GeologyRocks

Oh, and it was found in North Alabama, if that's useful.

Hi, I don't know if it's my computer but the images seem very blurred.  At the moment my best guess is a piece of flint.

I'm pretty sure it's my camera and not your computer.  I took tons of pictures and all of them are blurred, so I couldn't really get anything better to show you.  Thanks for the response. 

Yes, the images are blurred on mine as well.  I'm not sure on the flint Gus.  It seems to be transucent, and in the first picture I can see (I'm sure) striations.  Flint is silcon oxide so it would be the same weight as quartz, rather than heavier.

Aaron, have you done a hardness and streak test? If not let us know what the outcome of those are.  That will narrow the field a bit.

 John

“Civilisation exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice.” -  Will Durant

I got some more pictures, maybe these are a little better.  My cameria is kind of old, I think these may be a little bit better.  On the streak test, I can't find anything to do it on, no ceramic around here that I can find.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y114/aharun/P7250027.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y114/aharun/P7250028.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y114/aharun/P7250029.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y114/aharun/P7250030.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y114/aharun/P7250031.jpg

Also, I tried a hardness test, I seem to have misplaced my white quartz, but my topaz was able to scratch it without itself recieving anything in retrun, so, less than 8?  A knife blade scratched it some, but a penny couldn't, so maybe something between 3 and 5?  It scratches non-leaded glass. 

 I'm not a geologist or anything, just like collected neat stuff, so I'm using what i have around the house, haha.  Wikipedia says glass is around 5.5 or something.

Ok John's right, I've looked at the second set of photos and they don't resemble flint.  One of them looks suspiciously like slag to me.  Did your part of Alabama have iron furnaces or similar in the past?

Not really around here.  Birmingham had a large iron production during and after the civil war, but that's quite a bit further south.  Though it's possible a piece made it's way up here.  I can't find any more like it.  I would have thought slag wouldn't be so glassy looking.

 I'm going to go look for another piece, so I can break one open.  Will that help any?

It's the third photo that made me think it might be slag because the specimen shows flow textures.  Slag can be glassy looking and quite beautiful at times.  Otherwise it's possibly chalcedony.  Let's see what someone else comes up with.

I couldn't find any others like it, so I'm not gonna be able to break one open right now. 

I'd agree with Gus. Furness slag.  Sorry, but you are not the first to think you had something very unusual and it is just slag. Mind you there are people who do collect things like this.  After all they are still a bunch of chemicals, just as minerals are.

Many years ago, soon after I started taking an interest in minerals (yes, Gus, that was just before the Red Sea parted!!!) I took a piece of 'something unknown' up to the Geological Museum (now part of the Natural History Museum) in London to get identified.   Fortunately, as it turned out, no one was available immediately and I was asked to go back to the help desk.  Meanwhile I wandered round and found a cabinet with cutting stones and disc, Vim and so on all radiating out from an identical specien to mine and clearly labeled " Silicon Carbide.  Man-made.  A product of hydro-electricity" .  Needless to say I did not return to the help desk, but made my way quietly to the exit.

But even now, ocassionally something 'unusual' turns up from time to time which has people puzzled.  We usually take them to a mineral & fossil show where it is discussed at length - and 9 times out of 10 dismissed as a fake, or spurious at best.

Don't give up!

John

“Civilisation exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice.” -  Will Durant

Well thank you for that, haha.  I'd rather know what it is, than to assume.  Question about slag, if I polished it, would it still polish?  I do sort of like the glassy look, maybe just for a display so I can go back years later and remember this by, haha.  "Yep, kids, this is what I thought was some amazing rock, it's slag, but it's still kind of nice." 

 Besides, if I hadn't found it, and not known what it was, I wouldn't have found this nice forum.  

The only other thing that occurs to me is that it might possibly be Obsidian. However, I'm inclined to agree with Gus & Co, given the odd - more "glass-like" - features of it shown in the third photo.

Regards,

Ben.

That is another possibility, Ben.

 You see, Aaron, it is quite difficult to identify from photos alone. They are never at the angle that we want to view the specimen - and we would all want to view it from different angles! (just to be awkward).  But much better, is actually handling the thing.  The feel of it and the weight would tell us things immediately, before we really 'tested' (streak, cleavage etc).

Also, knowing the geology of where something is found helps (or in this case some history of the area, although it could have been 'imported' - road/track filling or even dropped out of someones pocket).  And a lot of the time we work from the 'What can't it be?' rather than 'What can it be?' side of things. For instance we wouldn't expect to find too many sedimentary minerals where Gus lives in Cornwall because the county mainly consists of igneous and metamorphic rocks, whereas where I live in Wiltshire we would be very suspicious if a piece of granite turned up since the geology is mainly chalk and clay and (to my knowledge) no igneous activity or metamorphism  has ever happened here, but we are only 200 miles apart.  In fact there is a volcano (admittedly Ordovician)  about 15 miles from me at Moons Hill Quarry in Somerset.

Yes, you can get a polish on it whether it is slag or obsidian.

John

“Civilisation exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice.” -  Will Durant