Friday Five: Adelaide Rocks!

Some members of my family are fascinated by rocks. They have degrees and PhDs in the subject. I am not one of them. Words are more my passion. However, some of these aggregate lumps have tales of their own to tell, and as I wandered around the Minerals and Meteorites exhibition at the South Australian Museum, I found myself to be pretty interested in their stories.

The colours and names are wonderfully poetic, and, even without knowing the geology behind them, they intrigue me. Quartz, malachite, smithsonite, berthierite, freibergite; sparkly with points and nodules; bright hues of blues, greens, reds and purples from Wallaroo, Burra Burra, and other places in South Australia.

5 Special Rocks:

1. 
   
   

   

   Fluorescent rocks from the Sterling Hill and Franklin mines in New Jersey. They really do glow in the dark!

2. 

   Malachite - how beautiful is that!

3. 
   
   
   

   

   Gypsum - probably not as soft and fluffy as it looks

4. 

   Someone has organised these colourful pebbles in a way that appeals to my OCD nature.

5. 

   Opalised shells from a piece of ancient sea-bed.