Cooked some coral

[jamesp]

Collected material last week that was based on a lot of heat treating this year.













Thanks for looking

[Fossilman]

James,awesome coral-that white really stands out doesn't it...Thumbs up

[quartz]

We could look at that stuff all day, thanks for showing. Got to be about the most intense yellow/oranges I've ever seen.

[jamesp]

Larry, I thought the intense yellow / orange is from our crazy iron compounds but i segregated coral that was in a seeps from the massive forested flood plain. This water is high in organic stain from tannic acid and rotting organic material. It seeps down the river bank staining everything it touches. Probably for thousands of years. Those deeply stained corals are the ones giving the intensity. The river is low now for the first time in 10 months and 1-15 gallon per minute seeps are pouring out of the steep sand banks at the clay/sand interface by the hundreds. The slow seeps are very saturated w/stain and the fast ones are crystal clear. The slow ones are the ones seem to stain the deepest colors. A weird dynamic.
The flood plains are huge and when the river recedes it leaves miles of low oxygen standing water. Until those dry out the intensity of mosquitos is like no place on earth(low oxygen does a fish kill so no predators to eat the larvae). So you are safe collecting out in the river or on the windward side. Better to go a month after low water to let the mosquito habitat dry out.
They were timbering about a 1/2 mile right up to the river on the west bank and one day the wind was blowing the 'no see'ems' from the west and those sand nats were relentless. Then the horse flys and deer flys were drilling in the center of your back where they were safe. Welcome to the south!

[jamesp]

Micheal, that white stuff cooked up and went from slightly grey to straight up white w/super waxy knaps. Zero fracture material.
This was a single coral i sat and reduced into 30 pounds of chips in less than 15 minutes. One of these chips is the one cooked you commented on.

This is an uncooked 4 pounder from a similar 40 pound chunk. A new vein, this white stuff. This is sample material. To test for cooking. Well, it passed.
Oh, and this vein had a bunch of petrified algae(i think). I will post later several pet algaes. The top of this chunk was sitting on the pet algae(or death plate). You can see the petrified organisms in the top.

[Fossilman]

Awesome!

[Drummond Island Rocks]

looks like you have the right formula for sure. sweet looking stuff.
you put a lot of work into your corals and I certainly appreciate the pieces I have.

chuck

[quartz]

Thanks for the description of the place, easy to understand. Good that the coral for the most part is so solid, most of our stuff gets more fractured as size increases. Used to watch the creek behind home turn black in the fall, no rock in it to collect drippings though. Lots of springs and wet places that never dried out, mosquitos were thick. Glad the rest of your bugs are your bugs. Larry

[elizabeth]

So beautiful. I can't wait to retire!!!

[jamesp]

Not an excuse Elizabeth:) Who is retired around this house-no one. Thanks for your admiration. Some are more busy than others. Priorities are a little discombobulated around here.LOL.

[pghram]

Another nice batch, thanks for sharing.

Rich