jamesp favorites-Rio Grande #2

[jamesp]

Nov 7, 2016 22:45:54 GMT -5 HankRocks said:

Shotgunner

It does make sense that only the best has survived what ever journey it took through the ages. It may also have a bit to do with the age of the wood, 10 million, 30 million, 100 million maybe more. I would assume that some Doctor of Geology has written a paper on the subject of Petrified wood. Whatever the case I do like the material

James

One problem with Texas Geology is that almost all of it is locked up on Private land and access is spotty at best. Your mention of getting to know the locals is one method in gaining access. I have a couple of prospect properties which I am currently hoping to gain access to. Time will tell. It takes a lot to overcome the past rude behavior by idiots.

H

Funny thing, the closer I got to the river on Lake Falcon the higher percentage of fine material and variety.
The best rocks are protected by a mud coating in the lake, that would be the vast shores of exposed cobbles when the lake is low.
No rock hunter can read thru that alkaline cake. Lest he was hunting in the rain which is infrequent there.
Sounds silly, but a small pump and a 100-200 foot hose supplying a mist to wet the rocks would fill your rock basket in a hurry.
The last point out in the lake I hunted was closest to the river centerline, bull nosed in shape and had a long cobble exposure.
It was loaded with better wood. And jasper.

So the lake is public. Free to collect at. But loaded with healthy mesquite...

With ranches in the 1000 to 10,000 acre size it does not take many permission slips to collect for many years.

[Fossilman]

Whay can I guy say!!! WOW!!!!

[1dave]

Nov 8, 2016 7:26:55 GMT -5 jamesp said:

Nov 7, 2016 22:45:54 GMT -5 HankRocks said:

Shotgunner

It does make sense that only the best has survived what ever journey it took through the ages. It may also have a bit to do with the age of the wood, 10 million, 30 million, 100 million maybe more. I would assume that some Doctor of Geology has written a paper on the subject of Petrified wood. Whatever the case I do like the material

James

One problem with Texas Geology is that almost all of it is locked up on Private land and access is spotty at best. Your mention of getting to know the locals is one method in gaining access. I have a couple of prospect properties which I am currently hoping to gain access to. Time will tell. It takes a lot to overcome the past rude behavior by idiots.

H

Funny thing, the closer I got to the river on Lake Falcon the higher percentage of fine material and variety.
The best rocks are protected by a mud coating in the lake, that would be the vast shores of exposed cobbles when the lake is low.
No rock hunter can read thru that alkaline cake. Lest he was hunting in the rain which is infrequent there.
Sounds silly, but a small pump and a 100-200 foot hose supplying a mist to wet the rocks would fill your rock basket in a hurry.
The last point out in the lake I hunted was closest to the river centerline, bull nosed in shape and had a long cobble exposure.
It was loaded with better wood. And jasper.

So the lake is public. Free to collect at. But loaded with healthy mesquite...

With ranches in the 1000 to 10,000 acre size it does not take many permission slips to collect for many years.

I've used a steel rod to probe the mud. The ping of hard agate is unmistakable.

[jamesp]

Nov 8, 2016 10:29:07 GMT -5 Fossilman said:

Whay can I guy say!!! WOW!!!!

The smaller rocks are much prettier Michael. Jasper and mosses degrade with size. Wood seems to be better in larger pieces which is perfect.
2 to 4 inch biscuits from the Rio are knockouts. Biscuit formed agates best when in a smaller size.
Those 6+ pound mosses of high quality are actually freaks and rarities. I left many in the field as they looked low grade after windowing.
Many of the big ones were high grade on one side. Those I simply reduced to nice tumbles right in the field. Only saved the finest tumble shapes.
I would collect a pile of rocks from a 30 foot circle next to a comfortable sitting spot and hammer out tumbles.
Some of the 4 inch biscuits I would pop in the center and make 2-4 halves/quarters for tumbling.

The pretty cherts knapped with my hammer so well that you could take a loaf of bread sized chert cobble and slab it right there on the spot with the hammer.
Those cherts are something else. Not so beautiful color wise but they were like a big nugget of glass or obsidian completely devoid of fractures but well rounded ovals .
As if a giant tumbler rolled them. The spearhead guys would have a field day with that chert, especially if they heat treated it.
I would put it up against the finest coral for knap ability. Saying a lot.

