GMS Field Trip June 2024

GMS Field Trip
Ordovician Fossils and Geodes in Tennessee
Saturday, June 1, 2024

Attending a field trip to collect in one place is great, but two places is even better! At the first location, members stood in awe of the long pile of large boulders before them. They set to work at once and were quickly rewarded with small plates of tiny fossils loose on the ground. Soon they were carefully extracting specimens from the boulders. I could barely walk a few feet before someone would run up to me with something to identify or photograph!

Juniors were especially good at finding fossils. Amongst their favorite finds were fossil hash plates filled with bryozoans, itty-bitty brachiopods, teeny-tiny gastropods, and cute little crinoid columnals. There were a few straight shelled nautiloids that tempted members, but they are very difficult to extract intact, and I did not see any whole specimens going home. By far, the most abundant fossils of the day were bryozoans. Branching bryozoan colonies and encrusting bryozoans are omnipresent and exhibit well-preserved fine details.

In addition to fossils, members also found beautiful dendrites, pockets of calcite crystal clusters, radiating calcite crystals, and calcite “flowstone.” And, because I am particularly interested in a curious form of quartz called beekite, Charles broke off a piece of a boulder for me so I could take home some shells that have beekite rings on them.

After a delicious lunch, we caravanned to the second location. Parking was limited to a small area because of soggy ground conditions, but Charles orchestrated an automobile ballet and everyone parked perfectly. Our host led the group along a path she recently mowed for us, down to where she had secured ropes to help us navigate the muddy bank into the creek. Large gravel bars with ankle deep water between them were just waiting to be explored.

The geodes in this area are of a sedimentary nature and have fairly thick rinds. Some may be solid with no crystals inside. They don’t have colorful agate like geodes from Mexico or western U.S. states, so if you cut them open with a saw, the rinds are mostly plain white quartz, no interesting colors or banding. Occasionally, you will find one with a large quartz cluster that protrudes into the center void of the geode. Cutting a geode such as this could slice right through a cluster, while breaking it can allow the cluster to emerge intact. Charles recommended breaking the geodes, so, as members found geodes, they would bring them to him and he would teach them his geode-breaking techniques. I saw several geodes with nice quartz crystals, including one with pseudocubic quartz crystals.

Members also found a few small suiseki, i.e., weathered limestone with shapes reminiscent of mountain and valley landscapes. Amongst the fossil finds were some crinoid stems and a spectacular coral. Although we easily weathered a bit of rain at the beginning of the trip, a heavier downpour marked the end of the trip. I’m sure there was still plenty of juice left for geode and fossil hounding, but everyone was please with their finds, so we gathered our goodies and bid one another adieu.

Many thanks to the property owners who allow us to collect on their properties. Our host for the geode portion of the trip, who is also a GMS member, graciously prepared the site for us and entertained us with her quick wit. To help lighten the load on the return trip to our vehicles, she happily hauled out everyone’s heavy buckets and tools in a cart behind her riding lawn mower. Some lucky juniors even got a wild ride. Many thanks to members who pretended it wasn’t raining, asked questions I couldn’t answer, and brought me specimens to photograph. They were eager to learn and we enjoyed spending the day with them. Juniors are already planning for next year. And, of course, thank you to Charles for arranging this trip!

Lori Carter on behalf of Charles Carter
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