Eocene Fossil Hunting at the Cement Quarry in Harleyville, South Carolina

Perhaps 20+ or so years ago, I visited one of the Eastern South Carolina quarries near Cross, South Carolina, where very fossiliferous Middle Eocene limestones are found.  (Not sure if this is the one or not.)

It was a Martin-Marietta quarry (at the time).  As I was by myself on a Saturday afternoon, "playing hooky" from a rock and mineral show in Augusta, GA.  [My first wife and I were having a bit of a "rough patch" and - as it was before cellphones were around - I'm sure I would have received some grief for going 120 miles further east beyond where I had been working for several days that week (south of Augusta)].  In other words, if something unfortunate had happened, she had no idea where I was.  

Because it was my first (and only visit, so far) to this quarry, I wasn't 100% sure of the local "ground rules".  As it was, I was well-satisfied to walk to sand/gravel roads of the quarry and pick up numerous Brachiopods and Echinoids from the Cross Member of the Santee Formation heaped alongside the roadways by periodic scrapings.  In this area, the lithologies were "moldic" limestone, soft, easily-disaggregated limestone, and "marl".   In this link, I think the old names "Cooper Marl" and "Duplin Marl" have been discarded, though I don't know what they have been "replaced" by.

Echinoid species that I found included "Protoscutella" and "Eurhodia" and one crab unidentified carapace.  

If I saw sharks' teeth, I picked them up, but my ultimate goal was the Echinoids, while the Brachiopods were the bonus finds.  As both of these taxa were the same light-gray color as the matrix, I had to "train my eyes" to see the smooth, curved surfaces of the fossils.

For the short amount of time that I had there, I would say it was one of my most productive solo field trips.  This was before the age of digital cameras and I have to admit that I haven't performed all of the necessary background work to ID and prepare the fossils for photography.  [Now this is on my middle-term "To Do" list.]

Ironically, years later one of the other dads associated with my son's Boy Scout Troop occasionally worked in that area and knew some of the quarry staff members.  We wanted to schedule our own field trip (probably an over-nighter), but we just couldn't make our schedules work together.  So it goes.

Another Place Not Visited Enough ... Carrizozo Basalts, New Mexico

About 150 miles north of El Paso are some lava flows I should have visited more than once.  

Figure 1.

The area is variably known as the Malpais Carrizozo and the Valley of Fire State Park, in the Tularosa Basin, north of Alamogordo, NM.

It is noteworthy because the flows are estimated to be only 5,000 years old, the second youngest in the state behind the McCartys Basalts on I-40.  From its source, Little Black Peak (a little north of U.S. Hwy 380 and west of U.S. Hwy 54), the basalt flows eventually traveled by lava tubes some 50 miles south, making it one of the longest flows on Earth erupted in the last 10,000 years.

I stopped by there on the way back from Shattuck, OK, with some of my in-laws in 1985.  (We might have been returning from a family funeral.)  I should have made a return visit, but as I was married by then, I didn't have as much free time and had to concentrate on getting my Thesis Project underway in the Aden Basalts.  (I guess I could have emphasized how I needed to see these fresh flows and their source to better appreciate the Aden Flows.)

Figure 2.

I had a few minutes to walk a little way into the flows for photos, but I didn't have my boots or a hat with me.  [Please pardon the dust spots on these 35 mm slides.] 

Figure 3.

I am not sure if that is Little Black Peak in the right background or not.  It might be and if so, a little to the east are a couple of older Scoria Cones called "Broken Back Craters", according to this link.  They are very photogenic, too.

Figure 4.

Such pretty, fresh rocks.

References:
Anthony, E. Y., Hoffer, J., Williams, W.J., Poth, J. and Penn, B.  Geochemistry and Geochronology of Quaternary mafic volcanic rocks in the vicinity of Carrizozo, New Mexico: New Mexico Geological Society 49th Field Conference Guidebook, Las Cruces Country II, p. 117-122, 1998.

NM Museum of Natural History - Carrizozo

USGS Volcanoes, Carrizozo

Volcano Discovery

Volcano Live