UV Color Shifting

Decent color shifting from this darkish looking piece of quartz I picked up off the ground near the La Paz County Fairgrounds a few days ago. Most minerals don’t show different colors under different wavelengths although color shifting is not uncommon. It’s just nice to see.

I had been looking for gold signs but I pick up anything odd. When you are interested in radioactive materials, fluorescent minerals, fossils, unusual rock occurrences (such as flow banding, differential weathering, or strange fracturing), you’re probably going to come home with something.

This is visible light, long wave, and short wave. 18 watt Way Too Cool Lamp. I find quite a bit of lime green colored fluorescing quartz in the desert, we all do, but color shifting and afterglow make ordinary quartz more exciting. This one doesn’t have any afterglow.

Notice the reddish/brown in the center of the rock under shortwave. I may break the rock open to see what’s going on. I don’t usually see this color in common field quartz.

Visible light:



Long wave:


Short wave:


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