jf23
having dreams about rocks
Member since November 2014
Posts: 73
|
Post by jf23 on Nov 6, 2014 17:29:02 GMT -5
|
|
Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
|
Post by Sabre52 on Nov 6, 2014 18:16:02 GMT -5
I believe Coldwater Agates are specifically from Iowa not Illinois. However, both are similar sedimentary banded agates in chert like matrix. The Warsaw Formation in Illinois has quite a few of those banded agates Both the Iowa "Coldwater" examples and the Illinois material are usually fairly plain banded agates with no a lot of color. I would say Coldwaters are fairly uncommon based on the fact that I go to a lot of shows and don't see many. I have seen quite a few of the Warsaw formation nodules, mostly kind of ehh. I imagine both could be common for local collectors that have access to collecting areas but maybe, since they are not incredibly showy, they just don't find there way into a lot of shows. Maybe one of our midwest members can shed more light on the issue. Your example could be either of those types ...Mel
|
|
tkvancil
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2011
Posts: 1,547
|
Post by tkvancil on Nov 7, 2014 10:24:35 GMT -5
Can't help with ID. If you can say ... whereabouts in Illinois did you find this?
|
|
jf23
having dreams about rocks
Member since November 2014
Posts: 73
|
Post by jf23 on Nov 7, 2014 11:08:08 GMT -5
I'm not the one who found it, but it may have been found somewhere around Pittsfield. Ill try to see if that is right or not later today.
(Editing instead of 2 posts in a row) - Ya, somewhere around Pittsfield, but not sure of the exact place.
|
|
jf23
having dreams about rocks
Member since November 2014
Posts: 73
|
Post by jf23 on Nov 8, 2014 17:49:38 GMT -5
|
|
jf23
having dreams about rocks
Member since November 2014
Posts: 73
|
Post by jf23 on Dec 6, 2014 14:54:24 GMT -5
I now have the exact area that large agate in the first few pictures was found in, a creek near Griggsville, Illinois. The first agate with the orange band in the next post with pictures was found in the same area. The third one down in the post with red was found in a gravel pit and I will get that location soon. I will post another picture of a grey/white/orange cold water agate type I found in the gravel pit too. EDIT: More info on the big agate is it was found in Mcgee creek, and then here is this picture before I give more info, drive.google.com/open?id=0B0gO2dw2ik27ZEJjTjZhQms3M1U&authuser=0This is the one I found in the sand pit(along with the rock with the red quartz) and is about 15-16 miles SSE of where the larger agate was found. The one thing they seem to have in common is they are by the Illinois river. (going to edit my 2nd post now to clean up some)
|
|
jf23
having dreams about rocks
Member since November 2014
Posts: 73
|
Post by jf23 on Dec 12, 2014 21:41:56 GMT -5
I've been looking at the big agate a lot over the past few days and i have found one more thing that i'm not too sure about. On every surface on the main banding part of the rock, there is a thin layer of clear-ish colorless quartz then there is the black part. Going off of what I can see with an led light on the rock at the 3 opaque or near opaque black spots at the top of the rock in the 1st picture, it looks close to plume agate. Then going over to the other side of the rock it is clearer as some small black spheres that only go up to 2mm across in the quartz. Only the outside of the spheres seem to be black, I think the inside of them are clear. Does anyone know what that may be, or just another type of quartz or agate?
|
|
tkvancil
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2011
Posts: 1,547
|
Post by tkvancil on Dec 13, 2014 13:57:44 GMT -5
Glad you posted some more. Had forgotten about asking for the locale. I'm an Illinois rocker and have found precious few agates here. Thanks for saying where they are from and you got some nice pieces there.
|
|
Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,711
|
Post by Fossilman on Dec 13, 2014 18:15:02 GMT -5
Cut them,it will really show....Thumbs up
|
|
jf23
having dreams about rocks
Member since November 2014
Posts: 73
|
Post by jf23 on Dec 13, 2014 20:35:02 GMT -5
Thats the tricky part about the big agate, its cool with all of the different bandings around the agate and one big banding that can be followed all the way around the rock, then not knowing how it would look cut. Anyways the only thing that I would know that would be able to cut it is my dad's tile saw and the shortest length on the rock is 6" so I don't even think it would fit lol Also, while cleaning some of the other rocks off more, I found more of those bubble things, so they have a black outside, white inside. drive.google.com/open?id=0B0gO2dw2ik27TDRMQUFFUkZNTTg&authuser=0
|
|
jf23
having dreams about rocks
Member since November 2014
Posts: 73
|
Post by jf23 on Dec 22, 2014 16:56:32 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by tandl on Dec 29, 2014 20:19:12 GMT -5
Coldwater agates are named after the coldwater quarry in Iowa . So if found near griggsville Illinois , then it should not be called coldwater . there are no named agates from illinois -Yet . I have found a few but have not named any ,just call them Illinois agate - because they are so few and varied loose glacial finds, no formation with enough of the same type to put a name to them .The spheres you speak of are likely mamilary chalcedony . That is a big agate for Illinois , and looks like a nice one ..
