ziggy
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 483
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Post by ziggy on Oct 9, 2016 21:42:08 GMT -5
Found on the beach south of Muskegon Michigan. This piece of lightning fused sand was sticking out where the wind had eroded other sand surrounding it away. It was larger but broke into several smaller and this one larger piece. There was other parts of it laying there in the sand but nothing I could reconstruct. This part was actually hollow until half of it fell off when first picked up (I hadn't yet realized what I had) and it lost about an inch chunk on one end that broke into several smaller pieces. This piece to me is one of the rarest things I have ever found and will likely be the most delicate specimen in my collection. I wouldn't doubt if there was more deeper down that I broke this piece off of.
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,687
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Post by Fossilman on Oct 9, 2016 21:52:55 GMT -5
Very nice looking material!!!!!!!!!!
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ziggy
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 483
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Post by ziggy on Oct 9, 2016 21:54:56 GMT -5
Very nice looking material!!!!!!!!!! Well, it ain't gonna win no beauty contests or anything I guess but it is different.
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Post by Pat on Oct 9, 2016 22:55:27 GMT -5
I would love to fine a fulgerite! Mine is black.
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ziggy
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 483
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Post by ziggy on Oct 9, 2016 23:20:03 GMT -5
I would love to fine a fulgerite! Mine is black. I found this in reference to their color in Wiki: The color of fulgurites varies widely, depending on composition and chemical impurities. It can range from black or tan, to green, blue, metallic blue-grey, or a translucent white. More colorful variants are usually synthetic and reflect incorporation of synthetic materials. The following excerpt from Wiki describes my specimen to a tee: The interior of Type I (sand) fulgurites normally is very smooth or lined with fine bubbles, while other types are often both vesicular and dense or porous and scoria-like; their exteriors generally can be coated with rough sedimentary particles and can be porous, smooth, or structurally complex. As well as this: Fulgurites formed in sand or loose soil are mechanically fragile, making the field collection of large specimens difficult. Which explains my difficulty in retrieving a really nice piece instead of what I ended up with from it. That plus the winds and blowing beach sand that exposed it the day before (45 MPH steady with higher gusts) also most likely eroded much of it away before I ever saw it there. What is left of it is pretty well fused though and even has a pinkish or purple-ish hue under daylight fluorescent bulbs. The part where the one inch section that broke off is smooth like ceramic on both sides of the break where the broken parts came from (the smooth spots circled in red in the picture below.) To be honest, after I picked it up and broke it then realized what I did and what it was, I got mad and threw it back. I walked away a few feet then my brain said "Stop. Go back and at least get what you can of it. You might never see another one."
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Post by vegasjames on Oct 9, 2016 23:42:46 GMT -5
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2016 23:42:52 GMT -5
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ziggy
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 483
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Post by ziggy on Oct 9, 2016 23:52:59 GMT -5
This is my fulgurite. The lightening hit some jasper. 143 by James Sloane, on Flickr Wow, that is fantastic! Talk about a photo bomb in my thread. You are the master
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Post by vegasjames on Oct 10, 2016 2:46:48 GMT -5
Pat mentioned hers was black so I thought I would show an example of a different color to show the variety they come in. I have even seen iron ones from hitting iron rich termite mounds in Australia. I can move the pic if you would like.
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ziggy
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 483
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Post by ziggy on Oct 10, 2016 8:50:20 GMT -5
Pat mentioned hers was black so I thought I would show an example of a different color to show the variety they come in. I have even seen iron ones from hitting iron rich termite mounds in Australia. I can move the pic if you would like. No. Don't remove it. Maybe someone else has some more examples of other kinds. I'm thrilled you read my post and contributed to the thread so spectacularly
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