Revisiting the Geo-Bucket List

Over at Itinerant Geologist, is a revisitation of parts of my Geo-Bucket List, as posted on March 5, 2015 and revisited now, in late 2019.

Identifying Igneous Rocks -- Earth Rocks!

Look Closer Hidden Life at Arabia Mountain

Be observant, tread lightly.  Enjoy and Learn.

Shopping at Tiny Town

'Cause Geologists and rockhounds are easily entertained.

I have previously alluded to "shopping at Tiny Town", in regard to chunks of waste granite and other decorative igneous rocks used for gravestones, countertops and other things.  The location is behind Tiny Town Minit Mart on Elberton Road, Carlton, Georgia, west of the granite-producing center of Elberton.

 

Figure 1.  The "Shopping Center"

Figure 2.  More of the "Shopping Center"

Standard practice is to drop into the convenience store, buy a drink and some snacks, and ask permission to "pick up rocks".  Thus far, I haven't met with any resistance.  [This does not imply automatic permission.  If someone does something foolish, access may be stopped immediately.  This is a potentially dangerous site and I would nor recommend taking any kids.]

This particular stop was on February 24, 2018, after my wife and I had visited the Georgia Guidestones, north of Elberton.

Figure 3.  Examples of Cross-cutting Relationships are the most common "treat".

These pieces (above and below) are heavier than they look, even with a handtruck.  If I was 30 years younger, I might have wrestled one of them home.

Figure 4.  Another slab from the same dike (about 4 inches wide).

Figure 5.  A xenolith, the less-common, more desirable treat.

Finally, I saw it.  I had to have it.  (I think there is a larger chunk with a xenolith onsite, but it is partially buried and would need a backhoe to retrieve it.)  I have been stopping here on and off for probably 15 years (on most of my trips to and from Elberton).  This was the nicest xenolith I have found here.  (I do wonder if there are other parts of this xenolith/host rock combo, buried in the piles?)

Figure 6.  It probably weighs 60 lbs. or so.  

I began wrestling my find onto the handtruck, then towed it over the roughly packed roadway between the rock piles.  I finally got it to the car and gingerly lifted it into the rear of our car (in order not to destroy my back).

Figure 7.  Homeward bound with my prize.

I am so blessed that my wife enjoys doing stuff like this, though health problems require that she hold tightly to my arm until we can find a rock large enough for her to sit upon and watch as I "shop".  In other words, she is unable to wander through the rock piles as she would wish.  When we got home, I contemplated donating it to a nearby college, but she wanted to keep it for a front-yard display, with other rocks.  Whatta girl!

In another upcoming post, I will show a few of the hand-sample-sized specimens from this site.

"You Make Your Plans...

and then life happens."

It had been a New Year's resolution to blog every day.  At this blog and my other one.   I still manage to do some roadside Geology in local construction zones, though they haven't yielded much.  And I did visit a "granite dump" near Elberton, Georgia a few months ago.  (It is a particular place that produces headstones and other things and they dump their waste rock "out-back".)  Usually, asking permission at a nearby convenience store yields access.  Zenoliths and examples of cross-cutting relationships (as below) are usually the best things, as well as some thin slabs of granite and sometimes gabbro.

This is a convenient hand-sample xenolith, suitable for classroom use.  Don't find them this nice, too often. 

This particular slab was too heavy to take home.  The dike is about 1.5 inches wide.

My most routine science endeavors are usually engaging in nature photography, of wildflowers and birds.

A couple of months ago, my wife (who is also a history buff) and I spent a couple of days at Gettysburg Battlefield Park in Pennsylvania.  It would have been grand to spend a couple more days there, but family obligations called us back.  The geology of the battlefield (and the area) was quite fascinating.

A Wee Geologist Observes the Depth of the Intertidal Water Table

Here I am at the beach, either at Saint Simons Island, Georgia or Daytona Beach, Florida (60+ years ago).  I wasn't there to observe the pretty girls.  I was satisfying my curiosity by supervising a study of sedimentary structures in the Littoral Zone.  It is entirely possible that I was fascinated with the manner in which the hole "filled itself" with water.  (It would be at least a couple of years before I understood the concept of a "Water Table".)

Of course, I had seen a tub filled with a faucet and a bucket filled using a hose.  But here was a hole that filled itself without any "outside assistance".  (I do recall - whether it was here or not - having a "Wow" moment at a young age upon seeing that very thing.  "Where did that water come from?")