clock my rock?

Post Reply New Topic

About 20 years ago I found an unusual rock. I figured it was just a neat rock. I wish I had looked for others like it.

Anyway, so over the years I thought that maybe it was some unusual mineral, and looked a few times, but never settled on anything.

Just the other day I had the idea that It could be a meteorite, so I looked those up. It is not magnetic.

Unable to associate strongly with meteorites, I went back to basics and looked up the main classifications of rocks.

I know its not a sand stone. Its just too smooth for that, and it has some sort of stress fractures in it. Its smooth like a plastic, but pretty heavy for a rock of its size.

Igneous doesnt seem likely either, as its not porous at all. There are a few deep pock marks in it however. It is also very hard. All the edges are lightly rounded, but the overall shape is very irregular.

Metamorphic seems unlikely too. It just doesnt have the linear grain and compression lines of metamorphic rock. It would not have taken the shape it has if it had formed under linear compression.

Anyway, here are some pictures. I reduced them to 30%, but that is still too large for WP, so just use the links.


http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3735901/myunusu ... verall.png
This is the overall rock. You can see the stress fractures and the very fine grain of it. The two toned areas are well fused.. there are no seams. Ridges are not defined by the change in color.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3735901/myunusualrock/view1.png
This is the other side. You can see that portions are strongly convex, suggesting a hard material. As well, in my mind the convex nature suggests that edges and corners do not easily sheer off.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3735901/myunusualrock/view2.png
This is the 'bottom', the side that rests on my shelf. You can see that there are scallops in the stone, some of which are in larger concave areas. In the lower left you can see a strong ridge line and how its rounded.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3735901/myunusu ... loseup.png
Here you can see the fine grain, at least in the light stuff. One of my perseverances is touch, but there is no tactile sense of grain.

You can see the stress fractures, as well as more ridges and scallops. The stress fractures go every which way.. no pattern. They bridge the dark and light portions rather than following the color discontinuity.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3735901/myunusu ... loseup.png
Super close up view of the most convex area. Its hard to get a good depth of field as I am using a macro lens.

Mostly stress fractures, scallops, ridges and a pockmark. All the pocks are on this convex area. This area is seen in view2.png (the third link), and it is between the lobes of the overall heart shape of the rock. There are no sharp edges or unpolished faces. Even the strongest ridges and edges are lightly softened.

If I had to guess I would say metamorphic, but the pockmarks and overall shape suggest against that.

I'm getting mixed messages. Are my links broken?

I have been pouring over pictures of rock for hours, Fuzzy, because I have seen this before, but I can't believe I can't find it. It looks for all the world like taffy jasper, but I can't find a picture of it anywhere!

I will continue. . . I love a good research project

Merle

Cool (pet) rock, Fuzzy. I honestly don't know. If I may say, richardbenson (WP member) is really gifted in geology - he may know.

Where you found the rock may be a clue as well. Thanks for sharing your pics.

I like the faces in it....real neat.

Hello Fuzzy:

At www.mindat.org there is a mineral identification forum, and I believe the people there will be able to tell you exactly what type of rock you have.

Thanks Chronos. I'm going to wait and see what the WP crowd has to say first.

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postp2768240.html#2768240

Must see at once ^

Unbeknownst to you, there is cross-posting
Indeed, we found your rock in the mind-reading thread.

Cosmic coincidence on the Wrong Planet.

.......who says Autistics aren't good at mind reading? Oh, I know. Dr. Phil.

And we do multi-task (sort-of)

Got It...Dr. Phil's Kidney Stone from Mars,

My guess is Oprah's is still on Venus.

Asking Richard Benson is a good idea. My uncle is an avid rock hound and has a doctorate in Physics so he has the scientific background. I could send the pictures to him. I don't know rocks but my first thought is it is from some kind of lava flow.

It looks very flint like to me.

I guess you found it in some jacket's pocket?
have you tried biting it? Looks tasty


*computerlove sits quiet to watch*

Fairly certain it's a metamorphic type from the banding and grains, my reflex was to say granitic gneiss.

It's smoothed a bit though, very interesting.