[jamesp]

Nov 8, 2016 10:52:49 GMT -5 1dave said:

Nov 8, 2016 7:26:55 GMT -5 jamesp said:

Funny thing, the closer I got to the river on Lake Falcon the higher percentage of fine material and variety.
The best rocks are protected by a mud coating in the lake, that would be the vast shores of exposed cobbles when the lake is low.
No rock hunter can read thru that alkaline cake. Lest he was hunting in the rain which is infrequent there.
Sounds silly, but a small pump and a 100-200 foot hose supplying a mist to wet the rocks would fill your rock basket in a hurry.
The last point out in the lake I hunted was closest to the river centerline, bull nosed in shape and had a long cobble exposure.
It was loaded with better wood. And jasper.

So the lake is public. Free to collect at. But loaded with healthy mesquite...

With ranches in the 1000 to 10,000 acre size it does not take many permission slips to collect for many years.

I've used a steel rod to probe the mud. The ping of hard agate is unmistakable.

The ring is unmistakeable. So true. Keep in mind the ole chert rings the same way and it is about 95% of the rock at this location.
Making for severe competition with the occasional agates.

Once higher in elevation of the lake shore the wind would sand blast that darn coating off. But that was only 20% of the cobbles exposed in the lake.
People had certainly looked that area over well. Clean rocks.
There is a billion more fine rocks sitting there camouflaged by that darn coating. A good thing if you could wet those rascals.

[rockpickerforever]

Glad you made it home without incident, James. ANd now lots of rocks to keep you busy!

Nov 6, 2016 18:45:53 GMT -5 jamesp said:

Nov 6, 2016 18:40:18 GMT -5 captbob said:

Your dogs as happy to see you as mine were?

My wife didn't care, so I won't ask about yours...

Walked in the house and laid down on futon. Raised the covers and 3 dogs piled under and we crashed 4 hours.

Wait just a dog-gone minute!! 3 dogs, not 4??!! What about Mud Pie? She don't know you well enough to cuddle with you?

I hope the misses didn't give up on house training her and ship her off?

[jamesp]

Nov 8, 2016 14:15:12 GMT -5 rockpickerforever said:

Glad you made it home without incident, James. ANd now lots of rocks to keep you busy!

Nov 6, 2016 18:45:53 GMT -5 jamesp said:

Walked in the house and laid down on futon. Raised the covers and 3 dogs piled under and we crashed 4 hours.

Wait just a dog-gone minute!! 3 dogs, not 4??!! What about Mud Pie? She don't know you well enough to cuddle with you?

I hope the misses didn't give up on house training her and ship her off?

I came home to 6 dogs, 2 visitors. so we divided them up and I got 3 and the futon.
Woke up mid day and the visiting male chewed a hole thru the fence.
This place turns into a dog hotel when I leave for any time period Jean.

I sealed that hole and I heard him chewing another hole in the fence next to the deck.
About 4 gallons of water from a 5 gallon bucket landed on him and likely broke him from that little habit.

Mud Pie likes to sleep in the crate go figure.

[jamesp]

Few more woods, jasper/plume. Just posting them as cut, not necessarily trophies.

unusual wood(I think it is wood), open to comments




common wood with and cross grain, rings like a bell solid





unusual wood



jasper/moss mix, caliche coating attacked with pressure washer from one inch. Does not come off easy




Another example of a heel from a 10 pounder that has so so quality



Thanks for visiting.

[Sabre52]

James, I find quite a bit of stuff like that first one in all colors and I could be wrong, but I think its actually some kind of silica infused rhyolite and not wood The other wood you've cut seems to be the same species I found a lot of in George West. Sure wish I knew more about wood. Gonna have to drag out my books I guess.

Funny how we all become jaded when we cut a lot of Rios. Agates that would have had me jumping with glee if I found them in Commiefornia become just kind of ehh in Texas *S*.....Mel

[orrum]

Great colors Jim, I like the second maybe wood best!

[Fossilman]

Dang,looks like you will have some great tumble material for a while brother.....Thumbs up

[jamesp]

Nov 9, 2016 8:39:58 GMT -5 Sabre52 said:

James, I find quite a bit of stuff like that first one in all colors and I could be wrong, but I think its actually some kind of silica infused rhyolite and not wood The other wood you've cut seems to be the same species I found a lot of in George West. Sure wish I knew more about wood. Gonna have to drag out my books I guess.

