Quartz in the Supers

[roc2rol]

That an interesting question, Homar
although from working with rose quartz in lapidary
I find it retains it color. Even when I slabbed apiece thin
to polish. I was concerned that it would lose its color
but it didn’t. Honey comb calcite is different story.

That why I think gold is so associated with quartz.
Because quartz by its very nature is a highly resilient rock.
Tough! And hard to grind!
I suppose gold can form in any rock matrix
but because of quartz resilience against weathering
gold is found most predominantly in quartz.
The other rocks break down more easily. releasing the gold.
My idea is that most placer gold is from rock other than quartz.

I got some pictures of the quartz that Az. Mining Museum was crushing
Hopefully I can post them once I get my new computer running
long story
take care!
Ed

[eunderhill]

Interesting!
That was chunk of rose quartz lying on the ground?

Yes it was just lying on the ground along Peter's Trail along the section where the trail runs from NW to SE on it' s way to the east end of the Mesa from the west end. Various sizes and shades of red. Some of it looked like it was made of tiny crystals and gave it a sparkling effect to it. Others looked more like the quartz you usually see with a red tint to it. I don't remember if I took any pictures of it.

[roc2rol]

Thanks for the info E!
Now I wondering if those chunks of quartz
come from a seam that as broken apart ?
Or do those chunks form underground
and work their way to the surface?
roc

[roc2rol]

“The shaft, he said (Waltz), went down an 18” vein of rose quartz
which was studded with pinhead nuggets of gold, beside it, a three inch wall
of hematite quartz that was itself about third pure gold.”

[somehiker]

“The shaft, he said (Waltz), went down an 18” vein of rose quartz
which was studded with pinhead nuggets of gold, beside it, a three inch wall
of hematite quartz that was itself about third pure gold.”

I think it's a good clue Roc.
The "three red hills" may also be three small mounds of pure hematite nearby,and just to the east, which are also shaped like "teepees" or "wikiups".

[eunderhill]

Thanks for the info E!
Now I wondering if those chunks of quartz
come from a seam that as broken apart ?
Or do those chunks form underground
and work their way to the surface?
roc

In this particular case, I'm inclined to say that neither applies. At the time when I was on Peter's Mesa, I didn't understand what I was seeing with the sparkly quartz. I was curious about why it looked the way it did. That particular quartz was the majority of it up there too. There was only a little bit of the regular rose quartz scattered around on the ground. The sparkly quartz was scattered everywhere in that area and had the deepest red color to them. Last night I did some research on quartz and came to the realization of what I saw. The sparkly quartz are geode fragments and I suspect that they have a volcanic origin. Superstition Mountain is generally considered to be a highly weathered volcanic remanent and it is probably the source of these geodes. They got flung through the air at a high velocity during a volcanic eruption and slammed into the top of Peter's Mesa. This then caused the geodes to get smashed open and scatter fragments all over the area. Some regular quartz may have accompanied the geodes as well causing them to fracture and scatter in that area. Superstition Mountain isn't known for quartz being found in them today. My guess is that the source quartz may have been scattered in all directions away from there during the eruption and any quartz that remained has probably been weathered and washed away along with the rest of the volcano long ago.

So I don't expect there to be any gold found in connection to this rose quartz up on Peter's Mesa. If there were any it would have been found long ago by the various Dutch hunters that have been through there over the years. It also would have most likely had the same source of origin as the quartz and been scattered in much the same way. Since gold does have a higher specific gravity than quartz and if there was gold present in the volcano at the time of the eruption it is possible that it was scattered in an area closer to the volcano. To me the only interest that the quartz up on Peter's Mesa has is a place to look for geodes.

[roc2rol]

I gotta say E!
that's a beautiful theory
very creative geologist you be !
and you may be right
although I imagine the truth to be a bit more prosaic

just like thunder eggs from Oregon area
the thunder gods threw molten magma at each others
and the end results are these fabulous round rocks
& when slice open are fantastically filled with multi-colored agates

throw some at me !

I have heard of geodes found in the Super
and finding some thunder eggs from the thunder gods
would be treasure full
hopefully this season I'll get a chance to do some serious rock hounding

keep on!
roc

[silent hunter]

Roc I can show you where to find those egg shaped agates about 200' from the 88.....Let me know if you are ever on this side of town I will take you to where agates litter the ground like gravel in a gravel bed.......I have posted a couple pieces on dusa, cant remember what thread. there are small robin egg sized balls and also some the size of bowling balls.....


Double-Jack

[roc2rol]

Right on Kurt
someday soon I'll be in the area
look ya up

I wanted to show you some pics rock hounding trip around the Verde river
A master rock hound made this score



lots of moss agate, crazy lace, onyx ect...



roc

[roc2rol]

“The shaft, he said (Waltz), went down an 18” vein of rose quartz
which was studded with pinhead nuggets of gold, beside it, a three inch wall
of hematite quartz that was itself about third pure gold.”

I think it's a good clue Roc.
The "three red hills" may also be three small mounds of pure hematite nearby,and just to the east, which are also shaped like "teepees" or "wikiups".

Howdy SH

When I saw hematite quartz as a clue
that sort of jumped off the page at me
You don't usually hear those 2 words together

Now I've polished lots of hematite
mostly in jaspers
and I have that picture of Iron Banded Formation rock
I posted somewhere

But it got me to wondering what pure quartz looks like with hematite?



Its obviously pretty common
IF
the black lines in this sample
is the hematite ?
Which I think it is

roc