Hey everybody
we're here at
W.C. Veale Park
up in the Keweenaw Peninsula, and I'm here with
a lot of my family
so
we've got David
Allison
Joe for his first beach hunting video
can you wave hi?
Nancy
Sally
and Clovis
so we're going to head down to this little beach and see if we
can find some rocks
it's quite a bank here, so
we're all trying to get down it
so there's a lot of bedrock here
and just a few little rocks along the bottom here, so I don't know if I'll find too much
but there's another beach just down the road that we can go to
after this
hey look who just showed up?
it's Paul and Nat!
-hi guys -hello
so we have three geologists on the beach today, so
I'm sure they'll tell us some more interesting things like in the last video
alright, I was down looking at these rocks
and
this chunk of the bedrock from here, let's see if I can get it in the sun
and
my initial thought was that it's banded iron
because i'm not a geologist
but what is it actually?
this is actually part of the Copper Harbor conglomerate, which is a sedimentary
rock unit
that includes conglomerate obviously and also sandstone layers
and this is part of one of the sandstone layers, and you'll see
these
metallic looking minerals in there
and those are heavy minerals, often iron-bearing ones
and just like you get black sand accumulating in some areas of beaches and rivers today
you also had that a billion years ago, when this rock was being formed
(Rob) alright, what'd you find, Sally?
I found two small agates
(Rob) and, let's see can we get them in the sun? there we go
(Sally) sure
aren't they pretty?
(Rob) wow, that top one, or the left one is
is awesome
nice finds! (Sally) thank you
I had to dig a little
(Nancy) and I also found a rock that has an agate
seam going on there
(Rob) also nice
hey
not bad for
five minutes on a little tiny beach
alright, Paul
is going to show us his find of the summer
(Paul) there we go
(Rob) look at that
(Paul) that's an agate
now you don't find those up here
very often, but that's- that's a beauty
(Rob) that's a nice one, wow
(Paul) Joe agrees
(Rob) Joe's screaming he's so excited
here's some more of that
stuff that I thought was banded iron, and Nat told me was
actually sandstone, but
really looks like it there
so, Nat, what were you telling me about this?
(Nat) so right here, we see what are called crossbeds
if you notice, the layers inside this rock are not parallel to each other, but
they kind of
cut across each other, those are called crossbeds
crossbeds tell us that
in this instance this was deposited by water
so this is a sandstone that was
being carried down from the highlands surrounding this area by streams
and those streams were depositing all of this sediment, this sand here
(Rob) alright, so I was a little ways away and I heard a squeal from Natalie over here
so what are you so excited about?
(Nat) so this might not look like much, but if you see these sort of polygonal
shapes here
those are mud cracks
and those happen because muds have some minerals in them
that as they dry out, they get smaller, they contract, you probably see this in your
back yard if you have a really dry year, the soil in your backyard gets these cracks
in them and those cracks can get preserved in rock like what we have here
so these are very ancient mud cracks that tell me long long ago in the geologic past
this area dried out so these mud cracks could form
(Rob) what'd you find, Nat?
(Nat) well it's not the best thing around, but it is a small agate, you can see
some banding right there
and it was just
in about two feet of water offshore
(Rob) you kept your sleeve dry, that's nice
what'd you find?
I found a bigger agate than the last two
do you want me to turn it around?
(Rob) here let me get on this side
yeah, you're
you're the agate queen today
(Sally) and now I have my shoes off, so I'm going in
(Rob) what'd you find, Paul?
(Paul) so what we've got here is a very beat up patricianite
which is a
prehnite
but if you see that- get it in the sunlight here, you see this kind of pinkish color
up here
that is from microscopic copper
within the prehnite
that gives it that really nice little pink color, and you can kind of see
down here in the bottom if I get it right here
you see this kind of circular structure here, that is very indicative of a prehnite
and typically you find a lot of these on Isle Royale
but not so many here on the peninsula so this is kind of a rare find here on
the peninsula itself
(Rob) that's a
another one, huh? another- (Paul) yeah, that looks like, that
that looks like more like Thomsonite there
(Rob) oh actual Thomsonite? (Paul) that looks like actual Thomsonite
there
(Nat) I'll just move it around a little (Rob) wow
(Nat) so you folks can see that (Paul) that's a beauty
(Rob) you can see the little radial things coming out on that
on that top side there
(Paul) for the peninsula that's a nice one
(Rob) wow
hey Joe
I just found an agate
what do you think?
is it a good one?
well he seems to like it, so
the junior geologist gives an approval
the senior geologist may not so much
(Rob) are you going to touch it?
yeah, that's the agate part
well I just found
a little agate
some bands right here
(Joe) [screeching]
(Rob) Joe's excited about something
(Sally) that's because we found a rock
(Rob) did you find a rock, Joe?
(Joe) gah
and Sally found a really nice little Thomsonite, let's get it wet
(Sally) yeah that looks better
(Rob) that's so cool, I like how they have like an eye
I'm too busy filming everything, I'm not finding anything
(Sally) you better start looking
(Rob) what'd you find, David?
