Not Sure What Kind Of Mineral This Is But It's Sweet Looking

[Towtruckgirl]

Hi everyone. I spotted this rock in my boss's step moms yard and fell in love it, so I naturally began asking her all kinds of questions. She herself has no clue what it is, but she got that chunk off of an even bigger ( good boulder size) rock sitting on our friends porch. He had found it near the quarry on his property up in new york where there's lots of bluestone. So far a few attempts were made by her son to figure out what it was. The only thing he came up with was maybe it was quartz that was hit by lightening and melted and reformed. While it does have a glass like appearance , I really don't believe that to be true. The color reminds me of a coke bottle with some spots being almost transparent with no color at all. The best part about this rock is the little tiny round white stones that are suspended throughout the whole piece. The closest thing I could think of was that it maybe fluorite with either quartz or calcite in it. I'm really not sure but would love to hear everyone's opionon on this. The lill white stones almost appear to have an opalesence like quality or even kinda remind me of moonstone. Either way it's an awesome piece that I just had to share with everyone.

[Towtruckgirl]

^{Here is 2 more pics of the small piece she gave me off of it.}

[Auspex]

I'll bet good money that there was once a glass factory near where this was found. I occasionally find such in Smethport, PA, where this was the case.

[Scylla]

Could you figure out the Moh's scale hardness of this mineral? That would go a long way to narrowing down the possibilities.

[Towtruckgirl]

I will have to ask if there was a factory near there at one point cause it definatly reminded me of glass at first, but what don't make sense is the white thingies in it where its broken open I'm almost 99.9 % sure are rocks of some sort. Did they put rocks in some glass like that or where they suppose to melt in and make like a special color or design? This may need lots more googling on my part lol. As for the hardness how exactly do you test for it? I pretty much just find stuff and it sits on my shelf, so I'm not too knowledgable in that aspect of collecting, but I would love to learn.

[Towtruckgirl]

It doesn't cut glass let alone scratch it. Is there anything else I could do to help identify it?

[Metopocetus]

Almost certainly glass. Conchoidal fractures, color, clarity...

Probably glass that wasn't able to fully melt and homogenize.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbverbitsky/5942381660/

white spheres

[Towtruckgirl]

That's awesome. I'll have to let her know that so we don't have to wonder no more. Thank you so much everyone for the help. I learned alot.

[Scylla]

Well for next time; you test the material against stuff like a steel knife blade, some glass, a fingernail, etc. If it can scratch your fingernail it has a hardness greater than 2.5. If you can scratch it with your fingernail, then it has a hardness less than 2.5. Eventually you can get most or all the minerals on the scale for testing. Some places sell kits for hardness testing too.

[Fossildude19]

Parts of it look similar to botryoidal prehnite.

Neat piece, whatever it is.

Regards,

[Towtruckgirl]

Thanks Scylla I will remember next time I come across something oddball like that again. It kinda does look like the botryodial prehnite only its more glassy like, but at least we know its not gonna make us glow in the dark lol. Thanks guys.

[Towtruckgirl]

I did find a page with a mineral that reminds me of this chunk of whatever. what do you guys think? http://geology.about.com/od/minerals/ig/minpicphosphates/minpicapatite.htm

[Scylla]

Well, I like the penny. It could be botryoidal apatite, what's the hardness?