Looky what I found...

[rasczak]

pretty neat OP. Thanks!

 

[Theb]

The light is dangerous. The rocks you could eat.

Prove it.

 

[IronWing]

What sort of UV light do you need to make the rocks glow? Was thinking of buying one of those led uv lights for ~ 15$ off amazon.

The cheapy UV lights are longwave only. Some minerals will glow under longwave UV but most of the more spectacular fluorescent minerals require a shortwave UV light.

Here is an example under natural light, longwave UV, and then shortwave UV.

The cheapest longwave/shortwave UV light that I'm aware of is the Versalume by Raytech that will set you back about $100. I've used one for years. It only lights up an area of several square inches but is pretty handy.

Prove it.

The rocks are calcite and aragonite (CaCO3) which is the main ingredient of TUMS. In fact, there is a marble quarry not too far from the mine that produces pharmaceutical grade calcite. So if you've ever eaten a TUMS, you've eaten rocks.
http://www.tums.com/products/regular.html

 

[Sixguns]

Those are some really cool looking rocks. Thanks for sharing.

 

[terry107]

Cool pics. I sent this thread to a buddy who's a geologist.

 

[bguile]

The cheapy UV lights are longwave only. Some minerals will glow under longwave UV but most of the more spectacular fluorescent minerals require a shortwave UV light.

The cheapest longwave/shortwave UV light that I'm aware of is the Versalume by Raytech that will set you back about $100. I've used one for years. It only lights up an area of several square inches but is pretty handy.

Thanks. Bit more than I had planned on spending, so guess it will have to wait. Maybe xmas gift to myself. Do they come with safety googles (and any other safety requirements I should be aware of?), and whats the battery life like on them?

 

[IronWing]

Thanks. Bit more than I had planned on spending, so guess it will have to wait. Maybe xmas gift to myself. Do they come with safety googles (and any other safety requirements I should be aware of?), and whats the battery life like on them?

The Versalume batteries, four AAs, last a few hours and it also comes with an AC adapter. Always wear plastic or polycarbonate glasses with UV lights. Glass stops shortwave UV but not longwave. Plastic and polycarbonate lens stop both. If you see a haze like you just stepped out of a chlorinated swimming pool then the longwave is getting to your eyes and is causing your corneas to fluoresce, producing the haze. Avoid exposing your skin to the lights for long periods.

 

[IronWing]

Hiked up to an old zinc mine and known fluorescent mineral locale in Arizona. The area is pretty well played out but a recent rock slide exposed a bit more good stuff. The green is willemite (zinc silicate), the orange/red is calcite (calcium carbonate), the grey/blue is hydrozincite (hydrous zinc carbonate), the tan/brown is sphalerite (zinc sulfide), and the purple is smithsonite (zinc carbonate).

 

[UglyCasanova]

Awesome stuff.

 

[Jeff7]

:thumbsup:

 

[surfsatwerk]

I imagine the OP used to work as a field agent for the DEA before a failed assassination attempt made him seek other outlets for his energies.

 

[IronWing]

Ever since I found the fluorescent rocks up at the top of the thread I've been on the lookout for fluorite (CaF2) in the area thinking that the addition of blue to the palette would be cooler than cool. I finally found it about a mile from the original find. So the blue is fluorite, the orange and white are calcites, and the yellow is aragonite (caliche). The first pic is pretty spot on except the fluorite is a bit overexposed while the second is a overexposed overall, still not too bad. The calcite glows orange under shortwave UV and white under longwave while the fluorite glows far stronger under longwave UV than shortwave which makes getting a decent exposure balancing the shortwave and longwave a pain in the butt. Fluorite fluorescence also does wonky things to the camera sensor making it even more trickier.