Oddballs and Snowcones

Jasper with graceful seam, Discovery Bay, WA

Sometimes, when walking the shoreline looking for rocks,  you stumble onto complete oddballs - rocks so weird that they just jump out at you. That was the case for this one. I was walking the western shoreline of Discovery Bay, a place I'd never been before, picking up odds and ends during a brief, but intense, hailstorm. I found lots of the usual: bits of quartz, agate, red jasper.
Then I came across this thing. I think it's a piece of jasper with a white quartz seam running through it, but not quite like anything I've ever seen before, sort of like a melting scoop of ice cream. The bold pattern jumped out at me, and it went straight into my collecting bag. Can't wait to polish it and see what that reveals.

Return of the River

Variolites,  Elwha River

One of the biggest things happening in the Northwest this year has been the beginning of two dam removals from the Elwha River on the Olympic Peninsula. It is a huge project, the largest dam removal effort ever undertaken in the US and promises to restore both a spectacular river and the salmon runs that used to inhabit it.  For more information on the project, see here.

I had a chance to visit a part of the river yesterday that has re-emerged from the lake that once covered it;  gravel bars have appeared that I have never seen before!  And those gravels were covered with a rock that I have been tracking for years - Variolites (see previous posts here). I have been convinced that one major source for this rock is in the Elwha Valley. Now after finding dozens within a small area, I am convinced of it. I guess the trick will be to travel upstream until I can't find them anymore - and then look in between!

These things have no gem value, or any other reason for being sought, other than personal obsession. Stay tuned.

Just Before Dark

The sun was shining today - a rarity in March! - which makes beachcombing difficult.  Everything is more reflective, and although glassy rocks like agates show up well, others do not. So after the sun went down I took a short walk on a nearby beach, and brought home just a pocket full: a couple of nice petrified wood and jasper pieces - and a spotted thing I can't identify.
I am heading away from familiar beaches tomorrow and looking for agates in the southwestern part of the state, which may involve a lot of probing and digging. We'll see how THAT goes...

A Morning's Work

Agate, Jasper and.....?

A half hour walk on the beach near my house proved very productive today - ending up with a bag I could barely manage to carry back to the car.  Some of the highlights are pictured here - a banded jasper, a moss agate, a petrified wood and some other things I wouldn't dare to name... All will go into the tumbler this weekend - and if I remember, I'll post the polished forms next week.

Hiding From The Wind

Polka Dot Jasper/Agate, Elliot Bay

The wind has been blowing A LOT lately, which makes collecting difficult along my close-by locations along eastern Puget Sound. Hard to see much, or stay dry, when waves are breaking along these normally-placid shores!  Happily, I know one secret cobble beach, on a protected shore of Elliot Bay, where I often find some interesting things.

So on a recent blustery day, I spent a few minutes picking along this quiet beach and found some nice things, including this unusual polka-dot jasper-agate. I've never seen anything like it in the area but, as  always, its actual provenance is a mystery.  But I'll certainly be on the lookout for more!

Structure

Complex cobble, Lincoln Park

Geology was my first major at the University of Washington, and although I eventually got bogged down in the chemistry and calculus, I loved the field trips. We rafted down NW rivers, hiked in the mountains and even chartered a plane for an educational - and spectacular - flight around Mt. Rainier.

My favorite course was one called Structural Geology, in which we used the patterns of rock to understand their history and formation. From a hand sample, we learned to use the patterns of intrusions, folds and colors to trace its story.  It was challenging, but fun.

Since then, I have been fascinated by rocks with complex stories to tell. It may be hard to see in this picture, but the middle of this rock (found this morning in Seattle) is a contact between two different kinds of rock, both with strong, but perpendicular linear elements. One half  is dark with layering along the rock's long axis - the other half is much lighter in color, and with layers at a 90 degree angle. Weird, huh?

Weird...and beautiful.  I don't know what to call it, or how it formed; I'll know more after I've polished it and can study it a bit more.

Using the "Search Image"

Petrified Wood, Alki Point

When I patrol the beaches near my home, looking for colorful or unusual rocks, I try to keep a mental image of what I am looking for, what scientists call a "search image." This refers to having a visual sense of what you're after when you set out, which can give you an advantage in spotting one specific kind of rock among thousands. Normally, I look for bold patterns, or bright colors - the easiest things to see. But today I made an effort to look at black rocks. My goal? To find specimens of petrified wood.

As I have mentioned in earlier posts, there is a form of black petrified wood that I have found many times on local beaches, though normally as small cobbles that reveal their patterns only after polished. I have no idea where the rock originates, but I am guessing it is somewhere relatively nearby, simply judging by the relative abundance of the stuff.

So I set out today with the idea of concentrating on finding these pieces of dark wood. This may be why I found this piece within 15 minutes of searching the beach, by far the largest piece of petrified wood I have ever found along the shore.  Did my "search image" make the difference, making this rather drab piece of rock stand out?  I think it did.

Though this piece looks drab now in its unpolished state, I will try and post a picture of it after polishing - look for it a few weeks from now. Until then, I will probably be back looking for other pieces of streaky black rock...