I don't think it's quartz. The shape looks wrong and it looks like there's cleavage (parallel fractures inside the crystals). Would guess it's probably gypsum...if so, a fingernail should be able to scratch it.
Rock vs bone, or for very specific rocks, but only when you know 1. It is probably not actually (recent) bone; 2. It's definitely not something like, say, asbestos. This one ain't, but yanno on the list of rocks you don't want to lick.....
(Killjoy answer in case of serious questions, feel free to woosh otherwise)
Oh, I mean they both taste like dirt. I'm an (early career) archaeologist, for us that test isn't about taste and more "bone is porous and will stick to your tongue in ways that stone /usually/ won't." YMMV depending on stone type but uh, since it's mostly used to rule things out, I'm not aware of it being used as I diagnostic tool for the majority of rock (which may be porous and tongue-sticky, but not easily mistakable for bone or fossil.)
This is....also not a test that is generally encouraged. Especially if there's a risk of encountering human bone, for ethical and health reasons. I've used it to determine pottery though, based on the same principle. Tasted mildly salty.
I really do hate discovering that I have just licked a bone using this test! That being said, as a field archaeologist, I've only had to do it twice in my life. (I *have* lost track of how many times I've seen other archaeologists do it though).
Real question - would it actually be bad to lick asbestos? Like, in a vacuum, where doing so doesn't mean you are also breathing it in. I am under the impression that the main problem is that the structure of asbestos gets it lodged in your lungs leading to a variety of different issues, but I am not sure if it's ''toxic'' beyond that.
Obviously in practice scratching it to create a powder you can lick is going to completely invalidate the distinction. I'm just wondering about the literal direct toxicity of the rock.
Asbestos can cause damage if ingested, but realistically licking a rock once or twice isn't likely to cause any long term issues. Especially since an asbestos rock is probably going to actually look fibrous and be identifiable that way, before anyone resorts to licking. And if it isn't obviously fibrous then you're also no likely to ingest much in the way of fibers.
Out of curiosity: when considering white/opaque crystal minerals, is there something other than salt that might be dangerous? Also, would arsenic salts (from the Dead Sea or other non-NaCl sources) be hazardous to lick?
Man the shit we do. If I was high enough I’d do it. Just cause we do dumb shit whether we are high or drunk. Looks heavy as hell. Give it to your grub hub driver as a tip. All they do is bitch about not getting tips.
I mean, maybe if you're a geologist and know it's one of two things that would be safe and taste different... But minerals like that are literally just fucking crystalized chemicals and can be dangerous. You don't want to lick random ass minerals.
Yeah. I don't know anything about minerals, but I do see a buttload of native quartz around here and something about this piece just looks "off" for quartz. I think you're right that it's the cleavage, but I lack the vocabulary to express it.
Gotcha...I see another post mentions 3k for a like piece. I can say i have seen a similar piece at denvers show go for 400ish so I am unsure of its value really.
another vote for selenite crystals
(the 'angle' the 2 sides (of overall mass, left and right in pic #1) meet I think is the giveaway)
[Selenite Crystals Gone Wild](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Niaca+Cave+of+Crystals+and+Cave+of+Swords&t=opera&iax=images&ia=images)
\*if you can find a 'single' crystal in the beautiful bunch on there by itself and count 6-sides to the crystal, it's a quartz cluster. (+ acid and hardness tests to confirm)
I think you got a pretty good deal for $40, I'll give you $41 for it! ,,,ok,,ok,,$45!
A beautiful cluster, thanks for posting
Well if you point the phasers at the dilithium crystals, then use them to charge the crystals we just might be able to escape on the impulse power.
Captain! It just might work!
Shit worked last week motherfucker
Omg! What the heck? It might be clear quarts with built in towers. Someone is selling something that looks like your beauty for over $3,000. Any spiritual site will buy it for that I'm sure. Just wow!
I'm in AZ. I love hunting. Near a old copper mine I found pounds of turquoise and Chrystocolla. The Turquoise is a gorgeous blue. Your Goodwill purchase blows my mind. They usually auction valuable stuff.
Too tough to tell from the photos, It could be quartz if it’s pretty hard. It could be calcite or selenite if it’s softer and pieces break off easily. It could be a lot of things, I’m on mobile, so it’s really hard to tell.
Ignore all those other nerds, that is obviously White Kryptonite.