Funny how we all become jaded when we cut a lot of Rios. Agates that would have had me jumping with glee if I found them in Commiefornia become just kind of ehh in Texas *S*.....Mel

Hi silica content rhyolite came to mind after cutting that one. I am in agreement. The surface was most deceptive.
A lot of banded rhyolite looking grainy material, this one less grainy and as you said higher in silica.

I suffer from autism on a mild scale however it comes in handy remembering thousands of visual images.
Put it to good use scanning Rio cobbles at a walking speed.

[jamesp]

I am trying to make a consolidated contact page of Rio photos but having issues.

So I made a two page flickr album of 120 Rio's I windowed in the field to learn better what to keep.
Many already posted, at least these are in an easier view able form.

Please open link and enjoy

www.flickr.com/photos/67205364@N06/sets/72157676247535186

[jamesp]

Nov 9, 2016 8:45:40 GMT -5 orrum said:

Great colors Jim, I like the second maybe wood best!

Skipped by a lot of that Bill. Picked a bunch and turned the valve off.
You could knap that stuff without wrestling with grain cleavage messing you up. No cracks.
Probably on off the better knapping woods on the planet.

[jamesp]

Nov 9, 2016 10:10:53 GMT -5 Fossilman said:

Dang,looks like you will have some great tumble material for a while brother.....Thumbs up

I will be a long time working this stuff. And loving it.
I bought back 3 times more last trip and dumped 3/4 of as road gravel.

Really cherry picked this time.
It is a challenge to move to wood or jasper or any certain rock.
I had to walk back over where I picked the obvious and focus on the not-so-obvious.
Some of my favs are the result of this scrutiny.

I would window and find a new one and then have to rewalk to search it out.

[Deleted]

How many wood handles get broke windowing with that little hammer?

Thanks fot the eye candy. Sincerely appreciated. Props amigo!

[jamesp]

Nov 9, 2016 11:28:04 GMT -5 @shotgunner said:

How many wood handles get broke windowing with that little hammer?

Thanks fot the eye candy. Sincerely appreciated. Props amigo!

That is a $40 fiberglass hammer. I buy them for $1 at the industrial yard. Tough little sucker and the steel is soft on the head.
It was taking out 10+ pound rocks lol.

[Sabre52]

Rainy day today so I have been working my way through my pet wood library and the web looking at Texas pet wood. Very frustrating as many woods mentioned have no pictures and many pictures just say unknown petrified wood. No help at all, especially since no one knows from which formation these woods were transported. Your black and gold example looks to me to be similar to pics I have of the interior portion of a Schilderia log but that wood is known from the Triassic Chinle Formation so would have to have come clear from AZ, NM or Utah. According to my reading, a large portion of non monocot ( palmish stuff-200 species of palm in Texas wood) pet wood from George West is either Live Oak or extinct Ulminium ( laurel type wood) or Engelhardioxylon ( extinct walnut family) However, none of my books or the web have pics, only descriptions. These may be some of the weird woods we are finding though. I sure wish we lived close to Gingko Pet Forest in Washington. I went there and they have an awesome section of polished ID'd pet wood samples.....Mel

[Sabre52]

Great link, eye candy for sure. I think maybe your very first pic is a fern bud. Find cone shapes ones very similar in color and pattern at Simmons City, TX.

UN, never mind, went back and looked again and I'm thinking just weird chert *S*....Mel

[1dave]

Nov 9, 2016 11:51:08 GMT -5 Sabre52 said:

Rainy day today so I have been working my way through my pet wood library and the web looking at Texas pet wood. Very frustrating as many woods mentioned have no pictures and many pictures just say unknown petrified wood. No help at all, especially since no one knows from which formation these woods were transported. Your black and gold example looks to me to be similar to pics I have of the interior portion of a Schilderia log but that wood is known from the Triassic Chinle Formation so would have to have come clear from AZ, NM or Utah. According to my reading, a large portion of non monocot ( palmish stuff-200 species of palm in Texas wood) pet wood from George West is either Live Oak or extinct Ulminium ( laurel type wood) or Engelhardioxylon ( extinct walnut family) However, none of my books or the web have pics, only descriptions. These may be some of the weird woods we are finding though. I sure wish we lived close to Gingko Pet Forest in Washington. I went there and they have an awesome section of polished ID'd pet wood samples.....Mel

Thanks Mel!

