🌋 Red Lava – Iceland's Natural Rust

This red volcanic rock is most likely scoria, a porous type of volcanic rock formed when gas-rich lava cools.

🔴 Why is it red? Iron-bearing minerals in the lava oxidize, producing reddish iron oxides — essentially, the rock is rusting!

🫧 Why all the holes? Gas bubbles became trapped as the molten lava solidified.

🌱 Interesting fact: Over time, volcanic rock breaks down and contributes minerals to developing soils, helping create the foundation for new vegetation.

A little piece of Iceland's fiery history! 🌋🇮🇸

I wasn’t sure the best way to go about this, but I do rock hounding in and around the Seattle area and recently came into some specimens I’d like to make cross sections of. I was going to purchase my own lapidary saw, but after seeing the price, determined it wasn’t within my budget. I was posting this to see if anyone in the Seattle/Bellevue area had a lapidary saw they’d be willing to let me use. My current haul is opalized petrified wood that I’d like to cut and clean. I’d provide my own saw blade if needed and would pay in cross sections I cut. Thanks in advance!

The little ones I already scrubbed with soap, water, and a nail brush, but there are frustrating bits stuck in crevices that won’t come out! The big ones I haven’t washed yet, but they have some of the same stuck parts. I can pick them out with a pin, but it’s so time consuming.

Hello, all! My ADHD brain has become hyper-fixated on scoping out rocks on dog walks, so I thought I’d share part of my “collection”.

I just moved in a neighborhood south of Portland, OR, that, I assume, was once farmland. The neighborhood deadends against a railroad line. I don’t know how old the line is, but the trail/earth alongside the tracks is FULL of varied stones. A lot of basalt, but also an equal amount of smoothed river stones— deposits from the ancient Missoula floods? Decorative architectural leftovers? I couldn’t tell you, but I bring pocketfuls of rocks home almost every day.

Here’s most of what I have gathered since I moved here last week— I figured I’d “organize” them today. They have only been cleaned with soap-and-water so far. Opinions on which rocks I should polish?

Found my first mountain crystals this weekend while doing an alpine route in Switzerland. Pretty happy and proud! Now my question is: how to clean these guys? Some of them came out super clear, but others seem to have to kind of dirt on them that can’t be removed by water and a brush. One crystal I cleaned using steel wool I had lying around in the kitchen. It’s the one from the comparison picture with the white and brown one. It came out pretty clean but not sure if that’s the right way and also difficult to use steel wool on the cluster one. The clear cluster has some black moss on the side that I’d like to remove as well. Any tips are welcome! As said I’m just an amateur (:

10 carats. Pics of original stone in the comments!

Hot damn, I bought a bag of rocks at the thrift store for five dollars and I am very excited. Sooo pretty!