From Ants To Garnets

[hvacker]

I liked this story so here it is. One favorite book of mine is Minerals of New Mexico ( printed 1959) Along with all the factual information there is an occasional story. It was discovered that in western NM the ant hills contained garnets.
At first due to the deep color they were thought to be ruby. The ant hills are huge, even six feet across and scattered on top would be these garnets. People puzzled as to why. Some even thought the stones were placed so the sun would warm them and brought to the ants eggs. Others thought maybe they were just brought up along with the other stones. Problem is digging in the ground doesn't produce them.
I've looked in the hills (btw the ants bite) but I'm a bit east from where they are usually found. The stones are sold in gem stores here and are more ruby like.
So in your quest don't forget the odd places stuff can be.

 

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[pippinwhitepaws]

I find peridot out in the fields...the sites are called ant hill...I think some are natural blow outs...
out there by the Navajo

 

[hvacker]

Those stones are great. I hadn't heard of the peridot also being found. I've looked for meteorites containing peridot in Gloretta NM but have not got luck yet.

 

[Rawhide]

Good post guys. Im finding lil gems around the lava tubes here.

 

[pippinwhitepaws]

a friend here on Tnet did an analyses on the stones...they are peridot...just south of the Navajo garnet site...western edge of the rez...

they are so difficult to get out of that black ash...
first walk into the sun to find a good hill...
bend over...
squint...
pick up one at a time...
no digging helps...
no sifting...
one at a dang time...

 

[Jim in Idaho]

I liked this story so here it is. One favorite book of mine is Minerals of New Mexico ( printed 1959) Along with all the factual information there is an occasional story. It was discovered that in western NM the ant hills contained garnets.
At first due to the deep color they were thought to be ruby. The ant hills are huge, even six feet across and scattered on top would be these garnets. People puzzled as to why. Some even thought the stones were placed so the sun would warm them and brought to the ants eggs. Others thought maybe they were just brought up along with the other stones. Problem is digging in the ground doesn't produce them.
I've looked in the hills (btw the ants bite) but I'm a bit east from where they are usually found. The stones are sold in gem stores here and are more ruby like.
So in your quest don't forget the odd places stuff can be.

It isn't unusual to find heavy minerals in anthills. The harvester ants bring them back from the area around the hill. They go out as far as 150 yards. Checking the anthills is a good idea while prospecting. Most of the stones are NOT brought up by the digging...they're brought back from foraging. While prospecting for diamonds in Wyoming, I researched this. I needed to find out if they were dug from the ground, or foraged. I found an Internet piece by a young woman who did her Master's thesis on that very subject....really interesting reading. I tried it on a harvester ant anthill out by my shop, using colored glass. It only took a couple of hours for the glass I placed at 8' to show up on the mound.
Jim

 

[hvacker]

Hey Jim, foraging seems like a good explanation. Now I have to wonder why.
It would be interesting to monitor the g;ass you put out and see i the ants just leave them on the mound or take them into their hill.
I can see a Discovery show with underground cameras filming what the ants do with the stones. Maybe they are like us and just like pretty things.

 

[Jim in Idaho]

Hey Jim, foraging seems like a good explanation. Now I have to wonder why.
It would be interesting to monitor the g;ass you put out and see i the ants just leave them on the mound or take them into their hill.
I can see a Discovery show with underground cameras filming what the ants do with the stones. Maybe they are like us and just like pretty things.

They do both....I actually watched one haul a piece of glass into the hill. The thesis the woman did said, for some reason, the ants, by instinct, haul back the largest, or heaviest items they can find. It has to do with the expenditure of energy required to forage. In my test, I could find no preference for color, but did note that the green glass got moved first. In my prospecting for diamonds, I was finding both garnets, and chromian diopside, which is green like emerald, on the anthills, but no diamonds so far. I was curious to see if the ants just didn't prefer the clear items.....liking the colored stuff more. My test was inconclusive on that.
Of course, checking badger holes, and the holes of other digging animals is a good idea, but there, you don't get the concentration like you do with the ants.
In checking the anthills, never destroy them....some of them are 50 years old, or more. You can see all you need to see right on top. The gems are too small to facet anyway....the largest an ant can get its jaws around is 3/16", and usually smaller than that....at least for North American ants.
Jim

 

[hvacker]

No Jim, I won't disturb them. As it goes I have severe reaction to any bug bites and will suffer. Saturday I almost stepped on a Prairie Rattler. It was dead but all I saw was the rattle. Sobering. Not sure how it met it's fate. As much time I've spent on desert mesas I've rarely see a rattler. As bad as my reaction to being bug bit I don't want to see what a snake might do.
When I first read about the garnets might be used to incubate their eggs I thought the ides was out there. Now I'm not so sure.
You mentioned diopside. I hadn't known but my minerals of NM said the stones were found in modern sands in my county. I don't know what colors though but it gives me something to look for. Thanks.
John

 

[goldenIrishman]

Hummm.... Now that's an interesting idea Jim. We've got tons of ant hills here on the property and I pass them all the time on the way out to my prospecting site. I'll have to stop and to an inventory on just what they have in them.

We get tons of small garnets in our sluice box and pans while prospecting. Every once in awhile we come across something "different" in our hunt for gold. I was panning down some materials from a test site and came across a clear yellow stone. Not wanting to start another tube for a single stone I decided to put it in with some garnets. When I dropped it in it kind of floated it's way to the bottom of the tube instead of falling through the water like the garnets do. I'm thinking that maybe it's some form of amber but am not sure.

I know that the garnets are not worth much if anything, but I'm saving them up for an art project I have in mind. If I ever manage to get enough of them to do it I'll post a picture of the finished product.

 

[Jim in Idaho]

Hummm.... Now that's an interesting idea Jim. We've got tons of ant hills here on the property and I pass them all the time on the way out to my prospecting site. I'll have to stop and to an inventory on just what they have in them.

We get tons of small garnets in our sluice box and pans while prospecting. Every once in awhile we come across something "different" in our hunt for gold. I was panning down some materials from a test site and came across a clear yellow stone. Not wanting to start another tube for a single stone I decided to put it in with some garnets. When I dropped it in it kind of floated it's way to the bottom of the tube instead of falling through the water like the garnets do. I'm thinking that maybe it's some form of amber but am not sure.

I know that the garnets are not worth much if anything, but I'm saving them up for an art project I have in mind. If I ever manage to get enough of them to do it I'll post a picture of the finished product.

Irish...keep one thing in mind as you check. In the northern climates, the ants have high mounds. The reasons for this were in the woman's thesis. There are chambers in the mound, and the ants haul the seeds they store up into the chamber to dry them so they don't sprout. They also haul their larva up and down in the mound to maintain the correct temperature. In the southern climates, the temps are more moderate, so the mounds aren't as high. The high mounds up north require heavy rocks on top to protect them from wind damage,and erosion from rain, snowmelt, etc. That requires foraging for heavy stones to place on the mound. It's possible, since the mounds are shorter, they don't forage for cover rocks as much down south. In that case, the rocks , or gems you find on the mound may be the result of excavation. I imagine where it's really hot, it's probably more important for the ants to have a deep, cool hive, rather than a tall one. I'm curious about this theory...are the mounds low in your area? I was raised in SoCal, and as I remember, the mounds were pretty low.
Jim