Any fellow geology buffs here?

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A lot of limestone in that general area and has "pockets" were strange things form. Where you found that last picture, and not the ripped from the net one. Cherts form in it and the sources for that type of jasper would be north and I think a bit east. As I recall there should be a state forest very near it. I didn't find the sources, but did give it a go. A very dull reddish or orange to it, where as the eastern type has a waxy luster to it. The exception to your area jasper would be if has been in a fire, then it gets tough to tell. Very widely distributed by Native Americans. But held mostly to the eastern, north eastern areas, upstate New York was the furthest I have found it, both types.

I don't think the last glacier got down that far, but maybe wrong. Find some really strange things in glacier till.

Ouch, lol, when I hear the term rocks, I kinda cringe. I want to tack the right word in front of it to describe the size range to it. Anal retentive was very useful in the shovel bum field.

Roadracer! This looks like a piece of clear calcite to me. Calcite forms in rhombohedrons and that is more or less what it looks like to me in your photo. The edges are a little worn down/weathered, so that is why it looks so smooth. Apart from that, it looks a lot like my own personal stash of calcite crystals. They come in yellow, green, blue, smokey colors.... beautiful stuff!!

Try a few things for me...

Can you scratch it with your fingernail? If not, try a nail and a penny. Let me know which one works.

If you apply a small drop of a strong acid (ie. tub and tile clearner, rust remover), does it "fizz" (be careful and don't hurt yourself )?

If it doesn't "fizz", try scratching up a small corner orf tiny spot and apply the acid to the "dusty" spot you have made. Does it "fizz" if you do this? This would indicate that it is a carbonate mineral other than calcite. Something like dolomite or aragonite maybe.

Oh yeah.... I am not "lifting this from the net", by the way (although who would really care if I were...). I studied geology for about 11 years and this is the sort of stuff that you learn in your entry level labs and lectures. I used to teach freshman geology labs in graduate school, so I got pretty good at learning the more common minerals by heart. I am no "minerologist", however. If it is too rare or unusual, I will probably just join you in admiring the thing ! ! I have studied carbonate equilibrium, so I know a bit more about carbonate minerals and their geochemistry. This explains how I just happen to be able to pull this stuff out of my ear. Calcite is actually one of the most common minerals out there. Quartz is the most abundant mineral found in the earth's crust, however. Most people can readily identify quartz because it is just that common. Amythist (my spelling sucks) is just a fancy name for "purple quartz". Did you know that?

Thanks for sharing your collection with me, by the way.

whipstitches, I am not sure if are taking about the above mineral, where I was joking, at the bottom I said I got the pic of the net or are you talking about the previos one I posted.
Anyway, I totaly belive you, I have tested minerals with those methods before, but most of the time I just dont bother with it, if it is easy and obvios to identify then I do, I just dont spend the time testing them. I have some muratic acid that I have used to clean minerals before, is that strong enough a few minutes in that and most of the calcite would be gone though Also, yeah I have some nice peices of that purple quartz stuff
I will run all the tests that I know how to do on the two minerals I posted and post the results
Also if you where talking about the clear mineral above, let me know?

Todd

Your good postpaleo, how did you figure that out? Most of the area is rich in limestone. I found the mineral near a big lake .
That state forest you talk about, its rather large, but I think I might know where your talking about, if you take a jump over the next ridge to the left, you can find a nice cave with a arch over a stream, people have dived the cave and described some of the most amazing formations in the world. I live a short distance from the area, have some driving to do now

Do you belong to any clubs or do you just go out alone? I am going to have to find some locals to teach me a few things. I just go out hunting for minerals alone and only know what I have read in a few books.

Todd

How did I? Obsession that turned bad, I had to turn pro, lol. They paid me for what I had been doing for almost 15 years. Like any really good interest, it expands into other fields and you tend to pick up a little here and a little there. In a way I'm sad I couldn't do the school thing, it would have opened doors long before I finally found the back door in. I networked over time and found a PHD that was a Professor of Anthropology, they had done a salvage dig, didn't know what they had and I walked into her lab and explained it all, she was impressed and that was a big help, because she could turn the key for me. I taught her and she taught me and I found mentors later in the pro world and we did the same thing. I ate, breathed, and slept it. Only around here there was no one to talk to about it, few books that i could get on it. So, I had to find the questions first and some of those questions had never been asked around here. I know things about this area and its archaeology that no one else does and unfortunately have forgotten much. A flood destroyed almost all of my notes and it ripped my heart out. Back then I couldn't write, I think I could now, poorly, but well enough to get the high lights across. No, no clubs, I don't go out anymore, it was like a piece of me died. But I was in love with lithics, they would pull up a part or a whole tool and I didn't need a book to tell them what they had. It went further then that, but after a while, even without the degree, I was bossing digs and that kinda killed it in it's own way. A really good archaeologist would rather be in the field and not in the lab. For every hour you spent in the filed you probably did at least two in the lab and the writing, which was a big struggle for me, but give me the format of technical writing and I could do it.

