[Rockhounds] Mineral ID

[Murowchick, James]

Tim,
	If you send me a small amount (even a few fibers), I'll throw it in the SEM and get an EDS (elemental) spectrum for you.  That should distinguish between the possible ID's.  If I can get about a 1/8 inch cubed volume, I'll run XRD, too.  No charge for the service, but if you feel inclined to pay, I'll accept any amount of donation to our departmental scholarship funds.

I'm a long-time mineral collector and I know that some of the modern instrumental methods for mineral ID are not always readily accessible.  I now have access to XRD, SEM/EDS, and polarized light microscopy, and will try to ID minerals for collectors as a service (within reason).

Cheers,
Jim
Dr. James B. Murowchick
Professor, Geochemistry & Mineralogy
Principal Graduate Advisor & IPhD Coordinator, Geosciences
Department of Geosciences
University of Missouri-Kansas City
420 Flarsheim Hall 
5110 Rockhill Road 
Kansas City, MO  64110
Office: 816 235-2979
Department Office: 816 235-1334
Fax: 816 235-5535
murowchickj at umkc.edu



-----Original Message-----
From: Rockhounds [mailto:rockhounds-bounces at rockhounds.drizzle.com] On Behalf Of Tim Fisher
Sent: Monday, February 5, 2018 10:16 AM
To: 'Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem collectors' <rockhounds at rockhounds.drizzle.com>
Subject: [Rockhounds] Mineral ID

I'm hoping one of the mineral gurus here can help me with a mystery. I helped sort through part of an old rock collection on Saturday (most of the wrapping newspapers were dated in the 70s) and came across hundreds of specimens that I can't identify (which is most minerals lol). They were from the estate of a rock, mineral, and shell hoarder. A couple really stood out, I have a half decent photo of one of the best of them (I had very little time to sort through and repackage hundreds of pieces). It's fibrous, dull luster, creamy white, and incredibly fragile. Looks like an angel wing. It was packed in a box in cotton balls and I still managed to break off a few of the fibers. Shopping it around I got fibrous sepiolite and Ram's horn selenite as possibilities. Maybe 10% of them were in perky boxes with labels, most were wrapped in paper towels or tissue paper and thrown into the box. Not to mention that I realized to my horror that some people were unwrapping the specimens and throwing away the boxes L We only sorted through 30 of 108 boxes so there's undoubtedly more to come. Our rock club is selling the collection for the family of I'm concerned that we'll end up practically giving them away to people who will generally have no idea what they're looking at. I'm thinking Ebay is a better place to sell the best ones (just guessing there are 20 or so that stand out to me from this first run). This is as close as I can come online, it's identified as fibrous sepiolite.

 

https://farm8.static.flickr.com/7113/7842703084_595691a69c_b.jpg

 

Tim Fisher

Orerockon.com

 

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