GMS Field Trip November 2022

GMS Field Trip
Jasper, Agate, Fossils in Alabama
Saturday, November 12, 2022

On a slightly soggy, mostly chilly day, we stood in front of a pile of gravel as tall and wide as I imagine a proper dragon should be. And, like a dragon, this place can be a magical beast – guarding a trove of treasures. Every time we are there, someone finds something weird. This time was no exception.

There we were, in a pile of brown gravel; a place where you would expect to find water-worn rocks, smooth pebbles that have been tumbled from stem to stern. So, when the pretty jaspers and occasional iron-stained agate popped out, we were happy, though not terribly surprised. All of a sudden, bam! Diana Poppelreuter finds a specimen with tourmaline crystals! They are not microscopic crystals as one might expect in gravel, but toddler pinky-sized crystals. The black, beautifully striated crystals are most likely schorl. Then bam! She found some very pale amethyst. She racked up an impressive amount of oolitic material too, some with nicely contrasting colors that should take a good polish.

Ann D. found a radiating cluster of quartz crystals – yes, in a gravel pile! The specimen is super teeny tiny, but peering at it with magnification, it is simply stunning. She also found some beautiful agate, not banded or “fortification” agate, but big swaths of bright, translucent colors. Other people found this sort of agate too.

Everyone was finding fun stuff including pretty jaspers, possibly petrified wood, and those weirdly shaped rocks that are like the clouds of the rockhound world, inviting the viewer to imagine all sorts of objects and creatures. Oddly enough, the typical fossilized creatures we normally find were playing hid-and-seek a little too diligently, so I saw only a few fossils this time.

And, as often happens to us rockhounds, Kim T. found a jaw-dropping specimen right as we were wrapping up for the day. It is one of the most incredible specimens we have ever seen from this location – a concretion with a vein of pyrite! We haven’t seen pyrite at this location before, and here is a vein running through a concretion!

What a grand day of gravel collecting! A “ton” of thanks to the quarry owner and especially the quarry manager who made sure we were safe and had plenty of gravel to search. Many thanks to Charles Carter for setting up the trip, and also to the members who came out to play!

Lori Carter
On behalf of Charles Carter, Field Trip Chair
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