Two corals

Nice.

Official 'Tough' trip report camera.

They almost always stop filling to the center in a given 'section'. Usually it is the center that is pithy, and the shell is real hard.
It appears they seal them selves off. But that is deceptive.
You can find one 2 feet around and sledge it to pieces. It will have solidly silicified sections in it, maybe many.
The coral in this thread has 3 large 'sections' and one small section at lower right. So 4 'independent' corals.
The upper right section pseudomorphed(went botryoidal)over 50%. The left section has a small pseudomorph.
But to me, a pith center is a pseudomorph too.
most of the pieces you find are these silicified sections. Of a much larger coral. The rest eroded away.
some shoals are loaded with 1 to 3 inch silicifications. Some have large sections.
One section of the Withlacoochee is covered up on the bottom of the river with 200 to 800 pounders. Not many know it, just the few divers I suppose.
It is difficult to do detective work and figure what broke it down - pulp from hard sections. Could be freezing.
there is much more coral around high spots. I guess it formed on the high spots. Then the river cut into the hill and it rolled into the river.
all that coral is probably close to where it formed back in the day. Doubt tectonic and quake activity has occurred since it was formed.
And the river is too flat to carry it far at all. So it does not seem to be like the rio where it was pushed down from 100's of miles away.
It has shallow water clam fossils mixed with it. the coral expert said that type of coral forms in 0 to 20 feet of water. so it can be found within a given narrow elevation.
That part fascinates me because you can walk a creek, river, deep erosion ditch at that elevation for several hundred miles territory and often find coral.
or deep excavations will bring it up.

you could collect 1000 feet of that river for a lifetime and not collect all the pseudomorphs.
So much of it and it is so camouflaged by moss. Plus you about have to saw them to keep them in tact.
I found more than half of mine in an 8' X 6' pocket. Like two 55 gallon drums worth. To heck with the 100+ miles of river I've explored. Mother load.
I would imagine there are similar pockets with many tons of it. Probably a decent retirement's value.

All very nice but that first one is special. Great piece! Keep 'em coming!

Craig

Thanks Craig.

Talking to the lease manager was a funny conversation.
He was not sure about this Atlanta city slicker wanting to collect rocks and not hunt.
He was probably going to be held responsible by the other members for not allowing their brothers and cousins waiting in line to join.
You are correct, they could lease that property totally during off hunt season to rock hunters. Double income.
The guy was totally not interested. My opinion, he was closed minded. His opinion, I was an alien lol.

Almost every coral bearing shoal had a road to it. 5 minutes in truck equal to 3 hour boat ride.

The other side of the river is River Bend Plantation. River Bend may own both sides including hunt club on other side of river. Not sure.
Me was just talking to a lease manager.

Really digging that piece up top. A lot going on in there.

"lady appeal"? You crack me up. Not a bad idea though, certainly less intimidating than us big uglies.

Here in Tennessee I can use the public surveyor maps to find land owners. Have sent many a letter asking permission to access land to look for agate. Usually send a family picture along too, just to show that I am just an average gal with kids who like to collect rocks and not some corporation wanting to rape and pillage. No luck yet. Maybe I should be knocking on doors. Harder to say no in person. Let's see if we can find out who owns some of the land and go from there.

When I wanted land to hunt on. I tried letters (family pic nice idea) to no avail. So I tried canvassing. That is, knocking on doors. I mapped the area I wanted to hunt, drew a plan for how to travel the area efficiently and started knock knock knocking. I wore camo hat but street attire, introduced myself as a local hunter who had all his safety cards and training in place. A copy of the regulations too. I also had in hand and an access form waiting for signing.

I explained my desires promised to keep all gates as they were, respect their land as it was my own and only hunt what we agreed upon, and only in season. If kids were there, i promised to train them basic hunting safety stuff and to take them along as well.

That last paragraph was quite successful. Payback was duck sausages for all my land owners. Although one guy preferred a case of bud light instead.... Lol

Many parallels here. i would do exactly the same. Although jamesp gives finished goods up front. And even to hot waitress's in local diners. Ha!