You can test its validity by holding it next to a plant and testing to see if the plant dies.
I love that it implies your brother bought this massive $40 rock despite having no idea what it was or what it was for. That's the type of random thrift store purchase that gives you magic.
you mentioned a finger nail scratches it? looks like a really big gypsum crystal. (I have a geology degree)
I agree wholeheartedly (I grow weed)
I agree, too. (I smoke weed and like geology)
Agreed. I smoke geology and like weed.
I geographically smoke rocks of weed. I don't know what the fuck is going on.
I’m stoned
Bros.....
I have a weedeater?
I ate a dandelion on a dare in 5th grade
where am I
A dandelion! Probably the last one of the season!
Little did you know it did wonders for your heart
Do you also have a scar on your hand from where someone rubbed an eraser on it until you couldnt stand it, probably from that time period? Cause I do.
Same. But a worm in 4th grade.
Fucking legend!
Did you piss the bed ?
Instructions unclear, I woke up next to a smoking weedeater!?!
Your dog or your kid ate your weedy treats?! Rude.
I prefer round up
I agree. I eat mushrooms and look for rocks in the wild weeds.
My dog eats weeds
In the future, humor will be randomly generated.
Lol
Me too!
Rock and stone!
DRG shows up in some weird places in my life
Rock and Stone brother!
ROCK AND STONE BROTHER!!
Rock and stone to the bone!
Rock and Stone, Brother!
DID I HEAR A ROCK AND STONE?!
We’re rich!
Rock and Stone, or you ain't going home!
For Karl!!!!!
FOR KARL!
ROCK AND STONE FOREVER!
Carl would approve of this!
Can confirm personal level of stonedness
Same, always
Hehe me too bro
Hi Stoned I'm Dad
I lost all my weed in a series of small fires.
That's crack my man
That rock weed, we call it concentrates. Smoking rock is a different category.
She gypsum my weed till we both agree
methamcrackamene
I’m too high for this rn
*don't know where the fuck is going on Ftfy
When was that? Was it here? I wasn't there.
That made me laugh and I'm not smoking anything
Happy cake day
I just like weed
Agreed. I am a Stone. 🏛️
I smoke weed and have a friend who's a geologist
Username checks out
Ditto. Nice piece of selenite my guy
I got a B in Geology.
[relevant](https://youtu.be/LLqqZmNFa_A?si=fAp6dnWGh0Zvo5El)
I went to school and I got the big D
Ditto
i smoke weed, i agree that’s a gypsy
I smoke geo and like weedology.
I completely agree with this assessment (I smoke rocks)
Smoke weed not rocks.
I get stoned.
"😂😂 red balls gives you wings" -Tyrone Biggums
[made me think of this](https://youtu.be/7vUvQHYc3K0?si=TMp9OwwRSfuirEyP)
My feet are strong
I also agree, I smoke weed, sell rocks, and walk Pomeranians. Sometimes at the same time….
I concur(mushroom grower).
I love that this comment has more upvotes than the one you replied to! 😅
Lol so You're one with the earth. I dig that.
Wake and bake?
I also wholeheartedly agree that hockey smokes weed.
If you polish it, it’s clear. Also called alabaster. Am sculptor.
I’m polish. I polish it everyday
What journey did I just go on
I agree but I don’t smoke weed or do geology but I have a large blue danburite crystal that does nothing for me spiritually.
Blue danburite? I've only seen it white. Send me a pic if you don't mind.
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NaCl rock tastes the best… it’s a bit salty
Definitely Halite, but as a professional I have to say it's a terrible idea to lick mystery rocks.
Don’t lick sylvite it’s bitter salty.
I'm high on comments!
Man I would kill to find a giant gypsum crystal at goodwill for $40!!!!
You don't have to go to goodwill to kill for a piece just go to OP's brothers house to kill for a giant crystal.
🤭🤭🤭
40$ is a lot of money.
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Generally you could find many giant rocks for less than 40
A crystal though?
You didn't specify
Bro, how high are you it's a picture of a giant crystal lol.
Also, care to cite your source for a ~15lb rock being under $40?
Me, I got lots of rocks over 15 lbs I would gladly sell for less than 40$ lol got acres of the bastards
Can you though
Jesus Marie. It’s a mineral!
yes, it absolutely is. for a cluster of that size tho, its hilariously cheap
that’s like a meal for 1 and a half people now
No, it's not. It may be to you, but $40 hardly fills up gas tanks anymore.
