cccbock
spending too much on rocks
Member since December 2011
Posts: 499
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Post by cccbock on Jan 24, 2013 11:08:59 GMT -5
When I was a teenager I used to wander the fields around where we lived looking for arrow heads. Along the way I would find an unusual rock now and then so I would pick it up too. Well here are a couple pics of a rock that I still have. When I first found it I thought that it was slag glass of some kind. I now know it's a rock but am not sure as to what kind. I believe it is a form of obsidian but I am not sure. So I thought I would share it with you in hopes that someone might have an insight for me. At any rate I am giving serious thought to making a cab or two from it.
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Post by rockjunquie on Jan 24, 2013 15:41:53 GMT -5
I don't know... it's weird, like the color is a thin sheet over the host. Kinda like ammolite, but not.
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,461
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Post by Sabre52 on Jan 24, 2013 16:04:25 GMT -5
Looks like a man made material, maybe some type of porcelain or glass product...Mel
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Post by orrum on Jan 24, 2013 16:10:12 GMT -5
Looks like crockery to me, like skmething fired in a kiln that warped and broke during firing.
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Post by orrum on Jan 24, 2013 16:11:00 GMT -5
Spelling error ,something
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Post by helens on Jan 24, 2013 16:49:23 GMT -5
That is bizzare looking... in a neat way! Glass can fill up with dirt and crud, but generally things don't 'stick' to it, so swishing it in water would clean most of the crud off. That's all lumpy. The center part and bottom look like a translucent agate... ceramics would be opaque all over. How bizarre... How BIG is it? This is completely out there, but if there's no better explanation, I wonder if you should send a pix of it to a lab somewhere and ask if it could POSSIBLY be the inside of a meteor? The outside texture looks like some meteors I've seen, and we all know that tektites and moldavites are meteor samples (and glass). On entry into the atmosphere, meteors tend to melt down at ridiculous heat to sort of glassy insides... the presence of trace bits of silver would create that color blue in glass when melted. Now that's an out there theory, but won't hurt to ask someone who knows more about the subject. I'd write these guys, or another meteorite museum and ask if it's possible. Just because it doesn't look like other meteors we know of, doesn't mean it can't be. Impactitites are glass too, and there's no reason a piece of glass from space would be of uniform color/material. Plus, if it's NOT a meteorite, they may be able to give you some insight into what it IS. epswww.unm.edu/meteoritemuseum/hand-samples.htm
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jan 24, 2013 17:09:34 GMT -5
Agree that it isn't obsidian. Could be manmade ceramic (interior does look like fired, high-frit clay). Might also be a clayey deposit that got exposed baked alongside a lava flow. Where did you find it (is there volcanic activity in the area)?
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cccbock
spending too much on rocks
Member since December 2011
Posts: 499
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Post by cccbock on Jan 24, 2013 17:51:28 GMT -5
first , thanks for the thoughts....I remember when I found it I thought it looked like molten glass that had been dropped on sand....but when you hold it you can see that the sandy part is solid rock and that the colored glassy part transitions into the sandy part.. The darker smoky band in the middle looks alot like obsidianup close. Very glassy and translucent. But the bluer part looks less glassy and more flinty....about the location....I am not sure on the dot where I found it ,meaning that I used to look in three different fields closed to where I lived. Apparently there was a house or two in those fields many years ago as occasionaly I would find a small piece of delftware or some other piece of glass.....Now the place I lived is on a ridge in southern indiana called madden hill....the ridge is very distinctly raised from the rest of the area.....In school we learned that the ridge was formed by the leading edge of a glacier during one of the ice ages.....There is alot of flint in the fields right below the ridge....so much in fact that in certain parts of the field it was hard to spot artifacts due to all of what I then considered to be trash rock.....Now that I am older and would like to look in those fields for rocks other than artifacts the farmers are using no till farming !! Much to my chagrin......the rock is 2 1/2 inches long X 1 1/4 inches wide X 3/4 of an inch thick........
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bushkraft
having dreams about rocks
Public nuisance Number 1
Member since July 2011
Posts: 65
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Post by bushkraft on Jan 24, 2013 20:06:21 GMT -5
If it were found down here in Australia, I would probably tag it as "boulder opal" but as it came from Indiana I have no idea, that effect could possibly be created by a thin coating of feldspar however .... good luck with it!!
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Post by orrum on Jan 24, 2013 20:16:52 GMT -5
Old style wood pit fired salt glaze crockery. Size n color fits. Dont know rocks but ex was into the pottery n kiln stuff.
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Post by helens on Jan 24, 2013 20:43:47 GMT -5
I am no ceramics expert... tho I have made pottery. And the combo translucent/opaque doesn't look like any shard I've ever heard of. While there are opaque glass, that's not right for glass either (and I have a pretty vast collection of glass dating back to antiquity). I have NO idea what that can be, or seen pix of anything like it (although I can MAKE glass those colors... thus I mentioned the silver... it can make those blue shades). And this is what I mean... here's an ornament I made that I sent Jakesrocks some time ago... same shades of blue (silvers): But what you have there is not right for glass... the rough ends have endured too much to be glass, not even cullet/slag could look like that. Glass gets smoother when tossed around or superheated, not rougher. MAYBE if you dropped molten glass onto sand... but it would melt part of the sand and incorporate it... you wouldn't have pits (haven't tried this). I would still ask the meteor people what they think... because I've never seen a rock that looked like that either. I wouldn't cab that just yet. Test for hardness?
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QuailRiver
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since May 2008
Posts: 1,622
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Post by QuailRiver on Jan 25, 2013 4:29:28 GMT -5
I believe what you have pictured is a piece of slag glass from an iron smelting furnace. When smelting iron ore, the silica becomes fluid and forms slag glass.
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Post by helens on Jan 25, 2013 17:05:38 GMT -5
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Post by helens on Jan 25, 2013 17:30:01 GMT -5
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cccbock
spending too much on rocks
Member since December 2011
Posts: 499
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Post by cccbock on Jan 25, 2013 19:05:11 GMT -5
ok......so I am not going to cab it yet.......you guys have piqued my interest.......now my question is where might one send this "rock" to have it identified?
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Minnesota Daniel
freely admits to licking rocks
A COUPLE LAKERS
Member since August 2011
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Post by Minnesota Daniel on Jan 26, 2013 0:27:58 GMT -5
Iron smelting in Indiana was a European introduction. There was/is native iron ore in Indiana, and it was smelted in Indiana furnaces as early as 1830. Martin and Green Counties especially. scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/handle/2022/3794 Were there ever any iron smelters anywhere near where you found it? Iron smelting slag can be used in the production of cement too. What about cement factories?
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cccbock
spending too much on rocks
Member since December 2011
Posts: 499
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Post by cccbock on Jan 26, 2013 5:26:41 GMT -5
neither that I am aware of...........seems to me that if a factory or smelter had been nearby then there would have been more than just this one piece...I spent many hours over several years in those fields and this piece was the only thing even remotely close to it I ever saw.....I will attempt to find someone to have a look at this to see what it is .....I will keep you guys posted as to the progress.........
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textiger
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since May 2005
Posts: 946
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Post by textiger on Jan 26, 2013 7:20:28 GMT -5
i'm with orrum on this one. looks like a piece of a broken crock.
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Post by helens on Jan 26, 2013 9:43:10 GMT -5
Send pix of it to a local museum?
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