as a vey new rockhound, this explaination was very clarifying to this specific chert/flint confusion i was having, as well as illuminating how different feilds catergorize the same thing in different terminology. Great vid!
There are so many variations of feldspar so ppl often confuse one type for another, like using when I show peristerite to somebody who's outside of Ontario or not in the know they automatically mistake it for moonstone or labradorite.
@@Ontario_Rockhound have a buddy that whipped out paperwork and gave me in Illinois once. Cause I called stuff flint that was not 🤣. Gave me a folder of it he did,lol. Great guy , knows his rocks Alot better than me. Im wanting to find some more Kaolin chert nodules. River goes down, I'll be out there. Bol bud✌️
As one who finds “Jasper” on the American volcanic west coast, I appreciate your simple clarification on chert, flint, and jasper being geologically the same. Much of the jasper we find here, like the picture jaspers, formed in mud flows.
Glad you liked the video, I think some of the confusion comes from the fact that rocks/minerals can often form under varying conditions and so there is an immediate thought they have to be different, but then in the most basic geological terms they aren't consider different due to their chemical makeup basically being the same and that is where i think ppl often get confused.
Here in Saint John NB we have lots of limestone. No chalk that I'm aware of. On the west side of the city on the beach there are flint nodules. They are toffee coloured with orange peel skin and dark flint on the inside sometimes or toffee . We also have flints with chert coating . ( I think) A soft white outer layer.
@@Ontario_Rockhound Any eastern Canada locations near a beach/port have a good likelihood of having a bit of flint because it came over from England as ballast in sailing ships. The Superstore in the South end of Halifax was built on a big flint dump. During construction knowledgable rockhounds would go to gather British flint. It is possible that this was the source of the flint in NB.
Great information and it explains to me why I find Chert with fossils in it. Now that I understand that the Chert is built with the sediment from those ancient seabed’s. Thanks so much!
😊I KNEW you're going to pull this friend! ... Now that's a healthy debate. We could go on & on, who's flint & whos chert or jasper ALL DAY LONG!😂 ..im on the Cincinnati Arch myself. ❤ Will be structurally speaking I'd be a little careful😅. I like it!
Awesome information! If I could ask, where do agates and chalcedony fall geologically? They seem to be quite closely related in appearance somewhat, especially with the more opaque varieties.
Chert, jasper, and agate are a chalcedony, when compared to a chert or a japer agate is generally transparent to semi transparent, though that is not always the case for which makes it more confusing. Sometimes, you will find them mixed together, like a jasp agate, or a chert with agate pockets. In general the different varieties of chalcedony are confusing bc some material that is called a chert or flint might be called an agate or a jasper elsewhere. Also, agate can form in volcanic and sedimentary formations.
Nice informative video. Quite a bit of the chert I find here in Wisconsin and in Illinois along Lake Michigan is found with some fossilized remains and appears to be a mixture of chert and chalcedony which are both microcrystalline. I also find lots of beautiful white and yellowish colored chert and banded chert. I've even heard people say flint is black chert, lol. But, I just say chert. I'm a huge fan of chert as it tumbles so well and is a beautiful rock. Found your channel on the rockhound group. Subbing to your channel, bud. Nice to meet ya. 😁👍
Yes I have noticed that people have mentioned that black chert is flint, my theory is that for the chert that forms in chalk the environment might be conducive to causing those cherts to usually be black or darker in coloration. Therefore black chert is tied to idea of flint.
Come to SW CO. I’ve found around 11-12 points and two were jasper. One was a tiny, red, and snapped bird point. And the other was a breathtaking whole yellow jasper point. It has serrations on one side and a red streak running through it. I’ve even found raw unknapped jasper cobbles near Buena Vista.
Very cool, some places will definitely have a higher concentration of jasper points, all depends on what type of knappable material can be found locally
nice video, out here they use Chert, Agate, Jasper, Opalized wood, Obsidian, argillite, rhyolite, and Dacite i am still looking for the sources of each stone
Unfortunately I don't have any examples of flint nodules in my mineral collection though could have shown some pictures. As for obsidian I left it out of this discussion due to the fact that yes it is silicone dioxide but it crystal structure is not the same as chert, flint, and jasper. Obsidian is more like glass structurally hence why it's called volcanic glass.
In my area, thick layers of braciopods can be found at certain levels. There is no chert. It is very yellow clay/sandstone predominant. These brachiopods are undoubtedly from the Ordovician period. There is over 400 feet of lifeless material above the brachiopods. Atop that was a 20 to 40 foot capstone layer of very hard conglomerate comprised of quartz gravel and sand. I'd like to know more about the source of these different materials.
