Rock Identification with Willsey: Nonfoliated Rocks - Quartzite and Marble 

Very interesting, I now understand how my grandmother ruined the marble top antique bedroom set I inherited. She was a nurse in the early 1900s. As nurses did, then she cleaned with hydrochloric acid solution. Grandpa was a doctor. He bought this 1870s marble top bedroom set from a friend who was short on cash and paid $25 for it. Mom said at that time it was a months wages. Grandmother was mad at him ever after for buying it. She cleaned it, as I said with hydrochloric acid. I'm sure she did it on purpose because the marble top commode that she bought for using in the kitchen has beautiful marble to this day. Obviously, she didn't use the acid on that one. Grandpa also would take old quilts and a knit bedspread during the depression in payment for medical bills. She ruined the quilts using them as mattress pads. So I'm glad to have this confirmed about marble. Your idea of walking us through making a rock identification I would enjoy watching and learning from. Thank you for this video.

We've really enjoyed the mineral and rock series, Shawn. I hope you come up with something else to keep us going. You are such a good teacher, I wish we lived out there and could take your classes.

I have a pet boulder on one of the local trails that mystified me, but now I can say I’m 68.3% sure it’s quartzite. It crumbles to the touch, no hammer needed, and the variety of colors and textures is marvelous. Most fascinating of all is that it sits stranded near hills of cryptobiotic soil with none of its kind nearby.

Thank you, Shawn!

Once again Shawn a very clear and concise guide to identification of these rock types!

Like the idea you have about field identification. Frameworks such as step 1, step 2, etc. are probably not applicable to every type, but I think they might be helpful. "No marble was harmed in the production of this video."

i love gathering and sometimes cutting and polishing or crafting rocks from Puget Sound beaches near me. i find very little sign of calcite but oh what wonderful, hard stones lay about. So many metamorphic and igneous choices falling from sand and harder cliffed banks. stones from amazing turmoils of twisted strata and covered with flora. nice to get more knowledge about these and the other mostly granites and other similar, torchered stones.

Thanks, great series! Just misidentified some quartzite as marble earlier today, apparently 😋

Thanks - my area in East TN has a lot of highly cemented sandstones everywhere and some iron stained quartzites as you move towards the Appalachian Mountains. I've struggled to understand this and this info helps me out!

Thanks to Prof. Willsey for helping me identify some of my rocks as metamorphic (gneiss) rather than sedimentary. His use of actual specimens is way more helpful to me than looking at photos in guide books.

I've learned so much from watching your channel! Thanks so much! This video helped explain what so many of the rocks I find are. It seems that for every question answered another pops up. Which isn't a bad thing. What I really appreciate is that you explain things from the micro to the macro scale. From the granular structure of a rock to the structural geology of an entire land mass, without burdening us with complicated terminology. Again, thank you! You are much appreciated.

Non foliated but sometimes they have layering...metamorphic rocks... Good video.

thanks a lot Shawn. this was really helpful. I wish I could attend your class in person. watching from South Sudan, Africa

This episode is key to understanding a LOT of my rocks (~68.3%, in fact). 😉 I really like your classes, Shawn, and will watch them again, to study the content more formally. I'm really appreciative. ❤

Another excellent lesson! Thank you!

A friend and i walked on railroad ballast and he moved his foot through the ballast and said quartzite gives a different sound than other ballasts, more of a "krinkly" sound, like a pile of broken glass might sound like if moved around, not just a 'gravelly' noise. I found that helpful.

Your videos are always interesting and with accurate information. Thank you. I would love your idea of ​​bringing a rock at random, either in the classroom or in the field itself, and doing the whole process of recognition and identification: the general appearance, the textures, the observation of the minerals that compose them, noting the confusions or difficulties that may arise, theoretical concepts that can help to discern, in short, the entire process of observation and reasoning in order to reach identification. And also others in the field itself highlighting the aspects of the environment that help in the identification.

Thanks for making these available. I am thoroughly enjoying them.

Teaching is a very good skill set of yours because in a short time I learnt a lot. It helps me to interpret and guess at the rock material both natural and also converted into useful objects by mankind which I may observe if I keep my eyes open and curiosity piqued. Geology is so fascinating. I agree with you that nothing beats a natural stone versus a processed powder mix pressed and glued? into a stone like product.

I remember in 8th grade everyone dreading geology class because rock identification was on the final,I barely passed even with an aplus average

Excellent overview of quartzite and marble. You briefly mention ortho- vs. meta-quartzite and I am curious as to how one distinguishes the two. Thanks for all your wonderful videos.

I have really enjoyed this classroom series and have learned from them clarifying many a doubt I had had, but there is always something to ponder over. The banded Quartzite cobble looks very much like the banded Gneis we saw the other day.

