MIDWEST USA SEDIMENTARY TYPE GEODES

I was hoping you would get into this Everett. Now if i could figure out how to get my camera to take small photos i could add to this geode fest.

Yeah Bob and I talked at the FOM meeting in Richmond this weekend...told him I'd add a photo or two :)


Byron what you doing April 14 and 15? want to collect some fluorite???

:)
E

Next are some Kentucky geodes from the Sommerset area.

Fossil replacement of Brachiopod



An average quartz geode, but something special about it....all of the quartz crystals are bipyramidal!



Close up of above



Some nice sized dolomite crystals



Calcite and aragonite with unknown pink material



Dolomite calcite and unknown pink sponge like mineral?



Close up of unknown



Quartz geode with slight amethyst spot lower left



Larger geode with celestine



Close up of above



And sometimes the bipyramidal quartz crystals do sometimg fun!!!









Close up of above



Of course they can be funny too....

"Running Buns"



Enjoy!!
E

The first pix is part of my 2011 exhibit at the Cincinnati show. This case had several very large Indiana geodes. All were self-collected or acquired over the past 8-10 years. The depicted geodes have calcites, barites and aragonite as secondary minerals. The 2nd pix is a closeup of one of the geodes with 2 large calcite rhombs and some adjacent barites. The geodes in this case were all unusually large to be this fresh and displayable......"big is beautiful". Enjoy BOB

Bob did you get my email??

thanks
E

Id Love to collect some Fluorite Everett, It all of course depends on my work schedule.
Keep me informed.

Byron

EVERETT I did and I replied that all is a go for this weekend. Did you get my reply, as it had my phone #s ???? BOB

Hi Bob,
Sounds good, thanks for the email reply. Looking forward to some 3 inch barytes :)

thanks!!!
E

I have three geodes of this type that I got from the Fred Powers collection without any labels or information on where they were from. Can you tell me anything more about this location. Searching on Mindat for Brown Co, IL doesn't produce anything. I'll be happy to photograph them and post in this thread. Calcite on calcite geodes. Thanks

Stephen,

It should be Brown Co, Indiana more then likely.

Hey Everett where you heading to get Barites?


Byron

Brown County ILLINOIS produces geodes that are distinctly different than Brown County INDIANA. You need to put a couple of good quality pix on this site to help make the id. Calcite on calcite sounds more like a Western Illinois geode as Brown County Indiana geodes tend to have micro minerals, such as goethite, on quartz. BOB



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/07/2012 09:35AM by BOB HARMAN.

Bob, Thanks for the info. I know they aren't Indiana. I did my geology grad studies at IU and knew all the collectors at the geology dept. Never saw any calcite geodes until I lived in St. Louis in the 70's. The collection I bought was from a man who had lived in St. Louis for many years and had mostly Midwest specimens. So I figured these unlabeled calcite on calcite geodes were from the MO, IL, IA area, but I didn't have a specific locality. I'll take some quick pics this weekend and post them here. I also have a number of other interesting Midwest geodes from collecting and trading over the years, including a large number from the Jim Maple self-collected collection. He grew up in North Vernon, IN and collected all over IN for years while getting his PhD at Purdue. I'll post as I have time.

One of the only spots I know of that have all calcite geodes is Geode Glen in Warsaw IL, it is the type locale for the formation the geodes are found in. It is down behind a baseball diamond in Warsaw......are the calcites very clear? any pyrite on them??

Byron, a couple of us are heading down to Bloomington/Harrodsburg this weekend for some geode collecting, we'll be hitting a few locations down there, right Bob :)

thanks
E

Steve,

I am very familiar with many Keokuk and St. Louis geode locations (many of which are not known to mindat) so I will give you my opinion on the photos you post as well.

Thanks,
Ken

Dew Drop Diamond geodes occur in several Midwest locations including Indiana, but are rare and much revered by all Midwest geode collectors. The name was coined sometime prior to Steve Sinotte using it in his 1960 book on The Fabulous Keokuk Geodes. These geodes have dipyramidal quartz crystals.....often smoky...... sprinkled on white to pale blue gray chalcedony (microcrystalline quartz). So they are quartz on quartz geodes. Holding these geodes and moving them back and forth in the sunlight makes the crystals sparkle like dew in the early morning sun, hence their name. This 8 cm x 7 cm example, found in 2002 in Monroe County, Indiana, clearly is a geodized brachiopod fossil. It was difficult to adequately photograph and looks much better in person in the sunlight. Enjoy, BOB

Well, I've had a chance to look over Bob Harman's collection of IN geodes, it is by far one of the TOP 3 geode collections in the world. I was amazed at the gemmy barytes (some of which are a rival in themselves to top Meikle mine barytes!!), aragonites and other included minerals he has found over the years. One thing I noticed is that the photos on here do no justice to what he has. You would be hard pressed to find geodes from anywhere in the US to compete with Indiana geodes that Bob has amassed. Please show us your best finds of geodes, I'd love to see some from the Keokuk area that would rival what has been collected in Indiana.....Cudos Bob!! Thanks for the showing of your awesome collection!!

E

Yes, I have seen Bob's collection as well - and yes it is fantastic.
Indiana geodes definitely beat out Keokuk geodes with their barite crystals. But I think Keokuk geodes have better calcite and sphalerite crystals.
Attached are photos of my best two sphalerite geodes. The first is from Hancock County, Illinois and has a 1-1/2" tall pagoda calcite in front of a 2+" sphalerite group. The second is from Brown County, Illinois and has a 1" sphalerite group with aligned chalcopyrite crystals on it.

Hey Kenneth,
Those last two from Geode Glen? Look like the crystals I found down there :)

thanks
E

Quartz geodes are extremely common thru out the Midwest, but finding really nice pristine display quality examples are not all that easy. These six examples are all from Indiana and show the wide variety of quartz, from microcrystalline quartz (blue chalcedony) to milky quartz, to smoky quartz, to clear and vaguely citrine colored crystals. The crystal size also varies considerably from tiny thru complex larger crystal terminations. While no true amethyst is found, occasionally vaguely amethystine colored crystals are found. The vast number of quartz geodes sold as "citrine" are not; they are just yellowish iron stained crystals.
Thanks to all the guys out there for their kind remarks regarding my collection! To be fair, there are other great collections of Indiana and Midwest geodes as well.....hope to see some additional pix from those collections as well. And what makes them so great is that many of the pictured examples would be SELF-COLLECTED!