Collected With Your Dirty Hands -- Location and In-Situ Edition
3rd Nov 2017 19:04 UTCScott Rider
I have quite a few and I'll post them on this forum and their corresponding location gallery page. I feel that maybe this will encourage people to upload more to the actual locality galleries (like Dal'Negorsk, Devil's Head, etc.) as well. I have found that those images tell a much better story of the geology and mineralogy of the locations than an image of the outside of a mine or towns nearby...
The first contribution is in Saguache County, Colorado. A location known for its chalcedony geodes, but less known for its killer chalcedony pseudomorphs of Calcite. The first image is the hole where you can see the darker grey geodes in the walls of the hole. The 2nd image is an actual geode in-situ in that same hole. I will upload more, but my lunch time is over... Back to work!!!
Example of a location image:
Example of in-situ specimen;
Chalcedony pseudomorph calcite:
Crystal Hill, La Garita, Saguache Co., Colorado
This is a brecciated section of the mine that hosts calcite, silver, gold, aragonite, and lots and lots of manganese. The calcite clusters, golden crystals formed in between the rocks in the cracks and voids. Gem quality golden calcite formed within those cracks along with silver. I personally did not find any silver or goldl, but metal wires of silver was found were I was digging by my friends.
Breccia:
Calcite from that spot:
This is a brecciated section of the mine that hosts calcite, silver, gold, aragonite, and lots and lots of manganese. The calcite clusters, golden crystals formed in between the rocks in the cracks and voids. Gem quality golden calcite formed within those cracks along with silver. I personally did not find any silver or goldl, but metal wires of silver was found were I was digging by my friends.
Breccia:
Calcite from that spot:
Maybe if I add another post I can revive this thread. I was hoping to see what other people's dig sites look like in other places of the world so maybe my few images will spark some interest. I'm not asking for people to reveal any secrets, but it would be cool to have images of where amazing specimens come from.
My contribution for today is in Park County, Colorado, April, 2018. I don't really have in situ images today but below showed typical finds from a typcial Pike's Peak batholith type pegmatite.
Looking from the entry of the dig
Behind the rocks in center was a nice medium size pocket, maybe the size watermelon. Almost every Crystal was detached from the host rock and only a couple combos came out. But it contained dozens of crystals of Smoky quartz, curved microcline, and colorless to blue fluorite. It was completely inundated with red clay and it took many hours to extract each piece without damaging them. I use chop sticks or skewers to dig thru the clay. I never use metal tools when I hit a pocket (hint hint).
Some of the crystals found from above
My contribution for today is in Park County, Colorado, April, 2018. I don't really have in situ images today but below showed typical finds from a typcial Pike's Peak batholith type pegmatite.
Looking from the entry of the dig
Behind the rocks in center was a nice medium size pocket, maybe the size watermelon. Almost every Crystal was detached from the host rock and only a couple combos came out. But it contained dozens of crystals of Smoky quartz, curved microcline, and colorless to blue fluorite. It was completely inundated with red clay and it took many hours to extract each piece without damaging them. I use chop sticks or skewers to dig thru the clay. I never use metal tools when I hit a pocket (hint hint).
Some of the crystals found from above
So my in situ images happened to be in another camera!!! This is a 4 inch smoky with a 2cm fluorite (to the right of the smoky) in the pocket before extraction. Both crystals were floating in the middle of the pocket. You can still see the disassembled pieces of matrix on the top of the image.
I'm still packing for a move, so I don't have an image of the fluorite, but its a 3/4ths cube, blue with faint purple phantoms within! Very gemmy and the luster was decent. Not glassy, but very good for a pegmatite derived fluorite.
After a rinse with soap and water. I don't even have to run it through an acids, it cleaned very easily.
I'm still packing for a move, so I don't have an image of the fluorite, but its a 3/4ths cube, blue with faint purple phantoms within! Very gemmy and the luster was decent. Not glassy, but very good for a pegmatite derived fluorite.
After a rinse with soap and water. I don't even have to run it through an acids, it cleaned very easily.
This is a collecting spot but a different one. It is between Fairbank and Tombstone Arizona and we are collecting Bisbee minerals. The story here is that the railroad bed was built in 1887 from early Bisbee overburden from the Copper Queen and Denn mines and it was brought out to build the railroad bed which was finally finished in 1902. We discovered the rail bed by accident and I just added a story about it to the mindat page for Fairbank and some photos. Kind of cool to be collecting 1887 Bisbee minerals and not in Bisbee but near Tombstone.
This is a typical pyroclastic deposit at Poggio Bottinello.
Here after making my way through bramble bushes I'm digging a few holes to make some rough steps and reach that large ejecta above me in the middle of the picture which seemed very interesting.
