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Post by snowmom on Apr 30, 2015 5:08:08 GMT -5
Went to explore a section of beach that I had not been on before early this week. I'll be going back. Here it is, a quiet cove on Lake Huron's SW shore. Much of the year this area is covered with an inch of slimy water, filled with rough grasses and small scrub- and mosquitoes. The Lake is not quite as high as it will be by June and the grass has not grown, skeeters are not mature enough to bite yet but by the end of the week they will be. They were swarming me yesterday. The best hunting here seems to be very early spring when frosts are still frequent. That keeps the algae from forming on the newly ice-cleaned rocks. So- off I go for a week or so yet before the very best rock picking is finished for the season. I went here.
the shore is filled with glacial erratics. I walked for about a mile, crossing one area which was pretty wet, and which probably thwarts all but the hardiest of rock hunters from going farther on later in the season. I knew I was on to something good when I started noticing huge rocks of Onaping Impact Breccia
this one was about 24 inches high, 24 inches wide and about 36 inches long. That's a pint capacity plastic cup I used for wetting the rocks sitting next to it for scale. There were boulders of onaping that were bigger. I stood on a couple near the shore. There were lots of serpentine, basalt with epidote vesicles and this one which was pretty dramatic.
I saw a lot of Rocks which had shiny metal nuggets in them, including this interesting granite.
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Post by snowmom on Apr 30, 2015 5:16:14 GMT -5
I broke my heart over this piece of Onaping, It had metal all through one end and it was too big to lift. You can see where it has been broken, possibly by somebody smashing it with a rock so they could take a piece of it... and it is badly worn, which is what allowed all that shiny nickel ore to show through. I brought home only 6 rocks, several Onapings, including one which may be very similar to the WTF breccia find last year, it seems to have a white matrix instead of black, It is hard to tell under the staining from the water just what it will look like. [/URL
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Post by snowmom on Apr 30, 2015 5:21:56 GMT -5
I also found a nice hawk/eye tiger eye and this gorgeous unakite serpentinite beast. This is the most fascinating stretch of beach I've found yet. The waves here are rarely quiet but I think wading in the shallow bay will be most rewarding if I can get out there before white calcium slime and algae cover things soon. There is at least as much rock out there under about 2 ft of water as there is on the shore. The little cove is pretty shallow and rocky for quite a distance from shore. Oh, and did I mention I found pudding stone matrix everywhere and even brought home a couple of those? yep, this is about to become my favorite stretch of beach.
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,676
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Post by Fossilman on Apr 30, 2015 9:38:25 GMT -5
SCORED some great rock D!!!!!!!!!!!! Nothing like getting out into nature to do what you love doing!!!
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Post by drocknut on Apr 30, 2015 17:35:15 GMT -5
Great rocks. Glad the skeeters couldn't bite yet.
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Post by stephan on Apr 30, 2015 20:27:45 GMT -5
Nice finds. I like the tiger-striped one. And the last one looks promising, also.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
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Post by jamesp on May 1, 2015 7:25:18 GMT -5
Onaping monsters. That stuff is heavy in small quantities. Photos really great to see the majesty. Gives an idea of the forces of glaciers. Largest rock tumbling operation imaginable snowmom. You have a real mix of complicated geology there.
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Post by gingerkid on May 2, 2015 8:44:57 GMT -5
Enjoyed your trip pics and scores, snowmom!
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on May 2, 2015 19:13:52 GMT -5
Granite, mylonized perhaps, serpentine scratches with a knife. Check it.
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Post by snowmom on May 3, 2015 3:56:57 GMT -5
Thank you Master shotgunner, you are right. I was misled by the green color (doesn't show as much under incandescent light in this photo and the translucency/schiller of the finer lines at the top of the rock near my hand in the photo.( would be the quartz or feldspar from the base granite) Steel doesn't scratch it but glass does, easily. I run across mildly mylonized granite off and on and can recognize it, but stuff like this doesn't show up here very often. I appreciate the input.
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,676
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Post by Fossilman on May 5, 2015 18:07:29 GMT -5
Cut those rocks open!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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