Power Kite Forum

geologists please help me

Houston AirHead - 12-4-2010 at 10:50 PM

I found this stone/rock when I was a kid at the shores of Galveston bay here in south Texas. I had it in my slingshot #@%$#!ed back ready to fire, and decided not to at the last second. I have held on to it ever since.

It weighs as much as a AA battery, maybe more...its very dense too, its almost perfectly round, ideas any one?



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highazakite - 12-4-2010 at 11:04 PM

quartz ?
kinda rare for it to tumble completely round

heliboy50 - 13-4-2010 at 02:44 AM

My guess would be that at some point it was molten, and blown through the air. In my neck of the woods we get Apache tears- obsidian orbs that cooled before they landed during volcanic eruptions. Ejecta from an ancient meteor strike, maybe? No expert, though, but that would be pretty cool. Neat find no matter what.

BigMikesKites - 13-4-2010 at 05:24 AM

It is possible its a fossilized egg. What do I know, I'm a physicist turned Systems Admin turned Kite Salesman.

rocfighter - 13-4-2010 at 06:12 AM

I believe it to be an ancient projectile used for taking down teridactiles blown threw a reed. :lol:
What ever it is it is very cool. And I think the other guesses are way closer than mine!

bobalooie57 - 13-4-2010 at 06:21 AM

With that Dragon Skull mounted on the front of your bug, Roc, I thought you would have recognized that as a 'pygmy' Dragon egg. It might take years of in the pocket heat to hatch, though.:smilegrin:

rocfighter - 13-4-2010 at 10:57 AM

LOL I was thinking kite egg. But to small.
We call the golf balls we find in the kite feilds kite eggs. The LaCross balls are Sutton eggs!!

Hardrock - 13-4-2010 at 01:11 PM

I would take it to a Gem / Hobby shop. I've seen larger rocks like that in the shops cut in half. The have the most amazing colors inside.

Nice find, I've never scored an arrowhead and so many are found around here. If you ever find something like that and a magnet will stick to it, could mean big money!!! Depending which planet it came from.

dgkid78 - 13-4-2010 at 02:32 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Hardrock
I would take it to a Gem / Hobby shop. I've seen larger rocks like that in the shops cut in half. The have the most amazing colors inside.

Nice find, I've never scored an arrowhead and so many are found around here. If you ever find something like that and a magnet will stick to it, could mean big money!!! Depending which planet it came from.


Yeah that would be a "Geode" only 1 way to find out. break it in half:puzzled:


Geodes (Greek γεώδης - geōdēs, "earthlike") are geological rock formations which occur in sedimentary and certain volcanic rocks. Geodes are essentially rock cavities or vugs with internal crystal formations or concentric banding. The exterior of the most common geodes is generally limestone or a related rock, while the interior contains quartz crystals and/or chalcedony deposits. Other geodes are completely filled with crystal, being solid all the way through. These types of geodes are called nodules.

indigo_wolf - 13-4-2010 at 02:40 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by babalooie57
With that Dragon Skull mounted on the front of your bug, Roc, I thought you would have recognized that as a 'pygmy' Dragon egg.


Roc has a Dragon Skull? Pictures please... my GF would be a big fan. :smilegrin:

ATB,
Sam

f0rgiv3n - 13-4-2010 at 02:40 PM

My vote is that it's a geode!!!! There's instructions out there on how to break one in half correctly.

WELDNGOD - 13-4-2010 at 03:57 PM

lapidary saw
I learned to make cabochons at the age of ten and could facet stones by fourteen. I have cut and polished many a geode. And screwed up many more w/ a hammer. It could well be a geode , but I have found many suspect geodes that were actually solid.

Oh, my grandparent were into lapidary and jewelry kind of stuff like lost wax casting and wirecraft. Thet taught me a bunch and I got lots of memories of those days,wish I would have stuck w/it.

Doh! sorry for the hijack , almost a senior moment?

WELDNGOD - 13-4-2010 at 04:00 PM

can you put a bright light behind it and tell if it is semi translucent? Maybe some shadow?

rocfighter - 13-4-2010 at 05:31 PM

Indigo, There is a few pics on here. I have no idea how they got threw though!! I posted them and they got lost. So someone else found them and posted them. I will look for them in the buggy section.
OK it is in Buggy and the post is called my new homemade rat buggy. Posted on 11-21-09
End hyjack

stetson05 - 13-4-2010 at 06:36 PM

I don't think it is a geode. I have had several and none of them looked like that on the outside. Geodes really only occur naturally in certain places. Usually they are much bigger to have a space on the inside as well. I would take it to a rock shop first if you really want to know what it is. It actually to me looks more like marble or a light colored granite.

WELDNGOD - 13-4-2010 at 07:31 PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nodule_(geology)

WELDNGOD - 13-4-2010 at 07:42 PM

wait I just had a thought , that looks unaturally round. There once was a TERRIBLE hurricane a long time ago in galveston. that could well be a remnant of marble or granite from say a graveyard or some ornamental stucture statue or building or other man made piece of quality stone . If it could only talk..... Ahhh maybe I think too damn much... JMO

Houston AirHead - 13-4-2010 at 09:16 PM

good idea weldngod, i hadnt thought about that possibility. It strikes me as somthing from a marine animal, the little black lines are so vein like, and the red splotch looks organic.

but thanks for all of your ideas, ive had the thing since i was about 7 years old, im about to turn 24 this summer. and these are the best ideas ive come across yet.:yes:

heliboy50 - 14-4-2010 at 02:32 AM

Could even be fossilized coral. Lost wax casting, huh, WG? Did a little of that my self.

rocfighter - 14-4-2010 at 04:56 AM

WOW Houston your 24? Now I feel wicked old. We have kids older than you!!!
I think it is one of the great gods passed a ghoul stone. And that is it!!

newtokiting - 14-4-2010 at 05:42 AM

first pic looks like a potato

geokite - 14-4-2010 at 07:21 AM

It is most likely a rounded (very well rounded) piece of quartz, either slightly metamorphic quartz sandstone (quartzite) or from a quartz dike. The rounding could be natural, but more likely it is man induced.

lad - 14-4-2010 at 08:45 AM

If it was found near the shore, the sea could'a rounded it?

f0rgiv3n - 14-4-2010 at 09:26 AM

incubate it... maybe something will hatch

fogg62 - 14-4-2010 at 10:18 AM

I believe it is a "love" rock

Txshooter38 - 14-4-2010 at 03:57 PM

I showed this picture to my geologist friend and he stated:

"Probably a tossed and tumbled piece of chert (silica, natural glass). Probably brought to the Galveston area by an episode of flooding way upstream. Natural form would then tend to be spherical if material homogeneous, because sphere is surface of least area for a given mass; and tendency to be affected by environment is proportional to surface area. Chert or flint, with exposure to surface environment - especially sunshine - tends to form a whitish rind that many mistake for limestone. Thus, many nice specimens of flint are bypassed. Your specimen appears to be a piece of chert containing swirls of light-colored material reflecting infusion of differently contaminated silica. Silica is a gel before hardening which preserves pattern of infusion by several flows of turgid silica. If your specimen is broken, inside is probably brown, mainly, with some striping of lighter colors. As long as your rock is exposed to air and light rind is maintained; it won't wear off."

Hope this helps.

Houston AirHead - 14-4-2010 at 04:14 PM

wow im very impressessed, im printing this statment and keeping it for records, thank you very much !!!!!!!!!!:bouncing: