rock hunting

my lady and i went on a foray today, after stone and mushrooms.

it turned out to be a short outing, but i got a few nice pictures:

http://i602.photobucket.com/albums/t...e/IMG_0060.jpg

http://i602.photobucket.com/albums/t...e/IMG_0062.jpg

http://i602.photobucket.com/albums/t...e/IMG_0076.jpg

http://i602.photobucket.com/albums/t...e/IMG_0075.jpg

http://i602.photobucket.com/albums/t...e/IMG_0074.jpg

http://i602.photobucket.com/albums/t...e/IMG_0069.jpg

http://i602.photobucket.com/albums/t...e/IMG_0072.jpg

Awsome! Lots of beautiful knapping material and supplies in those pictures. Does the area you were in get freezing temperatures?

sometimes, in winter. it just got down to about 26-27 a few nights ago.

none of the jasper was in good shape for knapping [nor all in a location i would remove stone from], but i have a feeling there is good rock higher up in the valley wall. it seems to be where it came from.

the large yellow jasper cobbles with the red inclusions have eroded from a wall about 150 years old.

i hoped at least to find something interesting to add to my presentation assortment:

http://i602.photobucket.com/albums/t...e/IMG_0080.jpg

various types, grades and varieties of western knappable stone, mostly from oregon.

10000 cool points if you can guess what the specimen at lower left is.

Hunting rocks can be fun! :) Once you have 'em skinned and gutted and all cut up, here's a recipe you can try!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_soup

The Story of Stone Soup

Once upon a time, somewhere in post-war Eastern Europe, there was a great famine in which people jealously hoarded whatever food they could find, hiding it even from their friends and neighbors. One day a wandering soldier came into a village and began asking questions as if he planned to stay for the night.

"There's not a bite to eat in the whole province," he was told. "Better keep moving on."

"Oh, I have everything I need," he said. "In fact, I was thinking of making some stone soup to share with all of you." He pulled an iron cauldron from his wagon, filled it with water, and built a fire under it. Then, with great ceremony, he drew an ordinary-looking stone from a velvet bag and dropped it into the water.

By now, hearing the rumor of food, most of the villagers had come to the square or watched from their windows. As the soldier sniffed the "broth" and licked his lips in anticipation, hunger began to overcome their skepticism.

"Ahh," the soldier said to himself rather loudly, "I do like a tasty stone soup. Of course, stone soup with cabbage -- that's hard to beat."

Soon a villager approached hesitantly, holding a cabbage he'd retrieved from its hiding place, and added it to the pot. "Capital!" cried the soldier. "You know, I once had stone soup with cabbage and a bit of salt beef as well, and it was fit for a king."

The village butcher managed to find some salt beef . . . and so it went, through potatoes, onions, carrots, mushrooms, and so on, until there was indeed a delicious meal for all. The villagers offered the soldier a great deal of money for the magic stone, but he refused to sell and traveled on the next day.

The moral is that by working together, with everyone contributing what they can, a greater good is achieved.

Travertine? Do I get 5000 cool points for being in the right composition? It looks like a Calcite to me.

good story.

incidentally, the specimen in the lower left of my display box would not be out of place in a soup.

Nice pics, and rocks aren't hard to sneak up on. Most can be taken without violence.

Olivine Nephelinite?

canid, some of those rocks look knappable to me. were the freeze fractures too much? After workin with the poor quality cherts native to my area, I'd try just about anything with that nice of a texture. I know you said they were in a place you'd rather not harvest, but that one cobble looked promising.. like greenstone.. I dunno much about rocks, though. I just bang 'em together and if they flake right, I'll work them.

it isn't just freeze/thaw cycle that fractures this jasper like that. such fracturing only happens when it is not homogeneous to begin with [the water has to seep into existing fractures in order to cause any breaking to begin with]. it's fractured regularly, with inclusions streaked through it in intersecting ribbons.

this stuff seems to come from deposits in the walls of the valley, and it's a rough and tumble ride of rockfall, slides, etc to get down to the river. in addition to this, they are likely erratics from large beds further up in the hills, since there isn't too much of it around.

if there are many deposits of it beneath the soil nearby, they will not be bothered by freezing, and may be larger. those are probably what i will try to find. i'd like to find out where they originating beds are. i've never heard of any significant jasper formations in the area.

the stuff i'd rather not harvest comes from a historic site, where i wouldn't remove any material at all. there is similar geology in nearby areas though, and that is where i would search for any stone to take home.

