A hunk of mostly microcline feldspar from Franklin, NJ, sitting on my desk:
Listing my favorite Geology resources. Many of these are just for fun.
YouTube:
Nick Zentner: focuses on Washington state, but at the same time, he’s probably the best popular science educator at the moment. His YouTube channel amazes me. I’ll probably never visit Washington state again (I’ve been to Seattle twice) but I still watch all of his videos. His Baha BC series is my favorite “TV Show”.
Skye Cooley is good for information about ancient cicada tunnels in soils.
Myron Cook is good for field geology and the western United States.
Shawn Willsey has great geology 101 information and excellent deep dives on Idaho geology.
The USGS YouTube channel is great, even if you just want to watch a volcano in Hawaii erupt for hours on end.
Websites:
Mindat is excellent for finding old mines and rock-hounding locations.
Geology.com: good foundational information.
USGS Geological Maps of the US. I like importing KMZ data into Google Earth. And then I buy the paper maps on eBay.
USGS Publication Warehouse. I like downloading old documents and then buying the on eBay.
I’m in New Jersey at the moment so NJ Geographic Information Network is a great resource. As is the New Jersey Office of GIS for lidar info.
I follow some mining industry people like Peter Bell on Twitter. What they do is interesting, but I’m not after gold.
The Sterling Hill Mining Museum in New Jersey. Fluorescent rocks and zinc mining.
Franklin Mineral Museum. Fluorescent rocks and zinc mining. I’m a lifetime member.
The Franklin-Ogdensburg Mineralogical Society, Inc. (FOMS).
North Jersey Mineralogical Society is worth joining if you are in New Jersey, New York City, western Connecticut, southern New York, or eastern Pennsylvania.