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Very Hot Topic (More than 25 Replies) Stanly County (Read 13520 times)
Scott LaBorde
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Stanly County
Sep 28th, 2011 at 7:42pm
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Norwood, NC

Laurie Adams, a well known rockhound, and rock shop owner in Denton, NC negotiated with the owner of this property, Wayln Burgin, who graciously opened up his land to the MAGMA club from which Laurie was a member.  You can visit his online store here: http://www.theadamscollection.com/page/page/5192909.htm  For the small fee of $10 anyone who was a member of MAGMA was able to bring home from this place as much as you could take.  And there was much to take.

The following crystal was my prize for this dig.  I couldn't have asked for a better day.  Within the first few minutes of searching I honed in on a pocket roughly the size of a small football in the side of an elephant size boulder of solid quartz.  Many pockets like this were seen partially exposed all around this boulder of quartz but it did not look like anything of good quality would have came from them so I wasn't expecting too much before deciding to chip away at a very small vug that had some pocket clay showing.  After a bit of work with the chisel at the sides of the vug I realized it was getting bigger.  It turned out to be a fine pocket in which was almost entirely composed of tabby crystals.  There was, however, one large normal habit crystal that came from the center of this pocket.  I thought it was so strange how everything else in this pocket was tabular shaped and the only normal habit crystal that came out of this pocket was a large 6 inch crystal.  The theory I heard going around was that there was a hydrothermal event in which temperatures rose or fell so rapidly that the crystals shattered but conditions continued afterward such that the quartz continued to grow and heal.  I believe that since quartz grows in layers (periods of time where different environmental conditions were present) that the weakest part of the crystals were in the planes of these "layers".  I believe most of the quartz fractured along these layered planes where imperfections in the crystal structure are likely to occur thus the reason for so many tabular quartz crystals at the site.

The following two pictures are two sides of the large prize in the center of the pocket.
15 x 4.5 x 4 cm    (6 inches long, 1 3/4 inch at the base)
« Last Edit: Oct 10th, 2011 at 8:25am by Scott LaBorde »  

Burgin1.JPG ( 290 KB | 117 Downloads )
Burgin1.JPG
Burgin2.JPG ( 334 KB | 148 Downloads )
Burgin2.JPG

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Scott LaBorde
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Re: Stanly County
Reply #1 - Sep 28th, 2011 at 8:16pm
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Only after arriving home and inspecting all the finds from the pocket I realized the bottom of the large crystal above was in there.  In this case, however, the broken ends had healed so much that it no longer fit snug, yet still visibly obvious that the two pieces were once together.
  

Burgin3.JPG ( 329 KB | 139 Downloads )
Burgin3.JPG
Burgin4.JPG ( 320 KB | 129 Downloads )
Burgin4.JPG

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Scott LaBorde
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Re: Stanly County
Reply #2 - Sep 28th, 2011 at 9:13pm
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Here are three tabular quartz specimens I found at the prospect.
  

Burgin5.JPG ( 251 KB | 127 Downloads )
Burgin5.JPG
Burgin6.JPG ( 282 KB | 120 Downloads )
Burgin6.JPG
Burgin7.JPG ( 327 KB | 131 Downloads )
Burgin7.JPG

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John Frazier
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Re: Stanly County
Reply #3 - Sep 28th, 2011 at 9:18pm
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Scott these are very interesting.  I don't think I have seen any quartz from Stanly Co.  Is this an old mine site or construction site? Smiley
  
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Re: Stanly County
Reply #4 - Sep 28th, 2011 at 9:19pm
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Scott sorry I missed your write up before the pics.  Just jumped to them......
  
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Re: Stanly County
Reply #5 - Sep 30th, 2011 at 11:18am
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oh! very very cool specimens you got there. i really like the story about the big one. that is very interesting, indeed. thanks for showing.
  
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Scott LaBorde
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Re: Stanly County
Reply #6 - Sep 30th, 2011 at 6:23pm
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So I found this one in the material that came from the pocket.  Epimorph?
  

Burgin8.JPG ( 248 KB | 131 Downloads )
Burgin8.JPG
Burgin9.JPG ( 282 KB | 119 Downloads )
Burgin9.JPG

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Re: Stanly County
Reply #7 - Oct 14th, 2011 at 11:06pm
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Some pics of Scotts' vug and a couple of the completely
healed "shards" from it.

  

GlendonBurgin_032_001.jpg ( 197 KB | 135 Downloads )
GlendonBurgin_032_001.jpg
GlendonBurgin_034_001.jpg ( 219 KB | 141 Downloads )
GlendonBurgin_034_001.jpg
GlendonBurgin_037_001.jpg ( 202 KB | 139 Downloads )
GlendonBurgin_037_001.jpg
GlendonBurgin_039_001.jpg ( 212 KB | 133 Downloads )
GlendonBurgin_039_001.jpg
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Scott LaBorde
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Re: Stanly County
Reply #8 - Dec 20th, 2011 at 9:32am
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Two very fine crystals that have just been extracted from a very large pocket.
  

091.JPG ( 197 KB | 119 Downloads )
091.JPG
092.JPG ( 163 KB | 136 Downloads )
092.JPG

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Re: Stanly County
Reply #9 - Jan 11th, 2012 at 7:11pm
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Here are some pictures of pockets and crystals from a recent dig on January 7th, 2012.  The first is a pocket Joe found with a large crystal bridging the gap of the vug.  The second is a pocket I found with a couple crystals in situ.  The third is of a pocket Shaun Shelton was working on with a nice crystal in situ.
  

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xx56.JPG ( 454 KB | 130 Downloads )
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xx57.JPG ( 567 KB | 133 Downloads )
xx57.JPG

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Re: Stanly County
Reply #10 - Jan 11th, 2012 at 9:49pm
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The negative imprint of a quartz crystal in pocket clay.  Look carefully and you can see the fingerprint of nature.   Grin
  

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xx59.JPG ( 504 KB | 135 Downloads )
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Re: Stanly County
Reply #11 - Jan 11th, 2012 at 9:55pm
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And five more photos of various specimens from the January 7th dig.  Notice the gold colored inclusions in the third and fourth one down.  It is the first I have seen of something other than chlorite included in the quartz from this location.  Possibly pyrite or chalcopyrite.
  

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xx61.JPG ( 298 KB | 125 Downloads )
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xx64.JPG ( 277 KB | 141 Downloads )
xx64.JPG

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Re: Stanly County
Reply #12 - Jan 11th, 2012 at 9:59pm
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Nice crystals!  Like the inclusions. Cheesy
  
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Scott LaBorde
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Re: Stanly County
Reply #13 - Feb 5th, 2012 at 7:38pm
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Re: Stanly County
Reply #14 - Feb 6th, 2012 at 10:13am
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Great photos and information, Scott!  Fantastic!  That last photo really highlights the crystals and finds from the trip.  Well done!
  
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