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[ToTheSummit]

A couple of summers ago there was a heavy rain event that caused flash flooding.  It took out part of the road which goes to an area that I collect petrified wood.  About 2 weeks after the flood event I drove up there to check it out.  Where the road passes through a small canyon most of the soil/sand had been stripped away leaving bare the bedrock at the bottom of the wash.  Much to my surprise the bottom of the wash consisted of a very strange and brightly colored conglomerate.

Here is where the road used to be...


This was the strange bedrock which was revealed at the bottom of the wash.  Thats a long-handled 22oz rock hammer for size comparison.



I gathered up some nice boulders of this material which had broken free and were strewn about the wash to take home as yard decoration.  They have sat in my yard ever since.  I could tell there was not much lapidary use for them.  The yellow part is very soft, almost chalky.  And the other stones encased in the conglomerate are all over the map on hardness.  Surprisingly though the material is very stable and does not break apart easily.  It takes a serious blow with a large hammer to break it apart at all.  And some of the seams where the rocks are 'glued' together look almost agatized.

Anyway, I'm posting about this today because I finally threw a chunk of it in my saw this afternoon while I was tinkering about just to see what I got.  Heres a couple pieces I cut off. These are about 4.5" X 6" and I cut them about an inch thick.  I think they will make cool display specimens if nothing else.  I might make a clock out of one just for kicks.

[ileney]

Very attractive. You could stabilize it with Opticon, perhaps?

[vitzitziltecpatl]

Very interesting material. Clocks made from that could be popular. The lady who puts together the local "home show" here always scouts out vendors from our club's rock and gem show. If a vendor has items suitable for home decor she invites them to apply for a booth at the home show.

[lithicbeads]

In many places I have seen iron stained conglomerate. It seems that the iron and often ilmenite pile up as they are dense and then when they are mixed with either worn cobbles or brecciated cobbles we get a soft conglomerate. The brecciation here is extreme almost like the pieces were crushed by fault movement. Very nice stuff.

[Stonemon]

In many places I have seen iron stained conglomerate. It seems that the iron and often ilmenite pile up as they are dense and then when they are mixed with either worn cobbles or brecciated cobbles we get a soft conglomerate. The brecciation here is extreme almost like the pieces were crushed by fault movement. Very nice stuff.

When I was a young man doing geologic mapping and sampling, one of the things that became clear after a couple years in the field was that draws, ravines and dry-wash areas were often "captured" by faults. The fault brecciation created a more erosion prone condition that led to the brecciated areas eroding faster than the surrounding rock. The fragments in this breccia are particularly angular and might indicate a limited amount of movement on the fault. It would be interesting to look at the margins and see if there are slicks and a linear orientation that would indicate a fault.
 It is beautiful.
Thanks for the pics.
Bill

[lithicbeads]

There is a fault here in Washington that has brought silica rich solutions to the fault rocks over and over with  a wonderful transformation at each stage.

[Barclay]

Neat looking stuff!!