Geodes from mexico?

Thanks for the encouragement! I am still a newer member in this club and on the "younger" side of the crowd. But I still get the nerves speaking in front of people.

Dolomite is a good one I hadn't thought of/came across reading. Also psilomelane. I'm not sure i have any of the latter.

I suppose it warrants looking into whether crazy lace is its own distinct thing vs. laguna agates.

I plan on bringing in some laguna, agua nueva, coyamito, and moctezuma agates. I have always thought the different agates were named after the location they were found (laguna ranch, lake superior, Botswana, etc). I looked at it as "crazy lace" being almost more of a trade name. Maybe someone can chime in...

But along with all the various agates, there seem to be just as many varieties of geodes.

I've been scurrying around my house searching for stuff, my cats must think I'm crazy 😜

There's quite a few knowledgeable crazy lace people around here - I only know a little. Crazy Lace has been a theme here lately In my opinion, crazy lace is it's own thing, but others may disagree. (other than laguna crazy lace I mean)

However - there's a thread here worth checking out about the different types of crazy lace.  Here.

It's a good starting point for reference. 

I also thought of the flame agates of Mexico - Bird of Paradise being the only one I can think of with it's own name. Here's an awesome website for some of those.

Be prepared to fall in love with those!!!


Will you only use examples of what you have, or are you bringing photos/slide show as well?   

tribeunited good call on the bird of paradise. I think I might have a slab of that somewhere. I also have some "red flame agate" which is similar.

The hope for this months meeting was to have it more like a group show and tell. Being that the group presentation was my idea I need to bring enough stuff to do a presentation in case not many people participate.

I'm going to also bring a nifty little projector to show a few maps. I've included a focus on some info and photos on the Ojuela mine but I don't want to spend the whole time showing photos. People like to hold rocks in their hands!!

Excellent ideas!  I think it will be amazing

Please update after the presentation - I'd love to hear all about it if you find the time

and good luck, break a leg, knock em dead, rock their socks off  - or whatever you say to someone before a rock presentation....

 

There really are alot of rocks and minerals from Mexico. I have various turquoise I've gotten over the years but most of it isn't labeled and id be guessing at best. I've heard the Mexican turquoise is a deep blue with pyrite specks but I think alot of turquoise is like that!

tribeunited I thought of those after my post but decided I already added too many things! With Sonora I meant Sonora geodes, which I ran across while trying to track down my “Sonora nodules” which have been pretty confusing! Some seem like agate nodules, others are thunderegg like, some are geodes.. all with this coloring (from what I can tell). The Janos are like the eye shaped one.
www.mindat.org/gl/272496

Yay! This thread encouraged me to try again on the Sonora nodules and think I figured it out! And it’s another thunderegg for the list… snowball agate, which is thunderegg cores apparently. I would have called mine lagunas if they weren’t so similar to thundereggs. Here’s some of the (tentatively) snowballs. Not seeing a lot of search results so maybe they aren’t common enough to mention?

thanks cabby - for the snowballs and the link! I'll check it out now

@tribunited cabby Hijack away!! Seriously it helps get my brain ticking!

I will say that after googling the various names and types of Mexican agates I am a bit flustered, possibly confused.

I realize that many agates get their "names" from the locality they are found. However, that said it seems that the more famous agates in Mexico predominantly come from the state of chihuahua.

Laguna agates are named after estacion de Laguna (a ranch i believe, possibly a small town). Agua nueva are also from the same region but happen to be found nearby the "agua nueva" creek. Coyamitos are found approximately 40 miles north of the Laguna area and are also named after the ranch they are found at (rancho de coyamito). Moctezuma agates are found on the northern end if the chihuahua agate deposits.

It seems to me that they are all very similar in formation and composition.

I also have some "purple passions" which I got at the gem shop in cedar WI. When I searched luna agates I got pictures of what look exactly like the purple passions I have.

I haven't looked into the locality of the royal Inca agates yet but if they are from chihuahua I would put them in the same "bucket"

The Rosetta lace looks a bit different to me, I might look into that a bit more. An uneducated guess has me thinking they contain more rhyolite or maybe onyx. The last presentation I gave on the differences between quartzite, agate, and jasper taught me that onyx is also a firm of microcrystaline quartz (SiO²).

The various geodes and thundereggs from mexico are even more confusing. It seems to be a fine line between geodes and thundereggs (thubdereggs being solid). But I am thinking that there are likely both from the various locals. Example: you could possibly have a janos geode and janos thunderegg.

"Crazy lace" does seem to be a catch all term for banded Mexican agates. Although Google says that there are Laguna agates as well as Laguna lace agate. However I have bought both "red lace laguna" as well as "red crazy lace" in my time collecting. Rosetta stone may often be one of these.

Thanks for linking that thread, although it confirms my suspicions as I see all sorts of different colors posted as being "crazy lace"

At this point i have a Tupperware full of Laguna, moctezuma, coyamito, "crazy lace" rough. Some face polished pieces and cabs of all those.

I am also bringing a good variety of imperial jaspers, from standard "mine run" to the fabulous "royal". Rough and polished.

A jar of jelly opals. A real nice danburite crystal. A gorgeous pplished free-form of velvet obsidian. Some dogtooth calcite and more "normal" calcite. Some apatite. A couple pieces of wulfenite. Adamite (although my friend bought a couple flats of ojuela mine material years back and all we can find is the one piece).

I need to try and identify the various geodes I have, this is proving to be the most difficult.

I also have a projector and some information about the ojuela mine. Did you know there have been 117 different minerals found at that mine and people have been mining there since before the Spaniards came!

I'm sure I could go down the worm hole further but I also need to limit the presentation to around an hour. I have asked other club members to bring in their Mexican minerals as well so I may not even get to my projector part of it. That is okay though as I somehow became program director/coordinator so there is always next time. I found an awesome movie about a guy who travels to the 5 largest crystal caves around the world. I will try and remember to look at the title so I can recommend it to folks here, it is an amazing film!

Thanks for the suggestions and I'll let y'all know how it goes. Presentation is this Thursday.

Cheers friends!!
Josh