Flickr user Nix Sidhe has a great set of photos he recently took from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Unfortunately, I don’t know the name of the beautiful mineral he has pictured. Any ideas?
Related Stories:Geology Picture of the Day - Salt Block
Rising CO2 levels threaten oceans
Geology Picture of the Day - Earth
Geology Picture of the Day - Alluvial Fan in the Pamirs
Geology “tags” on other websites
That’s Tourmaline!
Ooooh, oooh, hand waving in back of room….I know, I know….it’s tourmaline, like Sheldon said. I just got back from my field trip to the Oceanview Tourmaline Mine in San Diego County, CA. See my post at http://geotripper.blogspot.com/2008/03/tourmaline-dreams-and-national.html
Have a look in google images for “watermelon tourmaline”. There’s some extremely striking examples out there.
I agree that the colors are a dead ringer for watermelon tourmaline, but I’m a little concerned that the crystals don’t appear to have the classic rounded triangular cross section tourmalines usually display.