Who knew this beauty would come from copper?

 

For years I had been attracted to this unique green rock that I found at a rock shop one day about 10 years ago, it was called Malachite.  This was long before I decided to go to school for geology and actually study rocks.  Every time I walked by this rock in my house, I had to just stare and enjoy its crazy uniqueness.  It looked like a system of little caves and the color was just amazing. I’d have to say this rock started me on my adventure of where I am today.  If someone had asked me as a child if I wanted to be a geologist I would have said no, in fact I barely passed Earth Science in 9th grade.  I liked Chemistry a hell of a lot more than learning about water, rocks, and volcanoes. Of course now I know that studying rocks has a lot to do with Chemistry.

Malachite (Cu₂CO₃(OH)₂) is a magnificent vibrant green stone that comes in many unique shapes including botryoidal (looks like a bunch of grapes), fibrous and stalagmatic masses (forming from drops accumulating on the floor of a cave).  Malachite is a copper carbonate rock that most often forms from the weathering of copper and is often found alongside its sister rock Azurite (Cu₃(CO₃)₂(OH)₂).  Azurite is a vibrant blue rock that also forms from the weathering of copper.  These rocks are associated with copper deposits around limestone (limestone is a carbonate mineral).

In 2013 at a place called Rattlesnake Gulch in NM, while doing a field assignment, I found a quartz rock with malachite on it in the valley.  I had pure excitement running through my veins.  I had for the first time found my favorite rock in nature by myself (well with my field partner Brian).  In fact I think Brian thought I was a little crazy because I was jumping up and down over finding a rock in the valley between mountains.  I felt like a true explorer that day.  To this very day I still admire that first Malachite rock that I bought at the rock shop.  I often wonder if I would be a Geologist if I had never bought that rock, after all its what made me curious about rocks in the first place. Rock nerd forever.