Rocks & Minerals of Washington and Oregon: A Field Guide to the Evergreen and Beaver States

by Dan R. Lynch, Bob Lynch

Overview

Get this must-have guide for Washington and Oregon, featuring full-color photographs and information to help you identify rocks and minerals.

Identify and collect rocks and minerals with the perfect guide to the Pacific Northwest! With this famous field guide by Dan R. Lynch and Bob Lynch, field identification is simple and informative. The book features comprehensive entries for 124 rocks and minerals, from common rocks to rare finds. That means you’re more likely to identify what you’ve found. The authors know rocks and took their own full-color photographs to depict the detail needed for identification—no more guessing from line drawings. The field guide’s easy-to-use format helps you to quickly find what you need to know and where to look.

Inside you’ll find:

• 124 specimens: Only Washington and Oregon rocks and minerals
• Quick Identification Guide: Identify rocks and minerals by color and common characteristics
• Range/occurrence maps: See where each specimen is commonly found
• Professional photos: Crisp, stunning images

Rocks & Minerals of Washington & Oregon includes beautiful photography, relevant information, and the authors’ expert insights. With this book in hand, identifying and collecting is fun and informative!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781591932932
Publisher:	Adventure Publications, Incorporated
Publication date:	08/22/2012
Series:	Rocks & Minerals Identification Guides
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	149,350
Product dimensions:	4.40(w) x 5.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Dan R. Lynch has a degree in graphic design with emphasis on photography from the Universityof Minnesota Duluth. But before his love of the arts came a passion for rocks and minerals, developed during his lifetime growing up in his parents’ rock shop in Two Harbors, Minnesota. Combining the two aspects of his life seemed a natural choice and he enjoys researching, writing about, and taking photographs of rocks and minerals. Working with his father, Bob Lynch, a respected veteran of Lake Superior’s agate-collecting community, Dan spearheads their series of rock and mineral field guides—definitive guidebooks that help amateurs “decode” the complexities of geology and mineralogy. He also takes special care to ensure that his photographs compliment the text and always represent each rock or mineral exactly as it appears in person. He currently works as a writer and photographer in Madison, Wisconsin, with his beautiful wife, Julie. Bob Lynch is a lapidary and jeweler living and working in Two Harbors, Minnesota. He has been cutting and polishing rocks and minerals since 1973, when he desired more variation in gemstones for his work with jewelry. When he moved from Douglas, Arizona, to Two Harbors in 1982, his eyes were opened to Lake Superior’s entirely new world of minerals. In 1992, Bob and his wife Nancy, whom he taught the art of jewelry making, acquired Agate City Rock Shop, a family business founded by Nancy’s grandfather, Art Rafn, in 1962. Since the shop’s revitalization, Bob has made a name for himself as a highly acclaimed agate polisher and as an expert resource for curious collectors seeking advice. Now, the two jewelers keep Agate City Rocks and Gifts open year-round and are the leading source for Lake Superior agates, with more on display and for sale than any other shop in the country.

Read an Excerpt

Quartz

Hardness: 7 Streak: White

Environment: All environments

What to look for: Light-colored, translucent, glassy and very hard six-sided crystals, masses or veins in rock, or abundant white water-worn pebbles on beaches

Size: Quartz crystals can range from pinhead-sized points to crystals several inches long; masses can be any size

Color: Colorless to white when pure; frequently stained yellow to brown or red, and rarely purple

Occurrence: Very common

Notes: Twelve percent of the material in the earth’s crust consists of quartz, and it is the most abundant mineral on earth. It’s therefore essential for rock hounds to be familiar with it. Quartz consists of silica, the silicon- and oxygen-bearing compound that contributes to the formation of hundreds of minerals. It’s found most often as uninteresting white masses in rocks such as granite, or as microscopic grains in chert (page 95). But collectors want crystals, and luckily, crystals are quite common too. They occur most often in rock cavities and take the form of elongated hexagonal (six-sided) prisms that terminate (end) in a point. Crystals are often intergrown with each other, sometimes as a thin crust of countless tiny crystals called druse. Until you recognize quartz’s appearance, you can distinguish it from similar-looking minerals, such as calcite (page 85), by a hardness test. Quartz is harder than anything you’ll easily find and won’t be scratched by a knife. Its conchoidal fracture (when struck, circular cracks appear) is also distinct.

Where to Look: Some of the finest crystals come from locations in King County, Washington. Lesser, water-worn specimens can be found all along the Pacific Coast in both states.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Important Terms and Definitions

A Brief Overview of the Geology of Washington and Oregon

Precautions and Preparations

Potentially Dangerous Minerals

Protected Fossils of Washington and Oregon

Hardness and Streak

The Mohs Hardness Scale

Quick Identification Guide

Sample Page

Rocks and Minerals Found in Both States

Washington Rocks and Minerals

Oregon Rocks and Minerals

Glossary

Rock Shops and Museums

Bibliography and Recommended Reading

Index

About the Authors