I Found a Rock (UPDATE: 07/07/2011 I FOUND ANOTHER ROCK)

[romeo-1]

I put the detector away today and did some rock hounding. It's pale yellow and where it is broken is as clear as glass. I don't think that it is quartz because it's crystal clear all through. I think that if it was polished you could see clear through it. Any ideas?

 

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[High Plains Digger]

Re: I Found a Rock

Rick--could be fluorite. Right possible color and texture, but I don't know if fluorite has conchoidal fracturing like yours. I do have some natural green quartz crystals, but more of a deep forrest green. They do occur.

Cannonball Guy was on the point. River tumbled quartz, but it is cut on the end? As to clarity, have you ever been to Arkansas? The quartz crystals there are absolutely clear. Clarity does not not make it quartz. But it does have an interesting "greasiness" to it's surface. That's what they say about diamonds. Color? Smokey quartz goes from almost citrine yellow (it would be called citrine then) to a deep brown and all the shades inbetween. Color does not not make it quartz.

I'll be interested to hear what the Geology Dept. says. Topaz is always a possibility, but those are fewer and far inbetween. Unless you are in Brazil.

 

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[olepossum]

Re: I Found a Rock

VOLCANIC GLASS

 

[romeo-1]

Re: I Found a Rock

I'd stick to your original opinion, that it is a rock. I'm not pig headed either, but have common sense, something they don't teach at university.

It's a shame that having such a resource at your disposal didn't help a bit, as you really got no definitive answer, just an opinion.

There are lots of different rocks on this planet, and when one doesn't quite fit the book description, or color hue, it's quite typical for transparent or translucent specimens to get dismissed as glass. I found a cool one myself, a quartz variation ?(jury still out), transparent green, still attached to host rock, and I was still told by many it is glass. I took it to a jewler, Reids Kentville a jewler there is also a rock hound, he didn't know exactly what it was but confirmed "rock".

Mine was not glass, and neither is yours, and I'm willing to bet.

Thanks Rick...I couldn't agree more...as far as I'm concerned the jury IS still out. I've got my feelers out to a few other sources...

 

[High Plains Digger]

Re: I Found a Rock

Who would have guessed that something as "dumb as a rock" would have generated 43 comments in such a short time? Maybe we should organize a rock hunt for detectorists with sore arms.

 

[High Plains Digger]

Re: I Found a Rock

44. Hey Rick and Romeo-1: I am a complete idiot and unworthy of being in your presence. But I can redeem myself. Either find a Jeweler with a Presidential Gem Tester, or send your rocks to me, as I am the proud owner of one. It has two tests, one where you touch the stone with a probe and it tells you what it is (glass and quartz are half the scale apart), and if it can fit on the instrument, a reflective test, with quartz and glass having very consistent known numbers. I don't know what glass is, but that is not a problem. I use it all the time to tell aqua and topaz apart (as a confirmation. Usually I can eyeball aqua) and dozens of other stones including spinel and sapphire, zircon from CZ and moonstone from whatever. The dorks at the Univ. don't get out of the books often enough. A simple touch test can outdo a kriptonian mass spectrometer with nano technology. Really.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Re: I Found a Rock

44. Hey Rick and Romeo-1: I am a complete idiot and unworthy of being in your presence. But I can redeem myself. Either find a Jeweler with a Presidential Gem Tester, or send your rocks to me, as I am the proud owner of one.

A Presidium Gem Tester?

 

[Rick (Nova Scotia)]

Re: I Found a Rock

Who would have guessed that something as "dumb as a rock" would have generated 43 comments in such a short time? Maybe we should organize a rock hunt for detectorists with sore arms.

That is funny / interesting...recently posted a gold ring with video of it being poped out of the plug, got two replies. Guess it depends on what is interesting, or different.

Sounds like you have a pretty neat piece of gear there.

 

[High Plains Digger]

Re: I Found a Rock

Presidium. Presidential is the 2nd machine up the ladder. It is a super fancy diamond checker, but it does a lot more. I have spent hours on it when I have purchased large parcels of gemstones. Always some I want to check that aren't so obvious. Guaranteed to distinguish glass from quartz in 5 seconds. Takes longer for the instrument to warm up that what it takes to make a reading.

 

[Eu_citzen]

Re: I Found a Rock

I do have some natural green quartz crystals, but more of a deep forrest green.

Are you sure they are natural?

Prasiolite back in the days did occur in South America, most of it though was heat treated amethyst.
Today almost all of it is irradiated.

