What's hot in the world of rocks?
That depends on what you're into.
For Curvin Metzler, college math tutor by profession and rock-hunter by hobby, it's petrified, wormy-looking 65-million-year-old Nostroceras fossils plucked from the hillsides of the Talkeetna Range.
Konan Lavivong, who is 5, has slightly less complicated tastes.
"I like to collect heart rocks," he said.
Rockers of all stripes converged on the Rock and Mineral Show over the weekend, which was sponsored by the Chugach Gem and Mineral Society in conjunction with the Alaska Miners Association. This was the show's seventh and most popular year, according to organizer Anita Williams.
It drew hundreds of teachers, geologists, faith healers, students, Boy Scouts, beaders and amateur gold-panners to a series of lectures and a ballroom packed with booths displaying prickly crystals, fossils and dozens of polished stones with names ending in "ite."
Alana Perullo, wearing a pendant made from a brown recluse spider suspended in resin, watched over a booth selling rocks and minerals meant for healing purposes. She and her booth-mate, Camille Mortiz, practice "laying of stones," where rocks and crystals are used to change the energy in the body. Among their wares was royal blue, veined sodalite, meant to promote communication, and flourite, the color of river ice, for stress management, and chalky aqua-colored amazonite, for the pursuit of truth.
Over at his booth, Metzler had a display of fossils, rocks and crystals from all over the U.S. and the world. His collection included numerous "thunder eggs," rough-looking rocks on the outside that reveal ornate crystals on the inside. He finds most of his fossils on long mountain hikes. Last summer he hiked 500 miles, he said.
Nearby, Evangeline Rochon led her daughters, Evangelina, 6, and Angelica, 4, by Metzler's display of ancient shells curled the size of dinner plates and creepy ancient worm-tubes, dating back maybe more than 100 million years.
"It's an education, a broader horizon to let them know that we have and what the earth provides," Rochon explained.
Just checking, Angelica asked if the fossils were older than Jesus.
"No," her mother said.
Rock-love for many is really simple, explained Williams, the organizer. It starts with enjoying the pleasant feeling of a round, smooth stone in a palm. As a girl, Williams always had rocks in her pockets.
"You never grow out of it," she said.
Find Julia O'Malley online at adn.com/contact/jomalley or call 257-4591.
By JULIA O'MALLEY
jomalley@adn.com