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Hot Topic (More than 10 Replies) Wake County, District Drive (Read 7393 times)
JoeM
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Wake County, District Drive
Jul 9th, 2012 at 8:39am
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Since it has been too hot to do much digging or exploring
I have been trying to clean up and sort some of the piles
of rock around here and came across a dilapidated box of
stuff from District Drive collected during construction in 2009
and 2010. This site has now been ruined, er...I mean developed,
but there are a few areas left that could provide some
collecting opportunities in the future.

Most, but not all, the quartz crystals from this site displayed
a Tessin habit, but it was all the accessory minerals that
would occasionally pop into view that made this place so
interesting and fun to collect at and those are what I will
concentrate on showing here.

Starting with the Rutile, here are a couple pics of the same
patch of "Golden" rutile.

  

DisDrRutile1.jpg ( 62 KB | 106 Downloads )
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DisDrRutile3.jpg ( 79 KB | 99 Downloads )
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JoeM
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Re: Wake County, District Drive
Reply #1 - Jul 9th, 2012 at 8:53am
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Next are pics of a "spray" of rutile layered in quartz.
One nice red rutile poking out at the top center of the spray
and the rest shows a graduation of color from orange to red.
The tip of the red rutile is coated with an as yet unidentified
black mineral, which is also included in the quartz crystal.
The final pic is of an area of this black mineral.
Due to the association of this black mineral with the rutile
and the slightly blue reflective tint, Ilmenite would have
to be my first guess.

  

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DisDrRutile7.jpg ( 57 KB | 94 Downloads )
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DisDrRutile8.jpg ( 60 KB | 95 Downloads )
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DisDrRutile10.jpg ( 60 KB | 106 Downloads )
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DisDrRutile11.jpg ( 76 KB | 106 Downloads )
DisDrRutile11.jpg
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JoeM
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Re: Wake County, District Drive
Reply #2 - Jul 9th, 2012 at 8:59am
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Two last pics of the rutile.
I noticed that at one time the horizontal rutile ran across
the "crevice" with mica in this piece of quartz and continued
on the right side. Too bad it still doesn't.

  

DisDrRutile12.jpg ( 91 KB | 98 Downloads )
DisDrRutile12.jpg
DisDrRutile14.jpg ( 88 KB | 109 Downloads )
DisDrRutile14.jpg
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JoeM
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Re: Wake County, District Drive
Reply #3 - Jul 9th, 2012 at 9:06am
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As with a few other sites in Wake County, minor amounts
of Schorl were found.

  

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DisDr14.jpg ( 94 KB | 111 Downloads )
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JoeM
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Re: Wake County, District Drive
Reply #4 - Jul 9th, 2012 at 9:26am
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But the accessory mineral that this site was really known for
was the Siderite. Scott has posted pics and videos of some of the beautiful quartz crystals with siderite he has found here
in the past.
Alot of the siderite is your usual limonite psuedomorphs, but
much of it has been altered in a more unusual way that has
left it with a cleaner, gemmy, and sometimes iridescent surface.
So the colors in these pics are not too much of an exaggeration caused by my oh so professional photography
techniques. Roll Eyes
Due to the black tint to some of the specimens we have
called it "baked" at times.
These first two pics are of the same specimen from slightly
different angles and a good example of the iridescence.


  

DisDr10.jpg ( 72 KB | 100 Downloads )
DisDr10.jpg
DisDr11.jpg ( 73 KB | 96 Downloads )
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JoeM
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Re: Wake County, District Drive
Reply #5 - Jul 9th, 2012 at 9:29am
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One pic of a "twinned" cube displaying the nicely preserved surface.

  

DisDr6.jpg ( 53 KB | 90 Downloads )
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JoeM
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Re: Wake County, District Drive
Reply #6 - Jul 9th, 2012 at 9:39am
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And finally, two pics of another nicely preserved specimen.
The right portion of this piece displays the blackened, or
"baked", surface. And note how gemmy the cube on the left
portion of this specimen appears. I suspect the three rutile
crystals coming out of the front of this cube may have
something to with that. Cool

  

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DisDr3.jpg
DisDr5.jpg ( 101 KB | 106 Downloads )
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Re: Wake County, District Drive
Reply #7 - Jul 9th, 2012 at 10:53am
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Very nice pics.  It always suprises me how minerally interesting wake county is.
  
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Rebecca
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Re: Wake County, District Drive
Reply #8 - Jul 9th, 2012 at 11:27am
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wow those last ones are actually pretty.  Grin
  
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JoeM
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Re: Wake County, District Drive
Reply #9 - Jul 9th, 2012 at 9:12pm
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What, never heard of a "finale" before?
  
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Rebecca
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Re: Wake County, District Drive
Reply #10 - Jul 10th, 2012 at 4:38pm
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Very nice Joe. I like a developed and complete story and at least you are finding something!
Hey did you ever look at that spotty green and black rock I left on your table at the last Reel? I wonder if it would polish? I definitely think the black is hematite, but I wonder if the green is epidote? Wouldn't that be a standard mix with the pink feldspar...isn't that unakite?
  
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John Frazier
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Re: Wake County, District Drive
Reply #11 - Jul 10th, 2012 at 6:24pm
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Joe more rutile.  I think I am beginning to like rutile. Cheesy Cheesy
See that you are now the posting King.  Thanks for sharing these wonderful pics. Smiley Smiley
  
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JoeM
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Re: Wake County, District Drive
Reply #12 - Jul 10th, 2012 at 9:42pm
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Just one of my many "crowning acheesements", John.
Very glad to hear about your sudden infatuation with Rutile! Cheesy
Glad you like the pics. Thanks.

You know, Rebecca, I think that piece is probably still in the truck!
I remember that it was a piece of Unakite, tho, I need to
find it and take a closer look at it. (Seems like there was
another rock that appeared on my table there too.)

FYI, Unakite is an altered granite composed of;
orthoclase feldspar- pink
epidote- green
colorless- quartz
Any black areas would probably be an amphibole or horneblende.

Joe
  
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John Frazier
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Re: Wake County, District Drive
Reply #13 - Jul 11th, 2012 at 9:00am
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State rock of Virginia.................... Cheesy
  
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Scott LaBorde
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Re: Wake County, District Drive
Reply #14 - Jul 21st, 2012 at 6:34pm
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A rarer scepter habit was also found at District Drive albeit in poor condition.  They were all found near the surface or less than a foot down.  Being once farmland I suspect these were tilled or plowed through considering that they were found scattered in the soil.  I still had to dig hard whilst fighting against tree roots to find them but it was obvious they had been disturbed in some way natural or not.
  

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