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Brushbuffalo
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PostSun Aug 12, 2018 4:47 pm 
Ale_capone, your larger pieces look to be mostly an assemblage of quartz crystals, mostly subhedral (moderately good external crystal form). The samples show stains of iron oxide, which is ptobably just a surface coating from weathering of another source, since pure quartz contains no iron. The green and white sample that "feels like baby powder" is likely at least partly talc, which is very soft and from what baby powder is composed...or used to be anyway. Talc is a fairly common mineral in some metamorphic rocks.

Passing rocks and trees like they were standing still
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ale_capone
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PostSun Aug 19, 2018 1:42 pm 
not to clog your thread with what i do with some specimens, but here us a cleaner look at the chunk of quartz. are the smaller white crystals(in what i call the mouth) calcite, or quartz? they seem to have formed after the quartz, and filled some of the cavities. the quartz itself seemed to be coated in schist, and as you stated, high in iron.. some small veins look like scales of rust. i was hoping to light it from inside, but its too fragmented. the light only makes it so far before hitting a dead end.

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ale_capone
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PostSun Aug 19, 2018 1:45 pm 
i found this peculiar stone in my driveway. i think it might be a fossil...

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silence
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PostSun Aug 19, 2018 3:11 pm 
ale_capone wrote:
i found this peculiar stone in my driveway. i think it might be a fossil...
Whoa ... what a find! Take it to the Burke Museum for identification and carbon dating wink.gif Nice work bud!

PHOTOS FILMS Keep a good head and always carry a light bulb. – Bob Dylan
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PostSun Aug 19, 2018 3:55 pm 
silence wrote:
Nice work bud!
Hence the lighter dude

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rbuzby
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PostMon Aug 20, 2018 6:57 am 

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Brushbuffalo
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PostMon Aug 20, 2018 7:47 am 
ale_capone wrote:
are the smaller white crystals(in what i call the mouth) calcite, or quartz?
It is easy to tell the difference between quartz and calcite. Quartz is harder then glass or steel and doesn't fizz when yoy put a drop of weak acid on it. Calcite is softer than steel and will fizz in acid...even orange juice should work. So take a knife and start scratching. It is a good observation to note that apparently some crystals formed earlier, some later. There are several reasons why this can happen, including change in chemical and physical environment.

Passing rocks and trees like they were standing still
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Brushbuffalo
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PostMon Aug 20, 2018 7:50 am 
rbuzby wrote:
Not a button or fossil Lifesaver, but a cross section of a belemnite.

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rbuzby
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PostMon Aug 20, 2018 8:13 am 
Brushbuffalo wrote:
rbuzby wrote:
Not a button or fossil Lifesaver, but a cross section of a belemnite.
Thanks BB! Pretty nifty, huh? When I first saw it on the Skyline Divide trail, I figured "somebody must have drilled a hole in that rock then left it up here." Then on the way back I saw it again, and concluded "there's no way someone would drill a hole in a rock then leave it up here". So I examined it, and did some research when I got home. It's amazing to think that those Belemnites (mini squids)were fossilized after being covered up in muck on the (then ) sea floor, around 120 million years ago. Of course everyone I show the picture to says "looks like someone drilled a hole in a rock then left it up there."

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ale_capone
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PostSun Aug 26, 2018 9:51 am 
Brushbuffalo wrote:
your larger pieces look to be mostly an assemblage of quartz crystals, mostly subhedral (moderately good external crystal form). The samples show stains of iron oxide, which is ptobably just a surface coating from weathering of another source, since pure quartz contains no iron.
longshot, but what do you think the chances are that this rock was once a log? the color is more then surface staining, and not like any of the other quartz i have from the same area. i cleaned it in vinegar(calcite foamed). then i took a wet grinder and diamond blade and went to work on it. dindnt remove a ton but it polished great, and shining a light inside shows orange, yellow, and greenish hues... i cant find any features that resemble tree growth. other then its original shape. see second photo i posted. look a bit like a little stump, with its side split open. edit.. the more i work on it, the more i can make it look like wood. wink.gif

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Brushbuffalo
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PostMon Aug 27, 2018 11:42 am 
Sorry, but I can't tell from the photos. I'm unclear when about whether or not you say it reacted to vinegar.....did it, or not? If so, in several places? Typically petrified wood is silica, but there can be accessory calcite that formed later.

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ale_capone
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PostTue Aug 28, 2018 9:38 am 
you are doppleganging my thoughts! i think its some type of chalcedony, with lots of random minerals, that just happens to look like wood. possibly a casting. after exemaning another couple pieces of rock from the same area, im finding much of the same... the bulk of the of it is translucent, ranging from clear, yellow. orange, amber, almost red, purple and blue, and some of those green needle gems.. (mostly the neutral colors though). looks cool when i shine a lite through, or even better when i was dry cutting a large piece in half. i am curious about what looks like hollow tubes ive noticed in zoomed photos. keeping with the imagination theme... prehistoric termites
same tubes, unpolished side.
brush buffalo. sorry for the confusion, and my less then helpful photos. you would probably to do better hands on, with a loup. only the calcite foamed. mostly the large bit in the mouth, but also from other little nooks... *at that point, i was just trying to clean off the dirt and surface schist. i just removed it from a 2 day soaking in oxalate acid. what ever it is, im enjoying the process of finding there is more there then i thought. a little treasure hiding under the calcite...so like you stated, its most likely the calcite formed later. also, much of what apears to be calcite in the mouth, seems to a conglomerate of quartz and other stuff held together by calcite.. I think it was a cache of prehistoric nuts. wink.gif many minerals.. I cant tell if they are purple, or metallic..i also think that orange spec is natural.
while it cleaned quite a bit of the exterior oxidation, it did little to nothing to the overall color. if anything, it brought ought some more colors. now seeing some purple. I suspect this was the nest of some type of small bird, as evident by the purple bird shaped skull..
i hope i posted the right photos, and they are somewhat helpful. but now that I look at the 2 previous ones, and some others, im almost certain that it's just a rock hard ham.

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Brushbuffalo
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PostMon Jul 29, 2019 5:20 pm 
Keep 'em coming, people! You must be seeing lots of rocks, minerals, and landforms out there, between swatting the skeeters. vent.gif

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PostMon Jul 29, 2019 6:25 pm 
Here's one that you can't miss on the Bald Eagle trail, Glacier Peak Wilderness. Between June Mtn and Spring camp. It's an awkward part of the trail that takes some careful footwork around it. I couldn't really get a shot from further back. Cool rock formation. From a few years ago.
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Brushbuffalo
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PostMon Jul 29, 2019 9:40 pm 
Thanks for your post! The layering is probably foliation and it looks fine- grained. I'm guessing it is phyllite, a low grade metamorphic rock, but I will check and revise if needed. Edit: change my guess! The geologic map for that area indicates the rock of June Mountain is the Nason migmatitic gneiss, a very high grade metamorphic rock. Looking closer at your picture, it does appear to be coarse-grained and is quite variable ( migmatite means 'mixed rock', mixed in that some components of t HF e parent rock partially melted and are properly igneous). This is yet another one I want to see from 6" away.

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