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I’m not totally convinced, but it does have a shiny outer crust, it seems metallic under that crust, and a magnet attached to a string is attracted to it. I found it while digging along my foundation wall. Any expert advice is very welcome!

Best wishes to our friends in Alaska after a rather large earthquake. A more than seven-magnitude earthquake has hit the Alaskan Peninsula this evening. The US National Tsunami Warning Center has issued a warning for some areas of Alaska. The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the quake initially measured as a 7.4 magnitude but was revised to a 7.2. The depth of the earthquake in the largest US state by area was recorded as 32.6km by the USGS. The USGS also reported a 5.7 earthquake followed the larger quake just three minutes later in the same area. The National Weather Service Anchorage warned that “significant inundation is possible or already occurring. Move inland to higher ground.” See more here: https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2023/07/15/74-earthquake-triggers-tsunami-warning-for-gulf-of-alaska-coastline/

Wondering what this stone was if anyone knows

Need a little help trying to determine what kind of rock this. Found this when I was younger and held on to it. Didn't think it was anything special until I noticed little crystals when I looked closer. It's kind of heavy too for being about the size of an egg.

Hi there thanks for your help. This stone was found in the Sahara desert. I thought it was a fossil but to be honest I have no idea what it is. Any help would be appreciated. seems carved but maybe could be natural markings, extremely heavy. Sound 30cm x 20cm, some sort of quartz stone embedded.

It looks like it could be Jasper? Interestingly, it has well formed crystalline structures which are very bright silver, are magnetic, and don't seem to oxidize. They are single crystal structures dispersed throughout the stone. As a reference, the whole stone is about 1.5" long. I actually found it metal detecting in a wood chip playground and it range up positive. I know it isn't valuable, just a curiosity. Thx, Brian

Kindly identify this mineral,

Here are a few references to articles, etc on the California & Nevada Palo-river valleys found on older forum posts you may find of interest. “The Tertiary Gravels of the Sierra Nevada of California”, Lindgren, W. 1911 (book) “The upper reaches of the Sierra Nevada auriferous gold channels, California and Nevada”, Garside, L. J. 2005, Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology. (downloaded from older forum link?) “Origin of gold in placer deposits of the Sierra Nevada foothills, California”, Christensen H. W. , Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, 2015 (downloaded from sierrageology.org). The attached photo is looking south over “Benson Lake” located in the backcountry of Yosemite National Park. The ridge line on the left (west) in the photo extends south from Piute Peak as referenced by Lindgren beginning on page# 214 of the 1911 “Tertiary Gravels”. The Lindgren photograph found between pages #218 and #219 is of the Tertiary (Eocene) Tuolumne River channel crossing east to west down ridge (south) of the lake, above and west of Piute Canyon. If you were to go to “Google Earth” you can fly around this actual channel crossing in 3D. Located down stream, near Big Oak Flat, on the tertiary Tuolumne River is one of the two richest placer deposits discovered in California. The first of the richest placer deposits was deposited by a branch of the tertiary Calaveras river into Columbia basin (CA, Columbia State Park). Both of these placers deposits are located east of the main Motherlode belt but may have crossed portions of the east lode belt (if either lode deposit existed or had raised 55 million years ago.) As a side note: “Table Mountain” located in both Calaveras And Tuolumne counties is at least 30 million years younger than these Eocene channels. The Table Mountain channel picked up placers at the cutting of the tertiary Calaveras channel at Columbia then again at the lode crossing near Woods Creeks, Jamestown. Per the article on the “ upper reaches of SN gold channels”, 2005 the central channel of the tertiary Yuba River originated near Yerington, Nevada. Seems the majority of the 1848 California placers were taken before these ancient Eocene channels crossed the main California lode deposits. Although you are allowed to fish but not detect within a national park, I have heard you may still be able to detect in Nevada. Just keep in mind that unlike YNP park rangers, old miners are neither as well dressed nor nearly as polite. Enjoy the read.

https://trib.com/news/local/casper/a-wyoming-crater-field-may-offer-insights-into-our-solar-systems-workings/article_0e0eae2c-4426-11ed-bcf6-e7dbc7b57469.html There are varying theories as to the origin - including that we once had a second moon! Or maybe smaller orbiting sub-moon type body which got shattered by an impact and rained onto Earth. The article doesn't cover this, but of note is that the formation in which this massive field of fossil craters is found in matches up with the largest extinction event in history - the Permian-Triassic extinction event - which is much larger than the one that killed the dinosaurs 200 million years later. In any event, this is an extremely interesting discovery. I believe this field probably extends beyond just Wyoming and may be a national scale, or maybe even potentially a global scale occurence with more research. The craters themselves are visible on aerials if you look closely, but are so old that any actual meteorite material has long since weathered away, but shock glass is still there.

Hope you are all out digging on this holiday weekend!! Often times when detecting for gold nuggets in dry placer conditions I get clumps of clay or dirt containing gold. What sort of clumps or lumps does your pay layer produce? This lump came from a layer of decomposing bedrock hard pack layer above a stream bed high on a flat no longer part of the current creeks flow.

Greenland could be a hot spot for coal, copper, gold, rare-earth elements and zinc, according to the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland. https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/08/world/greenland-melting-mineral-mining-climate/index.html?utm_source=pocket-newtab Easier than mining an asteroid -- maybe good practice for that.... (Article from 8 Aug, so a week ago as I post. I don't think I'm duplicating a previous post/thread.)

