Color
4 pieces
Last Gasp
Autumn Light on Teasels
Burning Divide
Gems in the Wilderness Deep into the Snowy Range, Ellie and I found gems in the wilderness: a big boulder glowing blue-green against all that grey talus, with a few more of the same scattered up the slope. Ellie was ready to keep moving; I needed the shot.
I didn't know what caused it at the time. Turns out it's fuchsite, a chromium-rich version of mica that gives the quartzite its teal cast. It's rare enough that in the entire Snowy Range it only surfaces in two known spots, remnants of rock that got metamorphosed and tilted when two ancient landmasses collided almost two billion years ago.
So the "why is this rock teal" question I asked mid-trail had a genuinely wild answer: just under 11,000 feet, I was standing on the seam of an ancient continental collision. Not bad for a Saturday.