I first noticed the deep green and then conchoidal fractures. I was guessing maybe jasper. This was very cool and very informative to see you use 5 steps to identify the substance. I was unaware petrified wood could look that way. I had heard of green chalcedony. You have some amazing rocks and minerals and jewelry as well, that you show for comparison. Thanks for posting this great, helpful video 😁👍
Jasper is definitely a good guess too, since it’s an opaque form of chalcedony! Look up Hampton Butte green wood, some of it looks pretty similar to this material. It’s some cool stuff! Thanks for watching and thanks for your kind words, as always!
The person who sent it to me is a knapper and said it’s nothing like obsidian and shattered when he tried to work a piece. It’s green chalcedony but most likely Hampton Butte petrified wood!
Being a flintknapper, I've always wanted to knap some green obsidian. I have some very good red chert from Wyoming if you are interested in trading a bit. It's the same phosphoric red chert from the Big Horn mountains in Wyoming, that the big red Clovis from the Fenn cash was made from. I personally picked it up from some ancient (and very secret) quarry sites at about 8,000 ft elevation.
My first thought was green obsidian too, until I learned that it wouldn't knapp. Everything definitely points to a silicate material, though. When possible, locality is great clue to have.
Before your test I immediately thought green banded chert.. but after your identifying tests I’m feeling jasper. Both have that opaque crystalline look like yours especially around the rock fractures where the pieces are thin. Similar to Indian blood stone without the red specs. Looks like it will polish beautifully.
Thank you. Very good presentation and explanation of how to look at a sample. A gorgeous sample at that. The video quality was so good i could see the dust plume from the scratch when you used the 8. This all reassured that I'm on the right track. Thanks again!
Being a flintknapper, if I saw this material lying on the surface, I would call it a really good quality chert, and I would look for and hoard all I could find! This stuff would make some beautiful projectile points and paleo knives. Beautiful, beautiful lithic material, makes me drool. Lol
Yeah I can see that. Unfortunately when the person who sent it to me tried to knapp it, it shattered. Definitely not suitable for making tools that way.
@@katieray496 Thanks for watching and I appreciate your feedback! I calculated the specific gravity of the rock by getting the weight in grams and the water displacement in milliliters. Then you divide the weight (mass) by the displacement (volume) to get the density. Then you divide that answer by the density of the fluid used for the displacement measurement, which is 1 g/ml in this case since I used water, so the density measurement ends up being the same as the specific gravity.
It’s actually translucent so not jasper, but yes, looks similar. It’s chalcedony, most likely petrified wood from Hampton Butte, OR. Thanks for watching!
I'll have to throw a sample of my green rock into my travel bucket this winter, pass another challenge your way if you're willing. I am still leaning towards it being Jadeite (Imperial), although I have been told it's everything from Turquoise to Aventurine, Amazonite, Nephrite, and possibly even some newly discovered mineral I have never heard of. Mined in the Southwest (it was a N.M. parting gift from a local in Carrizozo). It has= a) Color & Luster: bright waxy green; sparkly shine when hit with direct light. b) Hardness of 7 - 7.5. Quartz chunk barely left a mark & really took a beating itself. It is too hard to be Nephrite. c) Chrystal Structure: Microcrystalline in a grainular/linear formation. d) Translucency: 200 Lumen flashlight clearly & brightly glows within the stone, accentuating the crystal structure & color. e) Fracture: Appears to be more linear & jagged (opposed to Chalcedony Varieties which fracture in smooth, concoidal breaks). f) Passes the "cool to the touch" test. g) Passes the "strand of hair wrapped around it resistant to lighter flame" test. Oh man.... @ at just shy of 9 pounds (around 4 KG), I am so enthusiastic to find out if it is so! Now I can't wait for the snow to fly so I can boogie on up outta here!
Can you send me the name of someone locally that can help me identify my finds at Rio puerco area? I think I have some wood and a few other pieces that my app won't identify
Someone at Mama’s Minerals in Albuquerque might be able to assist! There’s also the Albuquerque Gem & Mineral club there are probably a lot of people that can help in that group! That group has a Facebook page, you might be able to post your pics there and get some help.