After nearly a hour of not easy work and with the help of a friend I almost managed to pull it out of the wall.
Finally I can now examine it closely.
Here after making my way through bramble bushes I'm digging a few holes to make some rough steps and reach that large ejecta above me in the middle of the picture which seemed very interesting.
After nearly a hour of not easy work and with the help of a friend I almost managed to pull it out of the wall.
Finally I can now examine it closely.
In April, I went with a field trip of the Tucson Gem and Mineral Society collecting at "Gringo Gulch", a spot just west of Patagonia, Arizona. Beautiful place. Most of the people on the trip were interested in cutting material, quartz crystals geodes, agates, etc. I went to collect some of those things and see the countryside.
Somehow I managed to find a whole whack of what I think are probably quartz pseudomorphs after fluorite. Hard to say for sure. They are octahedral shapes, drusy quartz, that are hollow and generally filled with iron oxide. Could have been pyrite, I guess. Nobody had mentioned anything like that to me so I was surprised to find them.
Collecting is by digging in the soil and recovering chunks of "float", talus-like fragments that have probably moved down over time from further up the hillsides.
Here are a few pics of the collecting locality(not all that far from where Rolf lives) and some specimens.
Nothing earth-shattering but it was fun collecting and an unexpected find.
Best, David K. Joyce
This is the digging environment.
Looking north-ish from the collecting area.
This is a view of Patagonia, way down in the valley below the collecting spot.
Somehow I managed to find a whole whack of what I think are probably quartz pseudomorphs after fluorite. Hard to say for sure. They are octahedral shapes, drusy quartz, that are hollow and generally filled with iron oxide. Could have been pyrite, I guess. Nobody had mentioned anything like that to me so I was surprised to find them.
Collecting is by digging in the soil and recovering chunks of "float", talus-like fragments that have probably moved down over time from further up the hillsides.
Here are a few pics of the collecting locality(not all that far from where Rolf lives) and some specimens.
Nothing earth-shattering but it was fun collecting and an unexpected find.
Best, David K. Joyce
This is the digging environment.
Looking north-ish from the collecting area.
This is a view of Patagonia, way down in the valley below the collecting spot.
Here is a crystallized quartz vein we unearthed in the N. Cady's in CA. . I am not a geologist so here is my take on the occurrence.
I believe the surrounding rock is a limestone / silicate contact area? With the quartz entering into the spaces and voids that could produce crystals.
The quartz vein we found ; an approximate 6 foot long and 18 inch wide slot produced crystals that are pineapple shape / burr quartz. under a heavy coating of mud and limestone silt. The points are milky and have a heavy coating on them. A few nice 3/4" points popped up while digging into this vein that are not covered with limestone and secondary quartz growth.
Let me know if my understanding of this occurrence is even close! Like I said, I am no geologist, just a amateur field collector that walks and bush bashes any hill where I see some minerals.....crystallized.
Josh
I believe the surrounding rock is a limestone / silicate contact area? With the quartz entering into the spaces and voids that could produce crystals.
The quartz vein we found ; an approximate 6 foot long and 18 inch wide slot produced crystals that are pineapple shape / burr quartz. under a heavy coating of mud and limestone silt. The points are milky and have a heavy coating on them. A few nice 3/4" points popped up while digging into this vein that are not covered with limestone and secondary quartz growth.
Let me know if my understanding of this occurrence is even close! Like I said, I am no geologist, just a amateur field collector that walks and bush bashes any hill where I see some minerals.....crystallized.
Josh
Collected from an outcrop of fossiliferous limestone in Monroe County Indiana is this interesting specimen. There is a quartz geode of no significance other than being adjacent to a cavity containing spiky sprays of aragonite. When opened, these cavities usually are quite fresh so little or no cleaning of the specimens is necessary. Self collected as one large intact specimen about 2008.
CHEERS........BOB
CHEERS........BOB
Another example.
The locality is a road cut, seen in winter, about 8 miles East of the town of Salem, Washington County Indiana.
The matrix is a very porous dolostone which fractures readily after each freeze thaw episode. Note the obvious fracturing.
The first in-situ example is a large well displayed specimen of calcites on bright brick-red dolomite. It is about 12' up on the high wall and was never collected as it fell apart over a 3 year period of being exposed. If collected intact, it would have made a nice large cabinet display specimen with nice $$$ potential.
This second in-situ example is a large oval specimen with multiple well formed and pristine calcites on orange dolomite. It was very fresh when first exposed, probably needing little cleaning. Altho it also would have made a nice display specimen, it also was never collected. Both examples came apart, falling as pieces over several years.
CHEERS.......BOB
The locality is a road cut, seen in winter, about 8 miles East of the town of Salem, Washington County Indiana.
