Rock #6960

This ugly duckling is odd, rare, and completely unexpected. Take a look at the outside of this stone. See photos 6967 and 6968 below.

Rock #6967

Rock #6968

The stones’ exterior gave no clue as to what was inside. This nodule filled with “multi-colored snakes” is an oddity made more so because of the red, white, green, and brown coloration without banding. I have cut thousands of Carver geodes and nodules, many being very unique, many being more pretty, but few are as odd and inexplicable as this. If I had to guess (and I will now), I suspect heat had something to do with what we are seeing for this coloration. The heat probably occurred after the nodule was formed. It is the uniformity of coloration change from the outside to the center that raised interesting questions as to how it happened. This is why I love cutting The Carver agates.

In addition to this oddball, I have cut and polished other new specimens for your perusal.

Rock 6964 is an agate breccia with the agate forming around shards of broken lava.

Rock #6964

Rock 6963 is a botryoidal agate which means ‘grape-like’. Do you see the grapes?

Rock #6963

Rock 6930 is the prettiest agate geode I have cut this week. Click the image below to zoom in on it and take a good close look!

Rock #6930

Rock 6932 below is a specimen containing two more black acicular goethite crystals. I cut geodes in Texas for nearly 12 years and never found these crystals. When I returned to Maine, I found the first one and have subsequently found 5 or 6 more specimens which contain these goethite crystals. This makes me wonder if the goethite crystals have grown and formed inside these geodes since I brought them to Maine in 2020. Ponder that unlikely possibility as an explanation as to why these crystals have only shown up in Maine and since 2020. This seems very unlikely to me, but possible. Who knows how fast a tiny goethite crystal can grow? I know salt crystals can grow in mere days. I know because as a kid we grew salt crystals in a container out of evaporated salt water.

Click to enlarge the photo below and check this out for yourself!

Rock #6932

Rock 6947 is a fancy cut, free-form agate destined for a pendant, I think.

Rock #6947

Rock 6862 is a fun rose quartz geode.

Rock #6862

And finally, Rock 6866 is a beautiful geode made more interesting by the “multi-colored snakes” in the bottom half of the geode. It is interesting how much of God’s beauty he put out of sight inside of stones.

Rock #6866
Click on the image to see the close-up

The cutting and polishing continues!!