Can this come in a what I would call a rootbeer color or almost a yellow and green and brown. We also found a plate of clear chalcedony in it. When it was fresh under the earth in the mountainside it was almost a black. When I first started seeing traces that lead me to it I thought the pieces were green plastic. Some of the browns are mixed with white. There is probably a ton of it I just couldn't dig it as I was injured and physically can't do much. We have lots of samples but moved 10 hours east now so no access till we go back to rock hound again.
You can find me under the same name on Instagram and message me pics that way. Pictures alone are not a very reliable way to ID minerals/rocks but I can attempt it!
I saw your stone and I thought oh that's silex (I'm from France). And then I looked it up and saw silex is made of calcedony ;o) Thanks, I learned something !
Great diagnostics, but I'm just questioning the white part and its relationship with the green now. In what kind of environment would this have formed?
Hey thanks for watching. I interpret the white as a weathering rind - parts that were exposed to chemical leaching by fluids or other weathering processes.
@@Perfectionseeker1967 I don’t believe so in this case, no. I can see the structure of the “wood” through the white part too, highly suggestive of alteration processes leaching minerals out of the original material. Chert is another form of chalcedony formed in marine or lacustrine environments, and either the entire chunk would be chert or none of it would be. Opal is hydrated silica, it is more likely for opal to dehydrate to chalcedony during weathering than the other way around, although it may be possible under some conditions. “Weathering rind” covers the possibilities pretty well!
I really enjoyed your test ! I live in a area where I pick up Glass Slag all the time. It is a bi-product from smelting iron or other metals. I have found several pieces looking a lot like these two pieces. The one thing that I noticed as a tell tale sign in my area. "Michigan" is the crater looking part of the rock in a whitish gray color. It is very characteristic in the glass slag I find. I have never found any true rock specimen in this color in my area, so I am no judge to any other kind of rock. Enjoyed much :)
Yep I find slag a lot, and people mistake it for all sorts of things - meteorites, lava/obsidian and when it’s glassy, gemstones! It helps to know where a specimen is from, then mining history and geology can be considered! As for this stuff, I’m pretty sure it’s green petrified wood from Hampton Butte, Oregon. Amazing stuff! Thanks for watching!
Wouldn’t you take where it was found into consideration for ID? Just curious. Also why don’t you ever mention Jasper specifically? We’re on the Oregon Coast and find stuff just like this all the time. Ours is the dark forest green with red bands! Sometimes yellow. There’s Jasper all over the place here. Great video! Loved your whole breakdown! 👍
Definitely location is important! In this case, the person who sent it to me had no idea where it came from. I suspect this is petrified wood from Hampton Butte, OR, but we don’t know for sure. Jasper is a more granular, opaque form of chalcedony. This is actually translucent, so I do not consider it to be a jasper, at least from the limited sample I had. Thanks for watching, I hope to make it out to the Oregon coast again someday for rockhounding, you’re so lucky!
@@GeoRockNerd Oh I see, I didn't realize it was translucent (hard to make that distinction from the video), but now I'm surprised you didn't hit it with a flashlight for fun! Hey if/when you make it back to the Oregon Coast, feel free to hit me up for any good hunting spots or tips (if needed), we are on IG @OregonCoastAgates if you wanna check us out! I could use a good ID'er from time to time for some of my more interesting finds. We mainly focus on agates but often find Carnelian, Chalcedony, Jasper, Petrified Wood and Fossils!
@@CPhDavis Yeah I should have showed it with the flashlight, good idea for next time! And thanks for the invite, that would be awesome, always good to meet up with other rockhounds and I’m always happy to help with ID if I can! I may be moving to Idaho this summer and plan to make some Oregon trips for sure, since I have family and friends there!
I would love to have someone like you for an ID sometimes, I often find many hybrids that are confusing and fossil finds that have chalcedony or agate inside them! Are you on Instagram by chance?
I conclude that this is chalcedony, and most likely petrified wood from Hampton Butte, OR, at the end of the video. Not jasper - this is actually translucent.
Hey there! I guess this is seladonite, affected by the chalcedony. Check geology of that place, if it is - you probably can find unaffected seladonite.