The matrix is a very porous dolostone which fractures readily after each freeze thaw episode. Note the obvious fracturing.
The first in-situ example is a large well displayed specimen of calcites on bright brick-red dolomite. It is about 12' up on the high wall and was never collected as it fell apart over a 3 year period of being exposed. If collected intact, it would have made a nice large cabinet display specimen with nice $$$ potential.
This second in-situ example is a large oval specimen with multiple well formed and pristine calcites on orange dolomite. It was very fresh when first exposed, probably needing little cleaning. Altho it also would have made a nice display specimen, it also was never collected. Both examples came apart, falling as pieces over several years.
CHEERS.......BOB
Perhaps an odd version of location in-situ. These photos where taken in Cobalt Ontario where my son and I were metal detecting. Sometimes you need to go to less obvious spots as the easy spots have already been heavily detected. The first picture on old mine RD near the Silver sidewalk. We found some decent specimens metal detecting the road. The other photo is an old drill core shack and pump station which had some over grown tailings near it we could metal detect.
Aaron, I am going to wait until later in the year to go out there and explore. It'll simply be too hot, and if it isn't, that probably means some storms are a comin'!!
Here is my latest dig at Crystal Hill. Chris Rayburn found an amazing vug (well breccia material with quartz filling in a void) of hundreds of well formed quartz, up to about 8 cms. Numerous large plates with isolated crystals and limonite pseudos of pyrite found there. I was in another part of the mine when he hit this. I got my turn toward the end of the vug, still pulling out a couple decent plates and tons of cool singles.
Albeit, none have been cleaned as of this posting, here is some images.
This is the vug from the outside. You can see a parka jammed in the hole. I placed that there in hopes to pull off a couple of plates that were on the side of the vug would fall off from hours of smashing:
Here is an image of inside the hole:
My really blurry hand for size reference, sorry don't have a better image with my hand for scale:
Next posting I'll post one of the crystals. Most of what I pulled from here is still wrapped up, as I am awaiting Chris's suggestions to clean. He's doing the experiments re: cleaning them... The specimens have a very thick, viscous black clay (manganese oxides?) that coats everything, but was also the reason that these crystals are still intact!!!
Here is my latest dig at Crystal Hill. Chris Rayburn found an amazing vug (well breccia material with quartz filling in a void) of hundreds of well formed quartz, up to about 8 cms. Numerous large plates with isolated crystals and limonite pseudos of pyrite found there. I was in another part of the mine when he hit this. I got my turn toward the end of the vug, still pulling out a couple decent plates and tons of cool singles.
Albeit, none have been cleaned as of this posting, here is some images.
This is the vug from the outside. You can see a parka jammed in the hole. I placed that there in hopes to pull off a couple of plates that were on the side of the vug would fall off from hours of smashing:
Here is an image of inside the hole:
My really blurry hand for size reference, sorry don't have a better image with my hand for scale:
Next posting I'll post one of the crystals. Most of what I pulled from here is still wrapped up, as I am awaiting Chris's suggestions to clean. He's doing the experiments re: cleaning them... The specimens have a very thick, viscous black clay (manganese oxides?) that coats everything, but was also the reason that these crystals are still intact!!!
Tepee Canyon old agate claims - Black Hills National Forest, South Dakota. This past summer visited the old Tepee agate main claim in sight of Hwy 16, West of Custer. First picture shows what you come up on - lots of broken rock from people trying to get at the agates. In the center of the second picture you can see some loose nodules way in back - you can still find some around. Most of the nodules will be completely brown inside, but some will have the classic Tepee agate pattern - third picture shows an example of both. Agates with pattern from this particular pictured location at the old claim site were nearly all fractured as shown, due to uplift or shifting, and some are loose from the limestone matrix. It is nice that they are loose and don't require as much hard-rock mining, but bad since most are fractured. The cracks will fill up with calcite which 'heals' the agate and keeps it intact sometimes. You can chip away at the calcite or use an acid to reveal the pattern if there is any. If you are cracking the nodules open on-site you will end up destroying some beautiful agates - if one looks promising I will take it home and open it more carefully or have it cut.
A mild start to the end of the year prompted another trip to Saguache Co. This is a new dig away from the classic dig site near Houselog Creek.
This site contains chalcedony and drusy quartz geodes just like the other dig does here, but the difference is they are much harder to extract with out damaging them. However, the geodes here seem to have the potential of being the best I've found in this area. Plus the sizes seemed to be much bigger than any of the other digging spots.
The geode in this example contains a 2 inch hollow chalcedony epimorph of calcite. The broken part was a contact to the other side of the geode. It is common that the calcite crystals formed from one side to the other in these geodes. So many are incomplete like this sample.
