Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Fool's Gold

"Striations are a product of a mineral's crystal habit. They can be very diagnostic and can even be an enhancement to the attractiveness of a specimen. They are incorrectly referred to as scratches, especially on transparent crystals. The most common cause of striations are the convergence or juxtaposition of two crystal faces. One of the faces gets truncated or "overtaken" by the other, but manages to leave its mark in the form of an almost imperceptible edge or stria. This edge is repeated again and again as the mineral grows and can fill an entire face with these tiny edges or striations. Generally striations are parallel, but some are triangular or even crossed. Striations are generally common, but the best examples of striations are on the minerals quartz, pyrite, apophyllite, tourmaline, sphalerite and the feldspars, but there are many others. Pyrite has striations on its cubic faces that are caused by faces that are not usually on the crystal at the time. Pyrite's striations are caused by a juxtaposition of two pyritohedron faces on the cube face. Generally the pyritohedron faces are not even formed on the typical cube habit, but their striations are there as straight lines. It is interesting to notice that the striations on one side of the cube are perpendicular to the striations on the other side (shown in the photo below)." www.galleries.com/minerals/property/striatio.htm en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrite

For many years, I collected all sorts of pieces of Iron Pyrites. They come in many forms, and this photo is of a tiny Pyritohedron crystal. Another name for Pyrites is Fool's Gold. I have a handful of photos of other pieces in my Shells and Minerals Set, if anyone is interested. A pyritohedron has twelve pentagonal faces. It has 24 short edges, and 6 longer edges. It is one of the two common crystal forms of pyrite, the other one being cubical.

I was an absolute fanatic of geology when I was in High School. Took it at "O" level (in England), though I was really at an "A" level. Collected various rocks and minerals for years, and I think my favourite is Iron Pyrites in its various forms - cubic, etc.. Unfortunately, I think my skin colour reflected in the many "faces" of this specimen when I took the photo. Love the way the tiny Quartz crystals have formed in little nooks and crannies, just like wildflowers will do.

I think Iron Pyrites is my favourite metal. It comes in so many different crystal shapes - these ones are cubic and beautifully grooved.

This photo is roughly life-sized, of an Iron Pyrites cube. Need to do some experimenting with lighting, reflections and so on, as I can't seem to get the image that I want.

Another angle on this particular specimen of Iron Pyrites.

A piece of bedrock in which many small crystals of Iron Pyrites have formed.