Posted on 06/08/2005 5:29:04 PM PDT by Coleus
Picture this: Fluorescent rocks
It could be argued that New Jersey is the rock capital of the world - just ask any Springsteen fan.
But did you know that the Garden State is also the fluorescent rock capital of the world, long regarded as the "Promised Land" of fluorescent minerals by rock collectors worldwide?
Stuart Schneider has written a book about it called "Collecting Fluorescent Minerals." He has an extensive collection of fluorescent rocks, with more than 800 species from around the world, but mostly his rocks are New Jersey-grown.
The photography darkroom in his basement has been converted into a mineral room, with shelves lined with rare fluorescent rocks, such as Esperite, Willemite, Hardystonite, Bustamites and other "rare Franklin's." There's even a Roeblingite.
"Found only in New Jersey," Schneider says. "It's super-rare. Named after George Roebling. A piece the size of your thumb is worth $300."
Collecting for four years, Schneider got interested after a Scouting trip by his son.
"Ben came home with some rocks, fluorescent rocks. So we went to a rock show and bought a light. Then another show, and another. My son said, OK Dad, this can be your collection."
Schneider was hooked.
"What are they good for?" he asks aloud. "They are good for nothing. But they look good. I equate it to fireworks. It's like indoor fireworks."
Rocks, in general, are made of minerals. Some rare minerals actually glow with magnificent color when viewed in the dark with ultraviolet light. Under these "black lights," seemingly ordinary rocks transform magically into a spectacularly radiant glow of greens, reds, yellows and oranges. The basic process is that they absorb ultraviolet light and lose some of the absorbed energy as heat, and the rocks emit the remaining heat as light that we can see.
Many of these magical rocks can be found at Franklin, in Sussex County, where old zinc mines created an excess of unneeded mined rock from deep in the earth. That rock turned out to be filled with fluorescent minerals. The Franklin-Sterling Hill region contains 361 different mineral species, 25 of which are found nowhere else on earth.
"It has produced 86 different fluorescent species," says Dr. Earl Verbeek, the resident geologist at the Sterling Hill Museum in Ogdensburg.
"The species tend to contain two or more minerals, sometimes as many as seven. That's very rare. And the colors of fluorescent tend to be rich, pure colors."
"Basically, northern New Jersey has some old rocks with zinc deposits," Verbeek explains. "In all the rest of the world, there are thousands of zinc deposits, but none have the similarities of Franklin.
It has a huge number of minerals that "fluoresce."
"People come from all over the world to dig in Franklin," says Schneider. "It's known for having the brightest fluorescents."
Schneider and Verbeek agree that fluorescent rock collecting is in its infancy. They cite the rise of mineral prices and the availability of rocks in New Jersey.
"It's one of the last available places to find rare minerals," Schneider says.
ping
A rock.
It's those rocks that glow WITHOUT a light source that you gotta watch out for.
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