So monday came way too quickly this week!
The kids are all back in school, and it was time for my weekly commute from PA to MD. I packed up my gear and headed on down. I marveled (as I always do) at the amazing folding of the Appalachians as I drove down 70. As I got closer to Mont. Co., I found myself getting excited about collecting more samples.
Stacy and I had processed the material from last week into sorted sizes by screening furter and further down. Some of the fine sands showed some serious gold flecks and flour, but I also noticed a bunch of crystals of all colors.
We discussed our plans to invest in a digital microscope and some compact LED lights to take better images to show off and to really examine some of the finer sands. 16x magnification in a small glass vial is fun, but I really want to see the details of these minerals!
Back to the drive.
I stopped in Boyds MD along 10 Mile creek to look for some good spots. There is a creek crossing on West Old Baltimore Road that has always fascinated me, so I decided to search there. This small creek leads into Little Seneca Lake (kind of funny since it is the largest in the area), and is a watershed for the drinking resevoir. The land around the creek is mostly privately owned (read posted signage!) and requires paying attention to. The locals are very nice and decent people, so please respect their land.
The road crossing is rare as you have to actually traverse the stream to get to the other side. It is not county maintained, so please use caution if attempting. There have been numerous attempts to shallow the crossing by dumping loose stone and gravel into the crossing. The immediate area is therefore contaminated with non-native stone and the downstream side also has non-native wash.
Upstream is private land on both sides of the bank, but there is very shallow water. The stream gets interesting during flood stage and washes large chuncks of native quartz into the stream bed. I took several large quartz samples as well as some placer sands for further study.
Next, I went back down county to the Cabin John area. I found an interesting neighborhood run off that leads into Cabin John Creek and took a few placer samples as well as some larger cobbles. Aside from the hot weather and the pain in my shoulder hating that I had collected 50lbs. of samples, a good time was had.
My present fixation is what I am referring to as "Wormy" Quartz samples. These tend to be samples that were directly adjacent to the native rock they intruded upon (so there is some left over attached material), and they have the appearance of being eaten thru by worms. This appearance is from the streams eroding out or rusting the ferrous material that was there. On the inside, I tend to find micro-crystals at the edges and variations of quartz (Citrine, Carnelien, Chalcedony) around the other mineral deposits of magnetite and iron oxides. So far my only complaint is that I have to break the samples to see the interesting tiny crystals. Searching mainly streams, weathering and erosion have damaged the exterior of the samples.
Results and images to follow soon!
I am looking forward to some non-stream expeditions in the near future. As the farmers begin harvest, I may have to stop and get permission to search the land once the crops are gone!
Till next time!
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