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vic rzonca
Joined: 18 Nov 2008
Posts: 820
Location: MA
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 Posted: Jun 15, 2016 10:03 Post subject: Re: Collecting quartz on the Little Falls dolostone |
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A lucky strike at the Ridge after a bit of a slow start.
| Mineral: | Quartz |
| Locality: | | Turtle Clan Ridge, Fonda, Mohawk, Montgomery County, New York, USA |  |
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| Dimensions: | 10 cm. |
| Description: |
| When found this crystal was hanging from the ceiling of the rather confined pocket. Some of the best matrix specimens are found in that orientation. |
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28906 Time(s) |
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Mike Wood
Joined: 16 Dec 2010
Posts: 456
Location: Northern England
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| Posted: Jun 18, 2016 16:07 Post subject: Re: Collecting quartz on the Little Falls dolostone |
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Very nice. Hope that isn't all you've found in the last six weeks!
(Crosses fingers) ;-)
Has the weather been kind thus far?
_________________
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vic rzonca
Joined: 18 Nov 2008
Posts: 820
Location: MA
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| Posted: Jul 06, 2016 21:24 Post subject: Re: Collecting quartz on the Little Falls dolostone |
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The first few weeks were a little slow Mike, but...
| Mineral: | Quartz |
| Locality: | | Turtle Clan Ridge, Fonda, Mohawk, Montgomery County, New York, USA | |
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| Dimensions: | 15 cm |
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28480 Time(s) |
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| Mineral: | Quartz |
| Locality: | | Turtle Clan Ridge, Fonda, Mohawk, Montgomery County, New York, USA | |
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| Dimensions: | 10 cm. |
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28486 Time(s) |
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| Mineral: | Quartz |
| Locality: | | Turtle Clan Ridge, Fonda, Mohawk, Montgomery County, New York, USA | |
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| Dimensions: | 17 cm. |
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28683 Time(s) |
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| Mineral: | Quartz |
| Locality: | | Turtle Clan Ridge, Fonda, Mohawk, Montgomery County, New York, USA | |
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| Dimensions: | 17 cm. |
| Description: |
| This is the same crystal as the former one, with a cleaning and a base to keep it oriented in a favorable way. |
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28487 Time(s) |
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| Mineral: | Quartz |
| Locality: | | Turtle Clan Ridge, Fonda, Mohawk, Montgomery County, New York, USA | |
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| Dimensions: | Hand for scale. |
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28486 Time(s) |
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| Mineral: | Quartz |
| Locality: | | Turtle Clan Ridge, Fonda, Mohawk, Montgomery County, New York, USA | |
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| Dimensions: | 11 cm. |
| Description: |
| Dark smoky, hoppered crystal. |
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28506 Time(s) |
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Pierre Joubert
Joined: 09 Mar 2012
Posts: 1605
Location: Western Cape
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| Posted: Jul 07, 2016 01:28 Post subject: Re: Collecting quartz on the Little Falls dolostone |
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Wow Vic!!!! It looks like you can finally retire now :-)
_________________
Pierre Joubert
'The tree of silence bears the fruit of peace. ' |
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Chris Rayburn
Joined: 07 Oct 2013
Posts: 66
Location: Arvada, Colorado
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| Posted: Jul 07, 2016 13:13 Post subject: Re: Collecting quartz on the Little Falls dolostone |
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| Just sensational, Vic. Congratulations.
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vic rzonca
Joined: 18 Nov 2008
Posts: 820
Location: MA
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| Posted: Jul 13, 2016 07:44 Post subject: Re: Collecting quartz on the Little Falls dolostone |
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Now for something completely different. It's not all crystal hunting on the ridge.
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| The team waits a little nervously to get their load. Alot of fire wood and some lumber logs come off the ridge. |
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27716 Time(s) |
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| Alice is on the right. They use this team to plow, harrow and haul. |
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27761 Time(s) |
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| Amish meets excavator. You'll notice that the wagon has metal wheels, no rubber, and no shoes on the horses. |
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27714 Time(s) |
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27705 Time(s) |
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| Hard working Amish youth with the second load. |
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27791 Time(s) |
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| The kids getting a little collecting in. |
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27772 Time(s) |
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| We have very good relations with our Amish neighbors. For gratis, they use all the fields around the high ground to plant silage for the milkers. They also harvest the quartz druze that we don't use to sell at their farm stand, and do pretty good with it. |
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27742 Time(s) |
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vic rzonca
Joined: 18 Nov 2008
Posts: 820
Location: MA
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| Posted: Oct 06, 2016 14:52 Post subject: Re: Collecting quartz on the Little Falls dolostone |
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One from a new location. Not far from the Ridge as the crow flies. And not very deep as the plow goes.
| Mineral: | Quartz |
| Locality: | | Fonda, Mohawk, Montgomery County, New York, USA | |
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| Description: |
| Back lit with autumn light. |
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26962 Time(s) |
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vic rzonca
Joined: 18 Nov 2008
Posts: 820
Location: MA
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| Posted: Nov 14, 2016 11:57 Post subject: Re: Collecting quartz on the Little Falls dolostone |
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It's been a good season at the Ridge, but haven't had time to post much. My real job gets in the way of fun some how. The weather has been dry, drought dry, and here we are in November and the temps are above freezing at night and mid to high fifties during the day.
