-
Home
| Where
to Find
Rocks | Field
Equipment | Home
Tools | Organise
Your Collection | Storage
and Display | Field
Safety | Blog
Rock Collections Practical Information
On this page you have practical
tips on rock collentions.
A home collection looks like easy to make.
Storage boxes are cheap to buy and the rest seems easy.
But some practical information will get you more organised and give your collection scientific value.
Where
to Find and Collect Rocks and Minerals?
While rocks can be found almost anywhere, some places are better than others. You can pick a few along roadsides, and beaches are good however most of the rocks on the beaches will be rounded by water erosion. Some other great places to find rocks are where the ground is open, such as quarries and old mine sites.
Geological
Hammer and Other
Field
Equipment
It is important to have proper field equipment such as a proper, safe, geological hammer; a good arrangement of chisels, a hand lens, a camera; bags and containers where to put collected specimens, a note book and a pen; a compass and/or a GPS, and of course, safety gear such as a hard hat, safety glasses and protective gloves.
Geological
Tools Home Kit
By audreym via Flickr.com
Once back home with newly collected specimens, you will need to clean and identify them, so you need geological tools. For cleaning you will need brushes,e water, and in some cases acids such as HCl. For separation of minerals from the rocks you will need etchers and chisels. And for identification you'll need scratchers, Mohs' hardness scale, a streak plate, a magnet, a jolly/spring balance, and maybe a microscope.
Organising
Your Rock and Mineral Collection
It is important to be organised both in the field and at home. If you don't organise your collection, it will not have any scientific value.
Every speciemen needs to be labeled in the field, with photos and accompanying information about it - which, once back home will be entered into a database.
Storage and Display of Your Mineral and Rock Collection
That's the fun bit - displaying your collection. You can choose to either display it on glass shelves if you have the room; or you can storage it in a box or a drawer. While storaging it in a box or drawer may sound like less fun, it is actually good for the minerals, because most of them are most stable when not exposed to light or changing temperatures. When in unstable conditions, they can change colours, get dull, or even start altering.
Rock
Collecting Field
Safety
By Pete Lewis via Flickr.com
And last but not least, do remember the safety. It's easy to forget that rocks are big, hard, heavy things that can hurt you easily. Collecting rocks under a high cliff? Remember the rock fall and wear a hard hat. Don't venture into old mining shafts - the wooden structures that hold the ceilings up are rotten. And, do wear protective gloves and safety glasses, particularly when hammering rocks.
Custom Search
What's New
About Us
About Using Content
PHOTOS
MAKE MONEY BUYING AND SELLING GOLD!
CRYSTAL HEALING
[?] Subscribe To This Site
Home | Site Map | Site Search | Site Policies | About Us | Contact Us
This site uses British English, which is the English we use in Australia.
Disclaimer:
Although
best efforts have been made to ensure that
all the information on this
site is correct,
collecting-rocks-and-minerals.com is not to be blamed should there be a
mistake.
Copyright notice:
All contents of this website are strictly protected
by the Law of
Copyright. What does that
mean?
Copyright 2010-2021 collecting-rocks-and-minerals.com. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.