This object was sent to Bill last month from a gentleman in Michigan. The only information available is that it was "discovered in a garden in a farming community of Michigan's thumb area." I took a couple blurry photographs without scale bars to aid in identification.
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| From Paleo Errata |
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| From Paleo Errata |
The thing is about 25 cm across. It is definitely not a fossil; or at least if it was, it isn't anymore. It has got to be some kind of precipitate, but I'm not sure of what; whatever mineral it is formed from is white and light pink, and is not calcite or dolomite (it failed to acid test) and I also don't think it is silica, although I could be wrong. It has a vaguely honeycomb structure with voids of variable size and shape, with a layering in the "cell" walls which looks to be precipitated, but there are also masses of tiny crystals growing in botyroidal masses (I took a close up of these in the second photo) in the voids of the honeycomb, and masses of larger crystals in some of the bigger voids. I can't really tell anything about the crystal structure.
In summary, the thing seems to be some king of mineral precipitate which formed as a honeycomb with large voids filled by botyroidal masses of tiny crystals and some masses of larger crystals. If anyone can tell me what this thing might be, I would appreciate it.
On an unrelated note, Bill's mother passed away very suddenly and unexpectedly this week. Visit Chinleana and say something nice.
LNJ
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4 comments:
Does it fluoresce?
It's either a leaverite or a fubarite.
What is the hardness? That will be the most informative information to start. I have seen several minerals with that morphology.
Jerry’s probably right, though at first glance two other possibilities jumped to mind. Limonite is one, the other is that it’s a by product of Michigan’s manufacturing industry…
Because it was isolated (presumably in non-lithified soils) and has a very distinct honeycomb structure, it gave the initial impression of being some type of slag… Though this is less likely, if it exhibited any type of metallic or “igneous-like” qualities it may be worth a consideration – tough to tell from a photo.
Being in Michigan, it’s probably more likely that it became isolated after being dropped by a glacier…
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