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Let's Rock => Identifications of Materials => Topic started by: Jhon P on July 10, 2017, 06:55:51 AM

Title: Got me stumped
Post by: Jhon P on July 10, 2017, 06:55:51 AM
My brother is a contractor in Fresno ca and part of his business is taking over foreclosures, cleaning them up and getting them ready to sell. He is always looking for rocks for me and he brought me a bucket full and this was in there. I thought that it was howlite but is is close to a 7 hardness and doesn't look like it. Any ideas?
Title: Re: Got me stumped
Post by: edgarscale on July 10, 2017, 02:34:33 PM
could it be corpolite? hope that's the right word for dino dung.
Title: Re: Got me stumped
Post by: Jhon P on July 10, 2017, 08:46:16 PM
Maybe? It looks a little like a turd.
Title: Re: Got me stumped
Post by: SkySgt on November 18, 2017, 07:41:59 PM
Dino doo-doo is coprolite.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coprolite

I can't exactly tell from the photo, but it looks a little dendritic to me.  Are those darker lines dendrites?
Title: Re: Got me stumped
Post by: bobby1 on November 18, 2017, 09:31:11 PM
The outer surface makes it look like magnesite
Bob
Title: Re: Got me stumped
Post by: vitzitziltecpatl on November 19, 2017, 07:50:10 AM
Magnesite sounds like a bullseye. I wouldn't have thought of it without bobby1's comment, but the color is similar to the color of magnesite (or lemon) chrysoprase.
Title: Re: Got me stumped
Post by: zurn on February 10, 2018, 10:38:46 AM
Ive had Howlite the outer surface looked like that and cut sometimes white to grey to spotted black
Title: Re: Got me stumped
Post by: finegemdesigns on February 10, 2018, 11:21:06 AM
Magnesite. The pure white material from Nevada is known as Pristine Magnesite.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHkpG5KQjAw
Title: Re: Got me stumped
Post by: Slabbercabber on February 10, 2018, 03:55:15 PM
Magnesite is only mohs 3.5 to 4.5.
Title: Re: Got me stumped
Post by: Jhon P on February 11, 2018, 07:11:19 AM
Hardness is what has me stumped. It is closer to 7 maybe 6 1/2.
Title: Re: Got me stumped
Post by: hummingbirdstones on February 11, 2018, 02:48:08 PM
Perhaps a common opal?  What type of fracture does it have?
Title: Re: Got me stumped
Post by: Jhon P on February 11, 2018, 07:10:35 PM
Not opal.
Title: Re: Got me stumped
Post by: finegemdesigns on February 11, 2018, 11:19:07 PM
Magnesite is only mohs 3.5 to 4.5.

Pristine appears to be harder and might be silicated to some extent. Takes a good polish also.
Title: Re: Got me stumped
Post by: finegemdesigns on February 11, 2018, 11:20:34 PM
Hardness is what has me stumped. It is closer to 7 maybe 6 1/2.

Really? Can you scratch a clear quartz crystal with it? What about scratching a glass bottle?
Title: Re: Got me stumped
Post by: Jhon P on February 12, 2018, 06:57:36 AM
I have a MOH’s hardness testing kit. I can barely scratch it with #7  cannot scratch it with a #6
But it sure looks like a howlite nodule on the outside to me. The piece that I cut off took a good polish. Maybe it is a jasper nodule?
Title: Re: Got me stumped
Post by: Sandsave on February 12, 2018, 05:29:16 PM
Once it's round you'll be able to tell lol, I have no clue...
Title: Re: Got me stumped
Post by: Jhon P on February 12, 2018, 07:41:59 PM
It’s not big enough to make it worth the effort.
I may get a 1 1/2” marble out of it?
Title: Re: Got me stumped
Post by: edgarscale on February 13, 2018, 03:28:53 PM
so it's been determined not to be corporlite?   perhaps it's in transition from one type of rock into another (like some serpentine turning into jade). 
Title: Re: Got me stumped
Post by: palmwood13 on February 13, 2018, 03:56:21 PM
John watching the post it appears to be some sort of jasper to be that hard that's my opinion.
Title: Re: Got me stumped
Post by: Jhon P on February 13, 2018, 04:54:27 PM
I figured it out. It’s a sex rock!
Title: Re: Got me stumped
Post by: gemfeller on February 13, 2018, 05:02:09 PM
Nah Jhon.  It's pretrified cauliflower.