Found this yesterday! It was cold but a very calm and nice day!
This site contains chalcedony and drusy quartz geodes just like the other dig does here, but the difference is they are much harder to extract with out damaging them. However, the geodes here seem to have the potential of being the best I've found in this area. Plus the sizes seemed to be much bigger than any of the other digging spots.
The geode in this example contains a 2 inch hollow chalcedony epimorph of calcite. The broken part was a contact to the other side of the geode. It is common that the calcite crystals formed from one side to the other in these geodes. So many are incomplete like this sample.
Found this yesterday! It was cold but a very calm and nice day!
It's hard to tell where the geodes are in those images, except the one with my hand. Here is a good shot of one in-situ and how I chiseled it out.
See how there is rock all around the geode.
After some chiseling, the geode is starting to take shape. They are not as spherical as you would think. It's like they are slightly compressed, making them almost square shaped:
It's now ready for extraction. All I needed to do is pop it out at this point. The bottom of these always have sandy like rock under them, almost like they are in sandwiched layers. But the geodes come side by side and right next to each other. So it was difficult to eatract one without damaging the others. This one didn't have ones next to it so it popped out. Most were not like that.
Each later had unique characteristics, like one later had dog tooth shaped crystals, another would have Pagoda shapes. In one of my previous post you can see the individual layers if you really look hard.
See how there is rock all around the geode.
After some chiseling, the geode is starting to take shape. They are not as spherical as you would think. It's like they are slightly compressed, making them almost square shaped:
It's now ready for extraction. All I needed to do is pop it out at this point. The bottom of these always have sandy like rock under them, almost like they are in sandwiched layers. But the geodes come side by side and right next to each other. So it was difficult to eatract one without damaging the others. This one didn't have ones next to it so it popped out. Most were not like that.
Each later had unique characteristics, like one later had dog tooth shaped crystals, another would have Pagoda shapes. In one of my previous post you can see the individual layers if you really look hard.
Here is the geode. Note that the image in the last post is a little odd. The geode below is actually part of a two chamber geode. So if you flip the specimen over, it looks just like the last post's last image.
The epimorph is rather unusual. The "base" is almost garnet shaped and then it has the weird, not quite scalenohedral shape protrusion that sets this one apart. And there is one little section that is broken revealing the pseudos INSIDE the larger one... Very cool!
A close up shot, notice the broken part at the base. You can see rhombs inside if you look hard enough.
The epimorph is rather unusual. The "base" is almost garnet shaped and then it has the weird, not quite scalenohedral shape protrusion that sets this one apart. And there is one little section that is broken revealing the pseudos INSIDE the larger one... Very cool!
A close up shot, notice the broken part at the base. You can see rhombs inside if you look hard enough.
Hi all, first time posting but I've enjoyed the site for years. Here's a couple pictures from a private location I found in Pickens county, South Carolina. Very interesting crystal formations: bent/phantoms/clear/smoky/milky, and a strange plate like quartz on some pieces. These pictures are from fall 2018. Sorry for the poor quality cell pictures.
From a location within the grasslands on public land in Otero County, Colorado. I was sick and tired of having to wait for my usual places to dig to melt from the numerous recent snow storms so upon advice from my buddy Chris Rayburn, I went to a new location.
Off of a little bluff, are septarian nodules. I looked for Chris's dig and dug in the nearest nodule to his. Found this large 3 feet long nodule that was partially open. I'll get after images tonight when I clean a few. But here are some images of the area.
Heres the nodule:
Here is the top of another. I didn't dig this one but just took image as it had a septarian nodule right next to it that has the classic look (see rock on top):
And the in-situ image:
Off of a little bluff, are septarian nodules. I looked for Chris's dig and dug in the nearest nodule to his. Found this large 3 feet long nodule that was partially open. I'll get after images tonight when I clean a few. But here are some images of the area.
Heres the nodule:
Here is the top of another. I didn't dig this one but just took image as it had a septarian nodule right next to it that has the classic look (see rock on top):
And the in-situ image:
And a couple more images. The bluetooth speaker is about 10 inches, so this gives you and idea how huge Chris's nodule is, and when I examined it, he has not finished! He found better stuff than I did, but I ran into some scorpions in my big nodule that made me try my luck elsewhere. There were 3, one that I must have crushed when removing a rock... I'll try my luck in that nodule at a later time LOL...
Speaker and Chris's hole:
Smooshed scorpion
Speaker and Chris's hole:
Smooshed scorpion
Here are some partially cleaned pieces that I've been soaking in soapy water...
