✅ SOLVED Red jasper?

[Blackfoot58]

Found in creek bed yesterday. SE Iowa. It weighs 3/4 oz. It appears to be quite hard. It scratches an unglazed tile, but leaves no color/residue. A friend though it may be a chunk of a Lake Superior Agate. I thought maybe red jasper.
Thoughts? Thank you.

 

[galenrog]

Red jasper, in western Oregon at least, is definitely red. Your rock is tan to brown.

Time for more coffee.

 

[Blackfoot58]

Red jasper, in western Oregon at least, is definitely red. Your rock is tan to brown.

Time for more coffee.

Thanks. This is brownish red. I thought it looked like a lot of on-line examples. Maybe it’s something else. I’m not sure what though.

 

[Back-of-the-boat]

It could be chert it comes in various colors.

 

[ToddsPoint]

Do I see a fossil poking out toward the bottom? If so it’s chert. Jasper doesn’t have fossils.

 

[Blackfoot58]

Do I see a fossil poking out toward the bottom? If so it’s chert. Jasper doesn’t have fossils.

I do not see a fossil. Just various fracture lines. I did the knife blade test. It does not scratch the rock. Would chert do the same?

 

[Blackfoot58]

I’m reading info that says jasper can be a type of chert. It says that red chert can be more translucent than jasper, but doesn’t have to be. This is opaque. Talk about confusing. LOL. I see why most people just call everything “a rock”.

 

[unclemac]

look up "siliceous rock"..... pretty much all the same to a point.

 

[Clay Diggins]

Chert, jasper, flint, agate, petrified wood and most other colored quartz stones are all the same mineral - Chalcedony.

The common names for chalcedony are a human invention. Human's like to classify things according to color, texture or shape. Those are the only distinctions - all this material is just different colors/shapes of the mineral chalcedony.

 

[Blackfoot58]

Unclemac and Clay D. Thank you. I’ve gotten geology books from library, read voraciously on internet and just get more confused. Both of your posts helped a lot. The bottom line, I’m not showing or selling anything so I don’t need to be exact, but I want to learn. It just makes the hobby more fun if you grow into it. Today I pulled these out of a creek wash. The little pile up front and center are the ones I’ll now call red chalcedony. When wet, they are very red, like a chicken heart. Dry they look brown. Thanks again!

 

[unclemac]

the one to the left of the nickel looks like petrified wood and it may be an artifact.

 

[Blackfoot58]

the one to the left of the nickel looks like petrified wood and it may be an artifact.

I’ll check it closer. I kept it because it had a great natural polish to it. Thanks.

 

[Blackfoot58]

I’ll check it closer. I kept it because it had a great natural polish to it. Thanks.

One more for today and I’ll stop; promise. My creek wash is full of these brown rocks. All are hard enough that a knife won’t scratch them. In some the sedimentary layers are quite obvious; others exhibit none. Nearly all of them have one or more faces that are perfectly smooth and very shiny. I’m guessing the chert, chalcedony family again; just different coloration. Does anyone know if these polish into good looking specimens? I could fill a 5 gal bucket with them within minutes, but it’s a 30 minute walk to get back! 😓 thanks for the patience and help!

 

[Back-of-the-boat]

You have some great rocks there, I think a lot will polish into fantastic pieces.

 

[ToddsPoint]

The rounded white pebbles are likely quartzite. Quartzite takes on a smooth rounded shape when in a creek for long enough. Flint or chert does not. You should be able to scratch the knife blade with chert but the knife blade won’t scratch chert.

 

[Blackfoot58]

The rounded white pebbles are likely quartzite. Quartzite takes on a smooth rounded shape when in a creek for long enough. Flint or chert does not. You should be able to scratch the knife blade with chert but the knife blade won’t scratch chert.

Yes, the knife does not scratch the ones that appear to be chert/chalcedony. Thanks