Hunting NY (hunting rocks that is)

[dinorocks]

Figured I would throw this out there...tomorrow I will be giving a Zoom presentation on Fluorescent Minerals of Northern New York on behalf of the Penn Dixie fossil park.  This presentation was originally scheduled for March of last year but got cancelled due to Covid.  This particular presentation is very cool live (in person) but I think I can still do it justice via virtual.

If interested, see link below (it will also be broadcasted on Facebook (no pre-registration required));

https://penndixie.org/2021/01/04/science-talks/

https://www.facebook.com/events/418164136050482/

 

Thanks for looking!

 Dino

[dinorocks]

...by the way, my avatar (which I should probably change to something hunting related) is a photo of a "first find"...I was lucky enough to be the first person to find this particular mineral combination at a particular location (phosphorescence/fluorescent willemite (green) and fluorescent calcite (red) in a marble matrix) from West Pierrepont, NY).  I named it "Amzinite" after my wife (Amy M. Zack)...not an official name but just what us rock nerds do.  Parts of this rock are on display in museums across the world! 

 

 

[cynthiafu]

That is so cool . My daughter lovessss rocks she collects all kinds . She always ask me what  do you think this is ? Now I can say hold on i will ask lolol

[G-Man]

Went to bancroft canada years ago to find florescent minerals, as well as feldspar, emeralds and visited a gold mine forget the name... this is my favorite local field find.

[Daveboone]

Darn, I am on anothr virtual meeting this pm.Yours sounds fun.

[dinorocks]

Greg, as you probably know, Bancroft is the mineral capital of Canada.  I collected incredible fluorescent minerals in Long Lake (Canada)...an old zinc mine...look it up!

 

Blackbeltbill...it’s hard to get a good look at your rock...if it is covered in fossils, it would be a coquinite (made up of many shell fragments)...  if you can get a better photo of the fossils in the rock I can ID them for you.

...and Cynthiafu, ask away!

[dinorocks]

11 minutes ago, Daveboone said:

Darn, I am on anothr virtual meeting this pm.Yours sounds fun.

It is tomorrow...I was told it would be available afterwards if you want to check it out.

[dinorocks]

I have given many geology talks regarding the landscape we hunt to various sportsmen’s clubs.  That would be of more interest to this group.  Basically I explain the local geology (depending on where in NY I’m lecturing) and how, in some places, the glaciers sculpted what we now see.  Many times I will bring a group on a hike along a creek (where the water removes what the glaciers left behind and exposes bedrock)...as I’m typing this, I remember giving a geology talk to a bunch of paddlers on Hemlock Lake (that’s where Genesee Brewery got/gets it water for their beer)...that talk was through Eastern Mountain Sports.

So much to see/learn outdoors when you take the time to appreciate it and take it all in!!

[sodfather]

Awesome stuff Dino !

[crappyice]

Check out this school library display Dino:



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[dinorocks]

Great display and good for you for getting those kids interested in STEM!  

Was just sent the link from my presentation...had over 50 people listen in which was awesome!

https://m.facebook.com/penndixie/videos/835531413689108/?m_entstream_source=video_home&player_format=permalink&anchor_composer=false&ref=m_notif&notif_t=comment_mention

 

[Steuben Jerry]

I have a late-in-life interest in geology. Especially local geology. I had no knowledge of that Penn-Dixie place - looks super interesting to me. I'd like to visit that this summer if Covid rules permit. It's not just for kids, right?

I'll watch this presentation when I'm not at work - thanks for posting!

[dinorocks]

No, not just for kids at all...let me know when you plan a trip to the quarry and you can join me as a guest under my membership (if schedules align).  

[greg54]

Here is a rock I kept from years ago from my parents cottage on Lake Ontario. They were scattered all along the shoreline, mixed in with other types of stone. I thinked we nick named them "fossil rocks".

[ncountry]

On 1/12/2021 at 3:26 PM, dinorocks said:

...by the way, my avatar (which I should probably change to something hunting related) is a photo of a "first find"...I was lucky enough to be the first person to find this particular mineral combination at a particular location (phosphorescence/fluorescent willemite (green) and fluorescent calcite (red) in a marble matrix) from West Pierrepont, NY).  I named it "Amzinite" after my wife (Amy M. Zack)...not an official name but just what us rock nerds do.  Parts of this rock are on display in museums across the world! 

 

 

   Rocks are cool!!

West Pierrepont, That's my part of the country..We probably have a few hundred pounds of rocks we have collected over the years when the kid was younger.. You ever make it out onto the state land, just down the road from the zinc mine ,that has tremolite ? We would "sneak " onto the mine property and raid the tailings piles too... All sorts of different rocks there.

 

I found this while hunting at Letchworth sp this fall.

 

[grampy]

On 1/12/2021 at 4:29 PM, dinorocks said:

I have given many geology talks regarding the landscape we hunt to various sportsmen’s clubs.  That would be of more interest to this group.  Basically I explain the local geology (depending on where in NY I’m lecturing) and how, in some places, the glaciers sculpted what we now see.  Many times I will bring a group on a hike along a creek (where the water removes what the glaciers left behind and exposes bedrock)...as I’m typing this, I remember giving a geology talk to a bunch of paddlers on Hemlock Lake (that’s where Genesee Brewery got/gets it water for their beer)...that talk was through Eastern Mountain Sports.

So much to see/learn outdoors when you take the time to appreciate it and take it all in!!

What are your thoughts on placer gold deposits in NYS, left over from the last ice age, when the glaciers receded? Over the years, I've found a few small flakes of color in my pan. Mostly from cracks in the bedrock, on small streams.

[dinorocks]

#greg54 - Your fossil appears to be a type of rugose coral or bryozoa…both fairly common fossils in western NY, but very cool, none the less.  And when they are naturally rounded by the wave action of the lake, they are especially neat!  I’ll confirm the exact name of your fossil later after I look it up in one of my books.

#ncountry - The rock you saw in Lechworth is a septarian limestone concretion…probably the most common rock ID question I get.  Immediately across the street from the ZCA West Pierrepont entrance is (was) the Finlay Farm, which is a famous local for hematite crystals (called the Pierrepont iron rose locality)

#grampy - There is very minor gold found in NY but it can be found…most of which is in the form of placer deposits.  This gold consists of very small flakes or “flour” found in creeks and rivers…typically in bedrock fractures and plunge pools as gold is very dense and settles into these low areas (and the finer, less dense sediments wash away from the current).  The placer gold was most likely deposited from the glaciers 10’s of thousands of years ago (i.e., rock transported to our area via glaciers from the Canadian Shield…those glaciers were a mile thick so they easily eroded into the bedrock).  Due to the very small size of this type of gold in NY, it can be panned but special panning techniques need to be used.  There are also reports of lode deposits of gold found in NY; this is gold found in rock veins like quartz (“bull quartz”)…or if the gold weathers out of the rock, it can be found in nugget form.  Areas in NY where lode gold could be found would be along the eastern side of the state, north of NYC, along Mass, and VT (in the igneous and metamorphic rocks…not the sedimentary rocks in western and central NY).  However, it is very interesting to note that any gold (or silver or other precious minerals) found in NY, on public or private property, is the property of New York State.  You can prospect for it but cannot legally keep it.  This is a law that dates back to 1776 and is probably the reason you don’t hear much about gold prospecting in NY…the prospectors want to keep it hush-hush.  Note mica flakes are commonly mistaken for gold when panning.