This one came out of a relatively small septarian nodule (about a foot wide), and it just needed a good rinse. This one is quite unique, has 4 phases of calcite growth. It started with the brown-black druse that sets up the contrast, then we have a 7-8mm nailhead crystal sitting among red stained spheres and a bunch of tiny rhombs, so 4 different morphological forms of calcite in this tiny vug.
Here is a larger cluster from one of the boulders from a HUGE nodule, largest crystal is about 1cm:
One of my favorite pieces from the same large boulder above. These two were pretty hard to extract without the larger rhombs popping off. Got lucky!!! But this one is pretty cool, I'll get better images. It has some nail head secondary growth all over the oddly shaped rhombs. Some of the rhombs are penetrating twins and almost appear cubic!! Undamaged, just some of the larger crystals have odd shapes and a waxy texture.
The last two are still in need of cleaning, they do get more white and lustrous.
This one came out of a relatively small septarian nodule (about a foot wide), and it just needed a good rinse. This one is quite unique, has 4 phases of calcite growth. It started with the brown-black druse that sets up the contrast, then we have a 7-8mm nailhead crystal sitting among red stained spheres and a bunch of tiny rhombs, so 4 different morphological forms of calcite in this tiny vug.
Here is a larger cluster from one of the boulders from a HUGE nodule, largest crystal is about 1cm:
One of my favorite pieces from the same large boulder above. These two were pretty hard to extract without the larger rhombs popping off. Got lucky!!! But this one is pretty cool, I'll get better images. It has some nail head secondary growth all over the oddly shaped rhombs. Some of the rhombs are penetrating twins and almost appear cubic!! Undamaged, just some of the larger crystals have odd shapes and a waxy texture.
The last two are still in need of cleaning, they do get more white and lustrous.
This was an unusual find in our area. We find all kinds of gypsum in the washes near us but this crystal was unlike any we had found. In the first photo one can see it in place in the pocket in the massive gypsum wall. I saw the odd shape and thought it would be a piece to try and collect. The surrounding soil was fairly loose so it was not hard to remove. When out it displayed odd crystal habit and the last photo of the bottom of the crystal is a nice hexagonal form, not what we normally found here. A fun find.
This one is similar to a photo just posted and it is also in the St. David area near our home. A wash about half a mile from our house has about 10 foot walls and in the cracks during wet periods the gypsum forms in the needle crystals. Unfortunately it is super delicate. One trip to the place I took a box along to try and collect a few for our collection since it erodes away after any rains again. I was able to get a few pieces out and the second photo is of the best piece I mounted. This particular for of gypsum is not common here in our area since it doesn't last long in the cracks before wind, weather and rain wash it away again, only to reform after the right conditions.
These two photos are a before and after shot of a large group of twinned gypsum in a canyon I called "waterfall canyon" in the St. David area. The second photo is of the same piece cleaned after getting it home. The last photo is of the canyon where the waterfall comes in as the name.
No way out this way and not a good place to be in flash flood season. The above crystal was on a wall to the left, out of the photo.
Was exploring a Pegmatite occurrence where I’d seen some evidence of quartz crystallization. After poking around a large outcrop and pulling away blogs of weathered pegmatite I find what appeared to be a gopher hole in the solid rock. Using my iphone with the flash and video on I stuck my arm in as far as I could reach. What I saw on the video after was positively mind blowing for a digger who had only dug a couple collapsed pockets that had been filled with clay. I had discovered an oven of smoky quartz and unusual albite formations that was approximately 8’d x 6’w and 18”high. Much of the pocket had filled with albite and Muscovite. But the crystals were large. Cutting myself some toeholds I began to open the entrance wide enough to remove the large smokies. As I extracted the nearest material I was able to enter the cavity slowly inching in farther and farther until eventually only my toes were still in the sunlight. The opening to the oven was so tight that I could only enter with one arm above my head and one arm to my side. There was only room enough to bring the lowered arm up once I was all the way inside of the oven. Over time we removed the outside wall in order to allow for us to sit on the cliff. Each rock I removed had to be carefully placed and moved down the hill to prevent it from rolling down the near vertical slope. Here are some of the pocket photos shortly after opening it wide enough to begin extractions.
This was what I extracted the first day. There were two more days of extractions.
This was what I extracted the first day. There were two more days of extractions.
This was the initial indication that the pegmatite outcrop had experienced a significant vapor phase.
Large leather glove for scale. There is a large tabular smoky on the lower left, to the right of that is a large cluster that weighs 15lbs and then hanging from the ceiling is a 17lb smoky that was firmly lodged in the ceiling.
12” prybar for scale
Large leather glove for scale. There is a large tabular smoky on the lower left, to the right of that is a large cluster that weighs 15lbs and then hanging from the ceiling is a 17lb smoky that was firmly lodged in the ceiling.
