Mineral, Rock, Research, and Meteorite Collections
The Department has a large collection of minerals and rocks dating as far back as 1880. Among minerals there is benitoite, the California State Gem, identified by our faculty member George Louderback in 1907 or the three new species deerite, howieite and zussmanite, discovered by Stuart Agrell from Cambridge University in our own collection when he spent a sabbatical in Berkeley. The collection serves as a museum, is related to research and used for teaching. It has been collected by faculty, students and advanced by generous donations. Some samples are on display in corridors and classrooms, some are in McCone storage facilities and most are in a large UC Berkeley warehouse on 2986 Regatta Blvd., Richmond, California. John Grimsich is in charge of our collection and can provide access. This webpage contains links to download the most important catalogs as xls file on which you can search for minerals, rocks localities.
