Did you know culinary salt is the mineral halite? Or that the pigment vermillion is powdered cinnabar, a mineral whose name comes from the Persian for "dragon's blood"? Discover the extraordinary mineral treasures that form our planet and that today we use in everything, from makeup and cookery to agriculture and high-tech. Nature Guide Rocks and Minerals is your essential collector's companion, with illustrated entries on hundreds of minerals, gems, and rocks from actinium to zirconium. Its breathtaking array includes organic minerals, such as pearls and corals, as well as silicates and "native elements" like gold. Browse to find wonderful gems, including opals, or pyropes - a deep-red garnet the size of a hen's egg. Nature Guide Rocks and Minerals reveals each mineral's defining characteristics and explains how and where they were formed, how they were first identified, their uses, and their chemical composition. Whether you are a geology student or starting your own collection, this fact-packed book is both a fascinating read and an essential identification guide.

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Describes hundreds of minerals and lists their geographic distribution, physical properties, chemical composition, and crystalline structure.

This Barron's guide is a new kind of book for identifying minerals, one that even beginners can use to make quick, sure identifications. The simple, easy-to-understand profiles are supplemented by sketches of crystals made by the author especially for this book and based on the most up-to-date crystallographic data. It is a field guide to mineral deposits, categorized by color and degree of hardness for fast, easy identification.

Includes information on collecting and identifying minerals, and sections on metallic, nonmetallic, gem and rock-forming minerals, and on igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks.

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"Find adventure! Go outside! Have fun! Be a rock hound!"--Cover.