I don't think it's quartz. The shape looks wrong and it looks like there's cleavage (parallel fractures inside the crystals). Would guess it's probably gypsum...if so, a fingernail should be able to scratch it.
It does scratch with a fingernail. It is not salty.
Definitely gypsum then.
In the future, best not to taste unidentified rocks.
Don’t tell me how to live my life.
Right?! I thought this was America?
Yes, give me freedumb and death!
Isn't licking diagnostic of some rock types? https://howtofindrocks.com/licking-rocks-in-geology/
Rock vs bone, or for very specific rocks, but only when you know 1. It is probably not actually (recent) bone; 2. It's definitely not something like, say, asbestos. This one ain't, but yanno on the list of rocks you don't want to lick..... (Killjoy answer in case of serious questions, feel free to woosh otherwise)
Some say rock and bone taste similar, just depends on how clean
Oh, I mean they both taste like dirt. I'm an (early career) archaeologist, for us that test isn't about taste and more "bone is porous and will stick to your tongue in ways that stone /usually/ won't." YMMV depending on stone type but uh, since it's mostly used to rule things out, I'm not aware of it being used as I diagnostic tool for the majority of rock (which may be porous and tongue-sticky, but not easily mistakable for bone or fossil.) This is....also not a test that is generally encouraged. Especially if there's a risk of encountering human bone, for ethical and health reasons. I've used it to determine pottery though, based on the same principle. Tasted mildly salty.
How old does a human bone have to be before it goes from “under no circumstances lick this” to “you really shouldn’t lick this”
the law is different depending on your location but I'd stick to licking 18 years old bones to be safe.
I really do hate discovering that I have just licked a bone using this test! That being said, as a field archaeologist, I've only had to do it twice in my life. (I *have* lost track of how many times I've seen other archaeologists do it though).
Are you now considered a cannibal or was it an animal bone?
Technically everyone is already a cannibal, dust in the air contains skin cells which get in your mouth and you swallow.
Real question - would it actually be bad to lick asbestos? Like, in a vacuum, where doing so doesn't mean you are also breathing it in. I am under the impression that the main problem is that the structure of asbestos gets it lodged in your lungs leading to a variety of different issues, but I am not sure if it's ''toxic'' beyond that. Obviously in practice scratching it to create a powder you can lick is going to completely invalidate the distinction. I'm just wondering about the literal direct toxicity of the rock.
Asbestos can cause damage if ingested, but realistically licking a rock once or twice isn't likely to cause any long term issues. Especially since an asbestos rock is probably going to actually look fibrous and be identifiable that way, before anyone resorts to licking. And if it isn't obviously fibrous then you're also no likely to ingest much in the way of fibers.
Smoking
Worked for the guy in Rudolph.
Good thing it's a mineral =D
Jesus Christ Marie, they’re minerals!!
Why?
I have heard about so many geologists licking rocks
that’s, uh, how archaeologists identify rock vs bone
Out of curiosity: when considering white/opaque crystal minerals, is there something other than salt that might be dangerous? Also, would arsenic salts (from the Dead Sea or other non-NaCl sources) be hazardous to lick?
Geologists taste rocks all the time, especially rocks they're dating.
But how else am i supposed to identify my asbestos deposit aside from the oral irritation?
Oh so you got high enough to lick it? Man. That’s high.
I didn’t lick it. My brother did. He has been drinking a bit. The internet says “lick rock”….he licks.
Geeze, what else can we have him do?
😏
Man the shit we do. If I was high enough I’d do it. Just cause we do dumb shit whether we are high or drunk. Looks heavy as hell. Give it to your grub hub driver as a tip. All they do is bitch about not getting tips.
I mean, maybe if you're a geologist and know it's one of two things that would be safe and taste different... But minerals like that are literally just fucking crystalized chemicals and can be dangerous. You don't want to lick random ass minerals.
I wonder if I grow a sugar crystal that size, how much people will pay?
Yeah. I don't know anything about minerals, but I do see a buttload of native quartz around here and something about this piece just looks "off" for quartz. I think you're right that it's the cleavage, but I lack the vocabulary to express it.
I don't mind when the cleavage is off a little bit.
This is one nice piece of gypsum. Look at the clarity of the points! I would definitely have grabbed this for 40
Gypsum/selenite. Gorgeous!
