go to helpmydiscovery.blogspot.com and help me please!

Hello im on the trail to discovering a new species of what I think is a subspecies of chert from the tx region, go to my blog at helpmydiscovery.blogspot.com and let me know what you guys think.

According the Mindat entry, chert is "A tough, dense rock composed of quartz and few other impurities. The quartz occurs as randomly interlocked, microscopic quartz grains (microquartz) or microscopic grains of fibrous chalcedony." How can nonhomogenous material have a subspecies?

Ok well you might what to look somewhere else for defintions, let me rephrase that chert has variation in mineral composition, and chert can refer to many types of rocks, look that up as well. Why are people over the web so brave and rude?

Joey -- Many of the folks here "call them like they see them." Not rude, just honest. Steve certainly knows his stuff; I always value his opinions and comments. Looking at your photos, I've got to say that I suspect a non-natural origin - it looks like slag glass to me. Some pretty material, though, as your ring attests. --Ken

Hello, ken i am new to this way of communicating but to me that was clearly rude or incredibly forward, and not to in return be rude but he must not know much about chert because chert does have variations or forms maybe not subspecies of course that more refering to animals I just used it in a more general term. I do appreciate the advice from anyone and I hear what your saying but it MOST definitely is NOT glass it contains pyrite on the microscopic level, and is of natural origins it was found with rocks containing limestone. Curious what made you say glass, did you read anything on the blog?

Joey,

I did just read over your blog, and I agree with Ken that it is a man made slag glass. Reading your blog it seems like you believe the limestone to have been transported from elsewhere. This leads me to believe it is fill material of some kind. Slag is a common fill material. Slag can contain other minerals such as pyrite or other oddball minerals. Some people actually collect slag for the interesting chemistry and odd minerals that form. You will find some awesome mineral pictures on this site which come from slag. Now I do not think you should be disappointed or less enthusiastic about your find just because it is not natural. The ring you made with the sample containing the blue swirls is very nice in its own right. Just because the material is not a new form of chert doesn't make it less worth for cabbing or displaying if you enjoy it. If you like the material, and you get joy out of collecting it, who cares what other people think.

-Harris

Most definitely slag!

Compare your photos Joey with what chert looks like and what most slag looks like, and you will see that your specimens are more comparable to slag than anything else. I say "most" slag because it can come in a variety of colours depending on what impurities got caught up in the liquid before it cooled.

Joey,

Just asking...... OK, so Chert is a rock - a mix of minerals but predominantly microcrystalline or microfibrous Quartz. Do you think you have Novaculite?

Your comment about finding it with either Obsidian or Lignite confuses me. AFAIK, I understand that Obsidian, a natural glass of volcanic origin, is not found in a natural state in TX but that worked Obsiian was extensively trades to the indigenous tribes there. Do you think what you found might have been broken artefacts? OTOH Lignite is carbonaceous material aka 'brown coal', strip-mined as a fuel - sort of half-way between peat and coal in composition.

Good luck anyway. From the little I have seen of it, central TX is one massive fossil bed. I have a couple of large Ammonite fragments that I dug out of the bank of a dry wash there and where they had become partly exposed.

Steve does know about chert. Steve doesn't like people who complain when they are told the truth, instead of a confirmation of some fairy tale.

I am going to totally digress here and tell a story, bear with me.

Once upon a time when I was 11 years old I had a paper route. To get to my route I had to cut through a cemetary on the way. It didn't bother me as I had lived near it all of my 11 years. I had a keen interest in my environment. I loved gardening as I practically grew up in my grandmother's garden. I knew the names of most of the plants and trees in my neighbourhood. One day on my normal journey through the cemetary I came across a piece of branch on the pathway that had some evergreen type needles on it. I had never seen this type of tree branch before. I searched high and low throughout the cemetary and could not find the source of this branch. There were lots of shrubs and mature trees, but no sign of this type of tree or whatever. I starting wondering more and more about it. Is it a new species? What if I found a new species? I was excited.
Weeks went by, everyday I searched for the source of the tree. I was sure I had found something unique but only if I could find the source!
One day, perhaps a few weeks later, I stumbled on the answer. More branches and pieces. And a trail that led right to the garbage can.
My discovery turned out to be a wreath made of some type of ferny material that in later years I would identify as air ferns. I never thought in a million years it wasn't a natural indigenous tree! Who knew, what an aweful trick to play! So went my hopes of a discovery but I had a curious mind that quesitoned things. I questioned the pollution from smoke stacks before it was called acid rain, and I always thought that chicken bones looked like a T-Rex. That was before they confirmed that birds evolved from dinos. People thought I had an overactive imagination. Probably did.

Moral of the story - things are not always what they seem, but sometimes hunches can be right. It's just hard to know which is which.
I wish I had the mind of that 11 year old again, to see things all new and wonderous without boundaries.

Your pieces seem to be man made slag rather than something new, but as others have said, it is probably still fun to make pieces from it that are attractive.

regards,
stephanie

I agree, Steve has it right. Plenty of slag has particles of metallics in them. I have some that is azurite blue with what appears to be pyrite specks floating in the slag.

Joey, I think if you did a little more research you would see that what you are hoping for is not really possible. Of coarse, you could always send a piece to GIA or some other reputable lab and have it conclusively identified.

Rick
I know I am in my own little world, but everyone knows me here.

Hallo Joey7,

what you got is slag. I work in a steel mill and beleve me I se a lot of this every day.

Good luck in your further discoverys

Boris

Speaking of yourself in the third person brilliant! Well I will end this worthless feud on this note I asked for help and you gave me an intentionally snarky comment instead of just stating your opinion but that is fine. I would say my idea of a new discovery is a fantasy thanks for changing my view of things.

Hello and thank you,
To everyone whom read my blog and left helpful comments on this site, I really do appreciate the help and I will definantly look up slag glass but dont be disappointed if a small part of me still hopes it is a new chert variation, lol. I thank you all once again and would love to stay apart of this forum and have life long friends with the intellect to help me in my new discoveries.

p.s I looked up chert variations and found a variation from missouri I believe called mozarkite and it too has the same qualities, fine swirl patterns which is its most destinctive quality but im still researching slag glass so the discussion will still be open until I do get the personal verification from hopefully a local geologist, I will definitely let everyone know the outcome of my discovery on my blog, thank you for the support.