Calling All Rock Hounds!

[msinc]

There's a small creek that runs right past it. They looked like river rock to me, but they weren't anywhere near the water. They were in piles of dirt that had come loose from the side of a hill. This was an old quarry that hadn't seen any use for a while.

What's fascinating to me, is how many years it must have taken for this to happen!

Back in 2011 I bought a mountain in Virginia. That same year I built a hunting cabin on it, right up on top. There are rocks everywhere up there. Some have beautiful clear diamond like crystals in them. I asked some of the locals what they were and was told by several different people that it was called "quartz outcropping."
I had a well drilled and it had to go 900 ft deep to get water. What came out of the hole looked just like dark gray aquarium gravel until he got to 600 ft down inside the mountain. He hit a layer of mud and thought it might break thru during the night and have water the next day...of course, no such luck. But, when he started drilling again the drilling rig kicked out a bunch of nice smooth rounded river rock that looked just like {or very similar to} the ones pictured in this thread. He said he drilled wells for 40 years and never seen worn smooth rounded "river rocks" get kicked up from 600 feet down. Must have been an underground river down there at some point in time.
Finding rocks around a gravel mine they could have been been dug up from another location near where you found them and put there as part of the operation. We own/operate several gravel pits and material gets moved around quite a bit during the course of operations.
Those rocks with the bands on them almost look like they could be some type of sandstone.

 

[RobertJ.]

and some acid.

I like seeing colors in rocks, but those days are way behind me!


Hey, my thanks to everyone for your thoughts and ideas!

My next trip to Portland, I'll be taking them to a shop for an ID. Not that I think they're anything really special, it's just that I recently became interested in rocks, minerals, and gemstones, and am fascinated by all of them. I'll be poking around up there again, and now I'm also planning a trip to central Oregon to look for thunder eggs later this spring.

 

[msinc]

Since you are out that way...I got a buddy that lives in Lewistown, Montana. He mentioned finding some kind of crystal rock out there if I ever visited. I don't know if it was just local to his area or out west in general...any idea what this is ???? The way it sounded the rock was pretty interesting.

 

[RobertJ.]

Since you are out that way...I got a buddy that lives in Lewistown, Montana. He mentioned finding some kind of crystal rock out there if I ever visited. I don't know if it was just local to his area or out west in general...any idea what this is ???? The way it sounded the rock was pretty interesting.

He was probably talking about thunder eggs, or geodes. Those are rocks that contain different minerals, like agate or amethyst. They're found mainly in volcanic areas, like we have in central Oregon.

 

[Peter M. Eick]

Guys. Before the thread gets locked for being drug related, acid to a geologist is weak muriatic acid to check if the carbonates have been dolotomized. Basically you put a few drops of weak acid on the suspected carbonate and if it fizzes it a still carbonate, or if it does not it is then dolomite or similar. We normally carry a small dropper bottle of weak acid to check rocks when identifying them.

 

[Rule3]

Guys. Before the thread gets locked for being drug related, acid to a geologist is weak muriatic acid to check if the carbonates have been dolotomized. Basically you put a few drops of weak acid on the suspected carbonate and if it fizzes it a still carbonate, or if it does not it is then dolomite or similar. We normally carry a small dropper bottle of weak acid to check rocks when identifying them.

We do that for marine (saltwater) aquarium substrate (sand) to test if it is aragonite (calcium carbonate) basically dissolved corals versus silica sand.

 

[Model 19 6"]

Since you are out that way...I got a buddy that lives in Lewistown, Montana. He mentioned finding some kind of crystal rock out there if I ever visited. I don't know if it was just local to his area or out west in general...any idea what this is ???? The way it sounded the rock was pretty interesting.

At any time did your friend mention Meth?

 

[RobertJ.]

Guys. Before the thread gets locked for being drug related, acid to a geologist is weak muriatic acid to check if the carbonates have been dolotomized. Basically you put a few drops of weak acid on the suspected carbonate and if it fizzes it a still carbonate, or if it does not it is then dolomite or similar. We normally carry a small dropper bottle of weak acid to check rocks when identifying them.

Drugs aren't a banned topic.

Also, even though I'm no scientist, I was pretty sure it wasn't LSD being talked about.

Some here, myself included, have twisted senses of humor!

 

[Coldshooter]

When I was young I was a geologist and learned that the engineers signed my reports, made 50% more and did not carry heavy stuff. It was back to school for me. Since becoming an Engineer I find most rocks fall into two categories Heaverites and Leaverites. The small ones which are tossed are Heaverites and the large ones are Leaverites as in "leaverite" there. My wife back in our dating days was my field assistant I would roll samples down to her and she would inventory them and help carry back to the car. That went badly wrong when one was coming in fast and she stuck out her leg to stop it. Hit her on the ankle spun her around like a top and I had an extra 109 lbs. to tote.