Native silver in quartz ?

I found this recently while excavating an as yet unknown gravel bed i descovered a year ago in my local area, i think it may be native silver in quartz any help would be very welcome.

Is it maleable?

To be honest i have been reluctent to mess with it ive only washed it since digging it from the gravel beds, the bits of tarnished stuff crush easily, and the brighter silver looking material indents easily if thats the right word ? The vein is very thick and can i think be seen through some of the clearer quartz.

You can poke it with a needle and see if it digs a tiny trench

Heath, remember that native silver is a soft metal and will act like a soft metal if scratched or cut or hammered.....

Don

Hi Heath - is your local area known to have native silver?

Not that i know of but ive found a lot of matereal in these gravel beds that does not belong here, glacial activivity is the proberble answer, but its must have been a gentle process ie aluvial not buldozed till. The silver matereal dose give quite easily to pressure by the end of a needle, the veins on the other side are not as thick, but are gold in apearance?

These pieces were found in the same 3 metre square section of excavated gravel bed.

To me, it looks like a piece of quartz with silvery mica running through it, maybe from a granite or granitoid rock originally. You mentioned Heath that there are a lot of rocks that do not belong there, which is a good indicator of glacial activity. Judging by the appearence your rock didn't travel far, so if you could figure out where a glacier may have come from, you could backtrack and possibly find the source of your rock.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/04/2012 11:31PM by Paul Brandes.

Paul Brandes Wrote:
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> To me, it looks like a piece of quartz with
> silvery mica running through it, maybe from a
> granite or granitoid rock originally. You
> mentioned Heath that there are a lot of rocks that
> do not belong there, which is a good indicator of
> glacial activity. Judging by the appearence your
> rock didn't travel far, so if you could figure out
> where a glacier may have come from, you could
> backtrack and possibly find the source of your
> rock.


Thanks for the input Paul is there any test i can do to find out if the material is mica or native silver ? As for the glacial activity around here its thought that three major ice flows converged on this area but a lot of what is stated seems to be hit and hope if you get my meaning, and since ive been excavating this area its got a whole lot more confusing ( complicated ! )

Ive checked best i can with mica examples, but to my untrained eye mica apears layered, this material almost looks to have grown through the quartze like roots or even as if it was molten and flowed through ?

I don't think that the silver shining mineral is native silver. Silver in a gravel bed, open to the influence of the ground water becomes black and the layer of the black akanthite can not be removed simply by washing the piece. Native silver is arising hydrothermal - in this case you will find sliver curls or crystalls in a mini pocket of the quartz or it is arising by weathering of a sulfide containing vein - in this case it is accompanied with limonite or carbonates.

Uwe Ludwig

Hi Heath

I would agree with Uwe that it is not Silver as this element would generally oxidize on exposure to air and turn black. Heath... If you rub your finger across the 'silvery-pearly' bits, do you get a pearly like finger? (A bit like the stuff women wear on their eyes - eye powder). Also, is the texture silky? pearly? greasy? Where abouts are you based/gravel bed based please?


Claire

Uwe is quite right. Attack it with a needle and see if tiny plates result, then you probably have a mica. The plates should be elastic.

The last of your 3 pictures looks like a flint nodule. Similar nodules can be found along the Atlantic coast, They were ballast from England and dumped to take on cargo for the mother country.

Interesting what Rob told regarding the flintstones. Is it true that there are no natural flint deposits along the North American Atlantic coast ?

Uwe Ludwig

That is what I have been told. The white rind is suppposed to be from English Chalk deposits.

Uwe Ludwig Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't think that the silver shining mineral is
> native silver. Silver in a gravel bed, open to the
> influence of the ground water becomes black and
> the layer of the black akanthite can not be
> removed simply by washing the piece. Native silver
> is arising hydrothermal - in this case you will
> find sliver curls or crystalls in a mini pocket of
> the quartz or it is arising by weathering of a
> sulfide containing vein - in this case it is
> accompanied with limonite or carbonates.
>
> Uwe Ludwig
Funny you should say that Uwe most of the material is black and boy ive tried allsorts including the baking soda and alaminium idea but it still won't shift, but when rubbed the blacker stuff shines very nice, whatever the material is it is all the same the tarnished black and bright silver pieces.

claire Brimson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi Heath
>
> I would agree with Uwe that it is not Silver as
> this element would generally oxidize on exposure
> to air and turn black. Heath... If you rub your
> finger across the 'silvery-pearly' bits, do you
> get a pearly like finger? (A bit like the stuff
> women wear on their eyes - eye powder). Also, is
> the texture silky? pearly? greasy? Where abouts
> are you based/gravel bed based please?
>
>
> Claire Thanks for the help Clair as for rubbing the material leaves no streak of any kind on the skin, The streak on the pack of a tile is bright silver from the brighter material and goldy silver from the tarnished majority, the texture at the moment ie without any polishing is a bit course, apart from one bulbouse piece wich is very smooth. I will try to take some new pics and post soon, again thanks for the help.

claire Brimson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi Heath
>
> I would agree with Uwe that it is not Silver as
> this element would generally oxidize on exposure
> to air and turn black. Heath... If you rub your
> finger across the 'silvery-pearly' bits, do you
> get a pearly like finger? (A bit like the stuff
> women wear on their eyes - eye powder). Also, is
> the texture silky? pearly? greasy? Where abouts
> are you based/gravel bed based please?
>
>
> Claire Sorry forgot to say Clair ime from Teeside in north east England, the best way to understand the beds would be to visit my blog at historyofabeckblogspot.co.uk

Ahh! Teeside! That explains the English Flint.