I agree that celadonite is another possibility for the coloration of this material, but since we don’t know where it came from we can’t verify the known geology of the location.
Nice guess! The person who sent it to me is a knapper who knows obsidian very well, said this was completely different, shattered when he tried to knap it. It’s chalcedony!
Let me know when you wanna do a rock trade 👍🏼 I have some weird concretions I’ve found that are a complete mystery to me. I’ll have to send you some. Weird stuff! Reverse mud crack balls and what I’m guessing are quartz pseudomorphs after barite. I’ve gotten wildly different opinions from everyone I asked about them. I’d love to hear your opinion... and I KNOW you have some cool rocks to trade 😁 Hit me up
Obsidian "the fracture" and hardness "7?" Uhohh made it a glass? No it's not. 7 is tourmaline hardness. Jade isn't that hard. It's a mystery then. Anything above 6-6.5 hardness is harder than quartz and you only have precious stones beyond quartz.
I scratch tested my obsidian from the Valles Caldera and it was a 7. Obsidian isn’t a mineral and the magma composition varies, it isn’t just “silica glass”. Plenty of geologic materials have Mohs hardnesses that don’t follow your “rules” for minerals.
I first noticed the deep green and then conchoidal fractures. I was guessing maybe jasper. This was very cool and very informative to see you use 5 steps to identify the substance. I was unaware petrified wood could look that way. I had heard of green chalcedony. You have some amazing rocks and minerals and jewelry as well, that you show for comparison. Thanks for posting this great, helpful video 😁👍
Jasper is definitely a good guess too, since it’s an opaque form of chalcedony! Look up Hampton Butte green wood, some of it looks pretty similar to this material. It’s some cool stuff! Thanks for watching and thanks for your kind words, as always!
@@GeoRockNerd will do for sure, and you're welcome 😊
Looks like banded green obsidian to me. I've snapped a few arrowheads out green obsidian.
The person who sent it to me is a knapper and said it’s nothing like obsidian and shattered when he tried to work a piece. It’s green chalcedony but most likely Hampton Butte petrified wood!
Being a flintknapper, I've always wanted to knap some green obsidian. I have some very good red chert from Wyoming if you are interested in trading a bit. It's the same phosphoric red chert from the Big Horn mountains in Wyoming, that the big red Clovis from the Fenn cash was made from. I personally picked it up from some ancient (and very secret) quarry sites at about 8,000 ft elevation.
My first thought was green obsidian too, until I learned that it wouldn't knapp. Everything definitely points to a silicate material, though. When possible, locality is great clue to have.
I will like to thank you for the full identification process for these stones. This can now be useful in my rock searches.
Cool, I’m glad you found the info useful! Thanks for watching!
Brilliant vid, Thanks. Would love to see the process for measuring specific gravity.
Thank you for watching! I’ll try to show that next time I do an identification video, good idea!
Ive seen 2 similar to this. Chert from Wyoming, or flint from Texas.
There’s also green petrified wood from Hampton Butte in Oregon some of which looks exactly like this. It’s beautiful, anyway!
Before your test I immediately thought green banded chert.. but after your identifying tests I’m feeling jasper. Both have that opaque crystalline look like yours especially around the rock fractures where the pieces are thin. Similar to Indian blood stone without the red specs. Looks like it will polish beautifully.
2:18 that looks like a lady"s profile with her long flowing hair at this angle. Nice find
Thank you!
Thank you. Very good presentation and explanation of how to look at a sample. A gorgeous sample at that. The video quality was so good i could see the dust plume from the scratch when you used the 8.
This all reassured that I'm on the right track. Thanks again!
Thank you for your kind comment, I’m glad you found this useful! Thanks for watching!
Thorough and interesting. Beautiful color in those rocks. It also helps to know the local of collection, I think.
Sadly that is not known. Given to the person by a relative, origin unknown.
Waw.. nice videos, idetification gems with moch scale
Thank you!
Great presentation! Thank you very much!
Thank you!
Being a flintknapper, if I saw this material lying on the surface, I would call it a really good quality chert, and I would look for and hoard all I could find! This stuff would make some beautiful projectile points and paleo knives. Beautiful, beautiful lithic material, makes me drool. Lol
The person who sent it to me was a flintknapper! He said unfortunately this shatters when trying to work it.
