itsandbits
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since March 2012
Posts: 825
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Post by itsandbits on Aug 22, 2012 11:23:57 GMT -5
here is some more of the material I am just calling serpentine as it fits best except for the hardness which is 6-7 speculation, questions, and identification are welcome Lloyd Attachments:
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itsandbits
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since March 2012
Posts: 825
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Post by itsandbits on Aug 22, 2012 11:25:09 GMT -5
and here is some slabs "wet" off them Attachments:
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Post by Pat on Aug 22, 2012 12:38:22 GMT -5
pm sent
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2012 16:48:43 GMT -5
I just rechecked my book and there is no way that is serpentine if the hardness is 6-7. Serpentine is way softer at 3-5. Probably the only way to know for sure is to get the rockologists and chemists involved. You may have a whole new breed of cat. The book also says that serpentine is rarely white. Jim
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carloscinco
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since July 2008
Posts: 1,639
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Post by carloscinco on Aug 22, 2012 18:01:55 GMT -5
Just going by the looks, I'd say green jasper. We have some of a very similar appearance around here.
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itsandbits
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since March 2012
Posts: 825
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Post by itsandbits on Aug 22, 2012 18:34:07 GMT -5
how fine grained is yours Carlos? can you see fibrous matts under high magnification like wool fibres? I'm guessing one of the stages between serpentine and something else, but Jim, there is a serpentine in new york that is 6mohs and omphacite and another of the jadeite clan has the same look except for the fibres so I keep bouncing back to serpentine, almost, maybe is, nephrite.
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Post by jakesrocks on Aug 22, 2012 18:47:47 GMT -5
Nephrite jade will be fibrous under magnification.
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,472
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Post by Sabre52 on Aug 22, 2012 19:28:01 GMT -5
Pretty hard for serpentine and to me has a jasper look to it. If jasper, it might show chonchoidal fracture when chipped whereas jade or jadeite would not. Jade and jadeite do have a rough foliated break and do show a leafy or fibrous nature under the glass. Those dang green rocks can really be a pain to ID sometimes...Mel
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
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Post by Fossilman on Aug 22, 2012 20:13:12 GMT -5
Green rocks are the best! I have green jasper,but nothing like that!
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jason12x12
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since October 2011
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Post by jason12x12 on Aug 22, 2012 21:02:45 GMT -5
i vote nephrite
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itsandbits
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since March 2012
Posts: 825
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Post by itsandbits on Aug 22, 2012 22:17:46 GMT -5
yes, everything points at it; hardness, SG, fibrous look under high magnification, brittle break when you can get it to break, tough, and to my eye anyway; i'm kind of particular to it because I have it in hand, A quite distinctive stone. I'll get a photo host one day so I can put some better quality photos on because you cannot see the quality of the stone in my photos.
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Post by Woodyrock on Aug 23, 2012 1:17:42 GMT -5
If this was a local find for you, it is likely Actinolite, Tremolite, Nephrite, OR, a combination of these in any proportion depending on how much iron is present. Woody
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 23, 2012 7:29:44 GMT -5
Woody comes along and throws more names into the mix but he is correct. But actinolite is green or black, tremolite is white to dark gray, yellowish, pink to lilac. The colors do not cross over so if you have green and white you have two choices. It is either actinolite AND tremolite or nephrite which is made up of an actinolite, tremolite mix. Since your rocks have both white and green it has to be nephrite unless of course it is something else all together. Boy that sure helped huh.lol A break test will eliminate a lot of things (see Mel's post) and an SG test will narrow it way down.
As luck would have it I can not help you there until I get a new scale. I loaned mine to my ex daughter in law (probably for her f-in drugs, notice ex) and it is weighing low compared to what it was weighing before even after calibrating it. S--- s--- s--- that was my prized possession because I used it on all my sg tests. I think I will give it to her so she gets shorted on her durgs.
Ok, I am over it now and hope you hit the pot of dimes. Wish it were gold but dimes are getter than nothing right. Jim
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itsandbits
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since March 2012
Posts: 825
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Post by itsandbits on Aug 23, 2012 9:13:02 GMT -5
Thanks for all the suggestions and help, I've looked at pictures and read data for 2 months now but cannot just pin it down. It is a borderline material between serpentine and nephrite which is in that sliding scale as Mel says depending upon how much iron is present. There is some iron no doubt, iron pyrite crystal are included up to 3mm so far, So for identification we have; -the fracture is not concoidal but rough and splintery -SG is 2.9 -hardness is 6-7 -colours in each stone, apple green to yellow and mixed plus black mixed and healed fractures are pure jet black. -very tough stone -non magnetic even to a n42 neodymium magnet -fibrous looking "fuzzy threads" under high magnification -where even the quartzes and other more hard but brittle materials got turned to pea gravel by the glaciers, this is found in large boulders The colours in this Wyoming peice are the closest I've ever seen except for individual stones in this collection that have one of the colours each of all the colours my samples show in one. dirtyrockhounds.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=7487
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Post by tandl on Aug 23, 2012 18:11:44 GMT -5
I think the metamorphic rock ( greenstone) a fine grained mix of epidote , chlorite, quartz,actinolite and others
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