Post by Ryan on May 16, 2011 1:22:27 GMT -5
Hi yall!
Representing the North / Mid-West faction of MAGMA, John (xtldigger) Mike (Bammer) and myself (Ryan) had a dig at the Penfield Quarry in Penfield outside of Rochester NY during their open house this weekend. From what I understand, this is not a place one can just wander into and dig so I feel thankful to the other two I was with for inviting me. I am calling this report "1" because Im sure Bammer and John will post their remarks, pics and finds in the near future.
We dug in the silurian aged dolomite in search of dolomite, calcite, selenite, and a few (if lucky) nice flourite crystals. Sulfur, fossils, pyrite and other nice rarities and oddities also exist there. I saw one guy who had a wonderfully preserved complete gastropod fossils decorated ever so scantly with lustrous dolomite xls and micro calcites that shimmered like sugar. It was awesome. I dont know if the guy even knew what a cool find it was. Paleontologic and geologic specimin in one, and an aesthetically pleasing one at that!
Anyhow, for starters, we the northeast/midwest faction of MAGMA mine a bit differently than our compadres down south. We use Power Tools! ;D ;D ;D
John, Bammer and I had split the rental on a K12 Concrete and stone saw and it was AMAZING to mine with it. I have worked HOURS on crystals at the Ray mine to free them from boulders, or been asked to move by other miners when I was a-whackin with my sledge on boulders at the Tree trying to free a small segment to scan the inside of, but not today, on THIS day, I simply cut the good stuff out of Elephant to Volkswagen to Dump Truck sized rocks in 15 seconds with this bad boy!! I think Im spoiled now, I dont know if I can do it the old fashioned way anymore!
The Quarry, a dolomite road metal quarry, was fairly huge. We were able to drive right in. You basically drive right up to a rock you want to work, pull out the tools and go. Fantastic.
Many folks showed up. Old and Young. Heres about where we parked. You can see Bammer getting tools from the truck on the left. My little Scion is at the bottom left corner. This is a composite shot I made from three pics.
Here is a much bigger composite I made from 8 pics. This is the view 180 degrees from the other composite. Like I said, BIIIG quarry.
My first find of the day was actually a vug Bammer put me on and inside were two nice parallel growth cluster Dogtooth Calcite XLS growing in and among lustrous dolomite rhombs. John watched as I struggled to figure out the saw and made a few cuts. Then he showed me the right way to do it and helped me extract it. It displays very nicely. Like a little crescent moon. Specimin sits between 4-9 inches tall depending on which side is up, it has three flat spots it can sit on from the saw. Heres a couple views:
Here are some more dogtooth and parallel growth calcites with dolomite that I found. The center one is the smallest but I think its my favorite from the whole day. Its just such a pretty little perfect piece. Whats even better is that it is perched on two small mineralized gastropod fossils <see inset>. I have about 5-6 of these, I didnt get good pics of the other 2 or 3. Id consider trading with a few of these.
Next is a piece of Gypsum var. Selenite. Its a little chunk I found floating in a blast pile. Would like to see what it was part of before the blast! John said the Selenite here will fill in vugs and because its clear, will make little "windows" filled with calcite and dolomite.
Flourite!! I didnt find a whole lot of Flourite. I did end up with a few crystals that formed in dolomite vugs. Top left piece is the largest. Top right is perched at a vug opening and I see more crystals behind it! Im so tempted to dig in and expose them but Im afraid Ill damage the piece and ruin it. Also, notice the awesome phantom on the bottom closeup of the top left crystal. Its such a dark thin color zone line that almost looks manmade. This piece is especially cool because it has all three prominant minerals all bunched together. Dolomite, calcite, and flourite. (Calcite to the left of me, Dolomite to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle with you) Very cool find:
I also took home a nice selection of dolomite samples for my collection and for trading and such. The dolomite seemed to occur one of two ways here. In off-white to honey colored crystals densly packed or in smaller white lustrous crystals scattered over dark grey rock with what looked like "calcite sugar" making the specimins sparkle.
I had a blast and came home with a lot of cool rocks and crystals. Thanks to xtldigger and bammer for the invite and good company. And thanks to you for lookin!