I am glad RUclips has recommended this to me! I am going to subscribe to see more. How interesting!
Thank you, I appreciate it!
You can do a simple Specific gravity test . They are not hard to creat
I did…if you watch the video I mention it
This actually looks like Coxsackie chert to me. Not very common in the southwest, but I found a chunk of it in the Hudson Valley in NY many years ago.
Yeah I can see that. Unfortunately when the person who sent it to me tried to knapp it, it shattered. Definitely not suitable for making tools that way.
@@GeoRockNerd Yea, it looks like that piece has many fractures running through it. Probably a surface find, now if you could quarry it...woo hoo!
this was so helpful and educational! i appreciate your work on your channel. keep it up!!!!:)
also, how did you calculate the gravity of the sample? did you use water displacement?
@@katieray496 Thanks for watching and I appreciate your feedback!
I calculated the specific gravity of the rock by getting the weight in grams and the water displacement in milliliters. Then you divide the weight (mass) by the displacement (volume) to get the density. Then you divide that answer by the density of the fluid used for the displacement measurement, which is 1 g/ml in this case since I used water, so the density measurement ends up being the same as the specific gravity.
Have one in PAPUA NEW GUINEA today
Thanks!! Good stuff
Thank you, and thanks for watching!
Awsome had to watch it again!
Thank you, I appreciate it!
Awsome tutorial!! Rio rancho
Sweet! You ever collect the petrified wood out that way?
Thank you..learned alot.
Thank you for watching!
Looks like a couple nice specimens of Imperial Jasper!
It’s actually translucent so not jasper, but yes, looks similar. It’s chalcedony, most likely petrified wood from Hampton Butte, OR. Thanks for watching!
I'll have to throw a sample of my green rock into my travel bucket this winter, pass another challenge your way if you're willing.
I am still leaning towards it being Jadeite (Imperial), although I have been told it's everything from Turquoise to Aventurine, Amazonite, Nephrite, and possibly even some newly discovered mineral I have never heard of.
Mined in the Southwest (it was a N.M. parting gift from a local in Carrizozo). It has=
a) Color & Luster: bright waxy green; sparkly shine when hit with direct light.
b) Hardness of 7 - 7.5. Quartz chunk barely left a mark & really took a beating itself. It is too hard to be Nephrite.
c) Chrystal Structure: Microcrystalline in a grainular/linear formation.
d) Translucency: 200 Lumen flashlight clearly & brightly glows within the stone, accentuating the crystal structure & color.
e) Fracture: Appears to be more linear & jagged (opposed to Chalcedony Varieties which fracture in smooth, concoidal breaks).
f) Passes the "cool to the touch" test.
g) Passes the "strand of hair wrapped around it resistant to lighter flame" test.
Oh man.... @ at just shy of 9 pounds (around 4 KG), I am so enthusiastic to find out if it is so!
Now I can't wait for the snow to fly so I can boogie on up outta here!
Sounds fascinating! Oooh that would be awesome if someone discovered gemmy jade in NM!
So we don't have to lick them? Good to know...
Sorry I didn’t show that part! Always lick your rocks, Mossy. 😆😛
Serpentine subgroup?.. I recently found some Nice Green Similar mineral in N.M. in the old Mine tailings in Fierro.
I rule serpentine out in the video, this is chalcedony/possibly petrified wood!
Can you send me the name of someone locally that can help me identify my finds at Rio puerco area? I think I have some wood and a few other pieces that my app won't identify
Someone at Mama’s Minerals in Albuquerque might be able to assist! There’s also the Albuquerque Gem & Mineral club there are probably a lot of people that can help in that group! That group has a Facebook page, you might be able to post your pics there and get some help.
Can this come in a what I would call a rootbeer color or almost a yellow and green and brown. We also found a plate of clear chalcedony in it. When it was fresh under the earth in the mountainside it was almost a black. When I first started seeing traces that lead me to it I thought the pieces were green plastic. Some of the browns are mixed with white. There is probably a ton of it I just couldn't dig it as I was injured and physically can't do much. We have lots of samples but moved 10 hours east now so no access till we go back to rock hound again.
