Lapidaryforum.net
Let's Rock => Rockhounding Tips, Maps, Trips Etc. => Topic started by: Itsandbits on September 09, 2014, 08:00:51 PM
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LOL at least that is what I'm going to call it. I went back up to a mountain I did some exploring on last early summer and found a nice green opal with a blue eye inside. I did some more road work looking for sign on road cuts and landings , then late in the afternoon I spotted a sidehill that had been burned by forest fire and a lot of the trees had fallen at the roots and pulled dirt up; a good spot to look for sign, after about 20 minutes looking I spotted a bunch of small robins egg sized roundish agates in the tree roots of a fallen tree and decided to take a look. This is what I pulled up from a 3 ft.x 3 ft. area, just under the surface; the solid basalt is about 18 in. deep and these were all 2-4 in. deep?????
The pan is about 13" diameter and these are all waterline agate
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-8dYvAgXX5K8/VA8PgAbYsmI/AAAAAAAAIgg/KfjCnBsAGmg/w552-h735-no/IMG_20140907_090512.jpg)
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-UUh56K0xRPw/VA8PgFMvG4I/AAAAAAAAIgg/Nj4eA6sSDwk/w980-h735-no/IMG_20140907_090311.jpg)
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looks like some great lil potato cutters in there!
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Very nice!
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I'll probably give most of these to one of the local clubs with a tumbler to make "marbles" out of, Lol I'm going to cut one of the large ones in half to see what the waterlines are like; they might be good for carving cameos with as they alternate clear, white and translucent layers.
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I decided to cut the largest agate to see what the structure looked like inside and this is it
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-VywVWtO7cmw/VBD4DAq-LhI/AAAAAAAAIiw/1EckhLWq16w/w980-h735-no/IMG_20140910_171752.jpg)
the straight structures in the right hand piece seem to be pre-existing roots before the agate deposition occurred. I accidently cut the rock at just the right place to have one side showing none!!!!
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-kKmvVPuCLWI/VBD4NzAkkLI/AAAAAAAAIiY/L9vOYP3J7Q4/w980-h735-no/IMG_20140910_171843.jpg)
I assume the roots grew into the water filled cavities and agate was deposited around them. I can poke a fine wire in the holes from the outside of the rock; isn't nature crazy!!!
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Very cool! Nice waterlines on that one.
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Wild Waterline! Polish those beauties up for display! :icon_sunny:
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This mountain seems to have this type of waterline everywhere I find agate on it. It was scraped bare by the succession of glacial advances and retreats and the basalt is very hard so I just can't figure out yet how all the agate got suspended in the top 6 inches of an 18 inch layer of dirt that has accumulated since then. Maybe the mechanism that moved them is the trees themselves; 14 thousand years of trees being uprooted by strong winds and pulling the agates entwined in their roots to the surface????? because the soil is so shallow the trees would never be as stable as where they could put deep roots down???
I will probably keep this one as a specimen Amanda, you can't have too many rocks laying round the house :)
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I bought some Lake Superior agates from an old guys widow in Sun City and he had taken some of the very smallest of them and made "bullets" out of them, perhaps you should give a couple of your "new potato" sized agates a try and see what they look like as "bullets", they maybe a real "diamond" in the rough.
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sounds like a plan Bent, I've been contemplating making a marble machine out of a slow moving flat lap type of arrangement too.
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That looks like a complete bucket of fun! I love cutting rocks open to see what they look like inside!
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Wow nice stuff Lloyd.
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Nice agates. Those waterlines are like the ones we found in Idaho. The scientists call that Uruguay banding.
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Nice agates. Those waterlines are like the ones we found in Idaho. The scientists call that Uruguay banding.
I guess that makes them Idaho potatoes with Uruguay banding LOL
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I have found quite a few waterline, Montana type agates here but very few have an outer shell or rind. Probably ground up pieces from the glaciers.
Never have found any with roots in them though. That is one sweet sample.
Jim