After so much geology in my previous posts it has been time for little travel. We went out today into nature and drove to Bielatal, a nice region belonging to Sächsische Schweiz (sandstone region near Dresden close to the Czech border). The trekking tour started in Rosenthal (parking lot “Altes Zollhaus”) and we were heading south toward Czech border, then along the border up to Fuchsteich” and then back to Rosenthal. For those not familiar with the area the names say nothing but this website is about sand so here comes the sand story:

On the way back to Dresden we stopped at the spot called “Labyrinth”, a heavy whethered rock formation which can be visited by just walking one km from the main road. The area is made of huge sandstone blocks randomly arranged and welcoming especially the kinds for a funny walk around them.

The rocks are very eroded and in some places they reveal the original sandstone colors: from grey to orange and reddish, all typical colors for Sächsische Schweiz sandstone formations.

Yes, that kind of mineral exists in nature under the name fuchsite and it is just a colored form of the common mica found in some sands (original name: muscovite). The gree mica is actually a variety of muscovite very reach in chromium (usually between 1-5%). While the common mica is grey or silver, the fuchsite form has a very nice, bright green color.

The photo above is of a little stone gathered from a stone carving artist from northern Germany who opened a galery with artistic gardening ideas (photo wide: 8 mm). One of them included fuchsite as main element due to its warm color. When the stone is exposed to sunset light it shines even stronger than under normal light, which makes the stone very attractive for colored garden fans.

Almandine is a rock-forming mineral with a deep red color (slightly purple) belonging to the garnet group. Chemically, almandine is a iron-alluminium garnet with the formula Fe₃Al₂(SiO₄)₃.

The name almandine (also known as carbuncle) comes from Alabanda, a region in Asia where the minerals were firstly found in ancient times. The term carbuncle is derived from latin and means “live coal” or burning charcoal. Almandine occurs frequently in metamorphic rocks like mica schists, similar as in the photo above taken from a small piece of conglomerate found on a beach at Baltic Sea.

Fascinated by the photographs in the previous post I searched for more stones in our small stone rack and the results we can see below. Again I don’t know much about their composition but when I’ll know more I’ll update this post so you shall come back later and check this entry.

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Yesterday we’ve been walking on the shores of a small lake not far from our house and brought back home a couple of stones. They were just regular stones but after braking them they revealed a nice texture which I though I’d share with you. Even if I know almost nothing about their composition or constituent minerals, I like very much how they look in front of the lens. All photos are 10 mm wide.

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