Petrified wood can certainly be all those colors, yes! Sounds like beautiful material, hope you can get back for more! What state did you find it in?
lovely 💚
Thank you!
@@GeoRockNerd you are so very welcome! ♡
Thanks for the very interesting video... awesome explanation!
Thank you for your kind words, and thanks for watching!
I took a geology course in High School so I could avoid chemistry and still meet science requirement for graduation.. Wish I'd pursued it further.
Haha that’s funny! Good plan! 😆 I did have to take chemistry 1 & 2, Quantitative Analysis and Geochemistry to graduate! Thanks for watching!
Great !loved it!I want to send u a pic of my rock.how do I send it?
You can find me under the same name on Instagram and message me pics that way. Pictures alone are not a very reliable way to ID minerals/rocks but I can attempt it!
I saw your stone and I thought oh that's silex (I'm from France). And then I looked it up and saw silex is made of calcedony ;o) Thanks, I learned something !
Good eye! And you are correct, silex/chert is also a variety of chalcedony!
Great diagnostics, but I'm just questioning the white part and its relationship with the green now. In what kind of environment would this have formed?
Hey thanks for watching. I interpret the white as a weathering rind - parts that were exposed to chemical leaching by fluids or other weathering processes.
@@GeoRockNerd So white's not chert or calcite or common opal?
@@Perfectionseeker1967 I don’t believe so in this case, no. I can see the structure of the “wood” through the white part too, highly suggestive of alteration processes leaching minerals out of the original material.
Chert is another form of chalcedony formed in marine or lacustrine environments, and either the entire chunk would be chert or none of it would be. Opal is hydrated silica, it is more likely for opal to dehydrate to chalcedony during weathering than the other way around, although it may be possible under some conditions. “Weathering rind” covers the possibilities pretty well!
@@GeoRockNerd Thank you for your insight and time! I appreciate your knowledge and efforts!
@@Perfectionseeker1967 Any time!
Really enjoyed this! :D
Thank you!
That is some nice material. Everyone sends you their green stuff hey?
Haha yes! I love it! Your’s is really cool too, I’m doing some tests on it also! Keep you posted!
Cool!!
Thanks for watching!
Identify where the petrified wood is from? Rock Hounds out there, might you know where this sample was collected?
I’d love to know where people think this might be from, whether petrified wood or just chalcedony. Thanks!
@@GeoRockNerd My guess is Hampton Butte, Oregon. Don't know for sure.
@@cyndikarp3368 I agree that’s a possibility!
@@GeoRockNerd Green rocks are special.
@@cyndikarp3368 Totally agree! ❤️
I really enjoyed your test ! I live in a area where I pick up Glass Slag all the time. It is a bi-product from smelting iron or other metals. I have found several pieces looking a lot like these two pieces. The one thing that I noticed as a tell tale sign in my area. "Michigan" is the crater looking part of the rock in a whitish gray color. It is very characteristic in the glass slag I find. I have never found any true rock specimen in this color in my area, so I am no judge to any other kind of rock. Enjoyed much :)
Yep I find slag a lot, and people mistake it for all sorts of things - meteorites, lava/obsidian and when it’s glassy, gemstones! It helps to know where a specimen is from, then mining history and geology can be considered! As for this stuff, I’m pretty sure it’s green petrified wood from Hampton Butte, Oregon. Amazing stuff! Thanks for watching!
Wouldn’t you take where it was found into consideration for ID? Just curious.
Also why don’t you ever mention Jasper specifically? We’re on the Oregon Coast and find stuff just like this all the time. Ours is the dark forest green with red bands! Sometimes yellow. There’s Jasper all over the place here.
Great video! Loved your whole breakdown! 👍
Definitely location is important! In this case, the person who sent it to me had no idea where it came from. I suspect this is petrified wood from Hampton Butte, OR, but we don’t know for sure.
Jasper is a more granular, opaque form of chalcedony. This is actually translucent, so I do not consider it to be a jasper, at least from the limited sample I had.
Thanks for watching, I hope to make it out to the Oregon coast again someday for rockhounding, you’re so lucky!
