A very surprising find!

  As is the new normal for us, Stacy and I went through my recent specimens this past weekend.  We had a good time examining my finds as I explained where I got them, how I got them, and even a bit of "Why" I got them.  As she so nicely put it last night, "You like the strangest things!"
 
  Last week I spent some time in Frederick County MD, searching cornfields, stream beds, and road cuts.  I have been focusing my search on quartz specimens because I know that they sometimes form nice crystals.  Quartz and Quartzite also often have other inclusions within them as well.  Maryland seems to have an abundance of these two in many forms.  I must make a few corrections from last weeks postings as well.

1 - The Rose quartz I reported finding at Barleywood farms was actually a piece of Quartz that was so covered in dirt it was hard to see clearly.  Given that I am still new to this, I misidentified the sample at first.  This sample was not Rose Quartz at all but has a lovely pink tinge from the iron oxide interwoven through the whole sample.

Milky Quartz with Reddish Iron Deposits

Iron stained quartz sample.  After cleaning, this piece still looked very pretty.  This sample is about 1" x 3/4" x 3/4"  It still needs some cleaning, but I am hesitant to chemically clean it for fear of losing the pink coloring on the outside.  I believe I will try and tumble similar samples in the near future.






2 - The Smoky quartz sample I found at this location was in fact Smoky/Milky Quartz.  I thought I had picked up about 10-15 samples of this material though.  After closer examination, I found that I had found one Smokey, and about 10 - 15 samples of Blue Quartz.  Below are two images to show the types of samples I recovered.  Bear in mind these are rough cleaned so still have some dirt and debris attached.

Barleywood Blue Quartz (Back lit)

 Both Images show the same sample.  The first image is back lit on my light table to help show the color transfers throughout the entire sample.  The second image has a better representation of the sample in natural light.

Barleywood Blue Quartz

Without the light table, you can see the very grayish tinge to the coloring that lead to me thinking I had more smokey quartz samples.

  All of the samples show the same pattern of oxidation in the iron materials in the stones and the local soil.  Every sample retrieved from this site has been tilled and plowed numerous times in the 200 years the farm has been in operation.  The average sample was about the size of a golf ball.

  I once again want to thank the owner of Barleywood Farms for allowing me to search the fields.  He is a very nice man and I hope to show him some of the finds in the very near future!