Magnetic dirt? YES!

SO... I may have received the coolest dirt sample ever! A big shout out to Jay E. Bates for sending me this sample. The dirt he sent me is from the Benitoite Gem Mine in San Benito County California. The only place in the world where Benitoite is found in gem quality. Benitoite is the state gemstone of California I am told and that in itself is cool. But the best is yet to come...Benitoite contains magnetite which is very magnetic. Jay told me that if you put a magnet in the dirt, it would be buried by the dirt which is attracted to the magnet. So that's what we did. And sure enough Jay wasn't lying. We grabbed a magnet off the fridge and the dirt stuck right to it! That's me holding the dirt up in front of my kitchen cabinet. Included in my goodie bag was also Benitoite and Neptunite crystals. There was a glossy black crystal, that turned out to be very dark red. All that talk about refractive indexes sounded really intelligent too! In simple terms, that means they sparkle. All I know is that the sample was amazing and I now have a magnet on my desk, magically holding dirt!