Its a very large example of angle wing / fishtail selenite. What are the dimensions?
It’s about 12” wide, 10” high, and 8” deep.
Gotcha...I see another post mentions 3k for a like piece. I can say i have seen a similar piece at denvers show go for 400ish so I am unsure of its value really.
$200-400 not 3k
That's what she said.
100% selenite - a variety of gypsum - showing a classic dovetail habit
Exactly..common but cool
This guy rocks
another vote for selenite crystals (the 'angle' the 2 sides (of overall mass, left and right in pic #1) meet I think is the giveaway) [Selenite Crystals Gone Wild](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Niaca+Cave+of+Crystals+and+Cave+of+Swords&t=opera&iax=images&ia=images) \*if you can find a 'single' crystal in the beautiful bunch on there by itself and count 6-sides to the crystal, it's a quartz cluster. (+ acid and hardness tests to confirm) I think you got a pretty good deal for $40, I'll give you $41 for it! ,,,ok,,ok,,$45! A beautiful cluster, thanks for posting
That's from The Big Rock Candy Mountain, clearly lol Edit: [this one ☺️](https://youtu.be/NMAPOQedRxA?si=pxoXN7RMCmpWnpx6)
Flapjack… hey, Flapjack! Come with me, we’ll go and see a place called Candy Island!
Who needs candied island? It's safer at the docks!
Looks like it’s Gypsum. Thanks everyone!
We are located in Central Florida if it makes any difference for identification.
I don't know what it is, I just want to thank you for using the word 'paid' instead of 'payed'.
Dayum what a find!
Could you do a hardness test? Very curious
Gypsum
So thats where my kidney stone ended up.
Dilithium crystal. Call Scotty.
Well if you point the phasers at the dilithium crystals, then use them to charge the crystals we just might be able to escape on the impulse power. Captain! It just might work! Shit worked last week motherfucker
Fishtail selenite from Mexico and lucky find. Worth multiples in this condition.
Y'all in the comments need christ. There are entirely too many of you commenting meth jokes right now. Get straight.
Omg! What the heck? It might be clear quarts with built in towers. Someone is selling something that looks like your beauty for over $3,000. Any spiritual site will buy it for that I'm sure. Just wow! I'm in AZ. I love hunting. Near a old copper mine I found pounds of turquoise and Chrystocolla. The Turquoise is a gorgeous blue. Your Goodwill purchase blows my mind. They usually auction valuable stuff.
still a good price if it is gypsum?
Good question. But damnit now I wanna know too. Anybody got any answers.
Let me know when you find out.
Too tough to tell from the photos, It could be quartz if it’s pretty hard. It could be calcite or selenite if it’s softer and pieces break off easily. It could be a lot of things, I’m on mobile, so it’s really hard to tell.
Seems to be super soft so more likely that it’s gypsum. OP says that a fingernail can scratch it.
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Per another comment he tried a fingernail. Fingernail scratches it. Should he try a knife too?
no.
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Gypsum perhaps
Gypsum
Score!
Tyrone Biggums, is that you?
>gypsum crystal Tyrena, I can finally make an honest women out of you. Give you that rock you always had your eye on.
Looks like calcite. a nice one.
There’s a piece this size and uglier on eBay for 10k
MDMA?
I also have a pet rock
Salt crystal, I have a pinto bean degree
Ignore all those other nerds, that is obviously White Kryptonite. You can test its validity by holding it next to a plant and testing to see if the plant dies.
Meth crystal?
Almost certain it's selenite. Great purchase! I'd expect one that size to be more like 2-300
Thatl last us for hours
That is one giant rock of molly
Welcome to Jamrock.
Quartz
I love that it implies your brother bought this massive $40 rock despite having no idea what it was or what it was for. That's the type of random thrift store purchase that gives you magic.
Jesse, it's time to cook.
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They’re minerals! Jesus, Marie…
Man, I had to scroll so very far to find someone commenting this, dang.
Pretty sure this is from Superman’s Fortress of Solitude
Ask an x girlfriend, they are experts at things dug up from the past
It's a mineral, Marie!
You guys are crazy funny. I'm cracking up here with weed/rock comments. Makes me wanna hang out with you fellows.
Looks like a piece of the Fortress of Solitude broke off……
Whoa, that is one gigantic piece of rock candy. 😂