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Post by youp50 on Apr 22, 2017 6:11:11 GMT -5
Avery, My wife and I went to an extremely popular beach near Marquette. Nothing but sandstone laced with quartz ribbons. Kind of cool looking spider web stuff. No sense to look for agates there. Winter exposed a decent bunch. Took a window on the top piece, several more quarter size pieces. I thought I had died and gone to a MN gravel pit. (Except no blue colors) None of this fits the bill of being 'pretty', they were recognizable as agate bearing from may feet away.  |
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Post by youp50 on Apr 22, 2017 6:12:24 GMT -5
Avery, My wife and I went to an extremely popular beach near Marquette. Nothing but sandstone laced with quartz ribbons. Kind of cool looking spider web stuff. No sense to look for agates there. Winter exposed a decent bunch. Took a window on the top piece, several more quarter size pieces not in the image. I thought I had died and gone to a MN gravel pit. (Except no blue colors) None of this fits the bill of being 'pretty', they were recognizable as agate bearing from may feet away. |
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Post by youp50 on Apr 22, 2017 6:13:47 GMT -5
PS My camera sucks at macro photography
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AveryLindgren
starting to shine!
Member since April 2017
Posts: 40 
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Post by AveryLindgren on Apr 23, 2017 17:50:27 GMT -5
PS My camera sucks at macro photography Nice |
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller 
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,718
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Post by Fossilman on Apr 24, 2017 8:39:38 GMT -5
Looks like some nice pieces of material...Just experiment and slice both directions,see what looks better.....
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Post by youp50 on Apr 24, 2017 11:09:49 GMT -5
I also took a slice off another smaller piece. There is some very interesting mostly solid red with character material bordering the vein. I am guessing its a chert or a jasper. She also found a very nice piece. The ugliest pitted white potato size rock seen. Her camera will macro image. In a day or two if the fish ain't biting I will post a couple of images.
The point being, many people walk the beach and look for pretty stones like in the shops. I started finding agate when an old timer told me to leave the pretty stones for the tourists, pick up and inspect the ugly ones. He didn't mean every ugly stone, just look for something different than the rest, and ugly too. The piece my wife picked up was looked at by literally hundreds of beach combers. Too ugly to bother with and may be the best of the year for us.
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ziggy
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 483 
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Post by ziggy on Apr 24, 2017 15:07:51 GMT -5
The point being, many people walk the beach and look for pretty stones like in the shops. I started finding agate when an old timer told me to leave the pretty stones for the tourists, pick up and inspect the ugly ones. He didn't mean every ugly stone, just look for something different than the rest, and ugly too. The piece my wife picked up was looked at by literally hundreds of beach combers. Too ugly to bother with and may be the best of the year for us. When I'm doing the beaches up there I have to force myself to not look for pretty rocks. If I did spend time looking for pretty ones, I'd never find what I'm really after. So many mineral distractions. There is one beach I found up there where the downright ugliest rock on the beach (basalt) turned out to be the home of several nice greenstones neatly stashed inside with only minor clues showing on the surface. The funny thing is, another name for that beach other than it's real one, is agate beach. From the makeup of the rocks on that beach, it's highly unlikely that there are many, if any, agates there. I did manage to pick up the previously mentioned greenstone bearing basalt as well as a water worn datolite nodule and also found several basalt outcrops loaded with what looks like greenstone and thompsonite amygdules that I plan on retrieving this summer. Last summer I didn't have the proper tools to do it with me. |
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Post by youp50 on Apr 24, 2017 20:52:32 GMT -5
Copper country datolite is special. Finding it on a beach...something else.
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ziggy
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2016
Posts: 483
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Post by ziggy on Apr 24, 2017 21:24:08 GMT -5
Copper country datolite is special. Finding it on a beach...something else. It's not a real high quality datolite. It is sort of pinkish to almost purple with lots of matrix veining. There are some native copper inclusions scattered in it. It actually matches the color of the datolite shown in the pic below (picture is not my nodule) and the rind( matrix) matches as well.  My first instinct told me it was pink Prehnite but it is actually the same hardness and specific gravity as datolite and not prehnite. Being beach worn, I couldn't tell what it was when I found it. There was patches of the pink datolite showing where normally it would be covered with matrix skin. I've only ever heard of a few datolites found on beaches. I stumbled on to it at Hunter's point park way out on one of the beaches at the far end of the trail that runs through there. I was looking for agate where none existed. The pink spots stuck out like sore thumbs among the mostly brown colored beach pebbles that dominate the beaches near copper harbor. I picked it up on a whim. I plan on doing some heavy duty searching for datolite at several mine piles in the Cliff to Central area this summer and also plan on searching the Wolverine #2 pile for some copper replacement agates, along with stops at Ishpeming for some jaspilite and a little agate hunting at Grand Marais and Muskalonge S.P. Can't wait  |
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Post by youp50 on Apr 25, 2017 5:11:23 GMT -5
Another rare find would be a piece of moose blood kona dolomite. One beach worn piece went straight to pre polish. I am kind of wondering how it will show. There is no doubt that it was moved by man.
It is my understanding that every other place in the world datolite is a green crystal. Only in the Keeweenaw fault is it porcelain like. The more copper included the browner it gets.
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