Brought home a radioactive rock

[Vidar]

I did another hike last week and picked up some more rocks. Still not sure if I'm rock collecting or exercising, or if it matters, but carrying rocks is indeed heavy and surprisingly good exercise.

Anyway, I wielded my new geiger counter over them when I returned home. I was rather surprised to see something was going on. After checking each stone individually I ended up with 2 slightly radioactive rocks, and one which had a small radioactive inclusion at one end. The latter was an order of magnitude more active than the others even if it was tiny in comparision. Lucky that was just a small inclusion and not an entire rock of that stuff! Nothing too crazy or worrisome this time, but not something I want near people either.

Either way, I'm happy about buying the geiger counter and now have confirmation that it works. A better approach in the future would be to check in field though instead of at home. If that had been a big baddie I would have been carrying it close to the body for hours, and that might not have been great.

[Grant Lamontagne]

I mean, why collect rocks that aren't radioactive?  That doesn't make much sense really, then they are just heavy for the sake of being heavy.

Carrying around radioactive ones has a greater chance of causing superpowers, judging by all the studying I have done in the libraries of Marvel and DC Comics.   

As for whether you are becoming a rock collector or not, do what makes you happy and let the labels follow (or not) as they may.

Also, I am pretty certain we are going to need pictures of said rocks, if for no other reason than to be accurate during the investigation....

Def

[friendliestdoggo]

Even the rocks slightly radioactive, still be better handle with care then  On the other hand, I'm curious where did you even find these rocks? Was there any radioactive incident happened nearby in the past?

[Vidar]

I mean, why collect rocks that aren't radioactive?  That doesn't make much sense really, then they are just heavy for the sake of being heavy.

True. Normal rocks doesn't even shine bright or thaw snow properly. To be fair there are other heavy rocks of interest too.

Carrying around radioactive ones has a greater chance of causing superpowers, judging by all the studying I have done in the libraries of Marvel and DC Comics.   

That sounds accurate! Didn't even consider that. Looking forward to it! I've tried flying, lifting heavy things, and using x-ray vision to look through things. Total disappointment so far.

As for whether you are becoming a rock collector or not, do what makes you happy and let the labels follow (or not) as they may.

Turns out of the wife is very articulate at labeling when the living room fills up with various rocks. I've tried telling her that there must be at least 0.5g of gold in there somewhere and she can have it all! (She might need to locate it herself!)

Also, I am pretty certain we are going to need pictures of said rocks, if for no other reason than to be accurate during the investigation....

I actually did take some photos, although more to avoid that particular inclusion in the future. The dang card reader isn't here though. I'll post when I get to it.

[Vidar]

Even the rocks slightly radioactive, still be better handle with care then  On the other hand, I'm curious where did you even find these rocks? Was there any radioactive incident happened nearby in the past?

No incident as such, unless you count some vulcano activity some 1500-2500 million years ago. That apparently caused lots of material to surface where it stuck itself into veins and clustered into minerals and crystals as it cooled. Then that entire massive got pushed up to become a mountain, which again has been worn down to what we got left today. At least that is how I've understood it.

The  area got mixes of crystals and minerals containing various metals and unusual stones. A few of which are radioactive. Most of those are just on the level of bananas though. But it is not evenly dispersed, so one can happen to sit down on a hot one for coffee break - or bring one home.

Anyway, seems that geiger counter was a worthwhile purchase.

[PitCarver]

That's kinda cool.
Never collected rocks, but I do like some petrified wood.  (Some people call them rocks, but they're fossils.). I wonder if there's any radioactivity in them.



Honey, can I buy a geiger counter?

[Vidar]

That's kinda cool.
Never collected rocks, but I do like some petrified wood.

I don't think we have that around here. Sounds interesting though.

Honey, can I buy a geiger counter?

Ah, you just fill out the required formal application in three copies and don't forget any birthdays, Xmas or wedding days for a while? 

I've found that there are more rocks trying to kill you than I was aware of. So far I've come across copper sulfate, galena, asbestos, arsenic, beryllium, possibly thallium, and now radioactive stuff. Not to mention the devious one that hit the back of my head! I've started to realize why so many miners died early.

