Copper Cu Native Elements Group

                                                                    

   Physical Features

1. Color- Bright Red.

2. Streak- Metallic coppery.

3. Luster- Metallic.

4. Cleavage- None.

5. Transparency- Opaque.

6. Fracture- Ductile, hackly.

7. Hardness- 2.5-3.

8. Forms- Massive.

9. Crystal System- Cubic.

Copper is one of our most vital native elements in the world. The beautiful bright reddish luster gives it a rich warm feeling. This bright, soft native mineral is usually found around igneous rock, limestone, slate, sandstone and can also be associated with the native element sulfur. Copper is mostly formed as a secondary mineral due to the other iron-bearing minerals. If the copper forms well, it will form as cubic or dodechdral crystal, which may be rare. Other forms may be in twisted veins, wirelike strings and in sheets. In todays modern world we use copper for many purposes, such as, telephones, building wire, electronics, transportation, machinery and everyday general products. The native element has been dated back 10,000 years ago. Then it was used in ancient times as a substitution for stone. They allowed it to make tin, bronze and zinc to produce brass.

The United States has many copper mines, although Keweenaw Peninsula in Michigan has one of the largest production of native copper. The massive open-pit copper mine in Utah is also another major mine in the states, but the worlds largest concentration of native copper exists in Chili. I'll have to visit there one day to see the beauty of this ancient mineral.

For a bit of trivia: Did you know that policemen in the United States were nick-named "cops" or "coppers" because the buttons on their uniforms were made of copper? Pretty cool story!

Belemnetella Americana (Fossils)

Group- Cephalopods.

Date- Late Cretaceous.

Size- From up to 5 in.

Location- Europe, North America.

Belemnitella Americana, Belemnitella American, I just love the way that sounds, what a cool name, lol. I also love finding the fossil. The Belemnitella is an ancient squidlike cephalopod that lived during the late cretaceous period. Resembling a bullet, the Belemnitella tappers to a point, which is know as mucron, Their bodys had tentacles for catching small prey and they used a jet propulsion to move around, they did that in a backward motion, too cool. The color can vary from a orangish-brown to a orangish-yellow, but when there in the water they tend to look bright orange.

The Belemnitella Americana shown above were found in the Navesink Formation of Big Brook Perserve in Colts Neck N.J. Every year I journey from Massachusettes to this paticular spot hoping to find fossils that once had life, and once thrived in our waters. We do know today that these cephalopods swam in massive groups along the shallow waters. Big Brook Perserve is the perfect example of how large their groups were. Certain sections of the brook show the enormous amount of Belemnitellas that were left behind, graveyards of them. Their schools dominated the area and are the most common cephalopod in the brook.

On a hot sunny day the sun shows us the wonderful treasures that are here, left behind from prehistoric times.