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hooblie
climber
from out where the anecdotes roam
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Jul 12, 2017 - 10:59am PT
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uh oh, hooblie got a macro
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skcreidc
Social climber
SD, CA
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Jul 12, 2017 - 11:35am PT
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Back when a number of you were posting gypsum from pliocene-pleistocene fw lake deposits, I tried to find a beautifully double terminated gypsum crystal about the size of a silver dollar. It's stashed in a particular box with a number of smaller and more delicate crystals and I cannot find it.
So keeping within the rock theme, here is a rock for you. Large olivine crystals coated with a thin layer of spinel followed by a minimum 1/8th in. thick layer of plagioclase, and then an interstitial filling of hornblende. I like how it looks sort of like coral on the weathered side, but there is one other distinctive thing about it; it's a rock that is theoretically out of equilibrium. Classically, the olivine would back react with the melt instead of forming hornblende, until all the olivine is used up.
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Craig Fry
Trad climber
So Cal.
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Jul 12, 2017 - 01:02pm PT
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Opalized shells
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Gnome Ofthe Diabase
climber
Out Of Bed
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Jul 12, 2017 - 01:35pm PT
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Q
I've seen 'tailings' or? The waste from a furnace process where a "man made" face occurs from it being that in contact with the hot wall and the other surfaces that faced away from the furnace wall looke like that a near glass like bulbous swirl.
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Craig Fry
Trad climber
So Cal.
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Jul 12, 2017 - 05:51pm PT
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This piece was randomly strewn on the table of rocks to go
My wife picked up bags and buckets of rocks from our Mineral club
some were from auctions, some were freebies
I would scan it all and be able to identify the usual mineral club stuff
my response, please sell if you can!
But WTF is this..
this specimen needed a second look
Was it a metal?
volcanic?
after a closer look
looks artificial
what about this unblemished clean man made polished face?
I went straight to a Mohs hardness test, will corundum scratch it?
No
it must be a piece of manmade silicon carbide, one of the carbibes that are rated at ~9.5 on the Mohs scale
A great addition for any mineralogist collection.
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Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 18, 2017 - 01:48pm PT
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I spent four days last week in “Darkest Idaho” exploring for collectable minerals. The first part of the trip, was a long drive & then 50 miles of dirt roads to Blackbird Creek & I camped nearby in fairly unscenic terrain.
Up Blackbird Creek is a collection of mines that are currently inactive, but were once the U.S.’s largest source of Cobalt. They had supposedly been off-limits to collectors for years & I had recently read mining was going to start again next year. I thought I should see if the fences & No Trespassing signs were still in place, or not?
Despite an EPA Superfund cleanup at the original Blackbird mill, Blackbird Creek looks pretty toxic.
The mines were off-limits to me, but I did find a small abandoned cobalt mine in another canyon & collected some cobalt minerals.
I then drove to a nearby old copper & cobalt mine & found copper minerals after some hiking & searching.
Late afternoon, I drove to another large creek & camped near the boundary of the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness area.
The next morning, I entered the Wilderness Area & hiked a closed road up 2,100 vertical feet & about 4 miles, to some old Fluorite mines I had last visited two years ago. I was spared the July plague of biting flies that are common in Idaho’s mountains, & although the afternoon was warm, I was restrained in my collecting & only carried about 20 lbs of rocks off the mountain.
I also found some Barite crystals on massive Fluorite.
And a short explanation of why it's called Fluorite.
After getting back to my SUV, I drove another 35 miles of dirt to Hwy 93, drove for about 1 ˝ hours on pavement, & camped west of the old mining town of Mackay. The next morning, after a short drive, I started hiking at 7:45 & soon made it to some old Tungsten mines that are just east of scenic White Knob Mountain.
I found one minor garnet specimen at the mines, left it behind & was called to an adjacent 10,000 ft. ridge after noticing some “contact” areas between granite & limestone.
The hiking was easy & the views were great, but no collectable minerals were found.
I resisted climbing higher & was back at my car by 10:30 AM, just as the biting flies were starting to get active. It was a great morning toddle for an old guy, 1,700 vertical feet in elevation gain, some very steep old roads, & some pleasant alpine scrambling. Best of all ----- I didn’t keep any rocks!
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Craig Fry
Trad climber
So Cal.
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Jul 18, 2017 - 01:52pm PT
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That's some sweet action Fritz
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Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 25, 2017 - 03:16pm PT
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My "old"-friend ImStein & I are pretty-good at finding obscure old mines. I had last hiked into the Lucky Boy mine west of Ketchum, Idaho, about 52 years ago, so I was certain it was there, even if there is not a lot of information about it.
After flying it on Google Earth, I had map coordinates & elevation & knew we would have the enjoyment of working through burned & down trees from the 2007 Castle Rock Fire. We were not disappointed in that aspect, but we never saw a biting fly, mosquito, or woodtick & of course the wildflowers were fabulous.
One nice thing about the 2010 fire is it really opened up the area around the Lucky Boy mine. My teenaged memories were of a dark & well-forested mine area.
