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Post by puppie96 on Jun 16, 2005 0:10:39 GMT -5
This morning I remembered a piece of green rock picked up last summer in Wyoming. I thought it looked like green aventurine, but, who knows. It was a big chunk that was half of what had been a well rounded, weathered rock with a tan rind on the outside and green inside, with brighter green inclusions. So this morning I was trying to bust it up and it was a job -- it didn't want to break at all and when it did, it threw off mainly thin shards, like sharp pieces of glass. Finally it went into some chunks. Then later on this board I found the Utah Rocks threads -- those green rocks are just beautiful. Some folks suggested that it was maybe aventurine, I don't know, but it doesn't look at all like what I've got. So, I thought I'd also try to get some opinions on what mine is. The second shot is some of the green rock I picked up locally and have photoed in other threads. At least one of these, the white with the green on top or mixed in, looks something like the Utah green rocks. Thanks for looking!   |
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SteveHolmes
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since July 2009
Posts: 1,900
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Post by SteveHolmes on Jun 16, 2005 0:31:32 GMT -5
Puppie,
I had a neighbor who lived in Utah and was in Wyoming alot of the time. He kept track of the Mustangs there and was on the back roads much of the time. He found alot of Jade in Wyoming...Maybe yours is Jade. I actually tumbled a couple of pieces for him, and it turned out really nice....almost like a candy-apple green. Good-luck in the Identifying. Now's when I wish I had more Geology Knowledge.
Steve
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Post by gaetzchamp on Jun 16, 2005 1:01:55 GMT -5
Puppie- I wish I could help you, but I really don't have a clue w/ your green stuff. Have you started tumbling it yet? Keep us posted because it looks really promising. I wish you had taken a picture of the outside of the rock. I found and polished some stuff that looks a lot like your green stuff. It was brown, really sharp (not flint or chert material) and had the same "look" as yours. I found it on the Utah/Wyo border. In fact, here is the link...see for yourself if it looks similar: forum.rocktumblinghobby.com/index.cgi?board=Pictures&action=display&thread=1109398865The posted rocks were my second batch. I need to rerun them someday! gaetz |
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Post by puppie96 on Jun 16, 2005 1:30:19 GMT -5
I am annoyed. Apparently I responded once and forgot to hit the post button.
Short version: Gaetz, the stuff is very dense and kind of glassy, no internal fractures at all, and doesn't get any with repeated abuse with the rock hammer. It was HARD to break up, wanted to split off sheets. I found a broken off piece of this rock ... it would have started out as a well rounded, grapefruit sized dull tan/gray rock. A smaller piece I found went through a tumble a long time ago with others from this place and polished great. Forgot to take a picture.
Steve, I don't think it's jade. I went to one of the jade sites in WY and found a few small pieces; they have a very different texture and a more deep or saturated color than these.
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rollingstone
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since July 2009
Posts: 236
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Post by rollingstone on Jun 16, 2005 1:50:27 GMT -5
Pup, I'm guessing here, but I think the green pics in your top photo are probably quartzite. Quartzite is just the metamorphic equivalent of sandstone, where heat and pressure have squeezed and dissolved and recemented some of the silica so that that the whole mass sort of welds together and loses the individual grain structure of sandstone. It can come in the same variety of shades as sandstone. I find a fair bit of it coming down from the Rocky Mountains (well, it's not that common, but I do find it), and it often forms very rounded chunks that have a weathered outer rind, often brown or just dark "stained" on the outside. It can break in a shardlike fashion, although the stuff I find usually breaks up fairly nicely into blocks once you get it broken into workable chunks.
Quartzite can come in all sorts of shades. Often I find them a bit ugly and "muddy" coloured when tumbled, but some come out really nicely, particularly the dark reds and purples. But I also find shades of orange, and I have one small light blue quartzite waiting for a barrel sometime. And of course they can be green too. Green adventurine is just a variety of quartzite that is coloured green by some kind of mica inclusion. I have found some greenish quartzite, but nothing with the colour of adventurine or the stuff in your top pic. In fact, I once tumbled my green quartzite and posted the pics in this forum as "pukestone", so that gives an idea of what I thought of mine. Yours look much nicer, tumble it and see how it turns out. You might be able to chisel off that brown rind, or you might have to just live with it.
Anyway, that's my long-winded explanation of why I think it might well be quartzite.
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Post by Cher on Jun 16, 2005 9:54:39 GMT -5
It sure is a pretty color green, can't wait to see it tumbled.
Cher
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stefan
Cave Dweller 
Member since January 2005
Posts: 14,113
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Post by stefan on Jun 16, 2005 12:42:09 GMT -5
I got some of the same stuff in my driveway gravel! Exactly! I have some to tumble- but it is not due for a couple more runs (probably next winter)
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chassroc
Cave Dweller
Rocks are abundant when you have rocktumblinghobby pals
Member since January 2005
Posts: 3,586
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Post by chassroc on Jun 16, 2005 12:44:01 GMT -5
Puppie,
Nice rocks... I'd think something quartzitee would be correct
csroc
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Post by puppie96 on Jun 17, 2005 0:19:45 GMT -5
Hi, I don't know what happened, somehow my post last night didn't get up. I was trying to respond to the quartzite idea, RS, yeah, that sounds like a good possibility. I read about rocks but it doesn't always translate. I'd leave the rind on since basically they are a pretty color but kind of dull, no internal features except the bright green pinheads.
There were other rocks in the area with interesting patterns.
Thanks!
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