382 results for agate

Origin of Names for Rocks and Minerals How do rocks and minerals get their names? Rock and Mineral names can be traced quite often to Greek and to Latin. It is common practice to add an "ite" to...

What are the Birthstones and Zodiac Stones, and what do they mean? Just when the Zodiac Signs were declared is unclear.  Some form of zodiac use preceded the Babylonians, though it was the...

  Louisiana is not known as a great place to find rocks and minerals. It is completely made up of sedimentary rocks. There are no outcrops of metamorphic or igneous rocks. Much of Louisiana...

Kentucky may not have lots of rocks and minerals, but it has lots of fossils. Long ago Kentucky was covered in shallow tropical seas, so brachiopod, coral, sponge, crinoid, trilobite, and nautiloid...

The Bible makes numerous references to stones:  The first mention of stones in the Bible (Exodus 28:17-20) has to do with the stones in Aaron's breastplate. Aaron was Moses' brother and led the...

Sedimentary rocks containing coal, salt, and fossils are under Kansas. The surface is sand and gravel from the erosion of the Rocky Mountains and carried eastward by water. These deposits created...

Florida is not really known for good cutting or lapidary material. But Florida does have some cool rocks and minerals. Primarily Florida is covered with sedimentary rocks: limestone or calcite and...

Connecticut is small and the variety of rocks found there is small. But Connecticut still offers great rockhounding. A central lowland valley divides eastern and western Connecticut. This valley is...

For obvious reasons rockhounding is much harder in Alaska!  Much of the ground is frozen or hard to get to. But Alaska does have lots of rocks and minerals including agates, jaspers, and...

Wisconsin is one of the best states in the U.S. for finding a rocks, crystals and minerals. Wisconsin is a rolling plain laid down on sedimentary rocks and broken in places by uplifted igneous and...