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Post by gingerkid on Apr 29, 2015 18:32:03 GMT -5
Here's a fossil (?) that manofglass kindly sent to me that he and snowmom collected last year that I pulled from the tumbler before I ruined it. It looks like there's a leaf in it? I'm not sure of it's identification, and hope someone will be able to id it. Thanks!!   |
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Post by rockpickerforever on Apr 30, 2015 0:29:19 GMT -5
Looks to me like the coral we find out in the desert here. These are lighter colored ones, but I have found darker ones that look much like yours.    |
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Apr 30, 2015 3:06:52 GMT -5
Sure nuff looks like coral. Coral ID can be tricky. Even one type can take on many variations. Living coral is tricky to do taxonomy. Modern day coral formed since last ice age, so it is not very old. It is like a fast growing weed. Give it steady water level, sun and light and presto. Lots of minerals and metals dissolved in salt water for critters to utilize. Like $10,000,000 worth of gold in a cubic mile of sea water. 300,000,000 cubic miles of sea water.... I think that is $30,000,000,000,000,000. Where is Ft. Knox ? $30 quintillion ! silicified gold coral, the little polyps extracted the gold-just kidding  |
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Post by snowmom on Apr 30, 2015 5:31:16 GMT -5
Those are Thamnopora (Pachypora) supposedly found in areas over the world from Early Silurian period to Late Permian. Most of the corals we find here are from the Devonian Era.
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Fossilman
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Post by Fossilman on Apr 30, 2015 9:29:48 GMT -5
Yuppers that is coral and a beautiful one too!!!! WOW! Never seen one like that before,the details are wicked cool!!!
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Fossilman
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Post by Fossilman on Apr 30, 2015 9:30:47 GMT -5
Jean,didn't you send me some coral that you found? I gotta look in my boxes...LOL
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Post by gingerkid on May 2, 2015 8:59:33 GMT -5
Thank you for your help! snowmom, I think this one was found by you or Walt??? |
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Post by snowmom on May 2, 2015 15:30:37 GMT -5
Walt manofglass went fossil hunting with me last summer, don't know which of us picked it up, the beach here is full of them!
they are my favorite fossils from this area, so feathery looking and the fossil pieces are almost always of more than one branch end. That one polished up great! They can be like the Petoskey stones and sometimes are too soft inside to polish well.
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Post by snowmom on May 2, 2015 15:31:37 GMT -5
fossilman, Mike I'll send you some if you'd like!
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Fossil?
May 3, 2015 13:24:24 GMT -5
Post by gingerkid on May 3, 2015 13:24:24 GMT -5
Thank you, snowmom! um, it's not polished yet. I placed it in 60/90 grit and pulled it out before allowing the other tumbles to carry on for the 2nd week in 60/90. I wondered how to tumble it without ruining it? Thanks for your help! ( jamesp? ) |
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jamesp
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Fossil?
May 3, 2015 19:52:26 GMT -5
Post by jamesp on May 3, 2015 19:52:26 GMT -5
Thank you, snowmom! um, it's not polished yet. I placed it in 60/90 grit and pulled it out before allowing the other tumbles to carry on for the 2nd week in 60/90. I wondered how to tumble it without ruining it? Thanks for your help! ( jamesp? ) It really depends if it is well silicified Jan. May want to leave it in tact, or polish it up on the wheels ? |
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Post by gingerkid on May 3, 2015 20:24:48 GMT -5
Thank you, jamesp, for your advice! I may try touching it up on the muslin buff with some tin oxide instead of placing it back into the tumbler. It has some areas on it that concern me. |
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Fossilman
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Post by Fossilman on May 4, 2015 9:04:43 GMT -5
Sure thing D, thumbs up...
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panamark
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Post by panamark on May 4, 2015 9:56:50 GMT -5
Lots of minerals and metals dissolved in salt water for critters to utilize. Like $10,000,000 worth of gold in a cubic mile of sea water. James, not to be picky, but this value seems a bit high and I was just wondering where you got this number from? The USGS estimates up to 25 lbs of gold per cubic mile of sea water, so this would be about $435,000 |
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jamesp
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Fossil?
