Here we are,
back at the lower workings of the Champion Mine, standing on the second wall, looking at a funny, corrugated outcrop. If I look at this outcrop with a tilted head, I might imagine a sideways, not-quite-upside-down Nevada with corrugations of the Basin and Range forming large-ish mountain ranges (or I might imagine
caterpillars crawling).
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| Closeup of the corrugated outcrop. |
Most of the outer edges of the corrugations are terminated by planar, thin rinds of fibrous, purplish-red dumortierite. I'm not really sure what created the shape of the corrugations, but I'm thinking that they might be structural in origin, combined with some incipient cavernous or spheroidal weathering.
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| Thin rinds of dumortierite on schistose, Triassic rhyolite. |
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| Fibrous to bladed dumortierite up close. |
The orientation of the fibers or crystals reminded me of the slickenlines one might see on a slickensided fault surface, but I didn't have time to really check out this possibility by taking a lot of orientations with my Brunton.
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| Veins and a vein breccia. |
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| Nice vein of fibrous dumortierite. |
I'll have some more photos of dumortierite and dumortierite-sericite schist later, and soon, we'll head up towards the upper Champion Mine workings.
To be continued...
11 comments:
Pretty. I'll have to see if we can wind our way through there this coming summer on our way to MT in June.
It would be great to meet you, if you have a chance to come through!
Ditto! I'm pushing the SO to bring the Mange-y Rangie, so we can have serious adventures en route.
Sounds like a fun trip. I should be working near the area where these photos are from, plenty of good off-roading around.
Wow!!! Bingo : )
I have been working on figuring this out for EVER!!! and here it is!!!! Thank YOU!!I am in Maine on a little farm and have been researching the Rocks here and this is one of them!!!! : ) Sorry just a little excited....
I think the other mineral my be Andalucite, I think I also found Paragonite shist in mix too, I still have many more to nail down.Its amazing how totally different after they have been properly cleaned, I like you marvel at its history and make up
Sounds like you know a great place to go rock collecting!
Yes! My yard! basement crawl space, I am lucky enough to rockhound all year long at home : )
So, I live not far from the Champion Mine. Today a group of us went looking for dumortierite as we are interested in some pieces for jewelry-making. We did not venture to the Champion Mine, but rather found quite a bit of violet, pink, gray and a little of blue dumortierite in another area in Rochester Canyon in the Humboldt Range. It was easy to find because of the devastating fire that raged there this summer leaving the ground empty of foliage.
Lots of fun on a crisp Fall Day. Looking forward to cutting, polishing and cabbing.
BTW, as conscientious rock-hounders, we are always alert to fire prevention and
Do not litter. As this is our back yard, we greatly appreciate others doing the same.
Neat to find the violet and blue dumortierite, possibly up near Lincoln Hill?
And yeah, it's a great area, I also hope others are appreciating it and not littering and are being conscientious about fire dangers. I drive by nearly every week, and can see the red retardant scars from this summer's fire.
mineral collecting on the Lincoln Hill and Champion properties is not permitted without authorization, the owner
Are you selling any rose dumortierite? Please let me know price per pound. Thanks very much. I am a lapidary.send information to Marilyn Schultze
gocavemamago@hotmail.com
I am a lapidary.
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