PSC 103 Photo Journal

  for this week's prompt of minerals that are one element, i did a quick google search to see what some examples are, and one of them was silver. this felt perfect for me as my ears are sensitive, so my piercings are all either surgical steel or silver. I also have one pair of gold from my very first piercings.  in the picture to the right, I have said gold stud, a silver plated leaf ring my aunt made, a silver hummingbird ring with turquoise my mom got for me, and a turquoise snake pendant with some other little gems in a silver holder with a silver chain, also from my mom. these last two pictures are the backsides. on the back of the hummingbird is "MT sterling" and on the back of the pendant "starborn 925" both which show that they are in fact silver. the one on the pendant is a brand marker, but when googled shows that it is sterling silver. in nature, silver is found in rocks as an ore, and we refine it, and often times, mix it, as needed for various uses.

so these are some older pictures because I didn't have time to go out anywhere this week. I grew up about 45 minutes from Yosemite, so these pictures are from a sunrise trip I took with some friends in June of 2019.    left to right, this picture is my friends Makayla, Dalton, and then myself. we were at the base of one of the falls, I can't remember which one. Vernal maybe. Yosemite Valley is what we can see today due to erosion from glaciers. the glaciers carved out the mountains and moved the rubble around with it (I assume. I wasn't there when the valley was formed) I would assume that the Valley is still experiencing erosion now, but at a much smaller scale than when it was created as it is all exposed to the elements and weathering which can lead to erosion. I know there are still rockslides that happen in the park, as well as with the rivers and waterfalls.  I know that erosion has occurred here as I remember being told that the Valley came to be because of glaciers,

  I love this rock. I think I found it at Montana De Oro, and I found it a while ago, I'm not sure exactly when. the rock itself is about 1.5"x1"x1" in my estimation and has several little holes worn into it, and the one big half cylinder near my pinky in the pictures. I put the air plants into the rock a few months ago because the holes were just the right size and the rock itself is very porous, so the water gets absorbed into it and not spill all over the shelf. I am pretty sure this rock had mechanical/physical weathering. I found it on the beach, so it's likely that it was tumbled in the ocean for however long, then got to experience wind and rain on the shore. it's possible some sort of animal made the holes in it as I don't think that could be weathered by tumbling in the ocean or being exposed to the elements. the evidence of weathering is seen in the soft, rounded edges and I would assume it had been experiencing weathering for a while due to the

 so, yesterday, 3/31 around noon, my roommate and I mostly followed the mariposa trail in the Irish Hills trails (up behind Costco).  this rock I found in a dry creek bed. the patch of greenish blue on top caught my eye while we were walking, though I'm not sure exactly what type of mineral or rock it is that makes it that color. here's me with the rock, its a good third of the size of my head if I were to estimate I really like rocks, I collect rocks that catch my eye, and a bit farther down the path, I found this neat little piece of what I think could be serpentine. my grandma knows a lot about rocks, and I remember her pointing out serpentine while out on trails here in SLO.