New Fossils

[piegrande]

I live in the mountains of Mexico. The community is a quarry town. Most of the paid work is quarrying work. So, what do they quarry? Travertine marble. The hills are made of a sort of limestone. During rainy season, the hills fill up with water, and during dry season, the water runs out via various springs.

What happens to the limestone? It dissolves during rainy season, then hardens again when it is dry. Well, not all of it; only portions of it. This produced a very fine stone, which they take in 10 or more ton bites to local factories to cut into slabs for floor tiles.

That is Travertine marble. Regular marble like they made religious statues of is made by volcanos.

When the limestone is dissolved, it sits in the hills like a very rich soup.

A few years ago, a nephew told me, "Uncle, come with me. You need to see this." I went with him.

They had dug into the hillside for building a house. That soup was slowly oozing out. As it oozed out, it dried in a day or two, turning into a rough stone. Where it hit tree leaves, or sticks, it produced a 'fossil' leaf or stick.

A million year old fossil? No, two or three days old, perhaps. However long it took for the soup to dry.

Yet, based on what you have been taught, you would assume it is thousands of years old.

I do not suggest all fossils are like this, only that some are. I would supply an image but my camera has died. Sorry.

 

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[smokeythecat]

I hear you. I moved to where I am now almost 45 years ago. Back then there was a nice, soft light grey layer of clay in the creek. Last time I looked it had hardened to the point I needed a hammer to break through it. Not limestone either. No limestone or sedimentary rocks at least 40 miles from here.

 

[ToddsPoint]

Marble is metamorphosed limestone, a sedimentary stone. It’s not from volcanoes.

 

[piegrande]

Here is what Encyclopedia Britannica says: "marble, granular limestone or dolomite (i.e., rock composed of calcium-magnesium carbonate) that has been recrystallized under the influence of heat, pressure, and aqueous solutions"

What they call travertine marble here in my quarry town is that which has been "recrystallized by aqueous solutions"..

I suspect marble made by volcanoes is that which has been "recrystallized by heat". That was the only marble I knew about until I moved here. I learn as I go.

The Britannica article says 50% of quarried marble is wasted in processing. Here it was a few years ago, 84% waste. I had an IE who was going to Europe to present a report on our quarrying processes, and it had to be in English. His report was his proposal how to increase productivity from 16% to nearer 50%.

Also, they primarily use explosives here. Nitrogen fertilizer soaked in diesel fuel, motivated by a small stick of dynamite. Though they dig as much as they can. They bring in big blocks of travertine, perhaps 10 tons each or more. A couple years ago, one of those blocks slipped and literally flattened a worker; he was a family man, too.

Marble - Calcite, Channeling Machines, Wedges, and Polished

Marbles are used principally for buildings and monuments, interior decoration, statuary, table tops, and novelties. Colour and appearance are their most important qualities. Resistance to abrasion, which is a function of cohesion between grains as well as the hardness of the component minerals...

www.britannica.com

 

[piegrande]

I hear you. I moved to where I am now almost 45 years ago. Back then there was a nice, soft light grey layer of clay in the creek. Last time I looked it had hardened to the point I needed a hammer to break through it. Not limestone either. No limestone or sedimentary rocks at least 40 miles from here.

Some years ago, i read a science article that somewhere, memory says southern USA, after a major flood they found a large area that looked like bed rock. There were what were analyzed as human foot prints, running foot prints, in that bed rock. That sounds somewhat like what you described, soft clay turning into a rock-like substance.