Rocks, minerals, and gemstones have fascinated people through the ages. They have been used as decoration, and have often been attributed special powers. This book, arranged in alphabetical format, describes 288 different rocks, minerals, and gems. Each entry includes beautiful color photographs, describes where the material is found, basic facts, how it is used, and some interesting information about its uses, myths, and legends. The separate pages are color-coded to indicate whether the substance is a rock, mineral, or gem.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
52 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Nice book for beginner rock hound,
By Mary "Red Hybrid" (Colorado) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Encyclopedia of Rocks, Minerals, and Gemstones (Hardcover)
This book gives a description of numerous rock & gem types, along with characteristics, pictures, geography, etc. Good book for someone just starting out in the world of rocks. However, it is not helpful for someone with prior knowledge. It is a beginners level book and a really good one at that.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Beautiful Book,
By Mark Pfennigstag (California, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Encyclopedia of Rocks, Minerals, and Gemstones (Hardcover)
This is a wonderful "coffee table" book; provides a colorful and easy-readable introduction to the identification and study of rocks, minerals, and gemstones. Stones are featured in alphabetical order and each gets a full page. Photographs of each in its raw (not cut) state are large, sharp, and well reproduced. Text describes the composition, uses, and source locales of each subject. An excellent guide for the new or "just mildly interested" student or casual reader. This is not a deep scientific tome for the advanced geologist or minerologist. It's great for a quick reference, or just for an entertaining browse in an idle moment.
I love this book. Two Thumbs Up!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Only for amatuer geologists,
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This review is from: Encyclopedia of Rocks, Minerals, and Gemstones (Hardcover)
As a graduate student in geology I collected reference books to help me better identify rocks and minerals. If that's what you're looking for I wouldn't really recommend this book. It has pretty cool pictures of rocks and minerals but I think it lacks in more detailed description, most of the minerals don't even look close to what most hand sample really look like. The pictures look like they were taken from a mineral museum. The rocks can be broken down further in my opinion, like most books, such as what makes a schist a schist, and the various forms of the particular rocks. More detail could be done on the minerals, more on their detail. The book just has the general rocks, such as diorite, gabbro, limestone, etc. It doesn't have some of the more harder to identify rocks like phyllite, eclogite, anorthosite, etc. It does however have a short description of each mineral's economic use which you don't see in most reference books. For an amatuer geologist, or someone who is just facinated with rocks, this would be a great book to buy. But for those in the field or studying the subject, this book won't help you much. If you don't believe me, take petrology and then try and use this book.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
A canthite is very similar to argentite. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
distinct mineral species, continuous atomic substitution, crystals conform, chemical sieve, minor ore, ornamental slabs, massive habits, sedimentary quartzite, solid solution series, massive aggregates, discovery locality, pyramidal terminations, main industrial source, monoclinic system, hydrothermal veins, orthorhombic system, zeolite group, unusual optical properties, mineralogical components, perfect cleavage, pyroxene minerals, tabular shapes, triclinic system, distinct crystals, total silica Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Czech Republic, South Dakota, South Africa, New Mexico, North Carolina, France Germany, Sri Lanka, Russia Scotland, Australia Austria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, New York, New Zealand, South Korea, Mohs Scale of Hardness, New Hampshire, Switzerland California, Mount Vesuvius, Australia Canada, Mobs Scale of Hardness, Sweden Arizona, Canada China, North Korea, South Carolina, British Columbia, Smithsonian Institution New!
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Front Cover | Front Flap | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
A canthite is very similar to argentite. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
distinct mineral species, continuous atomic substitution, crystals conform, chemical sieve, minor ore, ornamental slabs, massive habits, sedimentary quartzite, solid solution series, massive aggregates, discovery locality, pyramidal terminations, main industrial source, monoclinic system, hydrothermal veins, orthorhombic system, zeolite group, unusual optical properties, mineralogical components, perfect cleavage, pyroxene minerals, tabular shapes, triclinic system, distinct crystals, total silica Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Czech Republic, South Dakota, South Africa, New Mexico, North Carolina, France Germany, Sri Lanka, Russia Scotland, Australia Austria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, New York, New Zealand, South Korea, Mohs Scale of Hardness, New Hampshire, Switzerland California, Mount Vesuvius, Australia Canada, Mobs Scale of Hardness, Sweden Arizona, Canada China, North Korea, South Carolina, British Columbia, Smithsonian Institution New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 2
books:
2
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cite this book:
- San Bernardino County by Automobile Club of Southern California on page 80, and page 178
- Sri Lanka (Countries of the World (Gareth Stevens)) by Krishnan Guruswamy on page 143
- Day Tripping by Teri J Brown on page 63
- 202 Things You Can Buy and Sell For Big Profits! (202 Things You Can Buy & Sell for Big Profits) by James Stephenson on page 178
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