Technically all same in terms of the makeup, all are micro and crypto crystalline quartz. Just usually the stuff that is called jasper is opaque. The the clear colorless stuff is chalcedony. And agate is transparent to translucent chalcedony that has features in it like banding, plumes, etc.
It's not a one day thing, it's a slower process where the dead diatomes are dissolved during something called diagenesis, and then the silica which is now in solution precipitates out and form the chert/flint.
Glad you liked it! So agate is that same as chert, in make up, but it's used to refer to the clearer stuff, basically jasper, agate, and chert are all variations of chalcedony which is micro/cryptocrystaline quartz. Obsidian is different as it has very little crystal structure when compared to chalcedony and also its only compromised of 70% quartz along with other things while chalcedony is depending on the variation 80-100% quartz.
@@Ontario_Rockhound Another thing is to remember is that the micro/cryptocrystaline chalcedony/chert family are sedimentary "rocks". Obsidian is an igneous rock, ie volcanic .
Sound like some local material, probably and chert that is a bit more granular with large micro quartz crystals which I would guess makes it look a bit sparkly.
Are you talking about the triangle point. It is actually a levanna style point, it's a local style found in the North East of the USA and in Canada in Southern Ontario.
From a lapidary sense or North American archeological sense that is usually the case that they go by colour but geologically speaking it's about the limestone vs chalk distinction. Which is what makes this topic messy and confusing in the first place.
A reminder that I have an on going giveaway (last day!): ruclips.net/video/8MUcfgEprXk/видео.html
Well done! Your informative vid's are great.
Been a little under the weather of late.
Thank you Kate. I hope you get back to feeling good as soon as possible. 🙂
as a vey new rockhound, this explaination was very clarifying to this specific chert/flint confusion i was having, as well as illuminating how different feilds catergorize the same thing in different terminology. Great vid!
Thanks, and I'm happy to share what I have learned.
This was so relieving to me as a new rock hound! It’s helpful to know that geologically speaking, they’re all the same. Fascinating stuff
Thanks 👍
Silica is the best no matter what you call it! 👌
That is very true!
All quartz is silica but very little silica is quartz.
Excellent video Bud, very informative, thanks for making it.👊🏹
Thanks, glad you found it informative Bucky. 😀
Cool video, I about choked taking a drink when you showed the brown nodule with the fossil. I have one so similar I thought you were holding it 😆
🤣 glad you are still alive!
This was such a great video! There was a lot of information that I didn’t know about chert and flint!
Thanks, glad you could learn something new.
No wonder we can easily misidentify something. This is so interesting to me, varieties of the same thing… ie feldspar too!
Yes, 100%
There are so many variations of feldspar so ppl often confuse one type for another, like using when I show peristerite to somebody who's outside of Ontario or not in the know they automatically mistake it for moonstone or labradorite.
Thankyou! Ive been going around and around with this trying to get a handle, now i do!
Happy to clarify
Very interesting and informative video Aidan, It's always a great day when you learn something new. Thank you !!!
Glad you like it Kevin!
Fantastic capture!! that's very interesting Chert and Flint
Have a wonderful day!
Thanks! You have a good day aswell!
Thanks for making this video bub. I think I understand now.
Thanks for watching.
Yessir, all chert👍. I do have some flint nodules though😆✌️. Like that jasper FLint👍👍
Very cool.
@@Ontario_Rockhound have a buddy that whipped out paperwork and gave me in Illinois once. Cause I called stuff flint that was not 🤣. Gave me a folder of it he did,lol. Great guy , knows his rocks Alot better than me. Im wanting to find some more Kaolin chert nodules. River goes down, I'll be out there.
Bol bud✌️
Good luck!
Thanks!!!! Great explanation of a somewhat tricky comparison of those two!!!! Loved it!!!!!
Thanks, I am glad you enjoyed it!
As one who finds “Jasper” on the American volcanic west coast, I appreciate your simple clarification on chert, flint, and jasper being geologically the same. Much of the jasper we find here, like the picture jaspers, formed in mud flows.
Glad you liked the video, I think some of the confusion comes from the fact that rocks/minerals can often form under varying conditions and so there is an immediate thought they have to be different, but then in the most basic geological terms they aren't consider different due to their chemical makeup basically being the same and that is where i think ppl often get confused.
