Turquoise or Slag?

[Jazzy]

I have a rock sitting here that I pulled out of a creek a couple years ago that I thought was just slag. Until I started collecting more slag and I couldn't find any other slag like it. I found the rock about 6 miles from Moors Mill in Mount Holly Springs Pa in a creek that I can find a ton of slag in. It could just be slag, but it's not glassy. It's opaque. It's not the same color blue. It doesn't have air bubbles, a knife can't scratch it, but sandpaper can. It's more waxy then glossy and is all one color, except for specks of something. It looks like a speckled egg, but it has one or two rusty spots.

The Rock itself



The speckling


Slag glass bubbles and nothes that don't exist on it


The Glossiness comparison between the slag and mystery


Slag or something else?

 

[doublet2a]

Doesn't look like any Turquoise I've ever seen, but that's not say much.

Tim
[h=2][/h]

 

[jwarner51]

Definitely not like any slag I've ever seen. But it doesn't look like turquoise either, but that's just my opinion.

 

[SkaBa]

Are there any Lumber Mills up the creek that burned bark to generate steam? The high temperature furnace incinerates the bark, leaving the impurities that is mostly sand, to form a material that looks like what you have at the bottom of the furnace. It is pulled out with a scrapper bar and discarded on the property somewhere.

Not sure if it is the same thing or not, but looks just like it.

 

[Jazzy]

Are there any Lumber Mills up the creek that burned bark to generate steam? The high temperature furnace incinerates the bark, leaving the impurities that is mostly sand, to form a material that looks like what you have at the bottom of the furnace. It is pulled out with a scrapper bar and discarded on the property somewhere.

Not sure if it is the same thing or not, but looks just like it.

Not currently, no. I found it in Pine Grove Furnace State Park in Gardners Pa. Currently it's just two lakes you can swim in and a stream that runs parallel to the lakes. Those lakes were formed about a 100 years ago by Pine Grove Iron-Works, which started in the late 1700s digging for iron. Because of all the springs in the area they had a system that pumped out the water. After they were finished, they continued pumping the water, but after the second time it broke, they were unable to fix it and let the reservoirs fill, but had no way to get the equipment out in time of the 100 foot hole they had dug, so it still lays down there. The furnaces were ran by coal though. And then later coke and anthracite were a short experiment in the late 1800s, maybe this could be related to it's odd coloring. I have never found any evidence that lumber was used.

Transactions - Google Books (About coke and anthracite being used at Pine Grove)

In the 1940s the same location was bought by the government and used as a secret POW camp for German, and Japanese Officers. I have heard that they put men to work clearing forests for a state park, but I have no evidence of that anywhere, it could just be a fokelore, passed down. It was then called Camp Michaeux or The Pine Grove Furnace POW Interrogation Camp. It was then bought as a youth retreat, and then turned over to the state forestry, who owns it today and owns all of the woods. If you have a home up there, you own the house, but the land is theirs. You have a 100 year lease on the land. This is actually to prevent any type of lumbering, because it would be a really nice place for lumbering.

As far as I know and in all my research on this site, I have never found them to lumber. But I may look into this coke and anthracite thing more. I am just glad that it's not turquoise. (Well glad and unglad wouldn't know what to do with it, glad). I was worried because I was so close to moors mill, which is a targeted turquoise location, but I could not find any samples of moors mill turquoise online.

 

[Jazzy]

I did a few more tests on this.

This is definitely not slag. I tried breaking a piece off with a screwdriver and hammer and nothing happened but metal remnants from the screwdriver flaking off. It is very, very hard. I would guess an 8, putting it above turquoise. I did the same thing with the slag I found and it broke like glass (as I expected). I did use sandpaper to get a sort of dust off, and looked at it under a microscope. I got very poor pictures, please understand I don't have up to date equipment. I just love finding random things.

I suspect this is man made, possibly what skaba said, but having no history of a lumber mill in this area, I am still wondering.

 

[SkaBa]

The reason I asked about a lumber mill burning bark for steam is that the steam turns a turbine to turn a generator into electricity that is usually sold back to the local Power Company. Have there been any producers of electricity up the creek from where you found it?

The reason I ask is - Pine Grove Furnace State Park and Pine Grove Iron-Works that you mentioned.

Excellent work on the 'breaking a piece off with a screwdriver and hammer' and using sandpaper to create a finer sample experiments. Thanks for the latest pictures, really cool.

 

[AU Seeker]

Does the material leave a color "streak" on the sand paper?

All minerals have a streak color, that may or may not be the same color as the mineral, it is but one tool of IDing minerals, along with hardness, cleavage, specific gravity, etc.

 

[Jazzy]

The streak color is a very light blue, almost close to a white. close to the color that you see above in the picture of the rocks I took.

Actually it's white, I was doing it on a green slab and assumed it was blue because there blue crystals in the micrscope, so I couldn't tell I just got a black slab out of my car from home depot, and it's white.

 

[Discrimination Dave]

question:
I'm following this post.
sorry i cannot add anything but i do have a question.
What you guys are referring to as "slag", what is that? Is it chert or flint? looks like it.
Ive always heard of slag as a by product of welding and stuff but never in geology.
can you enlighten me?

 

[wainzoid]

To me, it looks like the slag I find around the local charcoal burning iron furnace sites.

 

[Tony in SC]

It almost looks trace copper ore found in silver mines ?? Tony

 

[SkaBa]

What you guys are referring to as "slag", what is that? Is it chert or flint? looks like it.
Ive always heard of slag as a by product of welding and stuff but never in geology.
can you enlighten me?

'Slag' is impurities left over from a melting process - welding, metals, glass-like items, etc.. If in a crucible it floats to the top. If over grates or blast furnace - the remains at the bottom.

 

[austin]

Lick the rock OR lick your finger and touch the rock. If it tends to stick, rvrn a bit, you have copper. Ok looking ore...

 

[baspinall]

Slag - I used to find stuff like that near a glass furnace area.