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Identity HelpC'mon! Nothing?! How about this one?! Southwest Florida same area as last two

9th Aug 2022 16:48 UTCJennifer McLaughlin

I was thinking maybe fulgurite rock? Please somebody help me out there!! I'm trying to figure out why I'm finding these things. Thank you!

Jennifer

Questions Answered
Can it scratch glass? : Yes
Can you scratch it with your fingernail? : No
Is it light/heavy for the size? : Heavy

9th Aug 2022 16:49 UTCJennifer McLaughlin

other side

9th Aug 2022 17:52 UTCDoug Daniels

Not a fulgurite. Just a piece of good ol' quartz, which is very common and has many different appearances.

10th Aug 2022 13:33 UTCJennifer McLaughlin

The dark section in the center, the blackish sections are glass like and harder. Crystals I guess. I've never found a rock like this in florida. Why would it be here?

9th Aug 2022 17:55 UTCDemetrius Pohl Expert

It looks like your looking at old building site debris. In the good old days you could burn your rubbish and most of us did, so you get fire blackened an even occasionally fused pebbles and sediment.

9th Aug 2022 20:09 UTCJennifer McLaughlin

So are the dark blue and red color variations normal? I live in Southwest Florida. We generally don't have rocks here--especially rocks like these. Above are other examples. The color isn't showing up well in photos. Again, the center is a dark blue, red, and green depending on how you look at it. Shiny in the center like glass and dull on outside. Very heavy.

10th Aug 2022 13:02 UTCHarold Moritz 🌟 Expert

Heavy, glassy, multi-colored lumps are very typical of slag or some other kind of industrial processing waste. This stuff very commonly gets used as fill material to grade sites because a lot of it is generated and it has no value.

10th Aug 2022 13:27 UTCJennifer McLaughlin

this site was not graded. And even if it were, they wouldve used a nearby source of which there was plenty. Keep in mind, the town has only been really inhabited for like 100 years. And its the indian mounds that provided many of the early homesites.

10th Aug 2022 15:47 UTCHarold Moritz 🌟 Expert

Another possibility is that these are natural phosphate nodules, which were mined in central Florida, but there could be smaller deposits elsewhere. Check the Roadside Geology of Florida guidebook for some more perspective on this mining, it's a good book to have. There is a small photo of these brown phosphorite rocks, and they do look kinda like your find. I have not personally seen one.

12th Aug 2022 23:22 UTCJennifer McLaughlin

what about tektites? Especially the green glass or quartz I have? But I don't know where it would have come from. Could a tektite be formed from a lightning bolt? What else would have hit florida?

12th Aug 2022 23:48 UTCKeith Compton 🌟 Manager

Jennifer

Reasonable explanations have been put forward.

Imagining things will not make them so.

10th Aug 2022 15:35 UTCKelly Nash 🌟 Expert

Someone should mention that identifying rocks and minerals from photos and basic descriptions is often unreliable and maybe impossible. If you want more certitude, you should take them to a university geology department or someone like that.

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