Here in Saint John NB we have lots of limestone. No chalk that I'm aware of. On the west side of the city on the beach there are flint nodules. They are toffee coloured with orange peel skin and dark flint on the inside sometimes or toffee . We also have flints with chert coating . ( I think) A soft white outer layer.
Interesting, I would consider that material chert, but I get that nowadays the terms chert and flint are used pretty loosely.
@@Ontario_Rockhound Any eastern Canada locations near a beach/port have a good likelihood of having a bit of flint because it came over from England as ballast in sailing ships. The Superstore in the South end of Halifax was built on a big flint dump. During construction knowledgable rockhounds would go to gather British flint. It is possible that this was the source of the flint in NB.
@cellerfeller1474 very interesting
Great information and it explains to me why I find Chert with fossils in it. Now that I understand that the Chert is built with the sediment from those ancient seabed’s. Thanks so much!
Glad you liked it, thanks for watching!
This explanation was excellent! Thank you man!
Thanks for watching!
This is the first video that gave me a clear answer on the difference . Thank you.
Glad it was useful!
This was a great comparison, been trying to get the straight info for a while and this was the best comparison. Thank you!
Glad you found it informative
😊I KNEW you're going to pull this friend! ... Now that's a healthy debate. We could go on & on, who's flint & whos chert or jasper ALL DAY LONG!😂 ..im on the Cincinnati Arch myself. ❤ Will be structurally speaking I'd be a little careful😅. I like it!
Yeah, there definitely is room for healthy debate on this topic.
Awesome! Thanks for sharing, very informative and interesting 😊❤️
Thanks for watching
Thank you for this! I find these types of videos so so so helpful.
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it and found it informative!
Very good information, excellent video
Thank you!
Awesome information! If I could ask, where do agates and chalcedony fall geologically? They seem to be quite closely related in appearance somewhat, especially with the more opaque varieties.
Chert, jasper, and agate are a chalcedony, when compared to a chert or a japer agate is generally transparent to semi transparent, though that is not always the case for which makes it more confusing. Sometimes, you will find them mixed together, like a jasp agate, or a chert with agate pockets. In general the different varieties of chalcedony are confusing bc some material that is called a chert or flint might be called an agate or a jasper elsewhere. Also, agate can form in volcanic and sedimentary formations.
Thank you for this! I get so offended when agate hunters act like chert is garbage.
Chert can be very pretty, best not to overlook it 🙂.
*Great video my friend! I really enjoyed this one!* 🤠💰🏴☠️👑🙋♂️
Thank you!!
good info. all the best. :-)
Thanks!
So beautiful video!!
Thank you!
Great video. helped clarify a lot of our speculation on what was chert haha!
Glad you guys liked!
Nice informative video. Quite a bit of the chert I find here in Wisconsin and in Illinois along Lake Michigan is found with some fossilized remains and appears to be a mixture of chert and chalcedony which are both microcrystalline. I also find lots of beautiful white and yellowish colored chert and banded chert. I've even heard people say flint is black chert, lol. But, I just say chert. I'm a huge fan of chert as it tumbles so well and is a beautiful rock. Found your channel on the rockhound group. Subbing to your channel, bud. Nice to meet ya. 😁👍
Thanks, glad you enjoyed my video!
Yes I have noticed that people have mentioned that black chert is flint, my theory is that for the chert that forms in chalk the environment might be conducive to causing those cherts to usually be black or darker in coloration. Therefore black chert is tied to idea of flint.
Exactly what I needed to know bro! Great info! 🙏
Glad you found it informative!
I would have liked to see an example of flint.
I unfortunately at the time didn't have any specimens of flint in my collection
Well done. I don't think I have ever found a projectile point made from the red jasper/flint although I think it would be awesome.
Thanks!! They're uncommon in most places forsure.
Come to SW CO. I’ve found around 11-12 points and two were jasper. One was a tiny, red, and snapped bird point. And the other was a breathtaking whole yellow jasper point. It has serrations on one side and a red streak running through it. I’ve even found raw unknapped jasper cobbles near Buena Vista.
Very cool, some places will definitely have a higher concentration of jasper points, all depends on what type of knappable material can be found locally
nice video, out here they use Chert, Agate, Jasper, Opalized wood, Obsidian, argillite, rhyolite, and Dacite i am still looking for the sources of each stone
It is very cool to have such a wide range of materials.
Very informative ya learn something new every day. Thanks 🏹
Thank you for watching!
nice video , good info , i like the chert
Thanks!
Appreciate you sharing this. Great info.
Thanks for watching, glad you found it informative.
