Fifty minerals meme

Dang, this particular meme is a strong one … nearly everybody else in geoblogosphere is doin’ it! So many that I’m not even going to link to them all (I’m lazy). Lounge of the Lab Lemming started it all (here). Additionally, Geology News has a word cloud summarizing the most popular from the various bloggers out there.

Here’s the deal: use bold to indicate minerals you’ve seen in the wild. Italics is for those seen in laboratories, museums, stores, or other non field locations. To be quite honest, after doing this little meme I’ve realized that I need to get out and look at more igneous and metamorphic rocks! I might have seen some of these in sedimentary rocks and don’t even know it … typical sedimentary geologist.

Andalucite

Apatite

Barite

Beryl

Biotite

Chromite

Chrysotile

Cordierite

Corundum

Diamond

Dolomite

Florencite

Galena

Garnet

Graphite

Gypsum

Halite

Hematite

Horneblende

Illite

Illmenite

Kaolinite

Kyanite

Lepidolite

Limonite

Magnetite

Molybdenite

Monazite

Nepheline

Olivine

Omphacite (is that real?)

Opal

Perovskite

Plagioclase

Pyrite

Quartz

Rutile

Sanidine

Sillimanite

Silver (native)

Sphalerite

Staurolite

Sulphur (native)

Talc

Tourmaline

Tremolite

Turquoise

Vermiculite

Willemite

Zeolite

Zircon

–

It’s quite possible I screwed something up in this list … I did it rather fast.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~