Rocks!

Since Moab is known for rocks, I had to visit the local rock shop. It's a really cool place with petrified wood (sometimes polished shiny), fossils and rocks both polished and not. Since mining goes with rocks, there was some old mining equipment in the front. Inside, they had relics from the mining days, old lanterns and tools.

 

This clear substance is more of a crystal than rock. Actually, lots of crystals and agates are prettier than some rocks.

This stone actually has little things growing in it, making it look like little branches of matter.

 

Below is a specimen of sandstone, one of my favorite rocks. It comes in many shades, all within one rock.



This is another great example of sandstone - this was a small piece, about 3 x 6", but gorgeous.  They call this picturestone. 

This is a great piece of semi-polished petrified wood.

 

This is a piece of rock that has a fossil of a fish in it.



As you can see, buying these special rocks can get expensive. So, all I did was look, and take some photos to share.

More rocks.....

 

 

 

Petrified Forest National Forest

The above photo looks like an amazing kind of rock, doesn't it. Actually, it was something that started a couple hundred million years ago - part of a petrified tree. The area used to be a floodplain with many streams with lots of evergreens. As the trees fell, the streams washed them into the floodplains nearby. Then they were buried under mud and volcanic ash, cutting off the oxygen. Silica from the water seeped into the logs, which petrified them. 

After a few hundred million years, the region changed, parts of the land were uplifted and over time, the wind and water wore at the rock layers and exposed the now-petrified trees. In the 1800s people would take the wood for souvenirs for themselves and also to sell to others. Finally, in the early 1900s, the area was set aside as a national monument. In more recent years, more acreage has been added to the monument, which now spans over 218,000 acres and was upgraded to a National Park. As with other National Parks, there are areas with no access allowed.

The colors in the petrified wood vary depending on the type of minerals that seep into the wood. As with all National Parks, collection of specimens are not allowed. Petrified rocks are available in all sizes and colors in this area from private enterprises, collected on land in the area that is outside the National Park.

In addition to all the amazing petrified wood pieces, this National Park includes some very striking senery. This photo shows some of the Blue Mesa area.

 

As with most areas in the southwest, the early settlers built pueblos and lived on the land, farming it. These were the ancestors of the Hopi and Navajo tribes. There are some ruins left in the area.

Petroglyphs are in some of these areas, the main area is called Newspaper Rock. These symbols and drawings were carved into the rock by using another, sharper rock.
　

　
Below is a photo of a section of petrified wood that has been polished - made smooth and shiny by grinding and sanding.  It really shows the colors, and these pieces are very expensive. 

Below are more examples of the petrified logs that are laying all over the park.......

 

 

 

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Pretty Rocks

            

        

I visited the Lafayette Science Museum in Louisiana the other day. There were various exhibits including space travel, fossils and dinosaurs. They also had a display of framed photographs of penguins, very well done.

What caught my attention probably more than anything, except maybe the penguins, was the display on rocks. Well, they weren't just rocks, they were crystal formations, quartz, calcites, some gemstones and geodes. Geodes are round rocks that had a void space inside that allowed the formation of crystals that cover the inside of the rock. If they had been allowed to keep growing, the crystals would consume the entire interior of the rock. They could be different colors, as seen below.
         

 

      

Also on display was a piece of tree trunk that was petrified, as well as a slice of a tree trunk that showed the interior. Surprisingly, you can see that it looks more like a rock than part of a tree. Throughout the time it petrifies, water flows through it and minerals replace the organic matter of the tree. Different colors are formed by different minerals.

　

One of the prettiest was a piece of opal, in rough form, but you can recognize the gemstone that is used in jewelry.

　

This was a small museum, and I found myself wishing it had more minerals, quartz and other pretty rocks to display. I'm sure in my travels, I'll find another museum with rock displays.