# LithoMap Resources

Canonical page: https://lithomap.app/resources
Last reviewed: September 18, 2026

LithoMap Resources is an original, source-led field library about United States geology and specimen identification. The writing is original and uses authoritative sources to verify facts rather than supply copied prose.

## Current collections

- United States geologic formations: https://lithomap.app/resources/geologic-formations/united-states
- Rock identification: https://lithomap.app/resources/rock-identification
- Mineral identification: https://lithomap.app/resources/mineral-identification
- Rock and mineral field tests: https://lithomap.app/resources/field-tests
- Fossil identification and legal collecting: https://lithomap.app/resources/fossils
- Legal collecting field trips: https://lithomap.app/resources/field-trips

The formation library contains 36 comprehensive profiles balanced across six major U.S. regions. The rock library uses texture, grain size, composition, structures, tests, and lookalikes. The mineral library uses hardness, streak, luster, cleavage, fracture, magnetism, safe reactions, and geologic setting.

The field-test collection provides complete methods for Mohs hardness, mineral streak, cleavage versus fracture, acid reaction, magnetism, and specific gravity. Each page explains what the test measures, a careful procedure, result interpretation, common mistakes, safety limits, examples, FAQs, and authoritative sources.

The fossil collection provides eight original identification guides for common nonvertebrate and plant fossil groups plus a conservative U.S. collecting-law and ethics guide. It excludes dinosaur and vertebrate collecting instructions, sensitive locality directions, and any claim that an identification or map grants access or permission.

The field-trip collection covers a limited set of explicitly authorized rock, mineral, and non-dinosaur fossil collecting destinations. Every guide identifies its official rule source, authorized area, tools, limits, season, safety, and recheck requirements. It excludes unverified localities, abandoned mines, unclear ownership, and sensitive fossil sites.

Every guide has an isolated canonical page and a page-specific plain-text reference generated from the same structured editorial data.

The guides distinguish formation-wide context from facts that vary by member, basin, state, or locality. Identification pages support preliminary field observations rather than laboratory determinations, appraisals, or proof of origin. None of the guides establishes land ownership, legal access, collecting permission, specimen value, or current field conditions.