What minerals can you find in michigan

Subscribe to receive an email notification when a publication is added to this page. Skip to main content. Search Search. National Minerals Information Center. The Mineral Industry of Michigan. Statistics and information on the nonfuel mineral commodities produced in Michigan. They are deposits from the ancient coral, which became embedded in limestone bedrock.

They are scattered everywhere across the Lower Peninsula. You can even find them in parking lots and your own backyard. However, there are no Petoskey stones north of Harbor Springs. The northern rim of the coral reef was there, and glaciers pushed the stones south.

When raw ore is heated, the iron ore is separated from impurities. After the impurities cool, the result is slag. When the smelting industry ended in Leland, heaps of slag were dumped in Lake Michigan. Fun Fact: Slag is found in a variety of colors like Frankfort Green. Glaciers brought these conglomerates which resemble a Christmas pudding south from Thessalon, Canada.

Large pudding stone boulders have been found near Clare. The pebbles in pudding stones date back 2. The pebbles were smoothed and rounded by an ancient river. These semi-precious gemstones range from pea-sized to plus pounds and occur in a variety of colors including brown, white, red, gray, pink, black and yellow. Select pieces of chlorastrolite can look very beautiful when cut and polished into cabochons. Petoskey stone is actually a fossilized coral. It is named after the town of the same name as a number of these coral stones are found in the area.

The Petoskey stones appear as pebbles and are quite commonly found in the northern side of the Lower Peninsula. When dry, the stone looks like the ordinary limestone but in wet condition or when it is polished it resembles a coral fossil. The stones are parts of coral reefs belonging to the Devonian Period almost million years ago. It is found in various beaches and even in some inland locations.

Pudding stones in particular were transported to Michigan by glaciers during the Ice Age, according to the Central Michigan Lapidary and Mineral Society. They're composed of a white quartzite matrix with sharply contrasting red and brown jasper pebbles. Coral fossils are part of a large group of invertebrates called the Coelenterates, which means "hollow-intestine," referring to their hollow body cavity, according to the Department of Environmental Quality.

There are four types of corals and only two are still alive today. All the fossil corals in Michigan are part of the two groups that are extinct: the Tetracorals from the Paleozoic era and the Tabulate corals from the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras. The best place to find coral fossils are along the shores of Lake Huron, Knightstep said. Another great place is the Rockport State Recreation Area, which used to be a major gravel quarry from to Be warned: There is a pound weight limit to how many rocks you can take from a Michigan state park in a year.