Self Guided Field Trip to
Los Angeles County Natural History Museum
Mineralogy
Name _______________________________ Ticket No. _______________
Using the exhibits in the museum, answer the following questions:
Hixon Gem Vault
1. Have diamonds ever been found in California? If so, describe where and how they were found.
2. What is the Calfornia State Gemstone?
What is its composition?
Is it found anywhere else in the world?
How big is it?
3. What causes the stars seen in star sapphires and star rubies?
4. How are sapphires and rubies related to one another?
5. Is alexandrite a silicate? Where was it discovered?
6. What two different minerals are commonly referred to as jade?
Gemstones and their origins
7. List four different environments of gemstone formation and briefly explain each, giving examples of gems that form in each environment.
Basics of Mineralogy Exhibit
8. What kind of light causes fluorescence in some minerals?
9. How do some minerals fluoresce? What is actually going on?
Systematic Mineralogy Exhibit
10. What is the name of the red variety of garnet? What is the name of a green variety of garnet? Why are these two garnets different colors?
11. Find at least three varieties of the mineral group feldspar and name them below. How do they differ from one another?
12. What are some of the minerals that contain Mercury? (Hg!!)
13. What are some of the minerals that contain Lead? (Pb!!)
14. What are some of the minerals that contain Zinc? (Zn!!)
15. What are some of the minerals that contain Copper? (Cu!!)
16. What is your favorite phosphate? Your favorite silicate? Your favorite carbonate? Your favorite oxide? Your favorite native element?
California Minerals Exhibit
17. Make a list of the minerals in this exhibit which came from San Diego County. Circle the one you thought most striking in appearance.
18. In what California county or region are natural specimens of gold, silver, and platinum found? In what two types of deposits do these rare metals typically occur?
19. If the curator of all the exhibits in the Hall of Minerals came up to you and said that you were the 1 millionth visitor to the Hall and had won the right to take away any one of the specimens on display, which would you take? Why?