Monday, July 1, 2013

Obsidian Glass (& a "moon rock") (?)


2 scans of the latest found object - 2013, DS
(click to enlarge)


"Seek and ye shall find"! 

Actually, this is rarely true in my experience... but, I did find what I was looking for at the beach yesterday (see previous post): obsidian glass. Of course, it's so glass-like, it's practically impossible to scan, but, this should give you some idea. It has a slight rainbow flash, but nothing like in the scan - more like the colors one sees in a crow's feather.

And, I also found a lunar rock! Okay, so, it's not really a lunar rock - just another specimen of volcanic rock with a lot of obsidian. It's blacker than it appears in the scan, though; it also has a very silvery sheen to it... 





Scan of the "moon rock" - 2013, DS
(click to enlarge)


Later note: Actually, the true identity of these rocks is still in doubt. I suppose virtually anything can be found on a shoreline, but, we are talking about a Connecticut shoreline... (see the comment section of this post). So, ladies & gentlemen, the jury is still out.


The jury's in... see: Anthracite & Graphite.





4 comments:

  1. So...um...how come you get obsidian and igneous rocks washing up on the East Coast? The nearest volcano must be Iceland?

    Here...have never seen obsidian on the beach but have seen hills of it up in the Sister's wilderness (central oregon)......along with huge lava flows.

    Love ignenous rocks.

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    1. Actually, I've been asking myself the very same question. In reality, Connecticut did have volcanic activity in the very long past, but, although it's possible to still find basalt, obsidian (apparently) has a shorter shelf life.

      Oddly enough, I noticed a few people in web forums who wondered if they found obsidian in Connecticut in the past 2 years, but, the verdict is that what they found is probably anthracite coal or slag.

      I did find what could possibly be examples of coal or slag, too. I just picked up anything black.

      The other possibility - as far as its appearance goes - is that it could be jet, though that isn't found around here either!

      So, I guess the jury is still out, Bob.

      I think I'll put a question mark in that post title!

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  2. Very mysterious - looks like they were waiting for you, Dia!

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, mysterious, for sure... but, as you can see from my reply to Bob, I may have just found some coal in my proverbial stocking! ;-)

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