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Rocks and Minerals

Earth Science Review Page

Videos Click on the photo for video link.

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Giant Crystal Cave [BBC]: Mind bendingly HUGE gypsum crystals in a cave in Mexico.  Wow! Great views of these crystals courtesy of the BBC.  Footage ends at 9:10
7 mins 10 sec
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Identifying Minerals [Earth Rocks!]: A really good intro to minerals by Katryn Wiese of City College of San Francisco.  Thorough, with great visuals.  Pretty long at 16 minutes though.  
​16 mins 4 secs
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Granite  [Yosemite Natural Notes]: Well done pro-shot video focused on the granite in Yosemite.
7 mins

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Rocks Overview [CVshorey]: Colorado School of Mines Professor Christian Shorey has put together these fantastic teaching videos as part of his Earth Explorations series.  Don't let the basic production or monotone-ish voice over fool you, these videos are very thorough and packed with great visuals. A great teaching and learning resource.
​7 min 45 sec
    
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Igneous Rocks Overview [CVshorey]:  A good look at the basics of igneous rocks, with many great visuals.  
​10 min 50 sec
  
​While the above video is good for college and even down to the high school level, Shorey's videos in this series get very heavy and high level.  Three of his higher level igneous videos are:
Intrusive Igneous Rocks (9 mins)  
Extrusive Igneous Rocks (7 mins)
Large Scale Igneous Features (10 mins)  

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Sedimentary Rocks Overview [CVshorey]:  A nice intro to sed rocks, including a quick overview of weathering & erosion.
​
  ​11 min 17 sec
  
These 6 additional videos have Shorey diving deep into sub-topics of sedimentary rocks:
Chemical Sed. Rocks (10 mins)  
​
Clastic Sedimentary Rocks (10 mins) 
Primary Sed. Structures Pt. 1 (7 mins)
Primary Sed. Structures Pt. 2 (8 mins)
Secondary Sed. Structures (9 mins)
​
Depositional Environments (14 mins)

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Metamorphic Rocks Overview [CVshorey]:  Another well-put together video by Professor C. Shorey.  ​
​11 min 17 sec
   ​
While the above video is good for college and down to the high school level, Shorey's videos in this series get very heavy and go into great depth.  Six of his high level metamorphic rock videos are below:
Pressure and Temperature (9 mins)
Metamorphic Chemistry 1 (12 mins)  
Metamorphic Chemistry 2 (13 mins)  
Non-foliated Metamorphics (9 mins) Foliated Metamorphics (14 mins)   
Metamorphic Thermodynamics (10 mins)     
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Columnar Basalt [hugefloods]:  Really good video explaining columnar basalt in Washington State.  Some great shots of the columns themselves.
​
2 1/2 mins
And here's very cool drone footage of the same columnar basalt in Washington.
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​Volcanoes Around the World [hugefloods] Very good overview of the volcano types with quality images and real world footage.  I love this guy from hugefloods.
4 mins

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Grilling Steak Over Lava:  A fun test by lava researchers at Syracuse U.  Good to show students how crazy hot lava really is..
​1 min
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Underwater lava flow:  Pro-shot from Discovery Channel.  Well done.
2 mins
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Pillow Lava Formation [Lava Ocean Tours]:  Underwater lava flow footage is not easy to come by.  While the quality of this is not very good, there are many good shots of the pillow lava forming.  My students always dig it.
3 min 24 sec
    

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Bowen's Reaction Series [William Stafford]  A good explanation of a fairly involved process.
6
 min 47 sec
 
One more:
Dr. Christian Shorey's Bowen's R.S. video is also good and delves a bit into the atomic structure side of things,
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How to Do the Mineral Scratch Test with Glass & Fingernail [Gazdonian Productions]:  Shows what I've learned are the best ways to have students test mineral hardness in class.
3 min 55 sec
 
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Precipitation of Mineral From a Liquid: Ocean Water [Gazdonian Productions]  Students have a heck of a time understanding the process of precipitation.  Seeing it happen in this video is helpful. Not the best audio quality.
​
9 min 11 sec
   

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Hawaii Lava Flows:  Lava dripping into the ocean in Hawaii is a truly awesome sight.
​1 1/2 mins
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Volcanoes/Lava flow Compilation:  Artfully shot video is  a great introduction to igneous rocks/volcanism.
2 1/2 min
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"Winter in Hell":  Great visuals of Icelandic eruptions and lava flows.  Volcano/lava footage starts at 4:20
8 mins 

Mining & Quarrying

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Overview of Wyoming Coal Mining [PBS]:   This very well done video shows the basics of strip mining in the Powder River Basin.  It does a great job showing the truly MASSIVE scale of these operations.  Wow!
​6 min 43 sec
  
For more info on coal trains:   Trainfanatics.com
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Splitting a 26,000 lb Granite Block with a 2 lb Hammer [Joe Dorr]:  This age-old method of splitting rock is pretty amazing.  The video has a simple folksy vibe to it, but is well made.
6 min 48 sec
  
Here's a similar video, but this time it's a block of marble being split.  This one is a bit more thorough and to the point, with no speaking:  Split Marble Block
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How Diamonds are Cut - How It's Made:  Interesting look at the complicated process of cutting gem quality diamonds.
​
4 min 45 sec   


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"ll Capo” (The Chief): A Striking Look at Marble Quarrying in the Italian Alps [NOWNESS]:  Extremely satisfying look at marble quarrying in Italy.  Stunning cinematic shots in this arty short film.
​
2 min 53 sec
 
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Slate Quarry, England 1962:  The professionally done video has a satisfying old-time feel to it.  Cool explosion at 1:17. I particularly like the guy hand splitting the slate at 2:10
​3 mins
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Splitting Slate [shawnfwatson]: Never would you think that a guy splitting slate with a hammer and a chisel could be so satifyingly watchable.  The instinctive attraction people have to this video is pretty amazing.  A student favorite! [the "action" starts around the 40 sec mark]  
3 min 14 sec
    
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Here's another video showing slate being split by hand.


