in that sense. Just granites, greywackes and sedimentary gneisses. About the most interesting thing you could find* here is a pretty beryl (in the pegmatites) or garnet (in the granites). Blah...

* Without using methods beyond unaided human vision...