A lot of rocks and some dirt

“I went to a geology conference with school this past weekend up in Salam, MA. Saw some rocks and then some more rocks and then some dirt. It was actually a really cool trip! I learned alot about glacier activity in MA, visited archeo-geology sites, studied the geology of the buildings of Boston, did quite a bit of hiking, learned more about the Salem witch hysteria, went to Marblehead and saw the beautiful beaches, climbed to the top of the Bunker Hill memorial, dug into a drumlin, learned how to use a hand auger(sp?), and saw alot of rocks and dirt.

Here's a link to pictures (the one's from Boston will be posted later)

so many rocks”

“nobody likes rocks? :(”

“They like to get their rocks off :-))”

“Rocks hurt when you fall on them.”

“Alluvium, shmuvium

I like to chuck a rock now and then.”

“Mermit Crab?? He was tiny and cute! I liked the weathering pic. It looked like a big mushroom. Thanks for sharing.”

“According to some horticulturists that i know, the proper term is "soil" and not "dirt"... (dirt has non-nutritive value)... :-)”

“Now we have the dirt on dirt!”

“As an old professor of mine used to say; "the only people who play with rocks are convicts and geologists"”

“Topsoil, sand, gravel, clay, and silt were all present in the profile (though not in the order in which I've written the words).”

“The dude's name is Stone and he's into geology?”

“Funny right?

The trip was such a blast!”

“Sir Robin : You twit! I soiled my armor I was so scared!”

“Bloody fool!!!”

“... A rock feels no pain
and an island never cries ...”

“....and a zombie smells
like something from hell....”

“Goof balls....or is that Dirt Balls? or maybe soil balls?

Anywho!

Boston pictures are up now too...just pas the first 4 pages or maybe it was 500 pages?”

“I just had ton of rocks deleivered to make a walkway with. Nice big, sparkly warm grey slabs of somethings with lots of mica in it. Just beautiful stuff!”

“Sounds like the Wissahickon schist to me. Lovely stuff. If you're lucky, it may have low grade garnets imbedded in it. Dark reddish-black nuggets.”

“sounds like to me if somebody has got Wissahickon schist (what geo said) they better get to the doctor! Sounds like means stuff.”

“Sumbunny's lysdexic!”

“Treebait, where was the quarry where those rocks were quarried?”

““Sounds like the Wissahickon schist to me.

Drinking dark beer normally gives me that.”

“Sumbunny ills iz lysdexic.”

“Sounds too pretty to walk on. :)”

“Yep, some pieces have small garnet crystals! Weehoo, that's a lot of work prepping ground and moving rocks! I thought it was a type of schist when we were looking at it, but it's been 15 years since geology class. I guess my memory is still working after all!
last edited: 4/21/05 11:57:37 AM”

“How lovely! Take a picture and post it so we may all see your schisty walkway. lol!


I went to a mine this past weekend with my mineralogy class and now have some lovely pieces o'fluorescent minerals, i.e., willemite, hardystonite, and plenty of calcite. Need to get a UV so I can see them fluoresce at home. What a dork!

Here are pictures: gone mining”

“Twinkle Toes, you should check out the garnet mine at Gore Mountain in North Creek, NY. It holds one of the largest garnet deposits in the world.”

“Okay, I'm officially wiped out now. I got 4/5 of the stones "dry" placed. Yikes.”

“Just keep telling yourself how nice it will look when you're done.”

“Twinks went to Ogdensburg, NJ.”

“Twinks, didja get to the museum in Franklin? They have an impressive display of all that stuff, and when they turn the flourescent lights on it takes the breath away.

You need a shortwave UV light. The ones they sell in Spencer Gifts won't flouresce the minerals right.”

“Treebait, were was your schist quarried?”

“I have no idea, Geo. We saw a pallet of the stuff, bought it ans that's that. It looks it though. Many mostly square pieces, nicely planed.”

“Seafloor sediments scraped off a subducting plate - the very top of an ophiolite suite.”

“I know the schist runs at least through North Carolina and probably into Georgia. I was hoping to get a locality to pinpoint it a little closer.”

“No, went mineral hunting in the dump area behind the museum instead. The Sterling Mine tour had some nice displays. Yeah, I read about the UV light issue. Some work best under short-wave, some best under long-wave (mostly sphalerite).”

“Shoot, I just looked at your pix Twinks. I think that's the same guide I had on a public tour.”

“I have a small box of flourescent minerals from both of those mines and a little portable light. I made up a graphic map display in flourescent ink. It's pretty neat.”

“Really? We have to put a large display together for a school project. I'd love to see what you did with yours. Can you post a picture?”

“I'll try to give a more detailed description. It's mostly small crystal mica, and quite a bit of quartzite. Some pieces have very small garnet crystals, while others have pyrite and what appears to be pale peridot. It's very brittle/ soft, and planes apart very easily. The edges cut like a steak knife, no lie.”

“Not until sometime next week. But all I did was take a plastic box and just put the rocks in it. I drew an outline map of NJ on a 2x4" sticker with a flourescent pen, then put a star over Franklin's location with another color flourescent pen.

I did not lable the rocks, which I would venture to guess they want you to do.

There is a modest display of Franklin minerals at the Geology Museum at Rutgers. It does not begin to compare to the Franklin display though.

I like to go to Franklin when they have the rock and mineral show and sale. I always stop and tell the coal fossil dealers that got their stuff from St. Clair where it came from. They wonder how I know. Easy, it's the stuff that's white instead of black!”

“You might also find kyanite crystals - thin blades of light blue.

There is a huge kyanite mine in Buckingham County, Va., which has stuff that I've seen nowhere else. They've removed the top off a mountain to get at it, and I've been there twice to collect samples. It takes just a few minutes to load a day pack down to where I can barely carry it back down to the car.

About 20 miles west of there is a large serpentinite area along the Nelson-Albemarle County border (Waltons country). Their soapstone is world famous. The original soapstone steps of Independence Hall in Philadelphia were quarried at Miquon along the Schuylkill River just outside Philadelphia. When they replaced the old worn steps, they quarried the soapstone at the Alberene quarries in Virginia. I built a soapstone walkway when I lived in the hills north of Charlottesville. That was a lot of fun.”

“A little bit south of that map is a location where there is a bed of asbestos serpentinite derived from mantle material. It's very soft and can be cut out with a pocket knife. Not far away is a bed of migmatite - a metamorphic sandstone - that will dull a chisel in just moments.”

“Geo has rocks in his head.”

“MarkO sleeps with rocks.”

“Amazingly enough, after moving around a ton of rocks, the only thing that hurts is my left heel, where the achilles tendon connects. That's it. Cool.”

“We finished the walkway up today. We just need to edge it with some other rock soon. Maybe next weekend. I'll have HPM post some pictures this afternoon or evening.”