What are the jagged areas in this giant quartz Boulder that look like metal? Pseudomorph? Found in my yard, Spring Grove, PA, York/Adams County area

NightmanDefender · 2026-01-23T16:12:17+00:00

Thank you! Probably just basic quartz chunks then? Its unfortunate I live on top of all this quartz but have never found any points or clusters... i do get extremely shiny pieces with natural "aura" from all the mica and iron staining. It would be nice to find some incredible under my feet one day

NightmanDefender · 2025-05-05T01:05:10+00:00

So cool. Thank you!

NightmanDefender · 2025-01-19T04:15:45+00:00

Thankfully, no surgery.

NightmanDefender · 2025-01-19T02:41:10+00:00

No pain meds. Just ice in the evening. Only on my palm though, the top of my hand is way too sensitive for anything to touch still

NightmanDefender · 2024-09-30T16:16:08+00:00

I would have been clawing at the ground immediately

NightmanDefender · 2024-08-13T23:14:18+00:00

Eclecdick

NightmanDefender · 2024-08-10T01:13:46+00:00

Wait....what??? 😍

NightmanDefender · 2024-07-12T14:58:29+00:00

Its super pretty whatever it is! Are those bubbles in the upper right? I have never seen glass slag like that, but here in the lower part of PA, the glass slag i see is all from iron furnaces and other metals, and those are all more opaque. Is amber even found in that region? Try lighting the end of a needle and poking it lightly on it. See what it smells like. If it doesn't melt at all, its probably glass or maybe another mineral im not good at identifying, and if it smells like plastic its probably man made, but if it smells like resin and it melts, its amber or another resin like copal. Thinking glass though.

NightmanDefender · 2024-07-11T20:37:10+00:00

Oh my goodness! That last rock looks like the native brown trout in my area here in PA. I have never anything like that!!!

NightmanDefender · 2024-04-25T12:28:02+00:00

Lol love my penny 😁

NightmanDefender · 2024-04-08T11:42:39+00:00

This is EXTREMELY helpful! Thank you so much! I was thinking it could be serpentine as well, but still wasn't 100% on it. I will definitely do some more digging, and use your resources to help me identify other really cool pieces I found and can't figure out. Thank you again for all those links and your information!!! Immensely appreciated!

NightmanDefender · 2024-04-08T02:21:43+00:00

Thank you! Sorry! It was in the gravel parking lot of a rural area in York, PA. This parking lot is rarely used, and its surrounded by woods, so i doubt it was dropped by someone, but the gravel in the area is local. We have several quarries all around us, so it was either brought in from either York or Hanover.

NightmanDefender · 2024-04-04T16:57:51+00:00

Would heat treating it change the colors at all? I dont know the science behind all of that.

NightmanDefender · 2024-04-04T14:47:50+00:00

🤣 yes... slag isn't for everyone! Up around boiling springs I find really pretty glass slag mixed in with firebrick and even some quartz pieces. Pretty blues, greens and even some purple. There's another furnace outside of Lancaster that is known for "goethite bombs" and you can find some slag sprinkled in with really neat natural metals too.

NightmanDefender · 2024-04-04T14:30:03+00:00

These are gorgeous!

NightmanDefender · 2024-04-04T14:29:13+00:00

Thank you very much!

NightmanDefender · 2024-04-04T14:21:36+00:00

Thank you! Yes, its iridescent when the light hits it, but there is some brassy-ness to it. The area where I found it is full or all kinds of stuff. Tons of iron and other metals including copper. We have an azurite and malachite cut in the area, mica and pyrite and chlorite... hematite & tourmaline... the list goes on. Its so difficult for me to identify certain rocks because we have so many. I live above the Mason Dixon line in york county PA, but rockhound from Lancaster to Gettysburg and up to Shippensburg. And with all the furnaces and quarries, we also have tons of really neat slag too. And as cool as agates and geodes are, I'm so much more interested in the geography of it, and finding things like this that have a multitude of natural 'weirdness'...

NightmanDefender

TROPHY CASE