Cool pic's, Thanks for posting
I have to admit that I am kinda of amateur "rock-picker-upper".

Never thought about the plastic box, Thanks, mine are in a drawer.

I don't know the names of most rocks, but like a little kid, I guess, I am attracted to something "Cool", when out and about in my travels.

i don't know the names of most rocks, compositions, classifications, nor even have the ability to identify many other than gold and some of the most common rocks, knappable or otherwise.

heck, i've even done a fair bit of knapping with several types of stone i couldn't identify. what matters most to me on that front is how predictably they break, and how fine the grain is.

since several people have taken a guess, i suppose i should disclose that the specimen in the lower left of the box is, as near as i can tell, fossilized bone.

i like to hunt around in the shale beds around here and find stuff like this:

Beautiful rock Barefoot. That's awesome.

The Black Rock, middle row, far right, looks a lot like the type of Flint I have in my pasture. I wouldn't have guessed petrified bone. However I have to agree with YCC, That does look a Lot like the pics of Greenstone I have seen.

yes, it's a nifty flint. it's got nice marbling of a couple distinct blues and a smokey gray.

like most of the others, it was from a field near Medford Oregon [housing subdivision]. i found several artifacts as well. nothing fancy, just flakes. most of them where clearly waste flakes.

as for the greenstone, i know where it is. along with another stone i found, my first thought was a drooling daydream of polished slabs.

you may say i'm a dreamer...

I have found one anomalous hunk of greenstone buried in a ditch on a dirt road.. why was this one boulder out of place, surrounded by poor chert and crumbly limestone?
I dunno, but it gave me the same slobbery dream :D

I have a lot left to learn about rocks

if greenstone is not found in your area it may be a glacial erratic.

erratics can also be transported by water. we even have small erratics around here due to hydraulic mining.

I do know that I'm below the "fall line". apparently the glaciers receded to some certain "point" then stopped for a long time, eroding the earth to the south and uncovering stones that would be flint, but were uncovered before they were silicated, thus the poor quality of cherts and limestones. As much walking as I've done looking for source rocks, I've only seen this one "erratic" so it must be contributed to something like that.

Thanks canid. I just learned something!

on a side note, most of the artifacts found here are made of chert, not flint, because that's what the natives had for source. The Flint River, just over the creek here, actually contains no true flint.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by canid

yes, it's a nifty flint. it's got nice marbling of a couple distinct blues and a smokey gray.

like most of the others, it was from a field near Medford Oregon [housing subdivision]. i found several artifacts as well. nothing fancy, just flakes. most of them where clearly waste flakes.

---

Canid I have heard/read, (don't recall exactly) that in areas such as these look for mounds,as that is where you can find some artifacts. I too have many waste flakes in my pasture and have found a couple of artifacts. One is an arrowhead and a small Hand Axe.

http://i598.photobucket.com/albums/t...s/100_1310.jpg

http://i598.photobucket.com/albums/t...s/100_0738.jpg

my best advice is to look for the mounds of burrowing animals, like badgers, gophers, etc.

they will dig up small material from several feet down and fling it into piles near the burrow entrances. these will sit in the weather, and rain will wash the smaller particles out, often leaving the larger pieces near the top. a few of the agates i've found up there where sitting, rain rinsed, right up on top of the piles. failing that, take a small sieve to sift through it with.

I love the feeling when I find a spot with many flakes within several feet of one another; the thought that somebody had sat there, generations, centuries, millennia ago with a hammer stone, some antler and stone, working at the art that never ceases to fascinate me, but as a trade and daily skill that was still relevant day to day life of almost every person alive.

talk about a connection to out past.

btw: those are nice. dacite?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by canid

btw: those are nice. dacite?

---

If you are referring to the Hand Axe and arrowhead I posted Pics of, I really have no clue as to Composition. I think it is Flint as it will produce some nice sparks. If Dacite is a type of Flint, then I guess you could be correct. I just really don't have a clue.

dacite is essentially a grained obsidian [slower cooling, more formation of crystals].

flint is not the only stone that will produce sparks. any stone harder than the steel is capable.

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