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| A days work cleaning out druzy quartz pockets. |
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26469 Time(s) |
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| Many single crystals, classic quartz from the dolostone. |
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26526 Time(s) |
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| With help from brother hydraulic. |
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26467 Time(s) |
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26509 Time(s) |
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| Anthraxolite with centimeter+ size quartz. |
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26477 Time(s) |
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26518 Time(s) |
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Reinhardt van Vuuren
Joined: 10 Mar 2015
Posts: 55
Location: Port Elizabeth
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| Posted: Nov 15, 2016 01:18 Post subject: Re: Collecting quartz on the Little Falls dolostone |
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| Wow, that is some amazing operations you have going there. How many tones is that hydraulic of yours rated at? Must be hell of a strong to lift rock like that.
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vic rzonca
Joined: 18 Nov 2008
Posts: 820
Location: MA
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| Posted: Nov 15, 2016 08:04 Post subject: Re: Collecting quartz on the Little Falls dolostone |
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| Reinhardt van Vuuren wrote: | | Wow, that is some amazing operations you have going there. How many tones is that hydraulic of yours rated at? Must be hell of a strong to lift rock like that. |
Reinhardt, the ones we use are 30, 60 and 100 ton rams with a two stage pump. Although the 100 ton has been foiled by the ledge, if you pick your battles carefully you will find the weakest point. One problem is that at times the loosened block is large and must be moved more than a couple of inches or broken up in place. We are lucky in that we have a small track hoe for pushing things around after the ram has broken it free. Hydraulics are a great thing.
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26370 Time(s) |
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Reinhardt van Vuuren
Joined: 10 Mar 2015
Posts: 55
Location: Port Elizabeth
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| Posted: Nov 16, 2016 00:40 Post subject: Re: Collecting quartz on the Little Falls dolostone |
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| Wow, that is hectic, I can imagine that one could do the same with a bottle jack only with a little less safety because you don't get to be as far away as you are with your equipment.
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vic rzonca
Joined: 18 Nov 2008
Posts: 820
Location: MA
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| Posted: Nov 16, 2016 10:02 Post subject: Re: Collecting quartz on the Little Falls dolostone |
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| The nice thing about the Enerpac rams is their cylinder height that's around 4" high so it fits into a rather small cleft. You get about a 3' lift on the 30 and 50, and with the shimming, your range of push is large. Hectic, no, it's very slow. With each pump of the handle, when the pump has gone to the second stage, the ram moves 1mm-2mm under a heavy load, so to get to full extension the exercise is very aerobic.
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vic rzonca
Joined: 18 Nov 2008
Posts: 820
Location: MA
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| Posted: Nov 16, 2016 16:15 Post subject: Re: Collecting quartz on the Little Falls dolostone |
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The days grow shorter. Looks like snow soon. Must start wrapping it up.
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| And as the sun sinks on another season, soon all will be frozen. Nothing to do for it but start trimming and cleaning. Oh the toil. (He smiles) |
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| Viewed: |
28481 Time(s) |
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| Mineral: | Quartz on Dolomite. |
| Locality: | | Turtle Clan Ridge, Fonda, Mohawk, Montgomery County, New York, USA | |
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| Dimensions: | @15 cm. |
| Description: |
| Quartz on minor dolomite. |
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| Viewed: |
28582 Time(s) |
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vic rzonca
Joined: 18 Nov 2008
Posts: 820
Location: MA
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| Posted: Jul 05, 2017 22:23 Post subject: Re: Collecting quartz on the Little Falls dolostone |
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I have been busy with projects at 9500ft. in CO. and new prospects, so here's some stuff from Turtle Clan Ridge. Mostly Quartz. Quartz Collecting on the Little Falls Dolostone. Quartz, the most abundant mineral in the crust of the earth, depending on how you count it.
| Mineral: | Quartz |
| Locality: | | Turtle Clan Ridge, Fonda, Mohawk, Montgomery County, New York, USA | |
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| Dimensions: | 5 cm. |
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| Viewed: |
27598 Time(s) |
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| Mineral: | Quartz |
| Locality: | | Turtle Clan Ridge, Fonda, Mohawk, Montgomery County, New York, USA | |
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| Dimensions: | 5 cm. |
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27594 Time(s) |
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27681 Time(s) |
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| Moved mostly by hand. We do have mechanical advantage. |
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27600 Time(s) |
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| Moved mostly by hand. It can be fussy business. |
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27613 Time(s) |
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| Description: |
| Typical quartz and calcite in dolostone. |
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27619 Time(s) |
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27562 Time(s) |
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27596 Time(s) |
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27600 Time(s) |
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| And mostly we look for these. |
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27585 Time(s) |
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vic rzonca
Joined: 18 Nov 2008
Posts: 820
Location: MA
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| Posted: Aug 15, 2017 15:37 Post subject: Re: Collecting quartz on the Little Falls dolostone |
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Occasionally, at the ridge, we find pockets that have varying amounts of anthraxolite, a solid carbon substance, I guess it would be a hydrocarbon, that infills the cavity and sometimes engulfs the silica and causes odd crystal manifestations. Small amounts are fairly common but stories of early settlers heating their pioneer hovels with the material are passed around. Much more than this was needed, depending on hovel size. Pictured here are some of the contents of a 25cm. diameter pocket. I had crushed my camera earlier in the day and my flip phone takes the most inferior images, so no photo record exists. Be that as it is, the crystal was lightly attached to the ceiling and rested comfortably on and in the pool of carbon that filled 2/3rds. of the pockets bottom. This is the most anthraxolite we have found and more than twice the amount pictured was found, these being the largest.
| Mineral: | Quartz and anthraxolite |
| Locality: | | Turtle Clan Ridge, Fonda, Mohawk, Montgomery County, New York, USA | |
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| Dimensions: | Quartz is 10cm. |
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| Viewed: |
27300 Time(s) |
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