odd find (slate)?

[Moe (fl)]

Found this item at the beach last week. It was just lying near the high tide mark. It caught my eye because it looked different than shells and it is blue!

It feels heavy and there is no metal. I placed a quarter for size reference. It does not look to be from Florida. Looks like blue slate but am not sure.

Any ideas?

HH!

 

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[Bigcypresshunter]

Is it wood?

 

[Moe (fl)]

It is not wood. It is some kind of stone. It seems to have layers.

 

[72cheyenne]

Sure looks like petrified wood.

 

[lostcauses]

looks to have a sheen to it, moonstone or some similar material.
Most likely Indian, and a pedestal for grinding or pulverizing materials.

 

[Moe (fl)]

I don't think it is petrified wood!

A friend thought it could be a trade piece. Maybe came from out west!

How did it get to the beach in Florida (east coast)?

 

[lostcauses]

"Maybe came from out west! "

Does appear as a southwest type of Indian artifact, yet folks used similar methods throughout the US.

I think from what I can tell of the photo I would like that material.

 

[trikikiwi]

Whatever it is, 'tis cool

Moe, why do you think it is not petrified wood?
What did your friend think it is made of?

Mike

 

[AKiwi]

That sure looks like petrified wood alright.
I can see the layers or rings

 

[badoscar]

Post in the Fossil forum they will tell you if it is wood in about ten seconds.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

I found a chunk of rock hard rusted wood. The museum explained that it became hard from being in contact with something iron on a shipwreck. This doesnt explain the color blue however. http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,176970.0.html

 

[lafatlife]

It could be a slate pencil. My mother has one and that is about the size of it. That is what they used in the old days before pencils especially in schools. My great grandmother was a teacher in a one room school house and used them as well.

 

[TimC]

I believe what you have is slate, from the pic and info. The layers, in slate and any sedimentary rock, are formed from different densities of the deposites at the time they were formed. That's what makes it look like wood grain. Your slate, if it is slate, used to be shale..... used to be mud. It is a metamorphic rock. I hope I spelled that right.

TimC

 

[Moe (fl)]

Thanks for the interesting replies. TimC, I found a picture of a Kyanite metamorphic rock.

Here is the definition that came with this photo.

"Kyanite, whose name derives from the Greek word kyanos, meaning blue, is a typically blue silicate mineral, commonly found in aluminium-rich metamorphic pegmatites and/or sedimentary rock. Kyanite is a diagnostic mineral of the Blueschist Facies of metamorphic rocks.
Kyanite is a member of the aluminosilicate series, which includes the polymorph andalusite and the polymorph sillimanite. Kyanite is strongly anisotropic, in that its hardness varies depending on its crystallographic direction. While this is a feature of almost all minerals, in kyanite this anisotropism can be considered an identifying characteristic."

 

[TimC]

Nice picture. Isn't that the stuff only Superman can't get near? Yuk,yuk. Really, nice picture. The shale layer is where the Keokuk, Iowa geodes are found. The Warsaw formation.

TimC

Half the words in your post I can't even pronounce!!!

 

[woody50]

That sure looks like petrified wood alright.
I can see the layers or rings

Yea but you see layers also in slate.

 

[Alchemy]

grrrr! I know what this is, I just can't think of the name of it!
I'm off to search it...it IS a type of mineral (stone) though
In the selenite family I believe

 

[Moe (fl)]

Here is a picture of another blue rock.

The photo description said it is: "Blue fluorite and barite from the Portales tunnel at Bingham, New Mexico"

 

[IronSpike]

The kyanite pics looks most likely.

Here's another Kyanite pic.

http://z.about.com/d/geology/1/0/d/N/1/bladed.jpg

 

[72cheyenne]

I'll agree with the kyanite too, looks like the ocean has given it a good polishing.