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Fritz
Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - May 12, 2015 - 09:46pm PT
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Last week in SE Utah, the most interesting rock I found, and left behind, was this hand-sized chunk of polished igneous rock.
Based on it being on top of a mesa with only sandstone around, and the close association of Anaszi ruins, I consider it a mano or grinding stone left behind at least 700 years ago when the Anaszi left the area due to an extended drought.
From another Anaszi site, here's a broken metate (also left behind) that a mano would have been used on to grind grain. (there is a chunk of an ancient corncob in the metate) Of course there is a deeper sexual linkage to those matched stones too------but this is a rock thread.
However Hedi really liked this eroded sandstone shot that her artist's eye found.
and of course there were the great rock Anaszi ruins.
& the striking rock formations that you know you can't climb, without draging all that heavy climbing gear to them.
OK, OK---so I'm wrong on occasion.
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Fritz
Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - May 19, 2015 - 05:19pm PT
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Of course many of us old farts on ST remember the snappy Coasters song "Poison Ivy."
The lyrics included: You're gonna need a ocean of Calamine Lotion------
But since the Coasters first recorded the song in 1959, dozens of bands including the Rolling Stones have also recorded versions of Poison Ivy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poison_Ivy_(song);
And how----------you ask does this relate to rocks?
Very well indeed!
Calamine is a historic name for an ore of zinc. The name calamine was derived from the Belgian town of Kelmis, whose French name is "La Calamine", which is home to a zinc mine. In the 18th and 19th century large ore mines could be found near the German village of Breinigerberg.
During the early 19th century it was discovered that what had been thought to be one ore was actually two distinct minerals:
Zinc carbonate ZnCO3 or smithsonite and
Zinc silicate Zn4Si2O7(OH)2·H2O or hemimorphite.
The two minerals are usually very similar in appearance and can usually only be distinguished though laboratory analysis.The first person to separate the minerals was the British chemist and mineralogist James Smithson in 1803.[1] In the mining industry the term calamine is still used to refer to both minerals indiscriminately.
In mineralogy calamine is no longer considered a valid term. It has been replaced by smithsonite and hemimorphite in order to distinguish it from the pinkish mixture of zinc oxide (ZnO) and iron(III) oxide (Fe2O3) used in calamine lotion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calamine_(mineral);
I've occasionaly have found small & unimpressive mineral specimens that I thought were Smithsonite, but I long ago traded some Idaho rocks for a great sample of it & other nice mineral specimens from the Bingham area of New Mexico.
Then two years back, I found some very nice blue microcrystals at an old mine in the Mountains of NE Nevada. I thought they were Smithsonite, but an exchange of emails with the co-author of "Minerals of Nevada" revealed the crystals were Hemimorphite.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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May 19, 2015 - 05:23pm PT
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Mystery crag, Nevadastan...
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the albatross
Gym climber
Flagstaff
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May 19, 2015 - 05:37pm PT
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Anyone interested in minerals and / or prospecting should check out the mindat website.
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Fritz
Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - May 19, 2015 - 09:28pm PT
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Thanks for posting your nice rocks!
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Flip Flop
climber
Earth Planet, Universe
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May 19, 2015 - 09:33pm PT
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Darwin
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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May 20, 2015 - 09:22am PT
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A rock short and a day late?
From my sister's house. The ones in the basket on the left are from the Central California Coast, and the ones on the right are from a beach in Findhorn, Scotland. I'll do better on a real Tuesday.
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Fritz
Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 2, 2015 - 05:24pm PT
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I went into the wilds of Idaho this weekend, looking for a likely rock to post up. On Sat. my old climbing pal Stein & I went looking for a not quite lost, but impossible to find, mine in the foothills of the Pioneer Range. Stein is a registered surveyor & I'm fairly good with a GPS (for a codger), & we had (for our second try) a map reference and a description of the mine.
We killed about four hours hiking steep hillsides, but did have some nice scenery in the distance.
The mine remains lost. I may now be getting obsessional about finding it.
Having hiked Stein to exhaustion, I drove through afternoon showers somewhat deeper into deepest Idaho. Everytime I stopped for a hike, in the high desert, I was swarmed by mosquitoes. I drove to the driest low summit I could think of and thought I had found the spot.
After camp was set up, the mosquitoes started visiting. It was never bad, but it was tough to study a print-out of the next day's agenda. I was going to an area new to me & searching for Fluorite crystals.
I enjoyed a good mountain hike the next day and found some ok, but not spectacular cubic Fluorite crystals. I love them anyway!
I knew much rain was coming on Monday, and I was not disappointed.
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the albatross
Gym climber
Flagstaff
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Thanks for posting up, Fritz, sure is fun to do some prospecting.
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Fritz
Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 2, 2015 - 09:58pm PT
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On the hike with Stein, we found some fresh & strange scat. Stein put a 25 cent piece next to it for scale, and swears it's Yeti scat.
Since, I don't believe in Yeti's, all I can do is post the photo for him & those Yeti's believers here.
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MH2
Boulder climber
Andy Cairns
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Jun 16, 2015 - 08:56pm PT
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this just in
climber
Justin Ross from North Fork
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Jun 16, 2015 - 09:07pm PT
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Wow Ney Grant!
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Darwin
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jun 16, 2015 - 10:41pm PT
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Ney Grant;
^^ That caught my eye, too!
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doughnutnational
Gym climber
its nice here in the spring
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Is the granite slot the millerton caves?
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Fritz
Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 9, 2015 - 06:30pm PT
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Gneiss photos!
thebravecowboy: I do like splitting rocks & finding nice results like your photos.
My friend Jerry & I are just back from a three day journey into "Deepest Idaho." A 500 mile round trip with 160 miles of it on dirt roads. We fished for Cutthroats, hiked up high hills in search of exercise, dined & drank well, while hoping evening thunderstorms didn't smack us, & even found some old mines & mineral specimens.
We hiked about two miles & fished back up to our camp on the afternoon of day one. Hiked up about 2,200 vertical feet, mostly on old mining roads on day two, then fished for two hours that afternoon. The morning of day 3, we hiked off trail up 1,200 vertical feet to an old mine for a great view, made it back to camp by noon, & barely beat the mother of all thunderstorms out of the area.
I can barely move today.
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