My son asked me what book to get that explains the geology and geological indicators to find gold sources? So, I said that I would get some suggestions from the seasoned gold hunters on Detector Prospector, instead of searching the internet where you will find that one person states that his book is the best, ... and, etc., etc. (My experience is somewhat limited, far from pro.)

I don't know exactly where to put this so I'll start here. Maybe Clay has it on his links or someone else has posted it but it got me to some maps I would not have found. I still don't understand most of the nomenclature. https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/mapview/?center=-97,39.6&zoom=4 MapView Betaby the NGMDB MapView lets you explore some of our favorite geologic maps from the NGMDB (USGS/AASG).

I’m curious to how you all see the mineralization of the soils you detect compared to other locations. Our soil here in central Arizona seems to be fairly mineralized. But, we haven’t been detecting anywhere out of state to let us effectively compare. Here’s a USGS map showing relative iron concentration in US soils. There appears to be heavy iron concentrations in the Pacific Northwest. Does this reflect your experience on the ground? If so, has this affected what you choose to swing? If not, how do you think your soil compares to elsewhere? us iron concentrations.pdf

Flooding like nobody has seen in over 100 years is taking place in some of the historic gold districts of Montana, Idaho and beyond. An impressive late season snow pack followed by warm temps and rain has the rivers and gully''s a boom'n. Material that hasn't moved in over a century is on its way. Time to get your detector, sluice box, highbanker, dredge suits, etc. ready. Could be once in a lifetime prospecting opportunity, still keeping in mind the property damage is extreme & tragic for many and our hearts go out to them.

I would say my panning skills have improved quite well over the past couple of months since I began “looking” and I no longer have to use my magnifier to check wether it’s gold in the pan or not. The burn I pan is quite peculiar,as in the deeper I dig the less gold I find.I might find a couple of small flakes only a foot deep,but then dig down another two and only find tiny specks. I got talking to a guy yesterday called Gary,who pans the same area and he says the same thing,and we both agreed it must be something to do with the clay layer and that we believe the gold isn’t sinking beyond this layer.I would say the clay layer is false bed rock.Gary mentioned that he found a 2.4g nugget sitting on the clay layer but that he didn’t find anything else around it. Gary is the first person I have spoken too while panning and although he has only been panning himself for 5yrs,it was good to know that I’m not the only one who has noticed the lack of deeper gold. The clay layer has a very smooth consistency and is grey in colour.Some areas of clay do hold gravel but in general if I mash a chunk up it turns to nothing but a cloud. There is also not much in the way of black sand in this little stream,mostly blonde sand.There are flecks of platinum,zinc,sulphur,copper and iron to be found in the pan and some lead here and there. There was a gold mine near the top of one of the feeder streams and I will be going for a venture to see if I can find it.

I just read with interest an event that changed the landscape of Eastern Washington State. There is some mention of Montana so these events may have changed where gold has been moved and where it is left. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/devastating-ice-age-floods-that-occurred-in-the-pacific-northwest-fascinate-scientists-180979749/?utm_source=smithsoniandaily-dek&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20220419-daily-dek&spMailingID=46715100&spUserID=MTMxNjg2MzE5MzQ5NgS2&spJobID=2222101253&spReportId=MjIyMjEwMTI1MwS2 A little bit more research provided a more detailed link. https://hugefloods.com/Scablands.html

I have been working a creek and have done fairly well. There have been at least 3 spots where there seem so be a strong signal in the bedrock , which is mostly shale. I keep a rock hammer and chisel in my bag and have tried to dig some out. I feel like it's just a particularly hot spot of ground, but I dont know that it is, they seem vary localized. Any thoughts?

Nick Zentner, Geologist CWU discussion on the Liberty WA placer & hardrock gold deposits.

Nick Zentner, CWU visit inside Rob Repin’s mine in Liberty, Washington.

Here a video link to the richest pocket gold mine in the gold country if not the state. Take note of the depressions from the wooden cross ties of ore cart tracks. A lot of barren quartz broke a lot of want to be mine owners but when they mined into a crossing the gold was in sheets. The contact was along the north south trending limestone formation. Later the drifts were used for passage ways between the cathouses and underground speak easies. Back in the 1950’s one of the sons of the then mine owner ran an ore cart off the tracks into a support timber. He discovered enough high graded gold buried under the foot of the timber to buy himself a new pick up truck and then some. Years later I would have the privilege of remodeling one of the above ground madam’s room, which was connected to this mine, into a bank manager’s office. The original cathouse door with glass window advertising, which led many a miner, logger & cowboy in the wrong direction, is still around back. I still own stock in that bank. Enjoy, few are alive that have ever got view inside of this historic mine.

Stumbled onto this interesting article form another site...... Not sure where to post this but Steve can relocate it where he see's fit? https://www.westcoastplacer.com/paleochannel-hunting-guide/

You have had a lot of success over the years. I imagine you have found some wonderfully large masses of gold. Think about each of those for a few moments, especially those in the lower 48. Does anything appear as a common feature of their locations? Surely not everything would fit the same mold, but was there anything present frequent enough to indicate one location might be a little bit more likely to yield big gold than another? Thanks