The main reason I wanted to visit the mine again was my memories of a large "one-Lunger" aka a one cylinder gas engine there. It was still waiting.
It likely ran an air-compressor for drilling & maybe a pump to move water out of the mine.
The mine had been worked for lead & zinc minerals starting in the early 1880's, but I think it was likely also mined in the 1920's. This photos shows rails leading to the collasped adit. The rocks there were mostly Sphalerite (zinc-iron sulfide) & Pyrite, & both had a strong sulphur smell.
ImStein found a big chunk of ore that broke easily. It had abundant Sphalarite, with I think, a few crystals & also tiny Pyrite crystals too.
This photo shows (I think) some small dark Sphalerite crystals & some Pyrite cubes, along with some iron oxide. The specimen has a strong sulphur odor.
Here's some more weathered (I think) Sphalerite crystals.
We did not find more stuff worth collecting, but the portal was right on a contact zone between limestone & granite. A small outflow trickle of water carried sufficient carbonates that rocks in the water had a good coating of what I believed to be small calcite crystals that had precipitated from the water.
On the way out we had a good view up at more mines we had hiked to 5 years ago. They were mined for silver & lead, but also had a lot of pyrite.
It was a very nice old mine hike.
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Craig Fry
Trad climber
So Cal.
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Jul 25, 2017 - 07:41pm PT
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I picked up this nice Pakistani Brucite a couple weeks ago
which is a new species for me, and hoping to get a cut stone someday
Taaffeite, Mogok
Way rarer than diamonds
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Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 1, 2017 - 06:37pm PT
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Portland Japanese Gardens this week. The rocks represent islands, for some observers, in the Zen of things.
Oregon coastline. I suspect the sea-stacks indicate an erroding coastline?
Or if the coastline being up-lifted?
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skcreidc
Social climber
SD, CA
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Aug 15, 2017 - 06:14am PT
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Relatively recent folding between faults east of Burro Bend and west of the Salton Sea.
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Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 15, 2017 - 04:08pm PT
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Thanks for the intersting fault related photos skcredit.
Last week, after an over-night in Northern Utah gambling resort, Wendover NV, I drove south 50 miles on pavement & 12 miles on gravel to the one-time mining boomtown of Gold Hill Utah. It prospered as a gold & copper mining center in the late 1800's, then in WWI gained a railroad spur from Wendover & produced Arsenic minerals until the mid 1920’s. It then slumbered until WWII & was once again mined, that time for Tungsten. It slumbers again, although there is some on-going gold mining.
The most substantial building remaining in Gold Hill is the now empty General Mercantile. Despite no electrical line, the town has at least two male residents, who watched me from their porches as I stopped to read a historical marker & take photos. I waved at one, but he didn't wave back. There are a number of cabins that look like they see occasional visitors. I didn't hear any banjos, but I didn't linger.
Old cabin, ore bin & mine dump south of Gold Hill
Due to several large thunderstorms bearing down on me, I did not do a whole lot of hiking, but I found a bunch of massive black tourmaline (Schorl). I was thrilled, since I had never found tourmaline before in the U.S. I know this photo looks like a bed of coal, but trust me, it's Schorl, which is very common in the area.
Azurite (copper oxide), on rock.
Tourmaline & some other copper mineral (maybe Conichalcite CaCu(AsO4)(OH)) on quartz.
As I retreated from Gold Hill, the thunderstorms finally caught up with me.
Retreat to the dubious delights of Wendover, rather than wet car camping, seemed an obvious answer to the storm. On the way north I had some stormy views of the famous Bonneville Salt Flats & more big storms.
The next day, I drove south again, but to Ferber Flat NV. It was first mined in the 1880’s & enjoyed sporadic mining up until the 1950’s. A few of the small copper mines there had minerals of interest to me. Ferber Flat appears not to be in slumber, but instead in eternal repose.
Thr first mine, after driving up a dry wash that was occasionally a road, for 4 miles.
Some mine shafts on Ferber Flat were covered with steel grates, most were like this one.
Here's a scenic view of Ferber Flat from one of the larger mines.
The only copper mineral I found was Chrysocolla. This is the piece I kept.
Most of the mines had areas of garnet rock, but few crystals, & few of those crystals were of interest. This one was an exception & is about 1/2" wide.
It was a calm day in middle of nowhere Nevada. I never saw another human, or even a tire track, or recent trash, & even the wild horses were the calmest wild horses I've ever seen.
I was so calm, I went home.
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skcreidc
Social climber
SD, CA
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Aug 15, 2017 - 05:13pm PT
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Nice mini-TR Fritz! I love exploring abandoned mining areas.
DMT and Fritz, I think this area is more or less between the Elsinore Fault to the South, and the San Jacinto Fault to the North. So yes, part of the transform faulting. I believe the sediments are Miocene marine associated with the early opening up of the gulf. There is also a lot of subsidiary faulting going on in this area; I'm sure you both can see some of it on the photos.
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Nick Danger
Ice climber
Arvada, CO
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Aug 16, 2017 - 09:53am PT
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Fritz for the win on how best to spend one's retirement years.
