Basic Rockhounding and Prospecting: A Beginner's Guide

by Garret Romaine

Overview

Basic Rockhounding and Prospecting is aimed at anyone who is interested in learning the basics of collecting rocks and minerals. It’s the perfect companion title to the more advanced Modern Rockhounding and Prospecting Handbook. Readers will learn how to identify common rocks and minerals, and where to look for them. Using labs, procedures, pictorials, and discussions to help readers learn, this book will cover the basics of geology, describing the three main rock groups, with extensive pictures to show what to look for and how to figure out what is out there. Look inside for: ·Geology basics ·Rules and regulations ·Polishing, preserving, crafting, and displaying your treasures ·Popular collectibles, including rocks, gems, fossils, meteorites, and gold ·Tools of the trade for every level of collector

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493084227
Publisher:	Falcon Guides
Publication date:	05/06/2025
Edition description:	2nd Edition
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Garret Romaine has been an avid rockhound, fossil hunter, and gold prospector for 35 years. He is a long-time journalist, columnist, and technical writer, and teaches technical writing at Portland State University. He is a Fellow in the Society for Technical Communication. He holds a degree in geology from the University of Oregon and a degree in geography from the University of Washington. Since 1997 he has written a regular magazine column for the Gold Prospectors Association of America entitled "Mining the Internet."  He is the author of Rockhounding Idaho and Rocks, Gems, and Minerals (both FalconGuides) as well as Gem Trails of Oregon and Gem Trails of Washington. He is also a columnist for Gold Prospectors magazine. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

Table of Contents

Introduction vii

Chapter 1 Getting Started 1

The Three Rock Types 1

The Earth and Its Core 3

Geologic Time 4

Geology Giant: James Button 5

Lab: Geologic Time 6

Geology Lab: Age of the Earth 6

Our Restless Earth 7

Lab: Plate Tectonics 8

Geology Lab: Cocoa Continents 8

Geology Giant: Alfred Wegener 9

Additional Reading: The Map That Changed the World 10

Chapter 2 All About Minerals 13

Our Chemical Building Blocks 13

Simple Crystals 17

Lab: Create A Crystal 19

Geology Lab: Create A Crystal 19

Lab: Crystal Clusters 21

Geology Lab: Crystal Clusters 22

Chapter 3 Learning About Rocks 26

Igneous Rocks Explained 28

Bucket List: Yosemite National Park 29

Famous Specimens: The Code of Hammurabi (Diorite) 30

Bucket List: Yellowstone 37

Hall of Fame: Florence Bascom 39

Understanding Volcanoes 40

Bucket List: Active Volcano 41

Geology Giant: Charles Lyell 43

Metamorphic Rocks Explained 45

Additional Reading: Barren Lands 47

Lab: Schist Happens 48

Geology Lab: Fun with Schists 49

Sedimentary Rocks Explained 50

Lab: Erosion 51

Geology Lab: Erosion 51

Lab: Salt Crystals 55

Geology Lab: Salt Crystals 55

Bucket List: Grand Canyon 56

Geology Giant: John Wesley Powell 57

Chapter 4 The Keys to Identification 62

Mineral Families 63

Mineral Properties 63

Lab: Hardness Test Kit 66

Geology Lab: Hardness Test Kit 67

Lab: Testing For Streak 69

Geology Lab: Testing for Streak 69

Lab: Measuring Density 75

Geology Lab: Measuring Density 76

Hall Of Fame: Madame Curie 80

Mineral Keys 82

Chapter 5 Finding Fossils 83

Bucket List: La Brea Tar Pits 85

Additional Reading: Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway 86

History of Paleontology 88

Additional Reading: The Seashell on the Mountaintop 89

Geology Giant: Georges Cuvier 90

Additional Reading: The Bonehunters' Revenge 91

Geology Giant: Mary Leakey 93

Bucket List: Green River Formation 94

How Geology Helps Fossil Hunters 95

Know Your Biology 95

Bucket List: Dinosaur National Monument 96

Extinction Theories 97

Hall of Fame: Walter Alvarez 98

Lab: Make A Mold 101

Geology Lab: Make A Mold 101

Bucket List: Dino Dig 107

Chapter 6 Prospecting for Gold 109

Hall Of Fame: Waldemar Lundgren 109

Where to Look for Panning Spots 110

Bucket List: Marshall Gold Discovery Site 110

The Science of Gold Panning 116

Making Concentrates 117

Choosing the Right Gold Pan 120

How to Use a Gold Pan 122

Lab: Practice Panning 126

Geology Lab: Practice Panning 126

About Those Black Sands 127

Hall of Fame: George Massie 131

Panning Machines 132

Bigger Gold Mining Equipment 135

Gold and Metal Detectors 140

Chapter 7 Hunting Meteorites 142

Impact Craters on Earth 144

Tektites 147

Meteorites in History 148

The Science of Meteorites 149

Lab: Space Dust 150

Geology Lab: Space Dust 150

Additional Reading: Meteorite Hunting: How to Find Treasure from Space 152

Regulations for Meteorite Collecting 152

How to Identify Meteorites 153

Bucket List: Willamette Meteorite 155

Where to Look for Meteorites 156

Bucket List: Meteor Crater 156

Hunting Meteorites by Sight 158

Hunting Meteorites by Magnet 158

Hunting Meteorites with Metal Detectors 159

Chapter 8 From Beginner to Collector 161

Legal Notices 161

Fee-Dig Opportunities 162

Bucket List: Sterling Hill Mining Museum 164

Ocean Beaches 164

Creek and River Walks 168

Desert Walks 171

Tailings 173

Bucket List: Tucson Show 175

Geology Giant: June Culp Zeitner 176

Veins, Vugs, and Outcrops 176

Bucket List: Colorado Gold Mine Tour 177

Geology Giant: Bob Jones 178

Display Your Finds 178

Records and Labels 178

Lab: Make A Label 184

Geology Lab: Make A Label 184

Appendix A Online Resources 185

Appendix B Clubs and Organizations 186

Appendix C Bibliography 187

Glossary 192

Index 210

About the Author 222