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The Georgia Mineral Society, Inc. 4138 Steve Reynolds Boulevard Norcross, GA 30093-3059 |
GMS Field Trip
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Geode
GMS Field Trip
Geodes and Fossils in Tennessee
Saturday, July 12, 2014
Once again GMS members descended upon a geologically fascinating area of Tennessee. Our first stop was a fossil location where members clambered over boulders covered in Ordovician fossils that were super easy to collect. Stephen Sisk extracted a beautiful piece of flowstone and several excellent fossils were found including a bryozoan “angel” that Shirley Parker found, a beautifully preserved crinoid stem that Mickey McClain found, a complete Orthoceras that Chad Dybdahl found, and Richard Aultman may have found the first trilobite we have seen there!
Next stop was a GMS member's house. We walked through a pasture past her escape artist donkey and sweet horse to a creek where many adventures awaited. Casey Sosebee found a superbly silicified Favosites coral. Paul Cloutier stunned us yet again with his super skill of finding spectacular suiseki. Most members found some nice geodes while juniors found a really cool bench of limestone bedrock where they carefully captured several tiny crawfish, some salamanders, and a few minnows that they took with us to the next location.
Last stop was another part of the same creek. One suiseki was so big it had to be rolled all the way up the creek and up a slope to get it home! It was definitely worth it too! Bill Waggener found another suiseki that will probably get its own wooden base someday. Casey Sosebee found a perfect Orthoceras in matrix. And of course, more geodes were cracked and packed. Juniors added more critters to their menagerie including a huge tadpole and at the end of the day released all of them back into the creek.
For some members it was their first trip to collect geodes and for some it was their first GMS field trip ever! Laurie, Sander, Hadrian; Carl, Jene, and Natty; Linda and Ann Marie; Katrina; Linda Harmon – we are so happy all of you could make it and we hope all of you had a great time!
Many thanks to Mickey McClain for finding the fabulous fossil location for us, our GMS member for inviting us to play in her lovely creek, and Charles for breaking geodes for everyone and organizing another great trip!
Lori Carter, on behalf of
Charles Carter, GMS Field Trip Chair
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Location 1
Flowstone and Ordovician fossils (bryozoans, brachiopods, crinoid stems, Orthoceras)
Photo by Chrissy Nell-Dybdahl
Having fun hitting rocks
Photo by Lori Carter
Richard Aultman found this interesting fossil.
We hope it is a trilobite as it would be the first we have seen from this location,
though it could be bryozoan or a stromatoporoid (related to sponges).
Photo by Lori Carter
Chad Dybdahl found this whole Orthoceras, an extinct nautiloid cephalopod
Photo by Lori Carter
Stephen Sisk got this nice piece of flowstone
Photo by Lori Carter
Shirley Parker found this sweet little bryozoan "angel"
Photo by Lori Carter
Shirley has a plate full of these little brachiopods
Photo by Lori Carter
More of Shirley's brachiopods
Photo by Lori Carter
Shirley also found this nice bryozoan colony
Photo by Lori Carter
Not sure what this is -- possibly trace fossils?
Photo by Lori Carter
Mickey McClain found this incredible crinoid stem
Photo by Lori Carter
Linda and Anne Marie having fun in the fossils
Photo by Lori Carter
Chrissy Nell-Dybdahl found these Orthoceras and ammonite fossils in the bedrock!
Location 2
Quartz geodes, limestone suiseki, crinoid stems, Favosites coral, salamanders, and crawfish
Photo by Lori Carter
Paul Cloutier has become an expert suiseki finder as evidenced by this spectacular specimen
Photo by Lori Carter
Close-up of Paul's suiseki
Photo by Lori Carter
The creek had a shady canopy and the water is mercifully cold
Photo by Lori Carter
Juniors found a limestone shelf that was a perfect place to play
Photo by Chrissy Nell-Dybdahl
Juniors on the rocks
Photo by Lori Carter
Some tiny salamanders from the creek found themselves in Ian's bucket
Photo by Lori Carter
This stunning dragonfly (damselfly?) and his friends hovered around us the whole time
Photo by Lori Carter
An example of some of the geodes members were finding
Location 2
Quartz geodes, limestone suiseki, crinoid stems, Favosites coral, crawfish, minnows and a big tadpole!
Photo by Lori Carter
Another part of the creek to search!
Photo by Chrissy Nell-Dybdahl
Looking for geodes
Photo by Lori Carter
Mickey McClain found this drusy pink geode (photo does not do it justice)
Photo by Lori Carter
Some tiny crawfish greeting each other in the Juniors' portable tank
Photo by Lori Carter
The huge tadpole the Juniors found
Photo by Chrissy Nell-Dybdahl
Charles helped Jaina with her rare cubic quartz geode
Photo by Lori Carter
Katrina was getting good at cracking open geodes
Photo by Lori Carter
Casey Sosebee found this outstanding Orthoceras
Photo by Lori Carter
Casey found this beautiful, highly silicified Favosites coral too
Photo by Chrissy Nell-Dybdahl
This suiseki is so big it had to be rolled up the creek
Photo by Lori Carter
Rollin', rollin', rollin'
though the streams are swollen...
Photo by Lori Carter
...keep them suisekis rollin', rockhound!
Photo by Lori Carter
Finally on land!
Photo by Lori Carter
Suiseki that had to be rolled all the way up the creek
Photo by Lori Carter
Another view of the rolling suiseki -- wow!
Photo by Lori Carter
More suiseki, but these didn't have to be rolled
Photo by Lori Carter
A great example of the rare cubic quartz that can be found here
Photo by Lori Carter
Bill Waggener found a stellar suiseki too!
Photo by Lori Carter
One of Ian's little friends
Photo by Chrissy Nell-Dybdahl
Even spiders like geodes!
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