Although I am a day late, here are my contributions to post up a rock....
Petroglyphs on a non-welded tuff in south-central Nevada.
Fault scarp in a volcanic terrane, southern Nevada.
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Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 4, 2017 - 06:32pm PT
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Thanks skcreidc & Nick! And Nick! Nice petroglyphs!
Heidi & I spent Weds & Thursday nights in Stanley, Idaho, at the north end of the Sawtooth Mountains, enjoying the good life at a Town Square condo & the subtle Stanley nightlife.
We "paid the piper" on Thursday with a 12 mile hike, with about 1,600' of elevation gain. Of course, we decided to hike up a mountain & enjoy some risk-taking, so we could later toast "cheating-death" over our Schnitzel at the Sawtooth Hotel.
Approaching the turn-around point. It had rained heavily the night before & the dirt was quite moist, which made for easy kick-stepping, but loose rocks. We stopped after getting involved in very steep & loose, refrigerator-sized stacked blocks.
The Sawtooth National Recreation Area has been "off-limits" to mineral collecting since 1991. Zealous crystal collectors had been looting quartz crystals from the range, since WWII, but in the late 1980's, some even started dynamiting rocks in attempts to commercially mine for crystals. I totally agreed with the collecting-ban, since the mining was starting to "ugly-up" some scenic high cirques & some of the crystal collectors were really strange & paranoid dudes, (even stranger than we climbers).
However, the ban on mineral collecting seems to have been forgotten by current management. The trailhead signs are gone & there isn't a word about a ban on mineral collecting in the lists of restrictions for the SNRA. We decided we could take home a few small specimens, found on our mountain hike.
We started off the mountain at about 3:00 PM & made it back to our SUV by 5:30. Here's Heidi on the trail down.
After our dinner of Schnitzel & some medicinal wine, the next morning was quite smoky & my left knee was stiff from the previous day's kick-stepping up steep dirt slopes & high-stepping up stacked rock rubble. We enjoyed a pleasant morning visit with a Sawtooth Valley resident, old friend & author, & his lovely wife, & made our way home to Choss Creek.
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kpinwalla2
Social climber
WA
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Here's some Sawtooth crystals I collected near near Hell Roaring Lake in the 80's - before the ban. Smoky quartz, orthoclase feldspar, and a topaz. I often use the topaz crystal in exams because at first glance it could be mistaken for quartz. A closer look by the trained eye reveals orthorhombic symmetry (2/m 2/m 2/m) - quartz is hexagonal. Some climbers once showed me a 2 ft X 2 ft slab covered with fist-sized smoky quartz and orthoclase that they had carried out from the face of Finger of Fate. must have weighed over 100 lbs.
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Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 5, 2017 - 03:53pm PT
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kpinwalla2: Nice crystals. I like the area up above the Finger of Fate up Hell Roaring Creek, but unfortunately that was highly accessable to the crystal miners in the 1980's. Still scenic though.
Here's photos of a nice colorfull thumb-sized Topaz I found as an inclusion in a quartz crystal back in the 1970's. What is strange to me is: the quartz crystal has likely been sun-bleached clear, but the Topaz still has nice color?
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Sep 12, 2017 - 11:01am PT
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Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 12, 2017 - 04:06pm PT
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Oh Schist! Here it is Tuesday already & I haven't been out rock-collecting, since the now 13 day-ago trip to the Sawtooths. My slightly-arthritic left knee was absolutely ruined after that jaunt & is just now back to normal.
I became a rockhound at about age 5, & the area I grew up in had volcanic rocks that contained various types of chalcedony: agates, jasper, thunderbird eggs, petrfied wood, & geodes were all availble within a few miles of Ketchum, in Challis volcanic flows.
My parents & I carted home hundreds of pounds of treasure & I sold most of it at my mother's estate sale for pennies per hundredweight. I packed up almost all the rest 10 years ago & took about 100 pounds of rocks to old Bob, who ran a nearby rockshop. I brought the boxes in to the store & told Bob I had some rocks that he might like to have. As he started protesting that he couldn't pay much, I cinched the deal by telling him I was giving them to him.
Bob was pretty happy for a while, but then he got bit by one of them Idaho skeeters a couple years later & died of West Nile Virus. Poor fellow was only 88 years old.
So here's three of my childhood rocks. A cut, but unpolished, piece of black-lace agate. Half of that rock went to the fellow that cut it, & all the rest but this piece vanished when some of my old friends helped my mother move back in the early 1970's.
Carnelian agate. It's very translucent.
A small geode with amethyst crystals.
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Craig Fry
Trad climber
So Cal.
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Sep 12, 2017 - 05:39pm PT
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We collect petrified wood
this one area we found on BLM land near Holbrook had loads of sweet wood that we picked up, mostly smaller pieces.
Which happens to be one of the many things we sell.
The Pet wood staging rocks and top dressing used on plant
The Pet. Wood sand is from ant mounds that pile it above their nests, it just happens to be mostly petrified wood.
It's called "Petrified Wood Ant Fines"
Going back in a couple weeks, will do some photos.
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