Ok, that was more information then anyone needed to know. But I'm staring at my books as I write this, maybe I can center you a bit better. Yes that park is very big. But that was just a round about direction for you to get your barrings and...if you find a source, there is a very large chance you have found a work shop as well. And one of the most amaz (chills up and down my back, lol) amazing things I ever did was walk over meter upon meter of debitage (waste material) on a huge workshop area. That was at Coxsackie NY, beautiful stuff, from greens to black to reds. Find that little town and goggle in and find flint mine road, drive along it and where they scoop out the ditches, the stuff from the work shop will be falling out of the banks. Many life times worth of work right there in the general area.

What no one has done yet, is to thin slice the materials from the sources. Many cherts can look remarkably similar and the only way to really know would be comparing thin slices. But it can't be done until someone, or ones, does the basics first. I was shooting for it, but I would have had to expand my knowledge tree big time to do it. And probably would have lost partial interest, as that kind of thing was not my main thrust.

And again way too much information. Anyone have a cork? A rock would work too. Oh, I have a terminal archic site in my back yard, how cool is that? It will stayed untouched because it just isn't in me anymore. Ok, Ok, I'm shutting it.

Roadracer... sorry about that. I got the feeling from Postaleo that I had "quoted" the internet, somehow. Obviously, I was mistaken. Sorry guys!

I used to make thin sections of rocks and minerals when I was an undergradute student. That was a really fun job. There was a guy that used to bring in weird things and pay the department for thin sections so he could take photomicographs of them to hand on the wall in his house. The coolest thing he gave me to thin section was a piece of fossilized bison bone. It was really pretty in thin section...

Here is a photomicrograph of a thin section that I made. This is a carbonate sedimentary rock called a packstone.

Not sure why you are sorry, I didn't think there was anything offensive in your posts. I was only confused as to what post of my you where referring to. If anything I was poking fun at myself, because I don't know much.

Anyway, the mineral at the top is a rough 5 carat diamond. Have you ever looked at the minerals this guy is selling. I find some of them so amazing.
http://www.johnbetts-fineminerals.com/jhbnyc/gallery.htm

Wow! I never would have guess that because I thought this was a mineral that you had in your collection!! That is really pretty neat.

Ya know what it funny about this web forum? I have noticed that there are lots of posts where people get confused about what someone's intent was.... It must be that "spectrum" thing...

I appologize for everything because I am so used to ticking people off and totally missing the point. It's all good I have been dealing with it for a long time now. I only just realized what my "issue" most likely is. I think I have AS. My therapist agrees, but she cannot diagnose me. I have to see another doctor for that. I guess that is why I am here.... I am trying to see if I fit in with any better here than I have in other places. So far, I am totally weirded out!! The other women with AS seem a lot like me in many ways.

Sorry to prattle on.... I guess that is also something that I am good at!! Talk about not knowing if someone is bored or disinterested.... I can't even see you!! ! hehehehehehe

Okay!! That website is WAY cool!! I didn't even know you could buy a rough diamond on the interweb.... how cool is that? Thanks for the link.

Rocks ROCK

I have heaps - probly different ones than you lot have though - me being from down under

Would be awesome to have someone come and tell me what some of them are!

Hehe - i'm about to move house - my friends hate my rock collection

I have heaps of quartz and pumice, lots of ponamu(nz green jade), jasper, fossils, lime and sandstone, A few bits of amethyst, chert, obsidian and rose quartz, some calcified and opalised wood - err and shiploads of others that look interesting but i've no idea what they are

I've also a collection of random crystals from the crystal shops - i just grab whatever feels like it wants to come home with me each time i go there A piece of charoite followed me home last time asking to come play in the purpleness hereabouts - it took me a month or 2 to find out what it was called - and ullo ullo ullo, when i finally look it up, it says "Heals autisim and bipolar disorders" too bizarre

I have a NZ geology book - but it has too many bigwords to make much sense

I luv scrabbling about in riverbeds and muddy banks and finding amazing rocks

Oneday i'd like to get a tumbler and shiney some of them up - and a rocksaw to slice some open - and a polisher to show their lovelyness

Well first of all I went to Penn State for a while, so I know a little about your area. I found living with two nice lady's and the night life to be much more interesting then school. It was nice of the government to pay for it too. Fairly fresh out of the Army, bored with 101 crap that didn't have anything to do, and I mean all of it, that I really was interested in. So I got attracted to shines and just sort of wondered off.

