The above picture doesn't show the apophyllite too well (the most identifiable mineral here is natrolite, which I'll address another time), but it does show the palagonitic base on which the crystals have grown. While I have seen lots and lots of this in quarries in the hills north and west of Corvallis, I think this particular sample came out of parking lot gravel. It pays to look at what you're walking on.
The two above pictures were taken from slightly different positions, and below I've cropped them and placed them side by side to create a cross-eyed stereopair. I can definitely see this pop out, but I'd sure appreciate some feedback from geology types to let me know if this works for you as well, and perhaps more importantly, if it helps you visualize the geometry of this mineral.
Frequently the apophyllite is too small to readily identify useful features without a binocular microscope, but if you have some good-sized crystals, it has some very distinctive features that make it unmistakeable.It is in the tetragonal symmetry group, so the basic form of the mineral is a four-sided prism with two pinacoids terminating the c-axis. The prism faces have a glassy luster, and are almost always striated. In the picture below you can see a prism face with striations. As an interesting aside, you can see that the apophyllite has grown around the needles of natrolite, which tells you the natrolite precipitated first. This is cropped from the second picture above, just above the left edge of the penny.
The pinacoid, on the other hand, shows a pearly luster, and is not striated. The following four pictures were taken from slightly different angles to show the pearly luster as the the pinacoid is illuminated from different angles.
The other feature that does not show up on this sample is that frequently the corners between the pinacoid and two prism faces are beveled, sort like a roof. Those faces have a glassy luster and are unstriated. I do have a sample that shows this well, but I can't quite seem to get it to show up in photos; it's too glassy and transparent. The crystals pictured here are milky enough that they are distinct from one another in photographs. Nevertheless, in my experience, the beveled corners are more the rule than the exception. Yet another characteristic is a perfect cleavage parallel to the pinacoid. As an open question, I almost typed "obviously, since it's a phyllosilicate," and realized that I've always assumed that all phyllosilicates have perfect cleavage across the c-axis. I guess that seems logical, but I guess I don't really know that it's so. Is my assumption accurate?
He has found that he can make pretty good money selling firewood. I gather that he gets some tax breaks for running productive forestry land, and I gather that firewood fits that description. This year's fuel prices are nothing like worst case forecasts from last summer, not even as bad as they were last winter. But I imagine that heating with wood, for those that can use that option, is still less expensive than heating with fuel oil or natural gas.
She's very good at finding hidey-holes. One of her favorites is on top of the spice bags. The door to this cabinet is normally closed, so she jumps up over the sink and crawls though to this space. She doesn't appreciate flashy things going off in her face, and the camera does its range finding with a small visible flash just prior to the photographic flash. As a result, it's difficult to get a picture of her with her eyes open.
Not exactly flattering, but I think she's very cute when she licks her lips.
When I let the apartment get too chilly, she will go curl up on my bed. She generally prefers to sleep on firm or hard surfaces. But if she's cold, warmth is where it's at.
Ozma was the princess of Oz; she is definitely doing "regal" here. You might image I have quite a number more of these pictures. You'd be right. But I see no need to OD on all of them at once.
And this is Lydia. She's a horticulture major, though my perception is that her interest is shifting to horticultural entomology (bugs that interact with plants, and appropriate ways to deal with them). I'm not even going to mention how she was describing that root tip she's posing with.
Yep, dem's flowers. Probably daffodils, and obviously not blooming yet... but on their way.
Actually, snowdrops and crocuses are the first to bloom; I haven't noticed any of those coming up yet, but they're normally going full bore by mid February. The daffodils will be blooming in about a month. And no, this is not due to global warming... we just have really mild weather here. I have always been blown away by spring flowers in February since I moved here nearly thirty years ago.