12” prybar for scale
Another occurrence I regularly work. Quartz hosted in mica and chlorite schist along a faulted contact with diorite. This was what we call the eclipse pocket as it was discovered during the last eclipse. We were forced to tunnel under a tree stump after recent logging, we ended up tunneling about 30’ of the pocket and surface digging about 10-15’ of it. It was a long eliptical shaped pocket that had experienced multiple, significant tectonic events. The crystals that were still affixed to the roof of the clay filled pocket were lustrous and clear, in the middle zone were many larger doubly terminated crystals laying packed like cordwood in the clay. Then on the bottom of the pocket was milky, and heavily chlorite included quartz with evidence of water wear and tectonism. Some of the crystals in portions of the pocket were word into crystalline river pebbles, while others were bent like bananas.
Here is the pocket wall in the working face of the tunnel.
Here is the pocket wall in the working face of the tunnel.
Here you can see the path the tunnel took, we dug one vertical shaft in the middle for access and removal of tailings that was 8’ deep. The pocket then angled up and disappeared at the surface. The entire thing was close to 50’ long.
We have a massive problem with claim jumpers and tweakers that leave all the trash they brought with them. We have been actively working to prosecute them.
Approximately 50-60% of the crystals held epitaxial rutile of 4 colors, gray, blue, brassy, and blonde. The following photomicrograph was taken by Nathan Renfronof GIA Carlsbad and published in their quarterly magazine. Here is the article link.
https://www.gia.edu/gems-gemology/fall-2017-microworld-silvery-rutile-inclusions-quartz
This crystal has two colors of rutile on the same spray, blue and blonde rutile.
Scott Rider Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> JG, what an amazing find!! You sure found some
> serious size crystals... Jealous!! ; )
>
> Where did you find such a monster pocket!!! You
> don't have to be very specific but I'd love to
> know what region of what place you found that!!
> My last monster pocket was about 6 years ago and
> haven't found one since. It was about 10ft x 6ft,
> with a LOT of large crystals (but only quartz)!!
> Made my year!!
Scott, the pocket of large smokies was affectionately named the BBC pocket for obvious reasons. Besides the quartz, albite, and Muscovite, we also found small brown to red titanite crystals. 3’ away we discovered another pocket. This time with euhedral trourmaline, blue albite, and heavily etched smoky quartz. I can show those too if you guys want to see the progression of that pocket. One thing I have learned about digging pockets is, taking photos and video helps me slow down, it helps prevent tunnel vision and speeding through things that you should take your time with. Also, I could kick myself for not documenting all of the other pockets I’ve hit. I have two or three others I could post though if y’all want.
But to answer your question. I’m in Northern California. These locations are all active mining claims.
Here is the pocket that was 3’ away from the BBC pocket. This yielded euhedral tourmaline, blue albite, and quartz. Something really notable about this pegmatite is that it yields dark purple amethyst within the same pegmatite veins as the tourmaline. I doubt we will find the two together. But that it occurs so close is notable.
-------------------------------------------------------
> JG, what an amazing find!! You sure found some
> serious size crystals... Jealous!! ; )
>
> Where did you find such a monster pocket!!! You
> don't have to be very specific but I'd love to
> know what region of what place you found that!!
> My last monster pocket was about 6 years ago and
> haven't found one since. It was about 10ft x 6ft,
> with a LOT of large crystals (but only quartz)!!
> Made my year!!
Scott, the pocket of large smokies was affectionately named the BBC pocket for obvious reasons. Besides the quartz, albite, and Muscovite, we also found small brown to red titanite crystals. 3’ away we discovered another pocket. This time with euhedral trourmaline, blue albite, and heavily etched smoky quartz. I can show those too if you guys want to see the progression of that pocket. One thing I have learned about digging pockets is, taking photos and video helps me slow down, it helps prevent tunnel vision and speeding through things that you should take your time with. Also, I could kick myself for not documenting all of the other pockets I’ve hit. I have two or three others I could post though if y’all want.
But to answer your question. I’m in Northern California. These locations are all active mining claims.
Here is the pocket that was 3’ away from the BBC pocket. This yielded euhedral tourmaline, blue albite, and quartz. Something really notable about this pegmatite is that it yields dark purple amethyst within the same pegmatite veins as the tourmaline. I doubt we will find the two together. But that it occurs so close is notable.
Look here to see more of my self collected minerals and extractions.
https://www.instagram.com/riskyventureminerals/
https://www.instagram.com/riskyventureminerals/
Recently, I was very fortunate to visit the Red Cloud Mine, La Paz Co., AZ, of red-orange wulfenite fame. I'll put a full article about the trip on my website very soon but thought you might like to see some crystals that I found and the current state of the mine.
