Nature Guide: Rocks and Minerals: The World in Your Hands

Did you know culinary salt is the mineral halite? Or that the pigment vermillion is powdered cinnabar, a mineral whose name comes from the Persian for "dragon’s blood"?

Discover the extraordinary mineral treasures that form our planet and that today we use in everything, from makeup and cookery to agriculture and high-tech. 

Nature Guide Rocks and Minerals is your essential collector’s companion, with illustrated entries on hundreds of minerals, gems, and rocks from actinium to zirconium. Its breathtaking array includes organic minerals, such as pearls and corals, as well as silicates and "native elements" like gold. 

Browse to find wonderful gems, including opals, or pyropes – a deep-red garnet the size of a hen’s egg. Nature Guide Rocks and Minerals reveals each mineral’s defining characteristics and explains how and where they were formed, how they were first identified, their uses, and their chemical composition.
 
Whether you are a geology student or starting your own collection, this fact-packed book is both a fascinating read and an essential identification guide.

DK was founded in London in 1974 and is now the world leading illustrated reference publisher and a member of the Penguin Random House division of Bertelsmann. DK publishes highly visual, photographic non-fiction for adults and children. DK produces content for consumers in over 100 countries and over 60 languages, with offices in the UK, India, US, Germany, China, Canada, Spain and Australia.

DK's aim is to inspire, educate and entertain readers of all ages, and everything DK publishes, whether print or digital, embodies the unique DK design approach. DK brings unrivaled clarity to a wide range of topics, with a unique combination of words and pictures, put together to spectacular effect. We have a reputation for innovation in design for both print and digital products.

Our adult range spans travel, including the award-winning DK Eyewitness Travel Guides, history, science, nature, sport, gardening, cookery and parenting. 

DK’s extensive children’s list showcases a fantastic store of information for children, toddlers and babies. DK covers everything from animals and the human body, to homework help and craft activities, together with an impressive list of licensing titles, including the best-selling LEGO® books.

DK acts as the parent company for Alpha Books, publisher of the Idiot's Guides series.

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