Home / geode

Tag: geode

Carver Agate Field Variety, January 2023

Carver Agate Field Variety, January 2023

By /January 21, 2023 /4 comments /Cabochons

January in Maine is about keeping the wood stove full, dealing with ice and snow, and best of all, some time to cut and polish remarkably varied colors and types of agates, geodes, and jaspers that continue to come from The Carver Agate Field in Alpine, TX. As a group, these 11 cabochons (cabs), as well as the 7 rock specimens which will appear in the next blog posting, again tell the tale. Individually there are several quite unique and interesting stones for the rock enthusiast. I would recommend you view these specimens as large as possible. You can open each image and enlarge it by clicking on it. Rock # 4972 : Slab from a geode! Notice a portion of the crystal lined geode pocket at lower left side of stone. Rock #4951 : Carnelian (red quartz) fortification agate cab Rock #4937 : I suggest you enlarge this photo […]

Read More

Season's Greetings with a Red Ribboned Geode!

Season’s Greetings with a Red Ribboned Geode!

By /December 16, 2022 /1 comment /Cut Rocks

A striking new geode and cab is cut as The Carver Gallery and Shop reopens after a two and a half month hiatus during home renovations! Well, that explains why you have not heard from me in a while. Now back in business, the geode and the cab cut from the geode display brilliant red ribbons around the crystal lined geode pocket. If that is not cool enough, how about the sky blue between the dual red ribbons! Red ribbons wrap the “Christmas geode’s” sky blue center surrounding the crystal lined pocket Seems “Merry Christmasy” and a harbinger for a Happy New Year for me and, hopefully, you all as well.

Yellow Fortification Agate Geode Cabochon

Yellow Fortification Agate Geode Cabochon

By /September 25, 2022 /2 comments /Cut Rocks

Rock #4876Click to enlarge This is a beautiful cab cut from a cross cut slab from a Carver geode. The crystal-lined geode center sparkles in the center of the yellow fortification agate. The sagenitic material (green and brown stuff) along the top edge of the stone indicates that this was the bottom of the geode when formed in a lava gas pocket. The sagenitic material likely fell off the inside top of the gas bubble pocket to the bottom of the gas bubble pocket where it was encapsulated by bluish agate (silica) as it filled the gas bubble pocket. See photo 4877 below which is the same stone photographed with the sagenitic material on the bottom of the stone as it would have been formed. Rock #4877Click to enlarge

Mystery Crystals Appear AGAIN: New information from new specimen

Mystery Crystals Appear AGAIN: New information from new specimen

By /September 18, 2022 /4 comments /Cut Rocks

My June 2021 blog posting identified long petite black mineral crystals which had not been seen by me before in over 14 years of cutting thousands of ‘Carver agate field’ geodes. The June 2021 find was the only exemplar I had seen–until now! The new specimen photos below offer better views of the crystals. Interestingly, the crystals in both specimens appear to have grown out of and through an otherwise perfectly formed clear crystal lined geode center. The crystals, while appearing very fragile, are actually quite robust, being resistant to damage from washing the stone (after being cut open) to remove cutting oil, and from polishing on a bull wheel grinder. There is tremendous vibration generated from using the bull wheel, which turns very high RPMs and utilizes a 100 grit belt as part of the process. So, the crystals are not fragile or water soluble, but are very rare […]

Read More

This Blue Geode Is Different

This Blue Geode Is Different

By /June 6, 2022 /2 comments /Cut Rocks

Blue banded agate nodules or geodes are not uncommon from The Carver Agate Field, but they most always seem to be blue from the outer rind inward to a white euhedral quartz center. Euhedral quartz are white or transparent visible crystals. The very center of this specimen and the area between the rind and the blue area are examples of euhedral quartz crystals. Usually, these crystals are seen in the center hollow of the cavity in a geode. In blue nodules, which do not have a hollow center or cavity, the center of the nodule, for some reason, is often white. Rock #4739 In this specimen, however, when the geode initially formed, it had no center–just a crystal lined cavity. Later, the blue colored part of this specimen was formed when a liquid or semi-liquid silica entered the original crystal lined cavity and filled it (almost) with blue banded agate […]

Read More

Zipper Geode (I found it, I named it!)

Zipper Geode (I found it, I named it!)

By /March 1, 2022 /1 comment /Cut Rocks

This is one half of a fractured geode which shows a much earlier fracture that was healed by quartz crystals filling the earlier fracture. While it is very common to find geodes with fractures that are filled (or healed) by secondary deposition of silica in the crack (fracture), it is quite unusual to find that the secondary deposition results in macro crystalline (visible to the eye) quartz crystals extruded from the crack. To me it looks like a crystal quartz zipper! Rock #3998

Four Stones I Just Cut and Really, Really Like!!

Four Stones I Just Cut and Really, Really Like!!

By /July 25, 2021 /3 comments /Cut Rocks

Photos 1 and 2: The huge 2 1/4″ cabs were each cut from the same Carver agate/jaspagate. Each has spectacular coloration and pattern and a tiny bluish fortification agate to set off the red/yellow/orange/green coloration. Photo 3: This Carver agate came from a geode slab I cut. Enlarge this picture by clicking on it and take a closer look!! One of the most beautiful agates I have cut! The tiny ‘vug’ goes nearly through the stone and is set off by blue banding. Photo 4: Carnelian agate with spectacular gold sagenitic inclusions.

Carver Geode with New Mystery

Carver Geode with New Mystery

By /June 17, 2021 /8 comments /Geology

What are the tiny long black crystals inside the small white geode center? Baffles me! I have cut open and looked at literally thousands of The Carver agate field nodules and geodes, but I have never seen this before. I am hoping to find someone to identify what this is. The fact the tiny fragile crystals survived cutting and washing is amazing to me. I hope some of my West Texas rocker friends can help solve this mystery.

A First! Ametrine Geode Discovered on The Carver!

A First! Ametrine Geode Discovered on The Carver!

By /June 16, 2021 /0 comments /Geology

Ametrine is a single stone which is part amethyst (purple quartz) and part citrine (yellow quartz). While I have found some great amethyst geode crystals on The Carver, citrine geode crystals are rare indeed. The most exotic and rare was the perfect citrine crystal I named The Unicorn after the mystical single-horned animal which has never been, in fact, found in nature. Rock & Gem magazine featured this stone which can be seen on this website. What has until now never been seen by me in the thousands of nodules and geodes I have discovered on The Carver and cut open is the combination of purple micro-crystalline quartz and citrine banding in a single band in a single geode. Pictured here is 1/2 of the ametrine geode (photo #4225) and three cabs from the same geode which I have cut and polished. As you view each photo, the citrine portion […]

Read More

Chaos vs. Orderly Perfection

Chaos vs. Orderly Perfection

By /March 18, 2020 /0 comments /Geology

Formed within tuff, a white volcanic ash which has been compressed and hardened, over millions of years, to a very limited extent, is what I describe as a “chaos agate.” That is not an official agate designation, however.  Apparently, a hodgepodge of mineralization mixes with and in a silica-rich solution which subsequently hardens within the tuff. Since this type of agate forms in a ashy mass, the agate has no orderly shape or form. Chaos Agate On the other hand, here is the orderly perfection  of a cabochon from a cross section of a geode.  If you follow this website, you are probably aware that the orderly shape is from the gas bubble in the lava in which geodes form.  A silica-rich solution and mineralization fill the gas bubble and create the geode’s shape.  The gas bubble fills with silica and mineralization through the ‘fill tube,’ so called, which is […]

Read More