So what is the shiny, metallic mineral in the quartz? The core shown above to the left was a "rock of the week" from one of my students whose grandfather was a dentist in the air force in Homer, Alaska. The image to the right is a macro image of the metallic spot to the upper left of the core. Apparently there was a mining operation for galena near his office, and sections of drilling cores littered the area. The core is a combination of galena and quartz. It closely resembles the sand grains shown in both samples. I'm going to say that we're looking at galena here,  not silver, but I could be wrong!!

Sample #1 was contributed by a faculty member from Gates Intermediate School, Scituate, Massachusetts

Sample #2 was contributed by a former faculty member from Gates Intermediate School, Scituate, Massachusetts

Click on the thumbnails under the images of sample #2 to view high resolution images. The second thumbnail beneath the "4X Magnification" image is a thumbnail of the macro core image. Compare the grain to the core!

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