Rocks like this ( p 1 ), are realy BORING because they have come out of caves and havent been tumbled like most jewlerey. You will find that in side geodes, (cave rocks)  it is all crystalized ( P 2).

Tigers eye

This is a Tigers eye gemstone:

It is obviously called tigers eye because it has the pattern of one.

You can use it in jewellery like in this charm:

Links

These are a few links to try out.

http://www.onegeology.org/eXtra/kid              
http://oedb.org/articles/online-education-resources-geology-for-kids.htmls/home.html

http://www.discoveringfossils.co.uk/

locations

                                        stone locations

 

 

 

fossils: 

Jurasic period fossils ( 205 million years ago) and cretaceous period ( 145 million years ago), are shown on this map.

jurassic: amonites, bivales, cool airs.

cretaceous: amonites, belamites, ferns.

 

 

 

Rock Tumbler

You can get Rock Tumblers. They are round pots that spin around on a tumbler.
Rock Tumblers are basically gemstone makers. If you do the course for about a month it will work perfectly.
These are very fine makers so they will cost around £80.
You can get them from Ebay and Amazon.
You can put any stone into it but beware if you put a small stone in it, it may well disappear through the course. It will smoothen the edges and round them as well as making it into the shape of a gem and making it as soft as a feather.
Here are the instructions.

1. First find some nice stones from your garden. They could have a pattern or have cute, bright colours it is all up to you and what type of stone you want.

2.Next put your Rock tumbler somewhere, where you can't here it because it might be quite noisy.

3. Then open the lid of the tumbler and fill it up 3 quarters with the stones.

4. After that put a table spoon of 1st course grit and water in the tumbler and leave it going round for 2-3 weeks.

5. When it has been left for 2-3 weeks, take the lid of and see how they have done the grit should have gone and then put a table spoon of 2nd course grit and wait for another 2-3 weeks.The grits are different.

6. Now do the same but with t`he last grit, 3rd course grit.

7. Finally after another 2-3 weeks waiting for the 3rd course grit to work, the stone should be gemstone looking!

I hope you enjoy making your own gemstones for your collection!

Types of rock

Some minerals are very rare and pretty — we call these gemstones and they are used to make jewellery. Can you name any gemstones?

What is the most  famous gemstone? Is it a Crystall or a diamond? The answer does  not only  look beautiful in jewellery but they are also used in drills and saws for cutting.There are three main groups of rocks — these are sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic.

Trilobites!

Trilobites are one of the oldest animals that first lived on the Earth. They lived in the Cambrian Period and early Ordovician seas. A prolonged decline then set in before they finally became extinct in the Permian Period, about 250 million years ago.

Trilobites were arthropods—like crustaceans, spiders and insects. They are divided into three parts from head to tail (head, thorax and tail) and from side-to-side (the central axis and two lateral lobes). Hence their name 'trilobite'.

Ammonite cycle

An Ammonite bobs
around happily around the sea...  

But then dies 

and falls to

 the sea floor...

                                                             

The soft parts decay

 leaving the shell to be buried in sediment...

Then is changed by heated

 water and pressure over millions of years...

Into the fossil you find in the beach!

400 × 300 - allposters.co.uk

This is nautilus.
It is the ansester of a ammonite.
they are found today and are ofen in this colour.

   Trilobites are fossils like Amonites.

They are like bugs but much older.They are found in the jurassic period alive. This was millions of years ago so we would never find them living today.Desserts-like places are good areas to look for them because they used to live in sand.

This is a diamond.
They are one of the rarest gems in the world.
they can be pink,red,yellow,blue and white.
Lots of people put them in jewlerey such as
necklaces.

This is calsite.
                                              they can come in  lots of different colours such as blue,red and white.
                                               they are quite common and easy to find. It is very swirly when you polish it.

       This is an amethyst.
                                            They are purple, pink and lots of other colours.
                                            They are differcult to tell from other stones such
                                            as Blue John.

This is amber.
incects and seeds get traped in sap ( thats stuff thats in a tree.)
and the sap turns hard over millions of years which makes amber.
This leaves an orange/yellow/green stone.

opals

Opals can come in all different colours and sizes.

If you come across a Opal, here's a tip for

finding the best one!

Opals that have lots of red and colour in are rarer because they are more difficult  to find.

Gemstones

Gemstones are really pretty and great to collect they are beautiful and got patterns which are glazed and feel like glass with smooth edges.They look like this.

geology map

Here is an example of a geological map of Afghanistan.

 

 

 

Brown:  Jurassic period rocks.

WELCOME!

Welcome to our new blog all about fossils, minerals and gems!

We would like to share information with you all about fabulous rocks. I am a member of Rockwatch and if you are interested in geology then you will enjoy being a member and this is the url to find out more http://www.rockwatch.org.uk/ .

One of my favourite fossils is the ammonite. Ammonites were marine animals and had a coiled external shell similar to the modern pearly nautilus.

The ammonite's shell was divided into chambers separated by strong walls known as septa. They probably lived in water up to 100 metres deep.

If you’d like to see a real ammonite ask me and I will bring one in for you to see, if you are not at my school then check out this picture of one!

 

 

What is geology?

Geology is the study of our planet, earth.

*How it was made
*What it is made of
*How it changed over time

Geologists make maps to tell us about the history of earth and help us find things like:

*Important minerals, such, as diamonds.
*Fuels like oils.
*Problems like earthquakes or floods.

The main feature were going to talk about is stones.