 

[High Plains Digger]

Re: I Found a Rock

From the source I received it, I am 99% certain. It is a batch of small crystals in a plate, and there are a number of terminations on the underside, some of which I suppose are double terminations. Praisolite has been around for some time, they just found how to make more of it. Interesting thing, I have been told that when they do a batch, not all of the light purple turns green. It has to have some iron in the crystal to turn green. Or so the best of my memory goes. Momma nature has heat and radiation available to her, also. Another interesting thing, they didn't think rose quartz would form as a crystal until they found some, in 1968 (I think) in Brazil. That is a lot of centuries for man to not have known about it.

If you want a photo, I will send you one. Do we have a rock forum on TN?

Romeo1--have you found a Presidium in your neck of the woods yet?

 

[Eu_citzen]

Re: I Found a Rock

That was back in the days - before they found out a combination of heat and irradiation I think.
Not all amethyst would turn green from heat treatment alone.

The market is so bad with Prasiolite and citrine so unless you collected it yourself I would assume it is treated or a very close friend collected it.
Remember more then 60% of the stones offered for sale are treated, generally speaking. Especially gems.

Try here:
http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/board,121.0.html

 

[High Plains Digger]

Re: I Found a Rock

Wow. There is a rock section. Cool.

and on treatment: yup.

 

[romeo-1]

Re: I Found a Rock

Romeo1--have you found a Presidium in your neck of the woods yet?

No, but I'm thinking of investing!

 

[High Plains Digger]

Re: I Found a Rock

They are useful. The "lord of the rings" could use one for as many rings as he has found. Only short comming--they don't distinguish between natural and man made, for example man made sapphires. They are chemically the same, just crystals grown my man instead of Ma.

 

[Wampum]

Re: I Found a Rock

Did you find it near a railroad? I used to find a lot of similar stuff right next to a railroad crossing a creek. I'm not sure what the significance is. I never found any besides at that one spot.

 

[romeo-1]

Re: I Found a Rock

Found this one this morning on the same river but just on the opposite side of the beach. I know that this one is a quartz crystal...same color and apparent composition of the large "pebble" which is the focus of this thread.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Re: I Found a Rock (I FOUND ANOTHER ROCK)

Romeo-1, thank you for taking the time to post that important update for those us who participated in the discussion of your previously-found rock. Finding a no-doubt-about-it quartz crystal at the very same creek location gives considerable weight to the opinions that your previously-found rock from that creek is indeed a nearly-clear quartz pebble, not a chunk of glass. Again, thank you for posting the update.

 

[romeo-1]

I've got this one cleaned off and if it were broken I am sure it would be a clear as the other piece I found.

 

[uthunter]

I vote a piece of quartz or glass.

Every piece of clear, blue, red, yellow, green, and pink obsidian have just pieces of colored glass.

Tektites are stony based rocks from the surface of the earth when a meteor hits the surface and the earth based material is vaporized and goes up into the atmosphere, coalesces and then falls back to the surface. The only crystal based tektite is a moldavite, found only in Czechoslovakia. Most other moldavites from other regions are usually desert glass, or something else.

A geologist should know this.

 

[High Plains Digger]

uthunter: I have to challenge just a bit of your comment: Just to keep everyone's terminology on the same line, moldavite is a tektite from the Moldov Valley in Czeck. but it is still a tektite, and I don't see any difference between that and the Asian Teks. It is true that the Asians look black, but when you get a thin piece, it is the olive green of Moldavites. And I haven't seen one that looks stony at all. They are very glassy, and even have concoidal fracturing. "Stony based" may be a little misleading. And I don't know what "Crystal based" means. I have numerous samples of both if there is any interest for a head-to-head comparison, but I think the Moldovites are more interesting physically.

I would also arugue with your about the source of a tektite, but there seem to be a lot of that going around. I have always thought that if it was Earth spash, then meteorites that hit red sandstone or white limestone should have different color of tektites. I am a follower of the "melts off the meteor as it goes through the atmosphere" theory, although I am not a big proponent of that, either. And I think they form from the gasses that vaporize off the meteorite, but then that makes for the "different kinds of meteorite" question as the earth splash variables. "Moon splash" has plusses and minuses, also. And much harder to buy with the shape of some of the tektites found.

Romeo1--my offer still holds: Knapp off a small corner of the flat part of the rock and send it to me, I will test it for you and even photograph the results and post it here. Knocking off a small piece shouldn't hurt anything, value wise anyway. Or, if you are still thinking of buying a machine, I can let you know the mail order place I purchased mine from. Apparently you haven't found one in your neighborhood yet? My bet: Quartz, especially with another crystal in your hand from the same area.