There is a fellow that lives at the site most of the time and who collects professionally. His name is Roger and he is a retired professional miner. He'll charge you $25 to collect for a day at the mine. Good deal!
Mostly, I found small (5mm +/-) wulfenite crystals, associated with micro willemite and mimetite. There was lots of fluorite and quartz crystals in the open spaces of the vein material. Here is a picture of the workings as they are now and some mineral photos.
There is a fellow that lives at the site most of the time and who collects professionally. His name is Roger and he is a retired professional miner. He'll charge you $25 to collect for a day at the mine. Good deal!
Mostly, I found small (5mm +/-) wulfenite crystals, associated with micro willemite and mimetite. There was lots of fluorite and quartz crystals in the open spaces of the vein material. Here is a picture of the workings as they are now and some mineral photos.
I visited some old iron mines in the Three Peaks area west of Cedar City, Utah last week, on my way to Las Vegas, and had a good day. I noticed a magnetite vein in the wall of a large open cut mine (arrow in IMG_2630). It was a precarious location, but I managed to find a foothold on the wall that allowed me access, and I pulled out some beautiful magnetite crystal plates from a weathered pocket. There were two pockets visible in the vein, along with large, loose slabs of overhanging granite (IMG_2631). I gently (!) worked the pocket in the center of the photo. I had to leave a number of visible plates in the pocket (IMG_2632) rather than risk getting squashed.
The magnetite plate is 7 x 9 cm with crystals up to 2 cm on edge. I repaired several plates that measure up to 20 cm. The area is known for hematite pseudos after magnetite (“martite”), but all of mine are strongly attracted to a magnet, so I believe they’re all magnetite.
Later I found an area in the same mine with small pockets of siderite crystals on quartz matrix. Some of these show a late stage of hyalite coating the siderite crystals. The siderite specimen is 8 x 12 cm.
Later I found an area in the same mine with small pockets of siderite crystals on quartz matrix. Some of these show a late stage of hyalite coating the siderite crystals. The siderite specimen is 8 x 12 cm.
My rock club RAMs took a trip to Sedalia Mine in Salida over the weekend. After a nasty 30-40 minute hike up the hill, we all spread out to find stuff. I found nothing by crusty malachite and chrysocolla, but ran into Chris and some others digging in the garnet hot spot!!
I didn't take any images of my finds, but here is a couple shots of Chris working on the garnet seam that produced a bunch of nice matrix pieces including this one. I didn't measure it, but I can guess its about 7-8 cm wide on a green mica matrix!!
I found similar, but I was so busy digging I didn't take any images of my stuff yet!
Here is the seam:
Here it is out of the seam:
I didn't take any images of my finds, but here is a couple shots of Chris working on the garnet seam that produced a bunch of nice matrix pieces including this one. I didn't measure it, but I can guess its about 7-8 cm wide on a green mica matrix!!
I found similar, but I was so busy digging I didn't take any images of my stuff yet!
Here is the seam:
Here it is out of the seam:
Tony, great crystals! I hope to get ahold of you soon, I’ve been swamped lately! I finally got out prospecting yesterday and found a new tourmaline occurrence that appears to have euhedral tourmaline I still don’t have a positive ID on the tourmaline species, but this spot is showing great promise. Present on the plates were smoky quartz, well formed microcline, Albite, tourmaline, and some orange and red garnets. This is a fault hosted pegmatite that is along the contact between two different ages/types of granite. Still trying to understand the pegmatite classification but it’s sure a fun place to explore. I’ve attached a couple photos of the large plates that had weathered out of the pegmatite. This small bed is about 3’ thick, these plates seem to have been a very narrow fluid pocket that eroded out long enough ago that the missing crystals have long since disappeared. But there were terminated tourmaline and smoky quartz crystals on it.
I thought it would be fun to share some photos of a recent mass wasting exercise. A digging buddy and I spent the past three weekends chasing a pegmatite at our club claims near Lake George, Colorado. We’ve had some previous luck in this spot, and were convinced that a great pocket lay behind a pesky boulder. Nothing a couple of intrepid collectors can’t handle with a 20 ton jack, right? The first three photos show the (very) gradual toppling; it took us five hours. The beast measured 5 x 8 x 15 feet and I’d guesstimate it at 30 tons. We proceeded to expose about twenty feet of a thick, coarse, vuggy, beautiful pegmatite vein, moving tons more earth in the process, and found…precisely one mediocre smoky quartz crystal. It underscores what every field collector knows; not every day of digging ends with a backpack full of crystals. Good exercise, however.