|
|
jf23
having dreams about rocks
Member since November 2014
Posts: 73
|
Post by jf23 on Dec 29, 2014 21:58:30 GMT -5
Scratching everything from before to try to be less confusing - Edit: On the big agate, it looks like there is druzy quarts with stuff on it that looks kind of like this i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTIwMFgxNjAw/z/raMAAOxyuDpSDZkk/$T2eC16N,!zUE9s389zcKBSDZkkIj9g~~60_35.JPG, then the agate formed on top of that. I'm pretty sure I found a lace agate on ebay that has the same black spots like in the agate I have. I did some searching for mammillary chalcedony at first and didn't come up with much on google, but that made me think to look up black chalcedony. So it would possibly be druzy quartz with empty cavities from fossils then filled with tiny chalcedony spheres... I will try to take pictures tomorrow when there is sun light, thanks for the lead on that. I looked this one up too and it looks very close to the big agate,(2nd picture down) www.rockhoundlounge.com/cgi-bin/yabb252/YaBB.pl?num=1388692212. There are a lot of geodes around where these were found too, the agates were a cool bonus. And I guess the next step is to match the type of chert the one agate and other red quartz is in to possible correct areas
|
|
jf23
having dreams about rocks
Member since November 2014
Posts: 73
|
Post by jf23 on Dec 30, 2014 14:36:19 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by gingerkid on Dec 30, 2014 17:56:12 GMT -5
Nice pics, jf23. I really like your photo of the druzy quartz in the vug. Is it smoky quartz? I'm not sure what you are asking about when you ask about spheres on the agate? eh? Are you asking what the dark areas are on the outside of the agate? If you use a popup blocker with Firefox browser, please check out tinypic.com where there's a free uploader so you may post your photos in your posts. If you don't use a popup blocker, the popups will drive you crazy.
|
|
jf23
having dreams about rocks
Member since November 2014
Posts: 73
|
Post by jf23 on Dec 30, 2014 18:16:53 GMT -5
I'm not sure what you are asking about when you ask about spheres on the agate? eh? Are you asking what the dark areas are on the outside of the agate? Yes, its mainly that, but there are a few areas that shows it as balls or spheres all clumped together and in at least 3 different colors so far, blackish, grey, and white. I don't think any light is passing through the black and grey ones. Then on the posting pictures, I just put links because it would take forever to load them all at once Edits: And there is no smoky quartz from what I can see so far, it is just that black stuff under the quartz Ohh, I should add this too, on that post the top 11 pictures are of the same agate
|
|
jf23
having dreams about rocks
Member since November 2014
Posts: 73
|
Post by jf23 on Jan 5, 2015 20:25:59 GMT -5
I think I've figured out a big chunk of the big agate base. Looking around ebay and I found these pictures, www.ebay.com/itm/Chalcedony-Haouz-Region-Morocco-6-0-cm-Free-Shipping-/121478941690?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c48b58bfa. Those are different colors, but the picture is clear enough to make the matches. On the top of the agate there are pitch black spheres with white cores then a thin glaze that makes it hard to see the real color through it. Then going around the agate, the colors of the spheres change to kind of a dark brown then to some greenish-grey and they maybe some white ones on the bottom. And then there may be agates between that layer and the druzy.
|
|
jf23
having dreams about rocks
Member since November 2014
Posts: 73
|
Post by jf23 on Jan 6, 2015 18:56:51 GMT -5
After emailing someone trying to figure out more about the agates, he pointed out Griggsville is on an ancient river valley of the Illinois river that went through the warsaw area. From reading where keokuk geodes/agates can be found too, i'm guessing some of those were brought down by the river too. If you go back and look at that small orange agate in chert then look at this, www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/cold-water-agate-over-quartz-crystal-keokuk-geode, I don't think it can get any closer than that lol. The large agate is most likely a keokuk geode/agate too and the orange bands and black chalcedony would be explained there(edit: and forgot, the snow stuff would be Kaolinite), but I still have no idea how that formed. The small white one, would be warsaw or keokuk
|
|
|
Post by snowmom on Jan 7, 2015 6:11:16 GMT -5
and quite easily a glacial transport. People have theories about how agates are formed but nobody knows for sure. Here's a good read that helped me figure out what I was finding as glacial transports on the shores of Lake Huron. Really, it doesn't just apply to Lake Superior. Since the glaciers that passed through here ended up in Illinois, you may find some of this applies to agates you will find in IL. rockhoundstation1.com/pdfs-etc/June2009.pdf
|
|
jf23
having dreams about rocks
Member since November 2014
Posts: 73
|
Post by jf23 on Jan 15, 2015 18:45:01 GMT -5
|
|