GMS Field Trip

GMS Field Trip
Lace Agate/Chert in Georgia
Saturday, April 11, 2016

Though the air had a little more of a chilling bite than one would expect in the middle of April, hardly anyone noticed the crispness when they started seeing all of the beautiful pieces of lace “agate” all over the ground! For the joint trip with the Montgomery Gem & Mineral Society, we had buckets for participants to use and keep as well as scratching tools to borrow. Diana Poppelreuter baked a batch of allergy safe oatmeal raisin cookies for everyone too!

After everyone signed a waiver, field trip chair Charles Carter gave a brief history of the quarry and explained all of the safety rules. Then we hiked into the quarry for a fantastic morning of collecting. Juergen didn’t even make it into the quarry before he found a perfect yard rock.

A recently dug area of the quarry yielded some pretty pieces while it gave us a curious picture of the geology there. Most of the rocks appeared to be “tortured” by pressure, heat, and movement. Bill Waggener studied the rocks and helped us understand the story they were telling. One boulder was a perfect image of how Knox limestone on the move encountered the harder Fort Payne chert layer. In this one boulder we could see the limestone on one side, broken and folded. On the other side, the defiant chert was fractured, but held its ground. In the middle was a combination of the limestone and chert engaged in geologic battle with neither emerging victorious.

From beautiful lace banded agate pieces, to black and white swirled chert pieces, and even some nicely silicified oolitic pieces – I doubt anyone left empty-handed. But we weren’t done yet. The next stop was GMS member Doug Hawkins’ house. He covered tables and tarps and his driveway with all kinds of rough and slabs for us to peruse and purchase for enticingly low prices.

Thank you to everyone who made this trip a success: the quarry owners, Doug Hawkins, Diana Poppelreuter for the cookies, and Charles Carter for arranging the trip.

Lori Carter
On behalf of Charles Carter, GMS Field Trip Chair
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