Finding Pictures of Fluorescent Minerals

Tag Cloud - index to the minerals in this photo database

Every image in this database is accompanied by tags - "little factoids" about each specimen. These tags are shown in a "cloud" which provides the names of the minerals in a specimen (calcite, willemite, etc.) and where it is from (country or, in the case of the USA, state). Individual countries (and states) are also grouped in a major "Regions" tag - France, Italy, Portugal (along with many others) are all in the "Europe" region. Significant localities have their own specific tag (Greenland, Sweden, New Jersey, Mexico, etc.); when a mineral is tagged in one of these major localities it is not also included in the major "region" tag (for example, Sweden is not included in the "Europe" tag group as it is a major locality with lots of minerals on its own).

Every rock/mineral added to the database has these sets of tags associated with it.

These tags allow viewers to browse selected mineral types - or minerals in various regions around the world. Giving the major localities their own tag allows someone to view places to collect in the European mainland without paging through a hundred listings of minerals from Greenland, etc.

@Africa - Major Region

Tugtupite - Mineral

|USA-TN - a state in the USA (Tennessee)

|Chile - country

This is an example of the tag cloud and how it might be organized. Regions are at the top of the cloud. Every region begins with the "@" symbol (this keeps the regions sorted at the top of the cloud). Remember, if you're looking for minerals from one of the famous localities you must select it from the country list (see below).

Minerals are listed individually. Each fluorescent mineral contained in a single specimen is tagged for that entry; that's why "Calcite" is in big letters - there are many specimens which have calcite as one of the minerals - a larger size indicates lots of tags for that item.

Countries (and states) are listed at the bottom. Every country is preceded with a "|" symbol (this keeps the countries sorted at the bottom of the cloud).