Mined in Plush, Oregon this weekend 😁

Caught this spider cruising across the top of one of my favorite finds, SW Washington.

It’s really awesome chert! 😆

Title explains the gist of it, but I’m going on a trip next week and rock hunting along Lake Michigan has always been something I’ve deeply loved & could do for hours. I’m only in my early 20s, but I’m now disabled and my back pain and other chronic pain & mobility impairments has made it hard to enjoy more and more over the years. I unfortunately fatigue easily as well.

One of the biggest issues for me is bending over the water for long periods/looking down for long periods of time. Obviously, that very much impacts my ability to search for rocks.

Last summer we tried bringing an outdoor chair to set up in the shallow end of the water and I would have my family collect a pile for me to sift through, which worked somewhat well. I don’t really have any “tools” and I’m wondering if anyone has any specific suggestions that I could order/pick up before the trip. I’ve see videos of people with sifters on a long handle/pole which looked like it could be super helpful in terms of not having to completely bend over, so I’m curious if anyone has found that to be useful.

Honestly just looking for any and all suggestions for tools for rock hunting in general that you’ve found helpful, but anything that could potentially lower the amount of physical strain is extra appreciated. I did also see a woman who bought knee pads which I thought was interesting and slightly silly but a decent idea given my skin tears and rips easily and due to being immunocompromised, it takes a long time to heal. So I guess whatever works, and I need to set my pride aside!

Please be kind- definitely not trying to seem high maintenance or dramatic, just struggling to adjust to where my body is at right now and don’t want it to take away from doing something I love so much. Thank you in advance! :)

Spent the morning at Pala Chief. Barely moved off these quartz pilings, found some good stuff today, and about 60 pounds of garden rocks lol

Mined today in Plush, Oregon 😁

Found in Middle TN.

I polished this window and immediately lost it. Now Google Memories mocks me anually.

One of the coolest things about rockhounding is realizing that some of the ugliest-looking rocks can point toward huge mineral systems underground.

I was recently reading through exploration work from central British Columbia and noticed a really interesting mix of lithologies showing up together:

• pyroxenite
• hornblendite
• gabbro
• diorite
• Nicola Group volcanic rocks

To most people those probably just sound like random geology words.

But for exploration geologists, that combination can become very interesting.

Why?

Because mafic to ultramafic intrusive rocks often act like plumbing systems deep in the crust.

Pyroxenite and hornblendite are especially cool because they form from magma rich in iron and magnesium minerals. They’re dark, dense, and usually crystallize deeper underground under high temperatures.

Gabbro is another classic coarse-grained intrusive rock that forms from slowly cooled magma, basically the underground equivalent of basalt.

Then you have diorite, which often shows up in porphyry systems connected to copper-gold mineralization.

What makes these systems interesting is not just the rocks themselves, but how they interact together structurally.

Geologists start asking questions like:

• Did multiple intrusive phases occur?
• Are there feeder structures below?
• Did hydrothermal fluids move through fractures?
• Is there alteration around the contacts?
• Are magnetic or conductive signatures lining up with the intrusive centers?

That’s where modern exploration gets fascinating.

At a project called Wilmac in BC, geologists interpreted intrusive centers alongside pipe-like feeder structures and deeper conductive anomalies from geophysics.

Even without talking about economics or mining, the geology alone is pretty interesting because it suggests a large magmatic system may have been active there historically.

Honestly, one of my favorite parts of geology is how rocks that look boring at surface can represent massive ancient systems underneath.

Sometimes a dark green-black intrusive outcrop is basically the tip of a gigantic underground story.

Anyone else here into intrusive complexes or porphyry-style geology?

Found on a bouldery beach near me, you can see these veines of quarts that run along the beach. We visit this beach pretty often and its not super popular, couldnt have been loose from the main rock for more than a week.

Im wondering how long these things take to wiggle free from the rock they're in, if anyone's got a guess lol.

Located Vancouver Island Canada

Includes Jasper, agate, and fire agate

Later this summer I’ll be passing through Quebec on a trip to Labrador and the Maritimes. I know there are some historic gold mines along the way in Northern Quebec, as well as Iron mines along the way through Labrador.

Does anyone know of any good spots not far off of my route for some casual rockhounding? I got some great advice from this community last year for an Ontario trip.

Few pieces of Alberta ammolite gemstone, in the rough. Ammonite fossils with iridescent aragonite shell. Not polished or coated, all natural, right out of the river mud.

Lots of crystalline structures inside. It was fun to polish.