| Rockhounding | |
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Sometimes I think that despite four years of geology school and thirty more of watching Earth science, all I really care about is rocks. Their colors and textures, the shapes of the crystals they enclose, the way they feel in the hand—rocks are easier to appreciate than to study.
If you're a geologist, you're not satisfied with just a rock. You want many rocks, for a truer picture of what underlies a locality. You want as many bits of data as you can get—crystal habits, foliation, mineral abundances, strike and dip directions—and you want them at many localities. You want to identify and count all the microfossils, or prepare thin sections for painstaking studies under the microscope. You want to arrange your data in piles and on maps. You want to put your rocks, somehow, into the Big Picture.
That kind of work is not for everyone. But rockhounding is. Basically, it's a great excuse for messing around outdoors. Rockhounding is a hobby with endless different ways to take it and dozens of ways to challenge yourself:
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- Specialize in certain rock types, like volcanic rocks or meteorites.
- Collect fossils.
- Collect specimens of specific minerals.
- Get into suiseki, the Japanese art of selecting natural stones.
- Make a personal Web site, like Steve Smale's, to display your collection.
- Collect crystals.
- Prospect for gold (but be careful if you succeed).
- Take up stone carving.
- Visit mineral shows and rock swaps.
- Join a local club and follow them around.
- Visit mines and diggings during your travels.
As you can see, rockhounding is really a whole complex of hobbies. I can get you started with a general list, but after that you're on your own.
The best place I've found on the Web for getting a well-rounded picture of rockhounding is a site—a book, really—called Rockhounding Arkansas. The man who put it together, Mike Howard, happens to be a proper geologist. But even with the geology degree, he definitely appreciates rocks just for themselves.
I just thought of another rock-collecting specialty—fulgurites. Those are the instant stones that form when lightning strikes the ground, melting whatever is there. They have been growing in popularity at rock shops, and they sure are cute.
