What kind of rock is this??

[NaturalMyztic]

Hello Everyone,

Newbie here from Texas. I found this rock and am curious about what type it could be. I did notice what seemed to be a couple of translucent quartz (crystals?). I've taken pictures from varying angles. Any ideas? I'm thinking bull quartz or feldspar. I'm so tempted to bust up this rock & see what's inside!

 

[Retired Fire]

Looks like White Quartz to me. Might have some Crystal Quartz also. But I am no rock expert...sooo....LOL

 

[tamrock]

I 2nd quartz. some might call it milky quartz. Part of it does have some crystals formation. They generally grow like that in a void or open cavity gas bubble when the host rock was cooling down or other type of events in the formation it came from. The rusty stuff is iron and the green could be the mineral olivine ?

 

[NaturalMyztic]

I 2nd quartz. some might call it milky quartz. Part of it does have some crystals formation. They generally grow like that in a void or open cavity gas bubble when the host rock was cooling down or other type of events in the formation it came from. The rusty stuff is iron and the green could be the mineral olivine ?

Ok Thanks a lot, Retired Fire and Tamrock. The mystery has been solved. I was thinking the green may have been algae.

 

[NaturalMyztic]

I cracked open that rock. It has a really interesting texture inside. I was even able to chip off a few crystals.

 

[tamrock]

Ok Thanks a lot, Retired Fire and Tamrock. The mystery has been solved. I was thinking the green may have been algae.

Indeed the green could be a kind of fungus such as lichens ??

 

[Lowman]

Nooooo never crack it open or feed it after midnight!!!!

Quartz.

 

[Jjhall68]

There is enough mineralization, and since you started to break it up, I would crush it up and pan it. you never know until you look.

 

[Geochem]

I cracked open that rock. It has a really interesting texture inside. I was even able to chip off a few crystals.View attachment 1399030View attachment 1399031View attachment 1399032View attachment 1399033View attachment 1399034

NM, I'm a geologist. It appears you found milky quartz with quartz crystal over growths that came from a rather sizable vein of hydrothermal origin.

The residual impurities and after placement mineralization are the stained and weak plane shown when broken/fractured.

This type of mineral is highly resistant to age degradation, keeping its original character in rock or soils that deterate much easier. In other words, they are more weather resistant than the host rock it forms in. Because of this they stand out from the matrix minerals they are found in.

Since it appears to be hydrothermal origin check for metallic inclusions or small veins within the more pure segments of the milky quartz. Heavy metals are typically the last to form in hydrothermal veins in the larger crystals of quartz.

It does not appear pegmatite: a large quartz crystal formed during a slow cooling segment with in bulk granite.

 

[NaturalMyztic]

I found another rock of the same kind but this one has much better crystal formations. I also noticed sparkly specks in the mineralized part of this rock that I didn't see in the other rock. Could these be specks of gold??

 

[Geochem]

You have found a milky quarts hydrothermal vein with void cavities having overgrowth quartz crystals and what appears to be scattered minerals in the cavities and possibly within the milky quartz.

The minerals within the cavities and scattered with the quartz vein could be metallics, locations where you would typically find gold and silver.

It the quartz vein rocks from a historically known "gold or silver ore mining geographic region?" If not then the chances of being the first to find ore veins in a region are less likely but possible.

If you the rocks are within a "silver or gold mining district" then you may proceed to assay. That would be to take what would appear to be "metallic minerals" from the quartz rock and do some inhouse essay or take them to someone with elemental analysis instrument, such as X-ray fluorescence.

I can often by gold panning add crushed particles with water and swirl the segregation of heavy metals from quartz. The metal fines will be heavier and will create a "lagging tail" of fines with the lighter particles easier to swirl and ahead of the metallics. You could crudely use a one to five gallon bucket for the density separation swirl essay.

If you do have heavy metals present, gold and silver are about twice as heavy as iron minerals, so further water swirl separation "lag of metallics" may show if they are "iron verses heavy precious metals."

Part of the iron separated could be magnetic, and can be identified by magnetism, whereas gold and silver are not magnetic.

So hopefully your inhouse assay process could let you know if precious metals are in the quartz cavity and matrix of the milky quartz.

 

[NaturalMyztic]

That's very good info. Thank you. I'm in the North Texas area so I'm not sure if that is a silver or gold mining district. Probably not. I passed a magnet over the crushed reddish brown particles and pieces which I thought may have been iron, but nothing stuck to it. There was quite a bit of reddish brown staining (not sure if that's the right word) inside and in many of the crevices. Some of it came off nicely with soap and water. I'll likely have to take it someplace and have someone analyze it for me.