This is Throwback Thursday #5. In these, we look back in the past at ESCONI specifically and Earth Science in general. If you have and contributions, (science, pictures, stories, etc ...), please sent them to email:[email protected]. Thanks!
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Here are some pictures of the specimens at the Junior Booth for various Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Shows. The pictures and text came from here and here.
Here's the spinner... 1 spin for 25 cents or 5 for a dollar.
The ESCONI Juniors sales tables included inexpensive rocks, minerals, fossils, and shells that were sold only to children and teachers. There's fish, shells, Mazon Creek fossils,
Grab Bag specimens from 2017
Specular Hematite, Michigan
Specular Hematite is a type of iron ore made up of tiny, shiny, flattened crystals of hematite. The specimens passed out at Wonder Works came from the iron-mining region of Upper Michigan. Click here to learn more about the mineral hematite.
Selenite Crystals
Selenite is the crystalline form of the mineral, gypsum. We are not sure where these crystals were found, although specimens like these can be found in Illinois.
Hourglass Selenite Crystals, Oklahoma
Selenite is a crystal form of the mineral gypsum. These particular selenite crystals are a very special variety from the Salt Plains region of Oklahoma. The crystals grew inside the salty, sandy soil of this region, trapping sand inside the crystals. Because the sand often forms an hourglass-like shape inside the transparent crystals, this variety is called Hourglass Selenite. Growing crystals sometimes bumped into each other, forming interlocked shapes. Click here to learn more about Hourglass Selenite.
Amethyst Chips
Amethyst is a purple variety of the mineral quartz.
Quartz Chips
This chips were broken off of larger crystals of clear or slightly milky quartz.
Chalcedony
Chalcedony is a variety of the mineral, quartz, with crystals that are super small — too small to be seen without a powerful microscope. These pieces of chalcedony have been run through a rock tumbler, although only a few of them took a good polish.
Polished Rocks
The small polished rocks at the Grab Bag table are a mix or mineral, rock, and fossil specimens.
Geode Fragments
The pieces of broken geode in this photo came from specimens that were found in southwestern Illinois.
Apache Tears, Western United States
Apache tears are rounded lumps of obsidian, also known as volcanic glass
Pumice
Pumice is a type of volcanic rock. It formed from the same type of lava that makes obsidian, but it was very bubbly as it cooled.
Coal
The coal in the photo below was broken off of rounded lumps of coal that washed up on a Lake Michigan beach.
Taconite
Taconite is a processed form of iron ore. It is often transported by train through the Chicago area on its way from the Minnesota iron Ranges to steel mills on southern Lake Michigan, so you can find spilled taconite along local railroad tracks.
Fossil Sea Life from Illinois
The Grab Bag table included specimens of ancient sea animals from several localities. For instance, this sample from Ogelsby, Illinois, dates back to the Pennsylvanian period (about 300 million years ago) It includes mostly brachiopod shells, but two pieces of crinoid stem and two horn corals in the middle of the photo.
Petrified Wood
The Grab Bag table included specimens of petrified wood from the western United States. If you look closely, you can see the grain of the original wood preserved in rock.
Fossil Shark and Ray Teeth from Africa
These fossil teeth were collected in Morocco. The shark teeth are on the left, and the three ray teeth are on the right. The sharks and rays lived near the end of dinosaur times, about 60 to 70 million years ago.
Sea Shells
The tiny sea shells at the Grab Bag table are a mix of modern day univalves (like snails) and bivalves (like clams). Many of them came from the Indian Ocean.