Representing the North / Mid-West faction of MAGMA, John (xtldigger) Mike (Bammer) and myself (Ryan) had a dig at the Penfield Quarry in Penfield outside of Rochester NY during their open house this weekend. From what I understand, this is not a place one can just wander into and dig so I feel thankful to the other two I was with for inviting me. I am calling this report "1" because Im sure Bammer and John will post their remarks, pics and finds in the near future.
We dug in the silurian aged dolomite in search of dolomite, calcite, selenite, and a few (if lucky) nice flourite crystals. Sulfur, fossils, pyrite and other nice rarities and oddities also exist there. I saw one guy who had a wonderfully preserved complete gastropod fossils decorated ever so scantly with lustrous dolomite xls and micro calcites that shimmered like sugar. It was awesome. I dont know if the guy even knew what a cool find it was. Paleontologic and geologic specimin in one, and an aesthetically pleasing one at that!
Anyhow, for starters, we the northeast/midwest faction of MAGMA mine a bit differently than our compadres down south. We use Power Tools! ;D ;D ;D
John, Bammer and I had split the rental on a K12 Concrete and stone saw and it was AMAZING to mine with it. I have worked HOURS on crystals at the Ray mine to free them from boulders, or been asked to move by other miners when I was a-whackin with my sledge on boulders at the Tree trying to free a small segment to scan the inside of, but not today, on THIS day, I simply cut the good stuff out of Elephant to Volkswagen to Dump Truck sized rocks in 15 seconds with this bad boy!! I think Im spoiled now, I dont know if I can do it the old fashioned way anymore!
The Quarry, a dolomite road metal quarry, was fairly huge. We were able to drive right in. You basically drive right up to a rock you want to work, pull out the tools and go. Fantastic.
Many folks showed up. Old and Young. Heres about where we parked. You can see Bammer getting tools from the truck on the left. My little Scion is at the bottom left corner. This is a composite shot I made from three pics.
Here is a much bigger composite I made from 8 pics. This is the view 180 degrees from the other composite. Like I said, BIIIG quarry.
My first find of the day was actually a vug Bammer put me on and inside were two nice parallel growth cluster Dogtooth Calcite XLS growing in and among lustrous dolomite rhombs. John watched as I struggled to figure out the saw and made a few cuts. Then he showed me the right way to do it and helped me extract it. It displays very nicely. Like a little crescent moon. Specimin sits between 4-9 inches tall depending on which side is up, it has three flat spots it can sit on from the saw. Heres a couple views:
Here are some more dogtooth and parallel growth calcites with dolomite that I found. The center one is the smallest but I think its my favorite from the whole day. Its just such a pretty little perfect piece. Whats even better is that it is perched on two small mineralized gastropod fossils <see inset>. I have about 5-6 of these, I didnt get good pics of the other 2 or 3. Id consider trading with a few of these.
Next is a piece of Gypsum var. Selenite. Its a little chunk I found floating in a blast pile. Would like to see what it was part of before the blast! John said the Selenite here will fill in vugs and because its clear, will make little "windows" filled with calcite and dolomite.
Flourite!! I didnt find a whole lot of Flourite. I did end up with a few crystals that formed in dolomite vugs. Top left piece is the largest. Top right is perched at a vug opening and I see more crystals behind it! Im so tempted to dig in and expose them but Im afraid Ill damage the piece and ruin it. Also, notice the awesome phantom on the bottom closeup of the top left crystal. Its such a dark thin color zone line that almost looks manmade. This piece is especially cool because it has all three prominant minerals all bunched together. Dolomite, calcite, and flourite. (Calcite to the left of me, Dolomite to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle with you) Very cool find:
I also took home a nice selection of dolomite samples for my collection and for trading and such. The dolomite seemed to occur one of two ways here. In off-white to honey colored crystals densly packed or in smaller white lustrous crystals scattered over dark grey rock with what looked like "calcite sugar" making the specimins sparkle.
I had a blast and came home with a lot of cool rocks and crystals. Thanks to xtldigger and bammer for the invite and good company. And thanks to you for lookin!
