Right From the Backyard
My landlord happens to be an elementary school teacher that collects random minerals in the backyard. I have to dodge and throw them back into the flower beds during the summer when I mow the lawn.
According to the research and pictures I've undergone and observed I believe that this mineral I found is called "Gypsum Selenite". If I'm correct, there is much more of this glass looking mineral in my home state than I ever realized.
I found interesting facts about this mineral from the Wild About Utah Organization. (Website including sources: http://wildaboututah.org/gypsum-dreams/)
The following is from their site:
"Many of us slumber nightly amid the mineral sediments of ancient oceans. The Sheetrock walls of your home are made from the marine mineral gypsum. Along with rock salt, gypsum forms as a precipitate from salty brines. In deep stagnant waters, these minerals are concentrated by settling. More commonly, evaporative precipitates accumulate beneath shallow lagoons like those of the Great Salt Lake. Long ago, under a shrinking Lake Bonneville, such evaporates produced the Bonneville Salt Flats.
The arches of Arches National Park were molded by an underlying gypsum salt dome that bowed the sandstone layers above.
Gypsum can be found in diverse forms. Glass Mountain in Capitol Reef National Park consists of massive translucent slabs of crystalline gypsum, called selenite."
The most interesting thing I've learned about minerals thus far is that they aren't rocks on their own, but more of the building blocks of rocks, and that a certain type of mineral can have multiple forms, such as Gypsum.
I found interesting facts about this mineral from the Wild About Utah Organization. (Website including sources: http://wildaboututah.org/gypsum-dreams/)
The following is from their site:
"Many of us slumber nightly amid the mineral sediments of ancient oceans. The Sheetrock walls of your home are made from the marine mineral gypsum. Along with rock salt, gypsum forms as a precipitate from salty brines. In deep stagnant waters, these minerals are concentrated by settling. More commonly, evaporative precipitates accumulate beneath shallow lagoons like those of the Great Salt Lake. Long ago, under a shrinking Lake Bonneville, such evaporates produced the Bonneville Salt Flats.
The arches of Arches National Park were molded by an underlying gypsum salt dome that bowed the sandstone layers above.
Gypsum can be found in diverse forms. Glass Mountain in Capitol Reef National Park consists of massive translucent slabs of crystalline gypsum, called selenite."
The most interesting thing I've learned about minerals thus far is that they aren't rocks on their own, but more of the building blocks of rocks, and that a certain type of mineral can have multiple forms, such as Gypsum.
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