October
2-3, 2010 Joe and I have been waiting for the chance to get
out and look at the ground in Chatham and
Wake County. Earlier in the week the entire east coast was inundated with
rain from a tropical storm that swept through from
the south.
The ground was ready to be searched. Our inexorable desire for crystals needed mollifying.
"Summer rain showers
things uncovered and reavealed
a rockhounds' best times"
- Scott LaBorde
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A
vein of quartz revealed by the rain can be seen here intersecting or
bifurcating on the right.
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A
cluster of tiny crystals lying nearby was easy to spot with it's
luminous white contrast against the red clay.
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Here's a closer look.
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Joe
studies the ground for signs of crystallization.
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An
exposed quartz vein shows signs of crystallization sporting a weathered
and broken crystal (lower right) .
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No
reason to take this one home. It would fall apart into
several pieces.
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Here
another vein reveals crystallization to the trained eye. The
dark spots are actually tiny crystals trapping the light inside them.
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Alas,
too small to take home, but still pretty to look at..
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Another
small cluster rests nearby.
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Pretty
but still leaverite.
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Limonite pseudomorph after pyrite cubes are also endemic to the area. Here one rests in saprolitic matrix.
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With a gentle tug it is easily removed.
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Many of them can also be found gathered in the many drainage cuts throughout the area.
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Sunday October 3rd we head to Raleigh to look for alpine-type fissures. This crystallized quartz was obviously raked up by
a machine and deposited here next to the curb where it was washed off by the rain.
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In a ditch scoured by water a fissure is revealed.
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The mica crystals next to the quartz is a great sign.
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This was the prize inside.
The rest of the fissure contained only uncrystallized quartz and
mica. All of our finds this weekend
would not have been
possible without the copious amount of rainfall we had. So,
here's to rain! -- that which gives us life,
and keeps the rockhounds happy.
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