Don
Cave Dweller
He wants you too, Malachi.
Member since December 2009
Posts: 2,616
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Post by Don on May 31, 2012 22:41:45 GMT -5
Back in '10 I dug a couple monster thundereggs out of the dugway thunderegg beds in northern Utah. I've finally been able to get the largest of these cut and flat lapped. Here it is. The entire interior of the second half is covered in sugary Drusy.
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Post by roy on May 31, 2012 23:03:40 GMT -5
that a keeper for sure
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Post by helens on May 31, 2012 23:17:02 GMT -5
Beautiful!! AND ... I think you might just have ID'd my estate sale giant geode that Jim cut for me! Yours is an awesome piece!! Mine's got no pink druzy, but that purple border is almost dead on, and the rock itself!! Did the outside look like this?:
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Don
Cave Dweller
He wants you too, Malachi.
Member since December 2009
Posts: 2,616
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Post by Don on May 31, 2012 23:28:50 GMT -5
A dry pic would make it easier to identify, but it does look like a dugway with the brown matrix and blue gray agate veins. the thundereggs form in a white, sometimes yellow clay that clings to the outside.
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Don
Cave Dweller
He wants you too, Malachi.
Member since December 2009
Posts: 2,616
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Post by Don on Jun 1, 2012 0:20:53 GMT -5
Helen, here's a pic of the outside:
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Post by helens on Jun 1, 2012 0:59:13 GMT -5
Oh... hrm... doesn't quite look like that... Here's the inside... what do you think??
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Don
Cave Dweller
He wants you too, Malachi.
Member since December 2009
Posts: 2,616
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Post by Don on Jun 1, 2012 2:32:50 GMT -5
Hmm...no, I don't think it's a dugway. I've never seen one with a large quartz vug and purple-blue agate. the dugways are all blue-grey agate. although the matrix does look similar.
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Post by helens on Jun 1, 2012 4:04:10 GMT -5
No... mine's VERY purple and almost magenta in spots... but the top part of yours is almost the same shade as the purple in mine. The photo I posted is dead on colorwise... it's also bizarre looking because it's got 2 big quartz holes and then a smaller one here and there. Here's a closeup of the end cut (Jim said he's NEVER seen a rock like this before in his life - the colors are really strange): Also, the above end cut is NOT open, that weird light glow is from a solid back of rock. The rock itself came from an estate sale from the widow of a man who died a long time ago, and just never cleared out his stuff. The rock couldn't have been collected before the 1970s in this case, because everything he had was from the 1960s and 1970s (this was not the guy I got the fossils from). Jim made this for me from one of the eyes: The mirror backing goes across the entire back of the piece that glow is not from light coming through. The glow is noticeable in any light condition, including very dim light. I'm almost wondering if it's phosphorescence, because the other side of it is just as transparent, but doesn't glow.
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Don
Cave Dweller
He wants you too, Malachi.
Member since December 2009
Posts: 2,616
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Post by Don on Jun 1, 2012 10:16:32 GMT -5
See if it fluoresces green under shortwave UV light. Those last two pics do look like dugways. we occasionally get purple drusy in these, so purple agate is a possibility, I've just never seen it so vibrant as it shows in your first pic, but the second and third pic...yes. The matrix is a dead ringer for dugway.
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Post by yurila on Jun 1, 2012 10:31:16 GMT -5
Don, this is the One Great Thunderegg. Yuri
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Post by helens on Jun 1, 2012 13:58:24 GMT -5
The pinkish part of the sugar druzy in your thunderegg is the neatest Don. I just looked up Utah Dugway, and that color is not common in any of the samples at all!
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rockingthenorth
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since January 2012
Posts: 1,637
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Post by rockingthenorth on Jun 1, 2012 16:05:53 GMT -5
Nice..Nice... Nice
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Don
Cave Dweller
He wants you too, Malachi.
Member since December 2009
Posts: 2,616
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Post by Don on Jun 1, 2012 16:17:42 GMT -5
The pinkish part of the sugar druzy in your thunderegg is the neatest Don. I just looked up Utah Dugway, and that color is not common in any of the samples at all! Yeah helen, this is the first one I've ever seen with peach-pink drusy in it. I have black, purple, blue and grey in other eggs, but this one is unique.
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unclestu
Cave Dweller
WINNER OF THE FIRST RTH KILLER CAB CONTEST UNCLESTU'S AGUA NUEVA AGATE
Member since April 2011
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Post by unclestu on Jun 1, 2012 18:23:33 GMT -5
That one really is peachy keen Stu
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