@@GeoRockNerd Oh I see, I didn't realize it was translucent (hard to make that distinction from the video), but now I'm surprised you didn't hit it with a flashlight for fun!
Hey if/when you make it back to the Oregon Coast, feel free to hit me up for any good hunting spots or tips (if needed), we are on IG @OregonCoastAgates if you wanna check us out! I could use a good ID'er from time to time for some of my more interesting finds. We mainly focus on agates but often find Carnelian, Chalcedony, Jasper, Petrified Wood and Fossils!
@@CPhDavis Yeah I should have showed it with the flashlight, good idea for next time!
And thanks for the invite, that would be awesome, always good to meet up with other rockhounds and I’m always happy to help with ID if I can! I may be moving to Idaho this summer and plan to make some Oregon trips for sure, since I have family and friends there!
I would love to have someone like you for an ID sometimes, I often find many hybrids that are confusing and fossil finds that have chalcedony or agate inside them!
Are you on Instagram by chance?
@@CPhDavis Yes, I have an account but haven’t used it much! I just followed you!
That is slag glass !! No doubt about it.
Nope. It’s chalcedony, most likely petrified wood from Hampton Butte, Oregon
Glass slag is usually much more translucent.
Looks like Imperial Jasper from Mexico to me.
It’s translucent so not a jasper, but close. Chalcedony, possibly petrified wood from Hampton Butte, OR.
Looks like Imperial jasper.
I conclude that this is chalcedony, and most likely petrified wood from Hampton Butte, OR, at the end of the video. Not jasper - this is actually translucent.
Chert?
Definitely chalcedony, possibly petrified wood from Hampton Butte, Oregon!
It is technical jasper
Hey there! I guess this is seladonite, affected by the chalcedony. Check geology of that place, if it is - you probably can find unaffected seladonite.
I agree that celadonite is another possibility for the coloration of this material, but since we don’t know where it came from we can’t verify the known geology of the location.
Its ether obsidian or jasper?
Not obsidian, it’s harder. It’s translucent, so not jasper either. I conclude that it IS chalcedony though, perhaps petrified wood from Hampton Butte.
@@GeoRockNerd Opalescent, common No doubt chalcedony. Cool.But if translucent, it can't be common opal, So Yeah, I guess your right.
@@Rockhoundingcolorado And at a 7 on the Mohs, no chance of opal.
@@GeoRockNerd These rocks stay were they are? Love to see a slice. I may be in the wrong thread!
@@GeoRockNerd Lol, I was... this the green, Cab it up.
My first thought it might be green obsidian…..
Nice guess! The person who sent it to me is a knapper who knows obsidian very well, said this was completely different, shattered when he tried to knap it. It’s chalcedony!
This is called imperial jasper. it may not be a true jasper and more of a chalcedony, but that is its proper name.
It’s most likely petrified wood from Hampton Butte, Oregon.
Let me know when you wanna do a rock trade 👍🏼 I have some weird concretions I’ve found that are a complete mystery to me. I’ll have to send you some. Weird stuff! Reverse mud crack balls and what I’m guessing are quartz pseudomorphs after barite. I’ve gotten wildly different opinions from everyone I asked about them. I’d love to hear your opinion... and I KNOW you have some cool rocks to trade 😁 Hit me up
Sounds cool! Yes, let's do a trade soon, I have cool stuff you might like!
Plasma jasper
It’s most likely petrified wood from Hampton Butte, Oregon! (Not jasper because it is translucent instead of opaque)
@@GeoRockNerd ahhh yesss! Thank you
Moss agate
It's green chalcedony, possible petrified wood from Hampton Butte, OR!
Obsidian "the fracture" and hardness "7?" Uhohh made it a glass? No it's not. 7 is tourmaline hardness. Jade isn't that hard. It's a mystery then. Anything above 6-6.5 hardness is harder than quartz and you only have precious stones beyond quartz.
I scratch tested my obsidian from the Valles Caldera and it was a 7. Obsidian isn’t a mineral and the magma composition varies, it isn’t just “silica glass”. Plenty of geologic materials have Mohs hardnesses that don’t follow your “rules” for minerals.