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vgabndo
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Geology I D anyone?
This rock about the size of a double extra large egg wouldn't let me walk past. The embedded reflective material kept flashing at me as I passed.
As each face of the angular embedded material is faced correctly into the sun it reflects brightly. As you see in the images, when not aligned, the
surface looks like coffee grounds! Though unfocused this shows other blocks of the embedded material which would shine just as brightly if rotated
until the light falls across the grain of the material.
The conglomerate, if that it is, formed before some cracking that runs in lines through both the dark blocks of material and the surrounding
substrate. Some of that cracking, with the 30X scope, seem to be very thin layers of quartz. A very odd stone.
Undoubtedly, there are people who cannot afford to give the anchor of sanity even the slightest tug. Sam Harris
"The situation is far too dire for pessimism."
Bill Kauth
Carl Sagan said, "We are a way for the cosmos to know itself."
PEACE, LOVE AND FISH TACOS
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Skipjack Joe
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I'm looking forward to hear the answer to your question.
This year I collected some cool white rocks which look like marble. Brought a few home and will add pictures of them to this thread. I don't know what
they are either.
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Whale-ista
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Interesting looking.
It would be helpful to know exactly where you found this.
Near the coast? Looks rounded, as if tumbled against other rocks. Could have washed down from higher elevation.
Composition could be quartz monzonite embedded with large feldspar or pyrite crystals.
\"Probably the airplanes will bring week-enders from Los Angeles before long, and the beautiful poor bedraggled old town will bloom with a
Floridian ugliness.\" (John Steinbeck, 1940, discussing the future of La Paz, BCS, Mexico)
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vgabndo
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Whale-ista
Interesting looking.
It would be helpful to know exactly where you found this.
Near the coast? Looks rounded, as if tumbled against other rocks. Could have washed down from higher elevation.
Composition could be quartz monzonite embedded with large feldspar or pyrite crystals. |
Yes, clearly water-worn. Found within half a kilometer of the ocean in some pretty heavily "stirred" alluvium. Given the amount of sea bottom material
in this mix, it wouldn't surprise me if the piece was worn in sea water. The square nature of the embedded material does suggest Pyrite.
Undoubtedly, there are people who cannot afford to give the anchor of sanity even the slightest tug. Sam Harris
"The situation is far too dire for pessimism."
Bill Kauth
Carl Sagan said, "We are a way for the cosmos to know itself."
PEACE, LOVE AND FISH TACOS
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Marinero
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Interesting rock. Looks water worn, but later weather eroded. Mineral content is beyond me, but the various minerals look to be eroded
differentially, which may be a clue. My WAG is a conglomerate of some sort.
Si estás buscando la person que cambiará su vida, échale una mirada en el espejo.
Fish logo from www.usafishing.com, used w/permission.
But Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man
That he didn't, didn't already have..... |
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Skipjack Joe
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I don't think that's conglomerate rock, Perry. Conglomerate is sedimentary rock where the components have been fused together due to compression from
weight of the water column and above sediments.
Your rock looks as though the fusion occurred somehow differently. So I did a bit of research and came up with breccia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breccia
Apparently there are different types of breccia, formed in different ways, including sedimentary. Given the nature of baja it's likely due to fault,
tectonic, or volcanic.
I've seen these types of rocks in death valley as well ... I think.
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Skipjack Joe
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Actually, I don't think it's breccia either. Conglomerates and Breccias are individual rocks cemented by mineral material. In your pictures I don't
see actual individual rocks but a rock that is a composite of several minerals that somehow got combined.
My new guess is that it's metamorphic rock of some sort that's been rounded by water.
[Edited on 4-24-2014 by Skipjack Joe]
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David K
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Maybe it's dinosaur egg painted for Easter?
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volcano
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schist in granite?
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bajalearner
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| Quote: | Originally posted by David K
Maybe it's dinosaur egg painted for Easter? |
Impossible. Dinosaurs lived before Jesus Christ so they would not have celebrated Easter.
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Osprey
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I wouldn't take it for granite.
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Skipjack Joe
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Osprey
I wouldn't take it for granite.
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Looks just marbleous.
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Mexitron
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Gneiss one Skipjack.
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vgabndo
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Are you guys stoned?
Undoubtedly, there are people who cannot afford to give the anchor of sanity even the slightest tug. Sam Harris
"The situation is far too dire for pessimism."
Bill Kauth
Carl Sagan said, "We are a way for the cosmos to know itself."
PEACE, LOVE AND FISH TACOS
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David K
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| Quote: | Originally posted by bajalearner
| Quote: | Originally posted by David K
Maybe it's dinosaur egg painted for Easter? |
Impossible. Dinosaurs lived before Jesus Christ so they would not have celebrated Easter. |
I didn't mean the dinosaurs painted it... it could have been found millions of years later, then painted? 
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Mexitron
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| Quote: | Originally posted by vgabndo
Are you guys stoned? |
Maybe, but who gives a schist?
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Osprey
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That's a boulder statement than I expected.
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Skipjack Joe
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Do you find the source of the rock confusing?
It's really very sedimentary, my dear Watson, sedimentary.
[Edited on 4-24-2014 by Skipjack Joe]
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Skipjack Joe
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I horde these rocks. Don't know what they are but to me they're beautiful.
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Whale-ista
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Skipjack Joe
I horde these rocks. Don't know what they are but to me they're beautiful. |
Lovely! Nice looking piece of quartz.
Where did you find it? The location and surrounding landscape tells a lot.
The reddish, weathered boulders around Cataviña are a form of granite known as
quartz monzonite. It's part of the uplifted batholith that extends all along the San Andreas fault, from Central Baja up to Joshua Tree.
There will be variations, depending on innumerable environmental/weather/exposure factors, but the basic characteristics and appearance are similar-
and makes for great bouldering/rock climbing!
(I used to travel these areas with a geologist)
Science doesn't take the beauty/mystery out of a fondness for nature. If anything, I appreciate what I see around me even more after learning about
the natural history of the places I visit.
\"Probably the airplanes will bring week-enders from Los Angeles before long, and the beautiful poor bedraggled old town will bloom with a
Floridian ugliness.\" (John Steinbeck, 1940, discussing the future of La Paz, BCS, Mexico)
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