Continuing On With all Matters Right and Relevant

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Do you know what this is? I saw one yesterday and broke off a stem simply by touching it. Saw another today and left this fragile assemblage alone. Termites! As Jim Boone of BirdandHike.com emailed me: Hi Tom, That is the work of termites. They have to stay underground, so they put mud on above ground stems so they feel like they are underground. The same could be said as: The workers think they need to stay underground, so the ruling class puts mud on above-ground stems so the workers feel like they are still underground. Stay well, Jim Jim Boone Las Vegas, NV birdandhike.com #termites#mojavedesert#desert#inyocounty#naturalworld#insects#mojave

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Limestone Chinese writing rock? Porphyritic something or other. Not igneous, fizzes when powdered. Marine rock country in the North Nopah. ID forthcoming. Rough cut for specimens, too soft for cabs since it can’t produce a high polish. I’m just experimenting, anyway. #geology #limestone#mojave#explore#desert#inyocounty#lapidary#rocks#rockhounding#geologistonboard

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This screamed “Garden rock!” when I walked by. My bad leg screamed “No way!” The rock won. The rock always wins. #o#roadtrip #inyocounty #madness #rockhounding#hiking#exploring#geology #geologistonboard #minerals#musthaveit#deathvalleyregion

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Marine fossils in the rock. I’m not a fossil guy. The paper I reference was behind a paywall. Twenty bucks. I paid it an still going through it. It does mention oolites and I think that’s responsible for the lizard skin texture seen in many of these pieces. #rocks#geology#marinefossils#mojave#desert#inyocounty #fossils#dolostone#nopahwildernessarea #lapidary#

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In The North Nopah. Again.

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I walked the edges of the gully going up, walked in the gully going down. No sign of anything man made on the way up until I got to the top. Disturbed ground actually just bare, exposed limestone. What they did on top would have only taken a trail. Audio boosted on all of today’s videos, the good mike is packed away somewhere with the other stuff I am moving. #geology #roadtrip#geologyrocks#explore#pahrump #inyocounty#nopahrangewilderness

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Working up the canyon. Setting my go back point. Or, I was. #geology #quartz #rockhound #hiking #geologyrocks #nopahwilderness#inyicounty#explore#nature#adventure#outside

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This was my stopping point until I saw higher ground. I bag all peaks. But it turned out to be a fairly wide, broad area of ground with interesting things all around. Next video. #geology #roadtrip #rockhound #hiking #rocks#geologistonboard #outdoors#nature#pahrump#inyocounty

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Unknowingly at this point, I am probably a hundred feet or more above an old working of the Nancy Ann Mine. It has to be below my feet which I’ll get to in another video. Check out the lichen following cracks or fracture lines in these nearby rocks. #geology #geologyrocks #geologistonboard#nopah#pahrump#explore#hiking#mojave#desert#mojavedesert#rocks

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These limestone hills may naturally contain many voids. These were big enough to sleep in. Absolutely no litter anywhere. What I found next was undoubtedly the opening to an air shaft for a mine below, probably well below. I’m unaware of any caves in these hills but entrances these days are not publicized except to a few in the spelunking community or whatever they call themselves. #geology #quartz #rockhound #hiking #explore#outdoors#nopahwilderness #pahrump

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Sorry this isn’t in portrait view. Above the shelters I heard a continuous noise on this fairly windless day. Did not have my external mike. Huge amount of bees around this opening. Constant wind noise which I usually hear from a mine with an unblocked opening somewhere. You tell me, air shaft for the mine or from a cave? People were definitely up here and though it doesn’t look like a man made opening, I’m thinking it could be little else. Could not feel any wind because of the bees preventing me from getting close but that has to be wind noise, coming or going. I wonder if there is moisture below and hence the bees. You tell me! #mines#geology#rocks#caves#limestone#exploring#tunnels#nopah#bees#desert#mojave#inyocounty#geologistonboard#geologyrocks#adventure

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A Quick Two Hours in The North Nopah

Last week I discovered some outbuildings to an old mine on the east side of this particular hill in the North Nopah WA. Today, I was trying to find some clues to the west side claims that make up the old Nopah Group. No luck today, the heat too great to stay out too long.

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A little video and some stills of a quick hike into the North Nopah WA this morning. #geology #roadtrip #quartz #hiking #rocks#rockhounding#inyocounty#pahrump#mines#minerals#explore#getoutdoors#mojavedesertcalifornia

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I always want to climb into canyons, even if they dead end, take hours to explore, or prove nearly impossible to come back down. #mojavedesert #quartz #rockhound #hiking #roadtrip#inyocounty#mining#prospecting #nopahwilderness

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Pretty country when it’s not trying to kill you. #mojavedesert #prospecting #geology #hiking #rocks#inyocounty#roadtrip#pahrump#geologyrocks#limestone #nopahwilderness

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Last notes for today from the field. Quartzite shown dry in the video, dry and wet in the still photos. #geology #quartz #rockhound #hiking #explore#lapidary#mojave#mojavedesert#pahrump#explore#inyocounty#nopahwilderness #

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Again Along the Spanish Trail

Important note from RC. The limestone comes first, not the calcite. In the post I have the process reversed.