May 4, 2015 13:54:04 GMT -5
Post by jamesp on May 4, 2015 13:54:04 GMT -5
Lots of minerals and metals dissolved in salt water for critters to utilize. Like $10,000,000 worth of gold in a cubic mile of sea water. James, not to be picky, but this value seems a bit high and I was just wondering where you got this number from? The USGS estimates up to 25 lbs of gold per cubic mile of sea water, so this would be about $435,000 Just from loose reading Mark. I may be off many decimals LOL. I was certain that it was much more than 25 pounds. " In every cubic mile of sea water there is 25 tons of gold! That’s a total of about 10 billion tons of gold in the oceans; however, there’s no known way to economically recover it." www.goldgold.com/gold-facts.htmlI get all kinds of answers on that one. Bad subject to get an accurate answer for. |
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panamark
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Fossil?
May 4, 2015 18:41:39 GMT -5
Post by panamark on May 4, 2015 18:41:39 GMT -5
James, not to be picky, but this value seems a bit high and I was just wondering where you got this number from? The USGS estimates up to 25 lbs of gold per cubic mile of sea water, so this would be about $435,000 Just from loose reading Mark. I may be off many decimals LOL. I was certain that it was much more than 25 pounds. " In every cubic mile of sea water there is 25 tons of gold! That’s a total of about 10 billion tons of gold in the oceans; however, there’s no known way to economically recover it." www.goldgold.com/gold-facts.htmlI get all kinds of answers on that one. Bad subject to get an accurate answer for. yeah, they are way, way off on the 25 tons of gold per cu mile. I think the 25 lbs is pretty accurate from what I read. |
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on May 5, 2015 4:59:21 GMT -5
panamark-Remarkable amounts of metals are in sea water. And magnesium, most magnesium is extracted from sea water. 8-25 tons of gold seems negligible when comparing to magnesium at 6 million tons per cubic mile of sea water. So the 8-25 tons seemed reasonable when stated. Magnesium is dissolved in sea water at a concentration of about 1,000 parts per million and is the only metal directly extracted from sea water. Every cubic kilometer of seawater contains about 1.3 billion kilograms of magnesium (12 billion pounds per cubic mile). At present, around 60 percent of the magnesium metal and many of the magnesium salts produced in the United States are extracted from sea water electrolytically. In 1997, about 110,000,000 kg of magnesium was produced in the United States. Most of this magnesium was extracted from sea water. In fact, there is enough magnesium dissolved in the Earth’s oceans to supply all of our magnesium needs for the next 1,000 years. The remaining portion of the magnesium metal and salts is extracted from ancient ocean deposits where the salts precipitated during evaporation or formed during the process of ‘diagenesis’ which uses the minerals magnesite (MgCO3) and dolomite. Read more www.innovateus.net/science/can-magnesium-be-extracted-seawater
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on May 5, 2015 5:13:51 GMT -5
panamark-This research kind of surprised me. The magnesium, so much of it. Makes me wonder about the coral I find in Florida. Seems iron is a big factor in adding color to agates. Does magnesium occur heavily in the coral I find and effect it's color ?
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panamark
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Post by panamark on May 5, 2015 7:34:19 GMT -5
panamark-Remarkable amounts of metals are in sea water. And magnesium, most magnesium is extracted from sea water. 8-25 tons of gold seems negligible when comparing to magnesium at 6 million tons per cubic mile of sea water. So the 8-25 tons seemed reasonable when stated. Magnesium is dissolved in sea water at a concentration of about 1,000 parts per million and is the only metal directly extracted from sea water. Every cubic kilometer of seawater contains about 1.3 billion kilograms of magnesium (12 billion pounds per cubic mile). At present, around 60 percent of the magnesium metal and many of the magnesium salts produced in the United States are extracted from sea water electrolytically. In 1997, about 110,000,000 kg of magnesium was produced in the United States. Most of this magnesium was extracted from sea water. In fact, there is enough magnesium dissolved in the Earth’s oceans to supply all of our magnesium needs for the next 1,000 years. The remaining portion of the magnesium metal and salts is extracted from ancient ocean deposits where the salts precipitated during evaporation or formed during the process of ‘diagenesis’ which uses the minerals magnesite (MgCO3) and dolomite. Read more www.innovateus.net/science/can-magnesium-be-extracted-seawater I think that since magnesium is quite soluble and gold is quite insoluble, there is a huge difference in the amount of each that is in sea water. Too bad as I think it would be cool to mine seawater for gold. |
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on May 5, 2015 7:52:51 GMT -5
panamark No doubt magnesium is much more soluble, gold not so. I also read that gold levels are much more variable, such as river outlets into the ocean from a high gold bearing river. The whole subject is mind blowing. I would think iron would be dissolved in sea water. It may be. Would like to see a list of total components. Gold not even listed. 
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