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Fritz

Trad climber

Choss Creek, ID

Topic Author's Reply - Feb 23, 2016 - 09:03am PT

Hey! Great rocks folks! Thanks for sharing!

We ended up sharing a table for lunch with some other collectors at the Tucson Gem & Mineral Show, after we had been astonished by the many fantastic mineral specimens, like those I posted above.

After some small talk about the wonderful minerals on display, I mentioned I had been a mineral collector for about 55 years and I had my lifetime collection at home. I then turned to Heidi and casually mentioned that when we got home, I would box up my collection and haul it to the county landfill.

Jest kidding, but it was apparent my collection is pretty-much schist as compared to what was on exhibit.

I did buy some in-expensive mineral specimens to complement the lesser examples of those minerals I've found in Idaho.

I still can console myself that I've found some pretty-good quartz crystals in Idaho's mountains.

and some fetching fluorite.

and some good garnets.

And then there are the strange black & green minerals that I manage to find big crystals of in Idaho.

GuapoVino

climber

Feb 23, 2016 - 10:12am PT

Boulder sculpted by the water of the Rio Grande in Santa Elena Canyon in Big Bend. Saw it last week paddling through the canyon.

Gnome Ofthe Diabase

climber

Out Of Bed

Feb 23, 2016 - 10:16am PT

I want thnx those who get IT

what that this woman is,

and does in the many ways
That are rare and Gem-like

ANITAROCK S !

WyoRockMan

climber

Grizzlyville, WY

Feb 23, 2016 - 02:32pm PT

Har har, a lahar from Yellowstone. As seen from the Southfork of the Shoshone.

WyoRockMan

climber

Grizzlyville, WY

Mar 1, 2016 - 09:09pm PT

Upper Cretaceous shark tooth, Taylor Marl, Central Texarse.

Fritz

Trad climber

Choss Creek, ID

Topic Author's Reply - Mar 8, 2016 - 05:26pm PT

mouse from merced

Trad climber

The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.

Mar 16, 2016 - 10:29am PT

Mostly pestles.

Priced to sell.

Fritz

Trad climber

Choss Creek, ID

Topic Author's Reply - Mar 29, 2016 - 12:32pm PT

Magnetite, Iron Oxide Fe2+Fe3+2O4, is the most magnetic of all minerals & is extremely common worldwide. However, its striking octahedral crystals are of interest to collectors, although only rarely do magnetite crystals have a nice shiny finish. Although it normally is not magnetized, that can occur in nature. Historically, magnetized pieces were called "Loadstones" & were used in primitive compasses.

Wikipedia has a fascinating article on Magnetite. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetite

What they mention, is that magnetite concentrates in the beaks of some birds and may contribute to navigation feats that migrating birds perform. They also quote two articles that magnetite may well contribute to route-finding abilities in some humans.

Biomagnetism is usually related to the presence of biogenic crystals of magnetite, which occur widely in organisms.[11] These organisms range from bacteria (e.g., Magnetospirillum magnetotacticum) to animals and humans, where magnetite crystals (and other magnetically-sensitive compounds) are found in different organs, depending on the species.[12][13] Biomagnetites account for the effects of weak magnetic fields on biological systems.[14] There is also a chemical basis for cellular sensitivity to electric and magnetic fields (galvanotaxis).[15

It's been good hunting for Idaho magnetite the last few years and I've found nice crystals in several different mining areas. However, my most shiny crystals are from Peru.

Here's some of my best & or largest Idaho magnetite crystals.

This one was luckily only 100 feet from a road, since it is pure magnetite & weighs about 25 lbs.

The most common crystal form for magnetite is at top left.

mouse from merced

Trad climber

The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.

Apr 11, 2016 - 08:05am PT

It's Monday, but my rocks don't care.

I have a select group of friendly rocks that I have hauled up to mIddle eArth to abide with me and to remind me of where I have beenst.Some, like these, reside on the window ledge, lichen the view and the sometimes sunlight.
Others, serving a more utilitarian purpose, are counterweights on the drop-leaf whereon I type and post.I may talk to the rocks, but they don't hear and don't care, for we exist on two different levels.
They ultimately serve me as memento moris.
The difference between mein host Fritz and myself as collectors is night and day.

He sciences the schist out of things, while I just like to kick it and go along for the ride.

Either way, it's cool. No pressure.

Fritz

Trad climber

Choss Creek, ID

Topic Author's Reply - Apr 12, 2016 - 04:27pm PT

Gneiss Rocks Mouse. Good to have you along.

Last week I did a road-trip down to the Tonapah area and visited a couple mines east of Lunning on the first afternoon. One offered a nice hike after I reached a favorable agreement with the local guard bull, who was suspicious of me.

The mine had a "contact" area that had been mined for tungsten minerals. An intrusive mass of hot granitic rocks had cooked the limestone or dolomite it pushed into. This contact metamorphism often produces desirable minerals, which in my case included garnets the original miners weren't much interested in.

They got the tungsten & maybe some copper & I got an afternoon's fun. A win-win all around.