Saturday, September 14, 2023

Picked up an odd rock today along the Old Spanish Trail, not far from the Junction of Highway 160. in Clark County, Nevada. What Macrostrat.org calls young fan alluvium. Lots of limestone and sandstone bits and pieces. Didn’t see anything like this rock. It has notable pockets around the rock and then lines of heavily marked material evenly radiating out from them.

There is chunk of what may be limestone at the bottom of each pocket. It reacts little to acid but I think I see some activity. The white material, less that 2 on the Mohs scale doesn’t react because it is so porous the acid soaks it up before doing anything! The white material fluoresces a strong orange/red while the pockmarked lines, full of circle and bubble shapes, does not do anything under UV.

It strikes me somewhat as being like the calcite material which I saw recently at the Kokoweef Cavern Mine complex. There are a few dead springs in the surrounding area, I am wondering if this has something to do with being formed or acted on by a spring. But I don’t know why these lines would radiate from those pockets. Or why there would be pockets in the first place.

September 16, 2023

I’ve been thinking this over by myself. No one on Mindat.org of FB has made any suggestions as to what formed the rock, other than it might be gypsum. Which it is not, much too soft for gypsum. I have a reference specimen of rock gypsum, unweathered, and a self-collected piece, weathered, from Shark Tooth Hill in Kern County, California. Both those rocks are chalky and too soft to compare with the mystery rock.

Here is my working theory. The white material is calcite, a mass of which formed around several limestone rocks. At some point the mass became tumbled and rounded in the small desert wash or channel that I collected it from. Being very absorbent, the round mass picked up rainwater which would contain carbon dioxide. A weak carbonic acid would develop when the limestone reacted to that. The limestone is now eating away at the calcite, dissolving the material over the centuries.

The pockets you see are all centered on where a piece of limestone is located. The residue seen in the lines is the acidic precipitate left by this slow destructive process. Thus, that residue or the limestone does not respond to UV, being limestone and limestone related, while the calcite (the white mass or host) responds to UV as most calcite does.


Under SW UV. Forgive the “blue bleed”, a common sight when photographing glowing rocks.



R.C. has just checked in. “If it’s calcite, no surprise. Rainwater dissolves limestone, which is calcite. Limestone typically has fractures which gradually get enlarged as rain water makes its way through. This is how cave systems form. The calcium carbonate (calcite) dissolved in the rainwater is what forms stalactites and stalagmites in caves, and it commonly fills in fractures between blocks of limestone.”

So, do we have a rock that was once a fractured piece of limestone, now with calcite accreting around the remaining pieces? In other words, this may not have been a mass of calcite to begin with, rather it was a block of limestone that started this all off. And then it transformed into what is seen today. Hmm. Still pondering.



Kokoweef material self-collected on mine dumps by permission. Limestone rock on top and “popcorn calcite” underneath, the calcite carbonate deposited in the form you see here. It is unknown whether this rock came from the cavern roof, its floor, or a wall.

This popcorn calcite responds weakly under SW, producing an uninteresting cream color. It does have a short but notable phosphorescence or afterglow.


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Moving On in a Desert Wash

While my book lies dead or dying, I continue to collect and learn. The world is too fascinating to continue mourning.

On Friday I collected from two desert washes near the colorful art installation called Seven Magic Mountains outside of Las Vegas.

This first photo shows mud cracks in stone. Slate or some such. Does not fizz readily under acid like the next rock.

This second photo is a poor example of limestone with a surface solution, collected that Friday just for illustration. Notice how much finer the lines are than the mud cracks, a closer knit group of spider webbing. Limestone with a surface solution is common throughout the Southwest. Keeps scrolling to see a reference specimen.

This third photo is a reference specimen of limestone with a surface solution. I bought it from professional geologist and former instructor R.C. de Mordaigle. He runs Geological Specimen Supply in Olancha, California. It’s the best place to start your reference collection of common and uncommon rocks. R.C. was a great supporter of my book.

R.C. explains these cracks in limestone this way, “In arid areas both limestone and dolomite develop a rough dissolved surface from the action of weak carbonic acid as atmospheric water picks up carbon dioxide . . . .”

What the collector really wants to find in wash are ripple marks, distinct marks in stone caused by wave action millions of years ago. This specimen is mudstone from somewhere outside Barstow, California. Look closely at the second photo. This isn’t just a piece of somewhat striped sandstone. Notice how it has real relief. Ripple marks.

Notice the relief in this second view.

I was on a Barstow area field trip one summer and saw a woman collect a nice ripple mark specimen from a desert wash. That arroyo had just been hit by a summer rain. Alas, I myself did not find a ripple mark but I did collect a nice piece of sandstone with dendrite markings. Another story for another day. Keep looking!

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