Playa Rocks

[Just_Joe]

While playing with a cheapie uv flashlight, I found some little rocks on the playa during the event this year that fluoresce.
Anybody have an idea of what they are?
Hi res views are here:
http://ccnv.us/images/playarocks/

[Sham]

I've never seen rocks on the playa, but those are quite possibly "playa boogers" that people removed from their noses during the week. Some are quite impressive.

[Skuzzy61]

Remnants of sparkle ponies after that have been deprived of all moisture. Careful! DO NOT ADD WATER!

[Ratty]

My campmate picked up a bunch of white rocks. I thought they were left over from last year. Some art projects build a bed under their structure. I have no reason to think this other than seeing rocks around different art.

[666isMONEY]

There's a very alkali mineral hot spring called Frog Pond or Trego, by the railroad tracks off Jungo Road, maybe associated with that. I went in i once and after drying off, skin was very dry, flaky.

http://geology.com/articles/fluorescent-minerals/

http://www.hotwaterslaughter.com/hotspr ... hot-spring

[ygmir]

well calcite fluoresces, IIRC. maybe Gypsum,too? I know color can also depend on the wavelenght of the UV.
does it effervesce in HCL?
how hard is it?

there is a flow chart for ID'ing minerals, probably several, on line.

[EGAZ]

Where's Rhino?..........

[666isMONEY]

Tufa, calcite found in mineral springs and at Pyramid Lake, nearby, calcite flouresces




http://www.plpt.nsn.us/geology/index.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tufa

:?:

[Thecatman]

fragments of a meteorite $$$

But I agree with eldergeekaz

[Just_Joe]

Thanks for all of the input.
They look similar to a tufa "flower" that I have. When I put the UV light on it and it fluoresces, but is *much* dimmer that the specimens picked up on top of playa. They react biggly with HCL.
I'm going to go with Tufa Meteorite.

Yeah, I was hoping Rhino would chime in. Maybe he's buried in textbooks?

[ygmir]

Thanks for all of the input.
They look similar to a tufa "flower" that I have. When I put the UV light on it and it fluoresces, but is *much* dimmer that the specimens picked up on top of playa. They react biggly with HCL.
I'm going to go with Tufa Meteorite.

Yeah, I was hoping Rhino would chime in. Maybe he's buried in textbooks?

if they are not meteorites, I'd say "tufa shit" and just move on.