Scott Rider Wrote:
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>Your spot seems
> to have a ton of clay and dirt, so its hard for me
> to understand the deposit you are in. Do you have
> any older in-situ of the area where you can see
> the host rock, veins etc.?
Last couple of visits to the claim I have looked for a good exposure to show what You wanted, to no avail. There are no good road cuts and the general area is covered with brush. The best I can do is a couple of pictures of exposed and weathered schist that lays on the surface in the area.
-------------------------------------------------------
>Your spot seems
> to have a ton of clay and dirt, so its hard for me
> to understand the deposit you are in. Do you have
> any older in-situ of the area where you can see
> the host rock, veins etc.?
Last couple of visits to the claim I have looked for a good exposure to show what You wanted, to no avail. There are no good road cuts and the general area is covered with brush. The best I can do is a couple of pictures of exposed and weathered schist that lays on the surface in the area.
Cool stuff, great stories :-)
Here are a few photos digging quartz veins in the Bastogne region, Belgium. They are very much like Alpine type quartz veins, with quartz, apatite, chlorite, rutile, anatase, brookite and titanite, but are in fact of Variscan origin.
Here are a few photos digging quartz veins in the Bastogne region, Belgium. They are very much like Alpine type quartz veins, with quartz, apatite, chlorite, rutile, anatase, brookite and titanite, but are in fact of Variscan origin.
Exactly like Erik wrote :-) Bastogne is situated in the Ardennes mountains, formed around 390-300 million years ago during the Variscan orogeny.
There were three major mountain forming periods (orogenies) from which we can still see the resulting mountain ranges on Earth.
-Caledonian orogeny (450-390 million years ago, it formed, among others, the Scottish highlands, the Norwegian/Swedish mountain range/highland, the Northern Appalachians in Northern America, highlands in the eastern part of Germany and Poland and the Brabant massif in Belgium) The mountains originally reached heights compared to the Himalayas but have since eroded, sometimes completely but sometimes hilly terrain or low mountains remain.
-Variscan (Hercynian) orogeny (360-280 million years ago, it formed, among others, the Urals in Russia, the Massif Central in France, the Andes in Southern America, the Southern Appalachians in Northern America, the Harz mountains in Germany, the Black Forest in Germany, the Bohemian mountains in the Czech republic and the Ardennes mountains in Belgium)
-Alpine orogeny (100-50 million years ago but actually still going on, for example in the Himalayas, it formed, among others, the Alps in Central Europe, the Carpathian mountains in Eastern Europe, the Rocky Mountains and the Himalayas)
Below is a photo of quartz clefts in Bierghes and Quenast, Belgium. Bierghes and Quenast are situated in the Brabant massif, from Caledonian origin, the oldest of the above described orogenies (the rock is a volcanic rock named Porphyry, a Micro-Diorite), and a few photos of specimens I collected in these and other clefts in Bierghes and the neighbouring quarry of Quenast.
p.s. In this month's Mineralogical Record you can find an article I wrote together with two friends, about a faden-quartz find a couple of years ago in Bierghes :-)
There were three major mountain forming periods (orogenies) from which we can still see the resulting mountain ranges on Earth.
-Caledonian orogeny (450-390 million years ago, it formed, among others, the Scottish highlands, the Norwegian/Swedish mountain range/highland, the Northern Appalachians in Northern America, highlands in the eastern part of Germany and Poland and the Brabant massif in Belgium) The mountains originally reached heights compared to the Himalayas but have since eroded, sometimes completely but sometimes hilly terrain or low mountains remain.
-Variscan (Hercynian) orogeny (360-280 million years ago, it formed, among others, the Urals in Russia, the Massif Central in France, the Andes in Southern America, the Southern Appalachians in Northern America, the Harz mountains in Germany, the Black Forest in Germany, the Bohemian mountains in the Czech republic and the Ardennes mountains in Belgium)
-Alpine orogeny (100-50 million years ago but actually still going on, for example in the Himalayas, it formed, among others, the Alps in Central Europe, the Carpathian mountains in Eastern Europe, the Rocky Mountains and the Himalayas)
Below is a photo of quartz clefts in Bierghes and Quenast, Belgium. Bierghes and Quenast are situated in the Brabant massif, from Caledonian origin, the oldest of the above described orogenies (the rock is a volcanic rock named Porphyry, a Micro-Diorite), and a few photos of specimens I collected in these and other clefts in Bierghes and the neighbouring quarry of Quenast.
p.s. In this month's Mineralogical Record you can find an article I wrote together with two friends, about a faden-quartz find a couple of years ago in Bierghes :-)
Quenast
Quartz, Bierghes
Quartz, Bierghes
Quartz, Bierghes
Epidote, Quenast
Bastogne, Luxembourg, Wallonia, Belgium