THANK YOU - I HAVE ENJOYED YOUR 'ROCK ID' SERIES, THANK YOU.

I've been watching your informative videos from the UK. This one helped me identify the type of rock used to construct the castle and town walls of Conwy in Wales. Which watching this video, I believe are mainly constructed from quartzite which is why they are still standing in good condition after 800 years.

Dear Professor Shawn. Thank you once again fir your efforts putting this together. Great fun watching your videos pal, nice to have a normal person rather than an actor (influencer), and reality, amazing, real rocks from earth, being handled and described nicely.

Estou adorando os videos , sou do Brasil, professora de Física, apaixonado por geologia.

Thx Prof Willsey for another interesting vid. ✌

Really helpful video

Thanks Shawn. Your classes have been very informative as I learn about rock hounding. I'm in San Diego & collecting samples from the beach. Let me know if you want some mystery stones to identify. I'm constantly waffling between Chalcedony, Chert, Jasper, Rhyolite, and now Quartzite. I'm sure the answer is a mix of everything but your lessons have given me some tools to use. Thanks.

That does help ty so much!!

great video

I clicked on the 900 likes. These videos are very educational indeed.

Thank you. I am really enjoying these videos. Does it matter if the glass is tempered? A window pane vs glass from a table top?

Thanks!

Hi Shawn, thanks for your videos, I’ve always had an interest in what I’m picking up in creekbeds and such. I was wondering what was the best stone back in the day to grind grain without stone particles getting into the grains? Thanks again!

Interesting.

❤

The green quartzite you showed brought up some questions in my mind. Is there a relationship between quartzite and serpantine or emerald?

5:48 one in the middle reminds me of Jupiter

Would be great to hear your definition and description of the development surrounding banded iron formation (bif) sedimentary rocks. Thanks for the effort! - Mike

Yes, how about a session on rocks you should not lick

Are u a ble to put links to your others rock ID ? Big thanks😊

Shawn are you on any discussion forums that allow photo uploads?

Looks like you have been doing some hand jamming in granite cracks, or maybe basalt.

If say, that green quartzite you show halfway through the video, was to be sliced thin, light would pass through it, correct? But when it's in a thick chunk, light won't pass through. Is it still considered a translucent stone, though? Because when its thin enough light does pass through, and i thought you could tell if it would be translucent by looking in those little breaks and seeing if the little chips and breaks look translucent then thats how you know Someone told me if light wont pass through, even a large chunk that shows those signs in the little chips, if light wont pass through it then its not transluscent He really made a huge deal about it. Am i wrong? If light will pass through it in a thinner slice, but wont when the same piece is in a big chunk, its still considered translucent, right? I apologize if that seems obvious but its taken me a long time to get the courage to ask. 😅

Did you find the purple-striped quartzite cobble (the middle of your three cobbles at 5:38) on the Salmon River? I see a lot of Salmon River cobbles that are very similar.

What would a 50-50 combination of beach shell/coral sediments and quartz sand metamorphose into? Which minerals would dominate in that compound? Silica, calcium and/or carbonates? Would its metamorphic rock be after even greater pressure is introduced?

do you know much about "oolitic limestone" ?

Teşekkürler.

6:48 looks like a sandstone🤔

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i burn quartzite and throw into hot water turn out it was red hematite, do you think quartzite have gold in there?

Look at all the gemstones that are quartz like Citrine or Amethyst in crystal form. Not a quartzite, but same silicon oxide chemistry with small elemental inclusions for color.

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I have ROUND QUARTZITE CRYSTALLINE 1.1KG and the color is ORANGE

1:56 massive vs foliated?

Shawn, if we ever meet, I'm gonna bring a quartzite and ask you what it is. Just for the smh factor.

6:20 I actually confuse it with gneiss!

Boa noite sou do Brasil cidade de São Paulo interior moro com a minha mãe eu presenciei um fenômeno a 3 anos atrás não tem como explicar eu tenho bastante fragmentos desses é muito de diversos tamanho e cores cristais brilho intenso depois da explosão a claridade foi se apagando e veio em segundos uma chuva de fragmentos bem forte e parou rápido em 5 segundos no máximo oq eu faço ninguém acredita pensando que sou louco eu estou recolhendo fragmentos até hoje tem muitos pedaços de meteoritos tenho kilos e kilos eu vi e ouvi isso que importa as pessoas ficam falando que eu sou louco 😢 😂❤🎉😅😊

That striped quartzite would be confused for a foliated rock by me.

Very much enjoy your videos. Have a good day. Also, stop cutting your hands up so much. It looks like you need medical attention.😮

one of the best kept secrets known to mankind is identification....

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