Sawed some heat treated oysters

[Deleted]

Dec 9, 2013 23:42:55 GMT -5 quartz said:

Your statement about not knowing the process of formation of the corals and oysters is [was] going to be our next question, so much for that. We are thinking rain, normally slightly acidic, and the acids produced by rotting vegetation probably leached the silica out of sand covering everything. Same thing happens here with volcanic ash. Thanks for the additions. Can't speak for anyone else, but the coral we have found here is junk compared to yours, too sandy. Larry

Silicas are dissolved by high pH alkali, and solidified by acids.

I have been pondering this for some time. My feeling is the alkali came from ash left from forest fire. It's my only guess.

[jamesp]

Along the ridge running N-S in central Florida are many quarries. They remove chert that is boring in color but quite glassy. The vein must be at least 100 feet thick. It is composed of ocean fossils.
So i am curious what caused that massive deep silica deposit. The ocala aquifer is believed to be 2 miles deep. Like a giant piece of swiss cheese. When drilled silica and chert comes up.With ocean fossils.
The geologists say that water percolating through porous ' rock ? ' causes silicification. That is the depth of my knowledge.

So those deep thick silicifications mystify me. And the resilicification of druzys and botyroidal formations in hollow cavities messes w/me.

[Fossilman]

Dec 8, 2013 11:09:21 GMT -5 jamesp said:

The urchins were hung on a tree signifying a 5 star restaurant back in the day.









So. It's a 4 star urchin.

Donnie also sent me one of those "Urchins" a year or so ago...Cool piece!

[jamesp]

Those fossil urchins must have been plentiful Fossilman. They are common all over Florida

[quartz]

Quite an interesting story, and w/pics., thanks. Artesian wells are very rare here, but in some unusual and unexpected places. A former co-worker and friends bought some adjoining ground in E. Oregon years ago, and spent years tinkering the places up in prep. for retirement. Denny's friend had a well drilled, hit a very cold artesian, when they built their house they plumbed the water throughout and had free air conditioning.

[jamesp]

A water source heat pump is common in Florida. Where you use 72F ground water to serve as an energy source instead of pulling heat out of 100F humid outside air.

My little house here uses a water source heat pump. When the thermostat kicks in a motorized ball valve turns the water thru the heat pump and water from a small pond

is pumped thru the heat pump at 8 gallons per minute. Sounds inefficient. But the water pump pulls about 1/6 the amps as the compressor and the compressor has nice

well cooled freon and has little work to do. So the air produced and coming into the ducts is way colder or way hotter than an air-to-air heat pump way reducing compressor time.

If i ever hooked up a geothermal heat pump to the low pressure artesian a free flow and larger 'freon to water' heat exchanger
could be built that could deliver the required 8 gallons per minute and no pump would be needed. The heat pump would also dehumidify.
An absolute must down here in the south.

I think most of Icelandic houses are heated with hot ground water. Often the threat of volcanic activity exists though.

[quartz]

Know a little about ground source heat pumps, not common here though. We built a house in '83, put one of those in. Very costly by comparison, but efficiency and a tax credit paid the extra expense back in about 6 years. Then, it's all a +. Larry

[jamesp]

I did the water system out of a small deep pond in the back hard using a 1/2 HP deep well multi stage pump for efficiency.
I wondered how popular those were else where. In the early years in Florida they would drill 2 wells. One to draw from and one to dump back into.
They outlawed that. Wells are so easy and so shallow that worked good. But ground water has gotten protected.

The water goes 800 feet away into a small lake to help w/summer droughts for the nursery. 8 gpm is a bunch of water.