“If you paid a price you could go in and pick up samples,” she said.īut the mines kept popping up in her life. This mining area is the source of about 350 minerals, of which at least 80 are fluorescent.Īt 15, still too young to drive, she asked her father to drive her to Franklin and joined the local mineral society, which gave her access to “The Dumps” at the Franklin Mine, where scrap rock and low-grade ore not worth the shipping costs were discarded. Pasteris grew up in Pennsylvania, two hours from Franklin, New Jersey, “the fluorescent mineral capital of the world.” More fluorescent minerals have been found in two nearby zinc mines - the Franklin Mine and the Sterling Hill Mine - than anywhere else in the world. Many of the rocks on display were collected by Jill Pasteris, PhD, professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences, although she says it is really her colleague Bob Osburn we should thank for the display, because he made sure it was put into the blueprints for the building, hand-selected the samples, and helped design the lighting system. Inside the room are shelves of dull, brown rocks that begin to glow in vivid greens, oranges, blues and purples when a button is pushed and ultraviolet lights turn on.
But when anyone finds it, they usually insist all their friends come and look as well. There’s a small room in Rudolph Hall that most students walk right past without noticing.