Hi there
Sam and I are headed to the mouth of the Blind Sucker River for some more agate
hunting
so wish us luck
it's June 22nd
and it was only 51 degrees when we got out of the Jeep
yesterday it was hot and there were flies all over, it was 90 at one point yesterday
so you never know what's going to happen with the weather in Michigan
and there's the rocks
what you got, Sam?
(Sam) a little piece of magnetite
(Rob) prove it
yup
that's sticking
cool!
I saw this and thought it was kind of interesting, picked it up and it's got all
these colors on the side
if I had to call that something, I'd call it unakite
but I'm not really sure that's really unakite
a pretty piece of jasper
I like how it's got bands going horizontally and then these things going vertically
piece of quartz with kind of zebra stripes
check that one out
(Sam) a weird shaped rock, kind of like
lines on each side
nothing going on on the ends
kind of weird
(Rob) yup, don't know what else to say except weird
that's weird, look at the glint to the light in there
kind of changes color almost
(Sam) nice piece of banded iron formation
(Rob) nice red color there
(Sam) very promising "magate"
(Rob) maybe an agate, or wants to be an agate
(Sam) not really an agate
(Rob) no, but close though
(Sam) found a nice little seam agate
first agate on this beach
(Rob) that's really neat, hold it up to the light
can you see light through that at all?
eh not really, a little bit
(Sam) a little bit in there
(Rob) I can't see
it's a cool little rock (Sam) yeah
(Sam) nice little agate
with the potato skin
bands in there aren't great, but ok
it's an agate
on the board
(Sam) just found a nice big agate
it's got some real fine banding right there
I think it's got bands over there, but it's kind of hard to see them
(Rob) put it back to the bands again
let me get a look
yeah, definitely bands there
that's a nice one
(Sam) yeah
(Rob) really translucent
(Sam) wish the sun was out, we could hold it up to the sun
(Rob) yeah, maybe some other day
I reached down for this one, which is pretty cool
and then I saw this while I was down there, might be like a seam agate
it seems like it
but I'm not really sure
a little banded chert
probably the best part right there
just picked up another one that
may be an agate
magate?
this one looks more like an agate
not awesome or anything, but it's OK
sure picked that one up in a hurry
check this out
I don't think that's an agate
but it definitely has some characteristics of an agate
it's big
I have to interrupt this video to tell you that I was wrong
this is an agate, a really big agate
the reason I didn't think it was an agate on the beach
well a couple different things, first off
I never thought I'd find an agate this big in my whole life
this weights 4 pounds
that's much much bigger than anything I've found before
the last biggest agate I've found was earlier this spring I found one that was
just under a pound, and I was pretty excited about that one, I was really
excited about that one
the other thing is this is not a typical Lake Superior agate
it's not translucent at all
so let's get it wet so you can see it a little bit better
this is called a pseudomorph agate
so
I posted pictures of this on the Lake Superior agate collector's facebook group
and pretty much everybody there told me it was a pseudomorph agate, I think one
person said they didn't think it looked like an agate
can't blame that person, because I wasn't sure either
but
everybody else said pseudomorph, I also sent pictures of it to five other people who
I really respect as knowing what they're talking about
so big thanks to everybody that helped me with this
but anyhow, a pseudomorph agate is
it's when one mineral
in this case agate or quartz
replaces another mineral
so
I couldn't find anybody who could tell me exactly what mineral
was replaced here, but a couple different people guessed that it might be barite
so what happens is you get barite crystals
and then the agate replaces those crystals
and keeps that same crystal shape
but replaces it with agate
so that's what you're seeing there, those shapes there are the shape of the
original mineral
so
I am now the owner of a 4-pound huge awesome pseudomorph agate
and I can't be more excited about it
back to the beach
I don't think that's an agate but it's
really cool looking
seam agate?
(Sam) think so
(Rob) kind of looks like it (Sam) looks like there's a little bit of
banding right around the edges
not really sure what's going on in the middle there with that orange, but
carnelian, I think (Rob) yeah I think so
(Sam) little bit more right there too, and it's got bands in there
neat
(Rob) thats's some nice banded iron
what do you have, Sam? (Sam) another agate
some bands right there
little window right there
another little window
kind of a weird color, that's host rock right there
not a bad one
(Rob) got some pretty colors in it
pretty little guy
mainly quartz I think
that's kind of agate-y
I guess
if you'd like to see some rocks like these tumbled I've got a couple videos linked
here, so click on one of those and we'll see you over there
(waves crashing)