One of the best scenarios for hunting construction sites is after a huge rain.  Here we found a large crystal that had been partially washed off and exposed as a result of the heavy rain.  Although because of its undamaged condition and perfect termination, we knew it had not traveled far.  More than likely it had rolled down the embankment from higher up from previous grading.  Unfortunately, we were unable to find any trace of its original pocket location.



And here, a picture of the crystal as it was found.

And here is more demonstration on how the fissures run perpendicular to the foliation.

The arrows are showing the direction of foliation which happen to also line up with north and south compass directions.  The fissures here as well as all other fissures we find in Wake County have an east/west trend.

Awesome find!  Loved that video too.  Thanks for the explanation of the fissures. 

Is the east to west fissures only for crystallizing veins or is it for all veins in general in our area?

thanks!

Good stuff, Scott.

This is from the large crystal found in the video posted at the start of this thread.  It appears to be schorl tourmaline and rutile.  FOV .5 cm

Scott has put together a really good thread here explaining
what we look for and how we hunt for crystals in this area
of the North Carolina Piedmont. I thought I would add a few more pics.

As shown above, first you look for quartz dikes or fissures
running thru our lovely red clay, and then you look for "faces".
As Scott has illustrated above there are several types of quartz "veins" to look at. The quartz veins running with the foliation
we call "segregated" quartz, and do not usually form crystals, but they can.
The quartz "veins" cross-cutting the foliation are called "fissures"
and they are where you stand the best chance of finding crystals,
or atleast, crystal faces.
Here are pics of a few random pieces of quartz fissures with faces found recently.
The piece on the left is the whole fissure.

And sometimes you will find odd little pieces like this one
that are really "trying" to "pop" into some nicely formed crystals.
This piece does have two crystal terminations.

With all the rain lately it has been fun searching this hill
and it's a whole lot easier than digging.
Most of the pieces pictured above came from this hill, pieces with faces
that keep you looking for little gems like this one.

Little crystal with rutile.