Favorite Self-Collected Specimens

3 sardinian micro.
[www.mindat.org]
[www.mindat.org]
[www.mindat.org]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/09/2012 09:22AM by Mauro Astolfi.

Like collecting cactus flowers. Needles had to be removed from within finger tissue. Always worth the pain !

Millerite - Meikle Mine, Bootstrap District, Elko Co., Nevada - 9 x 7cm





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/09/2012 08:30AM by Casey Jones.

One of the limestone layers about 15 - 20 feet up from the road surface at the Harrodsburg road cuts in Monroe Co, Indiana produces large to very large geodes that are virtually always solid and not worth collecting. I was amazed that one day in December 2006 this large 28 x 14 cm geode had come down after rains and freeze/thaw cycles. It was laying on the side of the road. I had never seen an example of this type with a hollow center (and have only seen 1 example since). The numerous calcite scalenohedrons measure from about 2.0 - 3.3 cm. It has since been displayed at several midwest shows.

Great pix everyone else !!!!!!!!!!!!

Another from the Harrodsburg Indiana road cut, circa 1965. Barite on quartz, 9.5x5x5 cm.



Cheers,

Steve

Bob, I have a couple questions.

1. This geode was collected by my grandparents probably 50 years ago or more. They lived in northen Indiana. Does this geode look like an Indiana geode?

2. My nephew lives in Evansville and I want to take him on a geode hunt next time I go to visit my sister. Where can I take a 9 year old to look for some geodes. I don't think the highway cut would be a good place simply for safety reasons and I believe I read that the police frown against children on the highway with a hammer. Any suggestions?

Casey, That's a killer Millerite and self collected no less! Very Nice!

Here's the largest single Azurite and Malachite specimen we found at the Lilyama Mine,El Dorado Co., California. This was only hose cleaned and still needs a detailed cleaning to look the best. Measures 22 x 13 x 15 cm.

HI CONRAD Your pix looks like a rather generic field and stream quartz geode. "Field and stream" because that is where these type appear most commonly. It could well be from Southern Indiana, but quite similar ones are also found in Kentucky and Southern Illinois. No so in most of Missouri and Iowa.

As to collecting, many collecting sites are now closed or on private land. The best one that I could recommend for you and a youngster is a creek bed just off Indiana route 446 right at the Monroe-Lawrence county line. There is a bridge on In 446 that goes over a creek and you can park well off the road right there and hike down into the creek and walk along in it. A few pointers Make sure creek water level is low by checking the weather for several days......a week of dry weather is needed. Go earlier in the spring or summer before undergrowth gets going. Use bug spray. You should find some geodes so good luck!

Recent find with some unknown as of yet inclusions. This location is producing some beautiful coloured quartz. More photo's to come.

Thank you Bob for the insight. I live in Northern Indiana and it is hard to find collecting sites around here.

3 self-collected sardinian micros.
[www.mindat.org]
[www.mindat.org]
[www.mindat.org]

Pyrite is found thru out Indiana. Many locations have very collectible specimens. One of the most collectible locations is the pyrite found in shale from the Harding Street Indianapolis Quarry. This quarry, on the South side of the city, has shale overburden that is pushed aside. The underlying limestone is used to help clean coal emissions at the adjacent coal fired electric plant that generates the city's electricity. These nodules, thought to be pyritized clams, are quite common and, when entrance to the quarry is granted, collecting is usually good and very easy. The collectors just walk back and forth over the shale piles picking out the glistening pyrite nodules. Most are found without surrounding matrix; those with accompanying shale are uncommon. The nodules range from 1 cm to 6 cm. These were found in December 2010 on the only snow-free day when quarry access was last granted.

Biterminated smoky quartz crystals associated with K-feldspar and albite crystals arranged on alternate terminal faces (like a checkerboard). Caprera Island, La Maddalena, Olbia-Tempio Pausania, Sardinia, Italy (5 x 5 cm).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/20/2012 10:31PM by Antonio Gamboni.

Very interesting specimen Antonio!

Hail

Amazing pics everybody. Great stuff.

Well one of my best finds for sure is this botryoidal Hematite, from a roadcut just south of Madawaska Mine. It is 8.5x7 cm. I got it by exposing a pocket in the rock which was full of the Hematite bubbles, & Calcite crystals. Wasn't a big pocket but a good find. I love this piece because the find was totally unexpected & finding Hematite in botryoidal form was something i REALLY wanted to find for a while. I made other trips to the cut & the spot but i never found another pocket.

Michael.

Antonio:
Very nice specimen....the oriented albite on the microcline shows that they are both Carlsbad twins!

Casey: Real nice millerite!!!

Here's a small amethyst scepter I found circa 1979 at the Beehive #2 pegmatite, in the outer zone...which has never been thoroughly worked even though the pegmatite is now only a few feet from the Delmoe Lake road!! From Goldflint Mountain area, Jefferson County, Montana.


William C. (CHRIS) van Laer: "I'm using the chicken to measure it..."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/21/2012 05:06PM by William C. van Laer.

This is a thumbnail-sized matrix consisting of a prismatic, terminated phenakite crystal, with associated smoky quartz, topaz, and minor albite. What is most curious is the topaz has a 'cast" of what was probably an aquamarine. From the Upper Cramer Lake area of the Sawtooth Mountains, Custer County, Idaho. Collected August 1987.


William C. (CHRIS) van Laer: "I'm using the chicken to measure it..."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/21/2012 05:07PM by William C. van Laer.

Thanks to all, also for the beautiful specimens shown

Looks like quartz with epidote and specularite (plus Fe oxides), I'm pretty sure
where that came from, any purple fluorite octahedrons?

A 6 cm geodized fossil shell from Monroe county, Indiana. Not much on the outside, but this one was hollow and a really nice example of a smoky quartz dewdrop diamond geode as discussed by Steve Sinotte in his 1960 book on "The Fabulous Keokuk Geodes". The Indiana examples are superior and this photo does not due the specimen justice. Perfect bipyramidal quartz crystals sit individually or contiguously on white chalcedony. Apparently 2 generations of quartz in these geodes.

I have always liked these fluorites from Esmeralda County, Nevada, because of their crystal size and perfection. The surface alteration is a distraction but, unfortunately, no one was able to collect them a couple of hundred thousand years ago when they might have been pristine. I collected this specimen from a closed pocket in 2009. It has a gemmy, pale green interior with light lavender corners and is formed on a thin plate of small quartz crystals. Overall size: 5.5x5x4.5 cm.


Fluorite on quartz, Esmeralda Co., NV


Fluorite on quartz, Esmeralda Co., NV, transmitted light shows interior clarity.

Cheers!

Steve