petrified algae

Very nice John. I did get this material from Bear, however, there's some debate as to whether or not it is petrified algae. Whatever it is, it's very nice material and you did a great job on this cab John. Don't stop now, I sent you a bunch of stuff, let's see some more cabs.

Very nice

I have about 2 pounds of this stuff and I wish I knew for sure whether it is algae or not. It does kinda look organic.

man that looks cool

Daniel: Yeah, some of us have had the question of this material's origin come up before. Ed told me Bear Creek does say it's a form of petrified algae. I've also seen several sellers say this material is related to, or the same as, Flor de Chihuahua which is a highly silicified orbicular rhyolite. The slabs I've seen look very much to me to be some form of orbicular rhyolite and even seem to have the same radiating crystal structure as the Chihuahua material and some of the "Bird's Eye" forms of rhyolite. I agree though, it does seem to have a very organic look to it but to me if it were organic, I'd have to say it looks more like some of the pseudomorphs after coral. Guess we have to wait till we hear from someone who is a real fuctioning geologist who can explain how this stuff develops.....mel

Beautiful Sands, what a striking pattern.

Wow, it looks like boiling lava to me. THe more I look at it the more it appears to be moving. Very nice!
Steve

Awesome!!!!!

Tonja

Hmm Interesting thought- Pseudo- after coral- would answer a lot of the doubts