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Barre, VT Granite Quarry Tour [Gazdonian Productions]:  The highlight is definitely the granite bowling lane.
​3 min 47 sec
     
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Serpentine Stone Quarry Tour, Vermont [Gazdonian Productions]:  Quick tour of the Vermont Verde Quarry.
4 min 43 sec
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Pool Table Slate Mining [kdmunroe]:  Interesting to see the origin of Brunswick pool table slate (even though these corporate-made videos are pretty soul-less).  I don't like that they referred to slate a sedimentary rock.  
​
8 min 39 sec
  

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Drone Footage of Abandoned Granite Quarry, Graniteville VT [Jeremy Gilchrist]:   Mesmerizing perspective of this dramatic old quarry.
​1 min 40 sec
 




Classroom Basics / Lecture Notes

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Rock Lecture Notes (High School Level) [GazdonianProductions]: When a collegue of mine was out for an extended period, I filmed my typical rock lectures to be shown to her students.  The 9 videos in this playlist add up to about 90 minutes, so it's not short but my goal was to replicate the classroom experience and not just plow through the basic facts.
90 mins
  
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Identifying Igneous Rocks (Introductory College Level) [Earth Rocks!]  A well done video by Katryn Wiese from City College of San Francisco.  Can be used at the high school level as well. Very good explanantions, with quality visuals.  A bit long though.
​20 min 17 sec
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Identifying Sedimentary Rocks (Introductory College Level) [Earth Rocks!]  Very comprehensive.  College level but can be used at the high school level. 15 min    

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Identifying Metamorphic Rocks (Introductory College Level) [Earth Rocks!]  Made by Katryn Wiese of City College of San Francisco.  Very comprehensive.  Can be used at the high school level.
​14 min 17 sec
    
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Rock Identification Review (for NY Earth Sci. Regents) [Gazdonian Productions]:  It's always been difficult for students to study rock ID outside of the classroom, so this visual review is a step right direction.
6 min 25 sec
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Mineral Identification Review (for NY Earth Sci. Regents) [Gazdonian Productions]:  Visual review of the basics of mineral identification.
7 min 21 sec

The 2nd String a bit more obscure or on the fringe of the topic.  But still cool.
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Salt by ZAGAT:  How artisanal salt is produced, this video from restaurant guide people at ZAGAT is geared toward food snobs.  It's good to show kids this side of the world.
8 mins
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Marble-Quarry-Turned-Swimming-Pool [CNNMoney]:  One of the most unique and coolest swimming pool you'll ever see
​1
 min 59 sec
 
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Lava on Ice:  Discovery Channel's report on an experiment done at Syracuse University. My students love this.
2 1/2 mins


Here's the raw footage, which has a much more real, non-produced  vibe to it (7 mins)

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How It's Made - Salt:  From the great Discovery Channel show "How It's Made", this gives a quality overview of salt harvesting
5 mins
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Brooklyn Slate Co.  Brooklyn hipsters-meet-the-age-old-world-of -slate-quarrying.  If you're easily annoyed by hipsters, this might make you want to puke.
4 1/2 mins 
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NYC Geology Meets Skyscraper Construction:  A spur of the moment, man-on-the-street GP video showing rock drill cores taken down to a depth of 56 feet for a skyscraper which now stands on Central Park South.
​3 mins

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Spotted Lake - Mineral Precipitation (NY Times):
Evaporation and mineral precipitation in this Canadian lake lead to the formation of unique and beautiful pools.
90 secs
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Volcanic Eruption Time Lapse of Eyjallajo Eruption 2010: Time lapse offers a cool perspective on volcanic eruptions.  Love the name of this volcano.  The Icelandic language is awesome...
​30 secs
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Metaconglomerate:  Getting a good piece of metaconglomerate isn't easy, so this basic GP video may be the only way students can see what it looks like.
2 mins

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Halite Dissolving Time Lapse [Gazdonian Productions]:  Straight forward but cool to see. 
1 min 24 sec
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Hardness Example - Metal Ice Scraper[Gazdonian Productions]:  Snow day example of applying hardness concept in the real world.
1 min 26 sec

Miscellaneous

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High-End Minerals:  LH Conklin deals in mineral specimens for the serious collector (avg price: $2,500).  Definitely browse through the Mineral Gallery pages.  And be sure to go to the My Collection page to see some staggeringly awesome "eye-agates", which I had never even heard of before seeing them here (see below)  
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"eye-agates"
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ARTICLE: The Subway Garnet (NY Times) Background on a fantastic garnet crystal found in 1885 when excavating the NYC subway.  Dec 2015

​more to come...


Quarry/Mining YouTube Playlist Dec 2016 Just a quick playlist I'm working on.  Click here.

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  • Home
  • Regents Review Earth Science
  • "Best of the Web" Videos by Topic
  • Applied Physics
  • More...
    • HW Videos
    • Gazda Made Videos
    • Sand Lab
    • handmade frames
    • Film Your Own Videos
    • PD & Conferences
    • Teacher-Made Videos
    • Teaching with YouTube Videos
    • Video Best practices
    • ELL - YouTube Auto-translate
    • Contact
    • About