The mine was interesting too, since they had driven a tunnel (adit) into the hill, then followed the mineralized contact zone up to the surface. It was easy to scramble up to the open stope (the zone they had mined out) & look at what the miners had achieved.

Wikipedia tells me that this type of stope mining is called stull stoping.

Stull stoping is a form of stoping used in hardrock mining that uses systematic or random timbering ("stulls") placed between the foot and hanging wall of the vein. The method requires that the hanging wall and often the footwall be of competent rock as the stulls provide the only artificial support. This type of stope has been used up to a depth of 3,500 feet (1,077 m) and at intervals up to 12 feet (3.7 m) wide

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoping

Here's a photo of the upper end of the open stope. Rather than haul the ore out the top, I believe the miners worked up from below & sent the ore tumbling down chutes to waiting ore cars, which carried the ore out to the big ore bin below the adit.

Here's a distant view of the whole mine. I have labled the adit & stopes for your viewing pleasure.

After bivying in the 99 year old Mizpah Hotel in Tonopah, I ventured out to the west the next day and found more mines with contact metamorphism & more minerals of interest, but mostly garnets.

I once again lucked out & after hiking up to some mines I was able to follow a series of small adits along a contact zone between granite & dolomite for almost 1/2 mile.

I found more andradrite garnets, some green grossular garnets, some ore that might be antimony, and some calcite. I was entertained.

Towards the end of my hike, my pack was getting heavy, but the contact zone & the possibility of finding something better kept me going. I finally turned back after the quality of garnets took a decided turn for the worst. The below photo shows some 1/2" diameter ones that apparently didn't get cooked well. The garnets are opaque & the rock they are in is soft & flakes away at a touch.

I bivyed again in Tonopah, but the weather forecast was schisty. But on the bright side! I got to stay in the special room reserved for climbers.
I started home early the next morning after my first-ever shower in a claw-foot bathtub.

Fritz

Trad climber

Choss Creek, ID

Topic Author's Reply - Apr 12, 2016 - 05:08pm PT

DMT: Thanks! I watched a long news report on the Chilean rescue, but wasn't aware of a movie. I'll put it on my list.

mouse from merced

Trad climber

The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.

Apr 12, 2016 - 05:15pm PT

Is that a schist list, Fritz?

Nice TR, bud.

thebravecowboy

climber

The Good Places

Apr 12, 2016 - 08:25pm PT

Two hours ago, I was lost in marine transgression when across the road appeared a man gabbing happily about a "handjam at the top."
Grabbed my shoes out the trunk and then I ducked down a layer and a few hundreds of thousands or thousands of thousands of years to face a nice stack of riverfloors. The riverbeds dip at about 30 to E and form these fine silica cemented overhanging clifflets with nice regular vertical fractures. . Hopped on five different, wonderfully varnished new-to-me problems: two cracks (one thin featured handcrack and one brutal but brief wiiide hand/tight fist with a slippery steep start) and three harder, thin varnished slick faces. Thought-provoking, those. Then the bats came out and I wondered why I don't do this every night. A fine half hour evening diversion

Fritz

Trad climber

Choss Creek, ID

Topic Author's Reply - Apr 12, 2016 - 08:32pm PT

Brave Cowboy! Thanks for the interesting post & photos. It looks like you are working in a slightly wetter than Utah area.

thebravecowboy

climber

The Good Places

Apr 12, 2016 - 08:41pm PT

Yo Fritz! Yep, Horsetooth Reservoir, northern Front Range.

Turns out some guy named Bachar put up most all of the stoutness on that little clifflet some years back.

Cool to see the stuff you pick up in your travels. Thanks for sharing.

Fritz

Trad climber

Choss Creek, ID

Topic Author's Reply - Apr 19, 2016 - 09:56am PT

After bidding goodbye to Tonopah & the wonderful 99 year old Hotel Mizpah, I drove north through the middle of nowhere & hung a left to go visit the ghost town of Ophir, where I hoped to find some more minerals of interest. What I found instead was a "white-knuckle" 4wd road that climbed steeply up through granite cliffs to 8,200 Ft. & the rocky remains of Ophir.

The road stayed in the canyon bottom & forded the small creek 6 times, but someone had recently cleared away the winter’s rock & tree fall. As is usually the case with new to me mountain tracks, it seemed steep, narrow, & challenging going up, but not too bad on my return trip down-canyon.

The main mine above Ophir was named the Murphy & in the 1860’s a 20 stamp mill was built just below it. Much of the mills impressive stone walls remain, but it’s brick chimney has fallen & the machinery is all gone. I didn’t find any rocks I wanted to drag home, while walking around the mine dump, but I was much taken with the old rock ruins.

Here’s some photos I found online of the mine & mill & town in the 1880’s.

After wandering around the old town for a while, the approaching rain clouds encouraged me to retreat down canyon.

After reaching the mouth of Ophir Canyon, I noticed a side road that took me to the town's boothill. Apparently there wasn't a spot in the canyon for a graveyard.

Near the boothill, I found a willing to pose collared lizard, then drove north past the Wild Granites towards Eureka.

For my final rocks, I hiked a short ways to see some Native American rock-art.

I made it back to Choss Creek by 8:00 PM.