IMO 250Ma the Atlantic Ocean was opening up - shoving North America west. That pressure on the Pacific Ocean Plate caused it to buckle, initiating a huge tsunami to flood what there was of the then western US, burying the trees now found in the Shinarump formation.

25 Ma later the same thing happened again, sending an even larger tsunami that traveled even to Texas.

An excellent study of Chinle time was prepared by Russell F. Dubiel.

The "Shinarump Valley" now under the Chinle, covered existing Nevada, Utah, the southwestern corner of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and the panhandle of Texas.
Offshore to the southwest volcanoes where California would be born were constantly showering the area with ash-fall after ash-fall, laying down thick ash layers now known as the Painted Desert, fertile Chinle soil where big trees could grow.

Then 225 Million years ago something unusual happened in the area now known as the southwestern United States to produce the vast area known as the Petrified Forest Member of the Chinle (AKA "The Painted Desert") Formation and Dockum Formation as it was named in Texas. It is inter-continental, stretching from Nevada (the west coast back then) to western Texas.
That is an area roughly 1,000 miles long by 500 miles wide. 500,000 Square miles!

And then we find that whole area covered with 225 million year old petrified wood. What happened?

At that time the Atlantic ocean was opening up, pushing North America westward. I suspect a collapse of the western seafloor generated a huge tsunami.

A firsthand report from 1890 states:

A few miles before reaching Dockum, situated in the western edge of Dickens County, I came upon a bed of conglomerate sandstone* and red clay, resting unconformably upon the clays and sandstones of the upper Permian, entirely unlike anything I have heretofore seen in Texas. This formation lies along the foot of the Staked Plains in a narrow belt. Because of its extensive occurrence in the vicinity of Dockum, I gave the formation the name of Dockum Beds, but will not for the present attempt to determine their correlation. I have found everywhere on the beds of the Permian belt pieces of conglomerate and large pebbles of white quartz that did not belong to the Trinity sands of the Cretaceous which were supposed to overlie the Permian to the westward, and it is a matter of interest to know where this drift came from. The fragments of conglomerate increased in size as we traveled westward until we came upon the beds of that material in the vicinity of Dockum, and the question was solved as to the origin of the fragments of conglomerate and the quartz pebbles.
In the conglomerate are many silicified trunks of trees, some of them of great length. In the red clay above the conglomerate are fossil remains of large reptiles, whose species I was unable to determine in the field. In the upper sandstone were many casts of a Ohio that I have provisionally called Onto documensis. In most places that fossil occurs only as casts, and in one place only did I find specimens of both valves, and they were so badly incrusted with carbonate of lime that the peculiar markings of the shell could not be seen. The sandstone was everywhere full of scales of mica, some of the scales being one-sixteenth of an inch square. The whole thickness of this formation in this vicinity is about 150 feet. These beds extend under the Staked Plains. I traced them up Blanco Canyon to the falls of White River, where they pass out of sight under the beds of the overlying strata.
There are a great many springs of clear pure water flowing from these beds, and wherever the formation has been penetrated by wells, an abundance of good water has been obtained..

-Cummins, W.F., 1890, The Permian of Texas and its overlying beds

Re-Quote:

"I have found everywhere on the beds of the Permian belt pieces of conglomerate and large pebbles of white quartz that did not belong to the Trinity sands of the Cretaceous which were supposed to overlie the Permian to the westward, and it is a matter of interest to know where this drift came from. The fragments of conglomerate increased in size as we traveled westward until we came upon the beds of that material in the vicinity of Dockum . . . many silicified trunks of trees, some of them of great length."

What was the home source of the conglomerate and white quartz found scattered across central Texas?
It had to be an area northwest of Dockum. Where?
What force scattered it?

Here is what is left visible of the Petrified Forest Member of the Chinle Formation.

What buried all those huge trees from Nevada to Texas AND splayed rocks on to the east???
Meandering streams? (the usual answer) I don't find that scenario credible.