Michigan Rock And Mineral Identification

Fluorescent minerals and rocks glow with spectacular colors under ultraviolet light.

Michigan rock and mineral identification.

Keep in mind out of the many hundreds of samples brought to us the vast majority are common rocks or industrial slag. In lesser quantities basalt may also contain the mineral quartz hornblende. The following links may be useful for identifying minerals rocks and meteorites at home. This booklet can be purchased for 50 cents sales tax from the publication division department of natural resources lansing michigan 48926.

If you re studying rocks these terms will come up often. This book by dan r. Get the perfect guide to rocks and minerals of the great lake state. The sheer number and variety of rock and mineral samples required for the production of the units is immense.

Sedimentary rocks such as limestone or shale are hardened sediment with sandy or clay like layers strata they are usually brown to gray in color and may have fossils and water or wind marks. Crinoid fossils look like small discs with holes in their centers like cheerios. Flint chert jasper flint chert and jasper are types of chalcedony and names for microcrystalline quartz. They re from the stems of an animal that looks.

Minerals of michigan is in publication 42 rocks and minerals of michigan geological survey division 1951. Pyroxine is a class of rock forming silicate minerals generally containing the chemical elements calcium magnesium iron and occasionally the mineral olivine. Michigan was the nation s largest producer of copper from 1847 to 1877 according to michigan state university. Basalt is composed of plagioclase and pyroxine minerals.

The copper ore rich rocks lived in rock layers deep in lake superior. Granite is an igneous rock that formed deep underground and is abundant in northern wisconsin the upper peninsula of michigan and ontario. Resources for rock identification. Minerals a mineral is a rock substance occurring in nature that has a definite chemical.

The red or pink mineral in granite is potassium feldspar. Your must have guide to michigan s rocks and minerals. Igneous rocks such as granite or lava are tough frozen melts with little texture or layering rocks like these contain mostly black white and or gray minerals. Only one sample has ever been confirmed as a meteorite at the university in the past several decades.

Pyroxine and plagioclase minerals.