Would have been good to talk/show more of the flint nodules formed in chalk as well as talk/compare obsidians.
Unfortunately I don't have any examples of flint nodules in my mineral collection though could have shown some pictures. As for obsidian I left it out of this discussion due to the fact that yes it is silicone dioxide but it crystal structure is not the same as chert, flint, and jasper. Obsidian is more like glass structurally hence why it's called volcanic glass.
In my area, thick layers of braciopods can be found at certain levels. There is no chert. It is very yellow clay/sandstone predominant. These brachiopods are undoubtedly from the Ordovician period. There is over 400 feet of lifeless material above the brachiopods. Atop that was a 20 to 40 foot capstone layer of very hard conglomerate comprised of quartz gravel and sand. I'd like to know more about the source of these different materials.
Very interesting, where abouts is this formation?
@@Ontario_Rockhound Allegheny Plateau in Pennsylvania/New York.
Ok very cool, so very similar geology to Southern Ontario
I have a couple fossil hunting videos on my channel and I am sure you will see very similar stuff to what you find
Good info, Ontario Rockhound! :)
Thanks, I don't mean to 'fanboy' to much but I just wanted to I really enjoy the content you put out and I really appreciate your compliment!
Great video man, thanks for sharing the information.
Thank you!
Now, if you could clarify chalcedony, agate, and jasper...
Technically all same in terms of the makeup, all are micro and crypto crystalline quartz. Just usually the stuff that is called jasper is opaque. The the clear colorless stuff is chalcedony. And agate is transparent to translucent chalcedony that has features in it like banding, plumes, etc.
I found nodules in west Texas
Cool, did they have a limestone or chalk cortex? That is how you mainly tell if it's chert vs flint.
why one day all those diatoms is calcium carbonate--then the next day now they are silicon dioxide??
It's not a one day thing, it's a slower process where the dead diatomes are dissolved during something called diagenesis, and then the silica which is now in solution precipitates out and form the chert/flint.
So pretty very amazing ones ☺️
Thanks!
Very well explained brother!
Can your subscriber from India participate for your future giveaway?
Thanks! Yes, I don't limit ppl from the US from joining.
@@Ontario_Rockhound
Awesome!
I needed a piece of flint/chert for my (flint and steel fire starting kit) in a land of dust and sand "Gujarat"!
Thanks!!
That was very informative, thank you. Are obsidian and agate technically different than chert ?
Glad you liked it!
So agate is that same as chert, in make up, but it's used to refer to the clearer stuff, basically jasper, agate, and chert are all variations of chalcedony which is micro/cryptocrystaline quartz. Obsidian is different as it has very little crystal structure when compared to chalcedony and also its only compromised of 70% quartz along with other things while chalcedony is depending on the variation 80-100% quartz.
@@Ontario_Rockhound Glad I found your channel, adding you to my growing list of fun and educational rockhounding sites.
@@bigmoney3405 Glad to have you join, hopefully once I am done with this semester I will have alot more time to put into making videos :)
@@Ontario_Rockhound Looking forward to more.
@@Ontario_Rockhound Another thing is to remember is that the micro/cryptocrystaline chalcedony/chert family are sedimentary "rocks". Obsidian is an igneous rock, ie volcanic .
what is sugar flint
Is this a question tied to something I mentioned in the video? Or is this a material that you are familiar?
@@Ontario_Rockhound someone mentioned sugar flint to me the other day, but i didnt know what it was, or why its so special
Sound like some local material, probably and chert that is a bit more granular with large micro quartz crystals which I would guess makes it look a bit sparkly.
First
I still think humans are attracted to shiny rocks because we have genetic memory that those stones can be broken into sharp edges
Who knows you might be on to something
Lots of jasper around here
Very cool
Is that Garza point real?
Are you talking about the triangle point. It is actually a levanna style point, it's a local style found in the North East of the USA and in Canada in Southern Ontario.
And it is real, I found it in a farm feild last year 🙂
@@Ontario_Rockhound very cool point. It looked like a Garza from a glance so sorry for the misidentification.
No worries.
Knapp them some time
Youlle really know
I do actually have some dover flint from the UK, just waiting to get a bit better at knapping before I use it.
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Hi, sorry I am not interested in buying anything, but thanks for checking out my channel. Cheers.
I was taught that the basic difference was COLOR. Chert-white or light, flint-dark, jasper red.
From a lapidary sense or North American archeological sense that is usually the case that they go by colour but geologically speaking it's about the limestone vs chalk distinction. Which is what makes this topic messy and confusing in the first place.