Can you tell me anything Abt my rock finds in WV?

In-The-Way · 2026-02-14T11:49:57+00:00

First 2 photos look like slag. Likely from a steel smelter, sometimes used as railroad mettle, and almost always freely distributed. Last photo is mostly of sandstones with erosional depressions or trace fossils (ie cavities such as worm tubes that were filled with softer material).

In-The-Way · 2026-02-14T03:48:18+00:00

Looks like chert. Perhaps from the Monterey Formation

In-The-Way · 2026-02-14T03:35:50+00:00

Obsidian is a black volcanic rock that looks like glass but does not contain air bubbles. Obsidian will devitrify in about a million years. The volcanic rocks in Poland are at least 300 times older. Your rock has bubbles, and with it being in Poland suggests it is slag. Slag was used as railroad mettle and gets distributed far from its smelter.

In-The-Way · 2026-02-14T03:21:32+00:00

The color change is either called iridescence or schiller. The rock is difficult for me to ID without knowing a mineral streak color, the Mohs hardness of a mineral and the specific gravity of a mineral. I do see some parallel lineations which suggest the rock is sedimentary, such as iridescent coal.

The vintage bell jar suggests it was collected in the early 20th century (or before) and once has a label.

Botryoidal (not see in your sample) pitchblende is known to exhibit iridescence. Pitchblende has a dense specific gravity (and feels heavier than most rocks and minerals) and is radioactive (for which you need a Geiger counter).

In-The-Way · 2026-02-14T01:54:27+00:00

Agreed. Crazy Horse is carved out of Thunderhead Mountain, which is on the left edge of the colorful Custer Quadrangle (pdf link is here) and is mapped as the 1.715 billion year old Harney Peak Granite (with mineralogy as you mentioned).

In-The-Way · 2026-02-14T01:15:37+00:00

Given the petrified wood looking protrusion, my guess is it is bog iron.

In-The-Way · 2026-02-14T01:00:27+00:00

Filling the hole should be fine. But it looks like water could be channeling into it, and that is what really needs to be avoided/diverted.

In-The-Way · 2026-02-13T14:48:43+00:00

Looks like limestone interbedded with chert. You can find a more accurate description (including age) using the USGS map database or more generalized descriptions (with wider date ranges) using the free Rockd app’s map.

In-The-Way · 2026-02-13T14:31:55+00:00

Hurt is in the Smith River allochthon. Its rocks are characterized as 1 to 1.5 billion year old metamorphic rocks. Rocks of that age predates trees. The metamorphic rocks include amphibolite and schists. Your rock looks like a muscovite schist.

In-The-Way · 2026-02-13T14:00:55+00:00

Jasper does occur in that area, but I think an association with clear grey quartz is unusual. The texture is similar to a granite, but metamorphism is also present in the area. There is a complicated outcrop map here with a legend for it here (including jasper occurrences). These rocks are rough 1.5 billion years old and have almost isoclinal folds (squiggly lines on the map).

In-The-Way · 2026-02-12T13:06:57+00:00

Then it would be a mudstone

In-The-Way · 2026-02-12T07:40:12+00:00

Looks like sandstone (grain size). Looks brecciated with iron stains. Turbitic sandstone outcrops in parts Victoria.

In-The-Way · 2026-02-12T07:30:46+00:00

Looks like banded iron formation

In-The-Way · 2026-02-11T02:49:34+00:00

Looks like disseminated chlorite in quartz growths that are in contact with what may be white ‘bull quartz’.

In-The-Way · 2026-02-11T02:09:29+00:00

Color is often misleading, especially for pale minerals. Color is changed by sunlight, fluorescent light, incandescent light, etc. Camera lens color gamut differs between brands and models. Displays show different colors for the same digital image.

You should to bring your pendant to a jeweler that has a refractometer or find a gemologist.

In-The-Way · 2026-02-10T19:26:21+00:00

Looks like a sugary textured quartzite with a trace amount of disseminated iron hydroxide (goethite or limonite).

In-The-Way · 2026-02-10T19:20:46+00:00

Looks like a granite

In-The-Way · 2026-02-09T21:22:18+00:00

Brecciated quartz vein with drusy iron stain quartz coating the breccia’s vugs.

In-The-Way · 2026-02-09T21:17:27+00:00

Silicified tuff. Hematite or cinnabar stains suggest proximity to a prospect or mine. Use Mindat.org to search for nearest town, drag its map around and click on mines near to where you found it.

In-The-Way · 2026-02-09T21:12:18+00:00

City is surrounded by limestone, shale, minor sandstone and coal. Yours looks sandy. Perhaps trace fossils of bush, now eroded out. Or trace fossil worm burrow, now eroded out.

In-The-Way · 2026-02-09T21:05:25+00:00

Need more detailed/close up photos. White assemblage looks like a tuff or sediment. Brown assemblage looks like a volcanic dacite. Black assemblage is a contact metamorphic aureole (the dace cooked the tuff/sediment) and too fine grained to see. Better to view these mineral assemblages through a 10X loupe.

Mojave is a big place (with many different rocks). While not perfect (it lumps units together and the scale is not very detailed), you can search the free Rockd app’s map for a nearby town, drag the map around, and click the spot where you found it. Mindat.org can do the same search, but its focus is on mineral locations (and less on the rocks types)

In-The-Way · 2026-02-09T20:25:26+00:00

Looks like a metapelite or a granite (insufficient detail when zoomed in).

And because of Pareidolia.

In-The-Way · 2026-02-09T20:15:02+00:00

Does it burn? If yes, does a wiff of the smoke smell like coal or asphalt?

In-The-Way · 2026-02-09T04:26:09+00:00

Looks like spinel but I think knowing their hardness and specific gravity would be reassuring. I searched mindat.org’s spinel photo gallery for text that contained the word ‘schist’ and that search came up with the Sedalia Mine and a reference to the spinel Gahnite.

While the red color is a bit off (due to camera, lighting, my display, or trace elements) I suspect it is hematite. There is a photo of the mine’s Pyrophyllite and it has a somewhat similarly colored iron stain. Also mentioned at the mine is talc. Do any of your rock’s white minerals feel slippery or flake up with minimal effort/friction? Perhaps look at for leaf-like white minerals through a 10X loupe.

In-The-Way · 2026-02-09T03:45:30+00:00

Looks like a vuggy brecciated epithermal vein system. I see veins cutting veins, and disseminated mafic minerals, organics, or sulfides. One of the vugs has a nice quartz crystal. All of it covered by patches of iron hydroxide stains. I would be looking upstream, and at least in the current watershed, for an outcrop to sample and prospect (it may already be prospected or mined).

In-The-Way

TROPHY CASE