I can't find the damn book for the lithic sources in my most immediate pile. This pile is mostly West Virgina stuff, had a truncated mound problem there and another site so rich in early archaic points I could hardly contain myself, but.. if this helps any, the jasper near you forms in the Houserville Formation, which lends the name itself to that type of chert. It should be exposed and on private land as well as the park. I didn't have a chance to wonder the streams and especially if they meander near any type of rock formation. If you see any plowed fields you may well see it lying on the surface, just get permission and they'll let you know if it's planted, and you might be able to track it that way and again, watch for the rock formations near that type of setting. That would be my preferred way. Just make sure you get a couple of good rains on the fresh plowed, other wise you could walk over it and never see it, cover much more ground that way. It really stands out and I mean really stands out to what you would normally see. You'll know if you're on a workshop area, trust me. They didn't carry large amounts of it, they reduced it at the source and then carted it off. Just do me a favor and don't dig it up, if it's in the plow zone it's cool. Some of the pros would b***h if they knew about it, but some of them have their academic heads up their asses anyway. They or I should say we would do a sample of the plow zone on a big phase three and then guesstamate what was in the rest of the plow zone. It use to piss me off big time, but, money and speed. So they might look down on you for doing it and then do it themselves, their sin was they didn't at least look at it. Too much wasted info blown away with them or damn it, us, in the plow zone. They have no sense of what the future could do if we had mapped it correctly. And that was one of my last little home experiments, tracking the movement of lithics while they were still underground. They did it once in Greece I think, but hadn't gone as far with it as I was. I couldn't get a loud enough ping from it though to do it. Needed help in figuring out a coating that would ping, but not screw up the movement. I figured a computer driven wave action program might be useful too, but had no idea about how to go about that part.

Some Native American sources are totally gone now, but I do think that one should still exist. Just remember the color description and if I remember I'll get the wife to photo some of it in color. If I can find that pile of stuff. I have part of a Rice Lobed bifurcate made of Upper Mercer flint (don't hold me to that, I'm seriously rusty with this stuff) that is just plain gorgeous in colors. Found it at about it's eastern extreme or at least then it was. Deep black and swirls light blues in it. I was totally stunned to see it. Early Archaic is a big missing link in this area and I've never solved that one.

Damn I do ramble. But I loved it so much.

Umm edit on the Rice Lobed, I think it should be Coshocton formation it came from and I think the Upper Mercer is above that and if I'm not mistaken the Choshocton is a Calcedney and Upper Mercer a true Flint. Both mainly in Ohio.

I find Geology interesting, but when I found out 'cleavage' had something to do with crystals instead of...

The 2nd rock pic is quartz. NC is lousy with quartz (anything not red clay here is probably quartz.. Actually up in the western part of the state there's hiddenite, garnets, rubies, and emeralds (though in very small quantities). I see rocks like that one all the time.

The scratching part the lady mentioned is determining the hardness on the hardness scale. I think the fingernail is about 5(?), diamond is 10, etc.

Had a rock collection given to me many moons ago; the neat one was a clear crystal that bent images into two...

Yeah! The "test" to determine realtive hardness is called Mohs Relative Hardness Scale. It goes from 1 (softest) to 10 (hardest). The mineral talc is 1 and diamond is 10. Along the way there are some common objects of known hardness that you can use to determin where along the scale you are. A steel knife blade is about 6.5-7.5 and quartz is about a 7. Most glass is around 5.5-6.5, pennys are about a 3 and your fingernail is about a 2.5. You can use these values to rule out what a mineral is "not" to help you narrow your way down to what you are most likely looking at. Hardness alone is usually meaningless. You need lots of other little details to identify what you are looking at. I'm sure you guys already know that, however......

I saw this word geology and had to post. This is sort of an obsession I developed during childhood. Tragically, my parents threw away most of my rocks and shells. I am, however, scouting out new locations. I live near some of the largest phosphate and shell pit mines in the world, which gives me access to things that haven't been seen in hundreds to thousands of years. There are some legal issues getting to some of the locations, but by state law, unless it is clearly posted no trespassing or unless you are asked to leave, you cannot be arrested. You must violate a posted no trespassing sign or disobey law enforcement or property owner to leave before you can be convicted.

I've been planning a local expedition to some strip mining operations and such soon. Granite and some limestone samples are pretty, but I'm mostly interested and the calcified, agatized stuff. My last ballast point run didn't get much besides beach garbage and beer bottles; it was kind of depressing. I'll probably be hitting up the mines and pits soon. A large sinkhole opened up about 30-40 minutes from my house, so I might sneak out there and do a little cave diving to see what's around

Coquina?

Though I plan on majoring on biology either at Berkeley or Johns Hopkins and study to become a paleontologist, I'll plan on getting a minor in geology. What I love about geology is how the strata has preserved and produced fossils of various organisms, as well as give undeniable evidence of how organisms have evolved through millions of years. If I do Berkeley, I can't wait to learn from Walter Alvarez.

As for my rock collection, I have many trilobites, some ammonites, crinoids, a Mastodon tooth, a portion of a Triceratops frill, various shells of fossil shellfish, petrified wood, some dinosaur eggshell fragments, fossil horse tooth, fossil whale tooth, an alligator scute, various geodes, amythist crystals, jasper, tiger's eye, fragments of ruby and emerald.