Llanite from Llano (and trilobites too!)
Since I started studying geology, I've grown a respectable rock collection. Now I decorate my living space with rocks instead of houseplants or knickknacks. Many of them are interesting and beautiful--I've got colorful schists and shales, a limestone with tafoni, and more granite than a single man actually needs. But most of them aren't unique, there are many places in the world where you can get similar stones.
But, I recently drove through Llano, Texas, and they have a rare and beautiful rock named after the town1. It's a sort of rhyolite with these beautiful blue quartz crystals!2
zoomed in
zoomed out
I got it from an outcrop on highway 16, which is one of the only places you can find it (I believe one of my professors said it outcrops in a couple other areas, but only on private property). A friend who lives nearby had previously given me a smaller piece, but my rock - greed knows no bounds.
In other news, two people gifted me trilobite fossils in anticipation for Christmas! A friend got one from some department event I didn't go to, my mom bought the other at a shop in Mammoth Spring, Arkansas.
These things are fascinating to me, I love aquatic arthropods. And it's so cool to touch something that lived more than 250 million years ago.