FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Jordi Fabre]

[Justin297206913]

I appreciate any input:) thanks guys for the newbie help.

[Mark Ost]

Yes indeed; you should always wash your hands after grubbing in pockets! Or as my mother used to say " Get your hands out of your pockets!" I crack myself up!

[GneissWare]

My favorite way to dig a pocket...

[vic rzonca]

Good idea Jordi.

1. Gather up your field guide, geologist pick, news paper to wrap your loot, water and a pack.

2. Choose a location. Having done your homework, you will have an idea of what might be found at your chosen location.

3. Go there.

4. Find a pocket. With a light pack and my antenna up, hiking in trackless, White Mountain wilderness, I looked down and thought to myself, " This looks like a good spot ". Scratching away an inch or less of detritus, I came upon a very course pegmatite and further digging with a pry bar and stout screwdriver eventually exposed a 3' diameter collapsed smokey quartz pocket. It was a chore lugging out the five gallon bucket of pocket contents. Poor me.

5. Did I mention, do your homework.

6. Always let the machine do the work when possible.

[Justin297206913]

Keep it coming. After digging how will I know when I discover said pocket? What will it look like? Will these crystals be inside rocks or exposed? Thanks

[Mark Ost]

Lets expand the definitions to help a bit. Homework is vital. If you want fish you have to go where the fish are, so just poking around at random does not help much or is a very inefficient way to work. So is there granite in the area? Now here is where a geological map may help. All those colors represent a type and/or age of rock. Look to see where the granite masses are and work the edges of it. As the magma, that will become granite, rises from deep in the earth, imagine it eating into the rock above it. It may also spread out arms into the existing rock. This may show on the map. Those arms are good hunting areas. Stay far from the center as much of that may be solid rock. You want to go where there is a lot of chemical action as the hot rock intrudes and interacts with the "country rock" (the rock the mass intruded into). All maps have a legend that will explain what type and age of rock you are in at least on the surface. The map also tells you much about the subsurface structure but that is a bit advanced for our use right now. Not only color but also there are symbols for different rock types. Look up pegmatite on google and start getting some terms under the belt. Try to find exposures as I said earlier and that will avoid or minimize the shovel and earth moving equipment! Your State department of Mineral resources may have publications you can get that will serve as a guide where you might find what you are looking for so do a document search of their publications on the internet. They are paid to produce these findings for everyone to use.

[GneissWare]

[Justin297206913]

I guess from the information gathered, I will start by doing some research and then dig in so to speak :) lol

[Joseph DOliveira]

When digging, always use the right tools for the job, chisels should always be used, never strike hammer against hammer. Once while collecting ammonites in South Dakota, I decided it was faster for my partner to use his geologist pick against my geologist pick to extract an ammonite, too lazy to take the pack off my shoulders and get the chisels.

End result, a trip to the emergency room at the hospital and a fragment of geologist hammer permanently imbedded in my wrist. I now affectionately refer to that particular ammonite as my $1000.00 ammonite (the price of the hospital visit).

At least the shrapnel is not large enough to set off the metal detectors in the airport, would hate to have to constantly explain my stupidity. ;-)

[Justin297206913]

So what do these pockets usually look like and how deep are they usually?

[vic rzonca]

Justin, every rock type has it's own story to tell. You might look at "Quartz collecting on the Little Falls Dolostone" on this site, to get an idea of what that formation yields and what has to be done to reveal it. If you are digging with hand tools, your explorations are limited by your fitness. If you are lucky enough to be running a track hoe, then your endeavor will progress more rapidly. The point is to aggressively, but carefully, remove overburden and barren rock to uncover productive ground.Then it's on your knees with trowel and scratcher. As Mark said, the contact between rock units is a good place to start. Follow the quartz veins, is good advice in granite. Also the occurrence of graphic granite is a good sign in granite. Any feature that stands out in the country rock is worth a look, like a color change or contortions in the strata. I think one major attribute needed by field collectors is heightened awareness of your surroundings in the field. I call it "having your antenna up", but it is less esoteric than that. Learn as much as you can and keep your eyes open. But sometimes it's just s--t luck.
One more thing, do you need someone to run your track hoe?

[Justin297206913]

I work at a machine shop that builds rock crushers and screens. We have a ton of equipment from excavators to track hoes. I just need to research first. Someone experienced would be a huge bonus. I'll take a few pictures of the area and post them.

[Mark Randle]

Jordi,

I wrote a post in this thread last evening in response to Vic's picture of his basic equipment which is now vanished. I was discussing useful tools for field collecting. Is it gone forever? It was in this thread not in the "What is it" one.

Cheers,
Mark

[Jordi Fabre]