Hey everyone,
I took my first trip down to collect the famous Mazon Creek concretions over the weekend, and this is one of my first concretions to open so far. I was hoping I could ask for some clarification in what I'm seeing.
My first thought was just that it's a clay deposit, because the lighter material which the crack is running through seems to be clay or another substance which is very soft and crumbly. Additionally, there are what appear to be much darker needle-like inclusions of material running randomly through that more crumbly material, which unfortunately I do not know how to photograph.
On that note, my apologies for the awful cellphone photographs. I hope they're clear enough for a rough identification.
The grayer material on the left is much harder, and appears to be crystalline. I was guessing possibly a shell? (replaced by quartz? does that occur at Mazon?) The white deposits (calcite?) at extreme left seem to be a separate feature from the U-shaped feature stretching across most of the concretion.
Thanks so much for your time. I'll try to scrounge up an actual camera soon.