Prehistoric coral

[Fossilman]

Cut one of James,coral that he sent me,it was a hollow coral,with a thin shell-took my time and it turned out great...(Tough little suckers)!

[radio]

weird and unappetizing filling in that Hot Pocket sammich!

I too was amazed at how hard that Coral is!  It sure takes a great polish though!

[jamesp]

Feb 25, 2016 17:15:47 GMT -5 radio said:

weird and unappetizing filling in that Hot Pocket sammich!

I too was amazed at how hard that Coral is!  It sure takes a great polish though!

The wall of limestone is in all these coral rivers.
The wall is limestone and mostly fossil diatoms and other marine organisms settled to the bottom from a much older ocean.
Sometimes the wall is well above water level, other times at water level.
The river's acidic water cut through it.
The coral is on top of the wall and is from a newer ocean. It attached and grew on an old ocean's limestone formation.
So in this case the coral layer is 20 feet up on top of the wall at tree root level.
Not easy to access unless you dive in the water where the coral rolled into the river from the top of the wall.

If the top of the old ocean bed rock is 2 feet above river level the collecting is much easier.
And the coral is much richer in color from the mineral rich river water and denser clay soil.

Here is a high wall that is sand capped. The sand usually produces boring white/translucent/gray coral.
Unless the coral fell off the wall and was colored by the river water or clay in the bottom of the river.
In this case with high walls, look for shallow water in the middle of the river where the coral has been sitting in the river the longest time.
where the wall dissolve away long ago and left the coral behind.
These rivers are too slow to push the coral downstream.



This is a limestone wall only 2 feet above river level as is the case in Georgia at higher altitude than the Florida wall above.
You can see the rusty colored corals sitting on top.



Above corals sampled. This stretch of the river has glass like coral for the knapping folks. Not so colorful though.



More corals sitting on the limestone. This day was 98F so snorkeling in the 6-8 deep water was required. Water clear.



silica rich fossilized diatoms that make up the most of the limestone walls. No shortage of dissolvable silica:





The next day we went 15 miles upstream and I cleaned out a gravel bar of bots. Found that stone that you set Arlen this day.
The river had been high and exposed new ones. Timing everything. All river stained.
I believe the one you set is at lower left corner.



limestone bedrock 3-4 feet out of the water. Coral rich point here. Bottom of river peppered with coral here.
River wide and deep here, keep eyes open for large lizards.

[Intheswamp]

Thanks for sharing the pictures, Fossilman, nice looking cora and great job cutting itl!!!!

And, James, thanks for the pictures of the river...big lizards, eh?

[radio]

awesome education on river coral there Sir! Thanks for taking the time to post it!

[Fossilman]

Thank you for sharing the information James.....