(David) alright, you got to believe me, but this is an agate
the, the banding is really subtle
but it's kind of coming in like
this direction, and
it kind of swoops down through there
(Rob) and I could not see it, it wasn't that I didn't believe him, but when I
looked through the loupe I could see them
lots of bands, just really really subtle
but um
cool little rock
nice
right there
it's very translucent
yeah
nice one
I thought I might have found something with a little agate in it, but
I don't think so now
it's a pretty little rock
if I can get it to focus
there we go
well I just came down a lot of steps
we're on Great Sand Bay
it's just a beautiful day out
so here we are, and as Rob mentioned we're at Great Sand Bay, and this is a
really unique beach
because in the years I lived up here, it's called Great Sand Beach because at times
this beach can be totally
nothing but beach sand, where you won't find a rock anywhere in here
and then other times you come here and it's completely rock
in here and it just has to do with all the glacier- uh, glacier- all the ice
each season pushes rocks in and out
and so today we can call it kind of a
Great Sand Rock Beach, because we have a combination of both here today
so
we'll look around and see what we can find
lots of rhyolite here
and every once in a while you find these other colors and
those ones I tend to pick up and take a look at
I like that one
what'd you find, Allison?
found my first agate of the day
just a little agate there
(Rob) little bands (Allison) some banding
(Rob) and then I found this green thing
which I'm not sure what it is, but it's a pretty color of green
(Allison) mm-hmm
(Rob) hopefully you can see the bands in that
nice
-finally got one! -yeah!
(Rob) alright, Nancy's found something
(Nancy) a little flip over
(Rob) and so we're having a little debate on what it might be, I shouldn't say "we"
two of the three geologists are having a debate
(Nat) our unpaid consultants (Rob) yeah
(Nat) so when you look really closely at it under a hand lens
it has a
a strange texture to it
and it might be a silicified fossil, and so
the strange texture that it's
resulting from that is just from when that fossil was preserved
(Rob) are you having fun?
are you finding some rocks?
show your rock
(Rob) ohh
not keepers, huh?
[laughter]
yeah we're not looking, we should be looking
(Rob) I just picked up a couple that are kind of interesting
calling this one an agate
got some banding, probably the most interesting parts right there
and then this one
more of a magate
maybe an agate
but not quite as interesting
alright, I just found
kind of a cool rock
but Natalie's going to explain it to you
(Nat) so Rob found this fantastic rock here that has lots
of little specks of copper in it
and this is what we would call an amygdaloidal basalt
an amygdaloidal basalt is where the gas bubbles that were in the basalt are filled
with minerals, and in this case the minerals are copper
and then
some
quartz, that's the lighter colored one that you'll see there
so an amygdaloidal basalt filled with beautiful bits of copper
(Rob) thanks (Nat) that is a nice piece
(Rob) alright, I'm feeling a little giddy right now
just picked this up
[laughter]
just picked this one up, and
wow, that's a beauty
nice agate
lot of quartz, but wow that is pretty
think that's my favorite spot right there
look what I found, Nance
oooh, you're going to let me hold it too?
[laughter]
wow
I was hearing a little excitement down the beach, so I had to venture over
(Rob) now David's running
now every- Paul's agate that we saw was so tremendous, it's like
it's hard to compare, but
(Rob) I don't need to put his in the video
[laughter]
(David) oh wow
(Rob) alright
getting caught up with Allison here, and what do you have?
(Allison) oh, a variety of things
there are a few small agates in here
I think
with some tiny tiny banding
this one I'm not sure
if that's prehnite or thomsonite maybe, but
it has a nice pink color, so
(Rob) yeah, that's pretty
(Allison) this one has an interesting little eye in it
(Rob) oh yeah
oh and I like the green of this one
(Allison) yeah, that one was kind of cool too
kind of just has an interesting pattern
(Rob) nice! (Allison) yeah
kind of cool
(Rob) what'd you find, David?
(David) I'm told it's prehnite
caught my eye
it's also got little flecks of copper
in there
(Rob) beautiful rock (David) yeah
(Rob) I like the colors (David) It's neat because this is only
really my second time up here, so I'm
still trying to like train my eye to see
what to look for, so
glad I actually found something (Rob) yeah
I think you're doing ok
what'd you find, you sounded pretty excited
ooh, stripey rock
(Rob) technical term, right?
very scientific
[laughter]
(Rob) you find another stripey rock?
(Paul) not really a stripey rock, more
more like a ring-y rock
so this is a very beat up Isle Royale greenstone
and of course it's, it's a soft mineral, the chlorastrolite
is the mineral
and it's soft so it gets beat up very easily by the lake here, but at one
time that was probably a really nice looking Isle Royale greenstone
(Rob) that is a nice one
Nancy just pointed out that this is a
log from either a shipwreck or a pier or something
you can see the
hole there where there was a
nail or some sort of fastener
one sticking out there
big notch
here's another notch
and this has a dovetail down here
with a big spike in it
that's pretty cool
big piece of wood
(Rob) is somebody tired out?
yeah
-(Rob) is it you? -somebody doesn't have quite the same
stamina as everyone else
but he had a lot of fun, though
(Rob) another really interesting thing to do up here in the Keweenaw Peninsula
is check out the copper mine tailings piles
I did a video on one of those here a couple years ago
think you'll really like it, so click on it here