[Farmer X]

Radioactive rocks and asbestos, eh? The pipes in my basement had asbestos lagging. Most of it is gone by now, and luckily I'm suffering no ill effects.

[Vidar]

Asbestos is an amazing building material in many ways - except for the damning issue of being a major health hazard when fibers get airborne. Too bad there is no equal safe building alternative.

I actually thought it was synthetically made, like glass fibers or similar, but it seems it is really mined for. First time I found one of these rocks, which had partially dissolved into bundles of long thin fibers, I actually fiddled around with it until it dawned on me what it could be. 

[ThundahBeagle]

Is it granite from the area of Lovsakken near Bergen? Very old granite there is radioactive with uranium and thorium.

Nokkeland (sp?) In the Moss area, has been found to have high quantities of Radon.

It always seems to be Norway or that area that tell the rest of the world that a nuclear incident in Russia or Ukraine has taken place.  Such as when Pripyat/Chernobyl melted down and exploded.  Is there something in the wind current patterns that sends radioactive particles into Norway?

[Vidar]

Is it granite from the area of Lovsakken near Bergen? Very old granite there is radioactive with uranium and thorium.

No, I'm in the northernmost end of mainland Norway. Norway do have large reserves of thorium in particular - apparently 3rd most in world. There are also many uranium rich areas around the country, but usually in the form of depleted uranium and not very radioactive at all. The generation of radon seems to be the main issue with these.

It always seems to be Norway or that area that tell the rest of the world that a nuclear incident in Russia or Ukraine has taken place.  Such as when Pripyat/Chernobyl melted down and exploded.  Is there something in the wind current patterns that sends radioactive particles into Norway?

If I remember correctly Chernobyl was mostly bad luck with the wind direction at the time. Different parts of Norway got hit to various extent. Up here with we had restrictions on eating certain kinds of food for years afterwards. I haven't heard of any major impact afterwards for health or nature though.

Edit: I don't want to be very specific about the location.

[Vidar]

Found a card reader, so here are two close up photos of the radioactive section of the rock. Not really much help though - mineral salad seems to cover it... I suspect the black crystals, the yellow stuff, or any of the other stuff..

The two less radioactive rocks looks just like lots of others on the outside. I'll find a photo or two.

[Vidar]

Photos of rocks like the low radioactive ones - they are very similar on the outside, so likely something inside that is radioactive as other looking like this isn't.

[Farmer X]

Sure is a neat-looking rock, though!

[Vidar]

Yes, I think the two sections below could really be photogenic. Maybe more so after cleaning - most rocks look way better without dirt and grime. Then again, I have no intent of handling it unneeded or spreading dust from it.

[friendliestdoggo]

  cool rocks images

[AzteCypher]

I used to be a rock hound when I was a kid.  I'm not sure what happened to my rock collection after I moved out of mom's house.  I think I still have a some of them floating around in a box here at home.  Might have to look for it at some point.

[Vidar]

If you brought home some proper radioactive ones you can use a geiger counter to find it there. So there is that...

For me this gets me out the door. I'm not much for picking berries and the like, and fishing interest dimmed somewhat after working with fish for a time.

This rock/ mineral thing is peculiar mix of hiking, old local history, lost mines, aerial photos, navigating and treasure hunt. There has been mining around here for longer than documented history (5000bc being the oldest one apparently), and even when documentation started they would only do the bigger claims. And some historic location reports are just plain wrong.

So there are old, undocumented and possibly some never reported "private" mines and prospects  to be found. And many will still have high densities of stuff in the area (the mines themselves are off limits for safety and legal reasons), but typically not enough volume to be commercially interesting today.  And that is still fine as a hobby picker - with some luck I find some potentially nice specimens.

(There are no small scale mines anymore - the various requirements, documentation and applications cost so much that you need some very serious ground for it be viable. In practice it is almost impossible to start a mine around here today. For instance there are a few areas around here that have roughly 3 to 30 grams per yard of gold. (Way beyond Gold Rush tv series densities). Known volume in one of these areas has been estimated to over 120 million USD - yet that wasn't interesting enough to even begin the paperwork process).