That's a good one!
Rocks
- Thread starter SculpinSwinger
- Start date
I saw dozens of boulders covered in petroglyphs. I didn’t harvest a deer, but had an amazing time exploring!
It was unforgettable!
.
It was unforgettable!
.Sits on my mantle. Found in a gravel bar, in a small creek after high water, just the bottom was exposed.
Quartz crystals in the center don’t really show up in the picture
So here’s a closer look
Quartz crystals in the center don’t really show up in the picture
So here’s a closer look
Found this in the upper Clackamas. We were shocked how well the heart shape was. Now placed in the front yard.
Gyrfalcon22
Life of the Party
Same here, I picked this up on a small coastal stream about 25 years ago. I believe it is a granite-type as well. Only thing is we should not have granite over here on the Olympic coast. So this one is a mystery. Might have come in on a road fill from far away.
(Below) Here is a fun one. Just when you thought going out to fish and/or look for rocks as a peaceful, relaxing endeavor you come across something that ends up being brainstraining ! Found this on a semi-coastal stream. Material wise, it is standard Si02..agate, carnelian, quartz stuff. It looks like it has crystallization patterns. So seemed that was end of the story. Until, I took it to a rock shop and the geology department at a college to ask some questions about some finds. Both gentlemen told me it was petrified sage. Replaced sage, just like petrified wood, with quartz.
So, now the fossil rock becomes brain work. Sage in western WA? Obviously not in the recent times at all. So the professor filled me in on a great story. This was the thinking 20 years ago. When the land in western WA had sage, there were pronghorn antelope here, as there are still herds across the western/central plains (and reintroduced here in WA state some now). Antelope are a good bunch faster than anything else in North America in the speed department.. Why? They had to escape a predator that pushed them to evolve that top end speed. A coyote is about the fastest predator here and not in the class of a pronghorn. So what missing predator? A piece of the puzzle is amiss.
The answer is cheetah were here chasing the antelope and pushing the evolving speed race. Thoughts are cheetah actually are North American and migrated up and over the land bridge to Asia and then all the way to Africa and kept evolving to modern cats long ago to how they are today (one asian population exists).
Some agree, some don't that this happened this way. We do know that until after the last ice age there was a large cheetah-like creature living and preying on pronghorn via fossil records.
I like to think that this was a clump of sage lying under a cheetah while it was feeding on a pronghorn in a place that would become modern, nearly rainforest terrain. Far from just a rock. Anyone, feel free to correct or add to this !
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Neat thread. I came across this piece of quartz today, and where I was all I can think is that long ago it was in a piece of ice that probably floated here in the flood. Not likely of in-situ origin I don't think. C&R.
Just chillin on the Clack with my guitar!
Really cool stuff!
Jim F.
Still a Genuine Montana Fossil
I'll second that!
Many years ago, I went out with a seasoned sapphire hunter. Gene showed me how to go about the screening process & what a sapphire looked like. I went to work just filled with anticipation. After several rounds of screening, I spotted one! I scrambled over to Gene to show him my discovery. "Not a sapphire, kid, but it is a nice piece of Leverite." "Leverite," I inquired? "Yup" said Gene as he he tossed the sample away. "Leave 'r right there. It's just a rock."
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I spent a lot of summers digging sapphires at El Dorado bar. Endless hours screening rocks in the Missouri. I'd just dream of fishing. We got a lot of nice stones. My uncle would cut the ones we wanted, and bought the others.
Anyone on here ever find a Ellensburg blue?
I’ve looked many times, but never found one.
SF
I’ve looked many times, but never found one.
SF
I've puzzled over this melted rock for 15 years, wondering about its history. I picked it up out in sagebrush scablands on the east edge of Crook county, Oregon. Where I found this the country rock is mostly basalt. Essentially 4-sided, two facets appear vitrified from tremendous heat, a third is partially melted and partially somewhat crystalline, and the largest face is unremarkable. Lightning? The sky was falling?
From the first two pictures, I wondered about "the sky was falling" too, a friend of mine used to collect meteorites. Another friend actively looked for fulgurites and had quite a collection he found downstream of Vantage Bridge.
Mother Nature?
I think I may have found one today while out rockhounding with my brother and nephews.
We're in E'burg to attend 3 Nick Zentner lectures in the evenings and roaming agate and geode sites during the day.
I’ve been curious about this little one for years. Any guesses? Found while taking a break from fishing on a Whidbey island beach. Semi translucent and definitely more turquoise colored than other rocks I’ve found.
