Final Tuneup Before Oz

[mn90403]

1 hour ago, jasong said:

The rock in question looks to be Arizona BIF, you'll probably see some more of that in Australia too though lots hotter there and more reddish/yellowish. In AZ the cherty layer has been partially metamorphosed into something that looks very much like quartz but I believe is quartzite.

Might be a cool rock to snag because if that's what it is, you are looking at something amazing and precambrian outcrops are rare in AZ. It's an indirect fossil record of the largest oxygenation event on Earth, a process created by the emergence of the first life over a billion years ago, which was bacteria. Same way plants create oxygen, except this was before even plants existed. This made the iron in the oceans form oxides (magnetites and hematites) and settle on the bottom in layers between sediments (the quartzy stuff). Without this life as we know it would not exist, pretty cool stuff for an unassuming rock.

Thanks jasong.  I do have some banded iron that is wind blown and when you hold it ... there is 'life' in the rock.  I was aware that this was the beginning of life in those layers but it didn't occur to me that this could be the same but I think you are right because the layers look like deposits and not extrusions.

Mitchel

[Rivers rat]

Good luck i wish i was there right now..........but you got a Z so you gonna hit those elusive nuggets hard!!!

 

 

RR

[mn90403]

4 hours ago, Rivers rat said:

Good luck i wish i was there right now..........but you got a Z so you gonna hit those elusive nuggets hard!!!

 

 

RR

I'm going to give it a try.  Some of the results will be out of my hands.  I hope for a learning so that I can put some clues together so I know what I'm doing and have a plan.

Gold has a story.

Mitchel

[beatup]

a real nice collection from your hunt have a great trip 

[afreakofnature]

On 5/2/2019 at 9:04 PM, mn90403 said:

Fred,

I took those pictures because it was layered.  I wanted to bring that rock home for my rock garden but I have so many now ... I just took a picture.  The rock was not hot.  I had just not seen quartz in quite that many layers.

Mitchel

Its a Gneiss.  No nuggety gold in that quartz, look more for the veinlets cutting that rock in the GB area.

[mn90403]

Yes, something else would have to happen in the area to have gold bearing material.  It did.  This was just in a wash and caught my eye.

 

[Lanny]

Nice finds all the way around, enjoyed the write-up as well.

Thanks for posting, and all the best,

Lanny