Glass Rocks

[mn90403]

I took a quick, long trip to Rye Patch Sunday and came back Tuesday night.  It was good to see the old place but I didn't get any gold.  At the end of the day I was using the sun to shine a few crystals and they are a bit hard to find also.  I wanted to see the snow covered eastern Sierras before the sun set so I left Rye Patch with some daylight.  I was still looking for the shinny reflections.  

One caught my eye and I debated about stopping.  I backed up a hundred feet or so and found the piece in the center of the picture reflecting the light.  It looks like glass on the broken surface.  Then I saw other pieces that had been broken by other tires and some not broken.  They are opaque in natural form with their dull surface.  If broken thin enough you can see through it and it gives a gray/blueish tint.  It reminds me of Saffordites that I have found in Arizona.  Those are smaller but also translucent and we collect those visually by looking for black holes in the desert floor.  

I guess it is obsidian.  I don't think it is natural to the area where I found it and it was probably brought in with the rock to firm up the road bed and keep it from being too sandy.  I can't really imagine this obsidian being used to make points and scrapers but I don't really know.

It was the most interesting thing I found on my trip.

 

 

Obsidian: Igneous Rock - Pictures, Uses, Properties (geology.com)

 

[Champ Ferguson]

from what i can see, i agree with obsidian.