Marble Mountain Trilobite Hunt Jan 2021

[fifbrindacier]

Thanks for sharing your discoveries with us, i'm glad to discover a new location.

 

As a health worker i was vaccinated. I had my second injection last week on Monday. It gave me an adverse effect with a 40° celsius temperature for three days ! 

[Notidanodon]

14 hours ago, fifbrindacier said:

Thanks for sharing your discoveries with us, i'm glad to discover a new location.

 

As a health worker i was vaccinated. I had my second injection last week on Monday. It gave me an adverse effect with a 40° celsius temperature for three days ! 

Better than getting covid!

[fifbrindacier]

2 hours ago, will stevenson said:

Better than getting covid!

Sure !

[AK hiker]

On 2/9/2021 at 5:19 PM, Sjfriend said:

Would love to meet up! Not vaccinated yet (too young at 55 lol). I am back home now too. Just took 2nd post travel test, 1st was clean lol.

 

Wouldn't mind trying the scribe BUT have no indoor shop to use yet and still a little chilly outside to do much detail work. Maybe come spring?

 

When I looked up possible trilobite sites here they were a little too off-road for my hiking abilities 

Spring it is for the scribe. Might be fun to land your beach and look at the plant material and then hop across the inlet to Fossil Point and a couple of other fossil spots on the west side of the inlet for a day trip if you haven't seen them yet. There is a trilobite spot on the Richardson Hwy just south of Donnelley Dome on the east side of the road. The other areas are fly in access with lots of hiking, my kind of spots:) 

[Sjfriend]

1 hour ago, AK hiker said:

Spring it is for the scribe. Might be fun to land your beach and look at the plant material and then hop across the inlet to Fossil Point and a couple of other fossil spots on the west side of the inlet for a day trip if you haven't seen them yet. There is a trilobite spot on the Richardson Hwy just south of Donnelley Dome on the east side of the road. The other areas are fly in access with lots of hiking, my kind of spots:) 

Not gonna land within a few miles of my beach spot. Not unless you feel like tearing the undercarriage off your ride. Lots of rocks up to car size. Didn't know about the Richardson spot. Though probably wouldn't do it alone anyway lol

[Wrangellian]

Great report, I missed it until now. Wish I could try my hand at that site. My luck, it will be off limits or depleted by the time I get there!

I certainly would not overlook the hyoliths, brachiopods, etc. either. Nor the oncolites.....

 

Speaking of that, are these your pieces, Marco? I saw this same one or maybe the counterpart on the auction site recently but it got away from me. Interesting stuff. I wonder what the cone shapes are...

On 2/8/2021 at 7:00 PM, MarcoSr said:

Really nice block of Oncolites, Girvanella sp.   Below are pictures of polished slabs from the Chambliss Limestone.  Your pieces should look really nice with a highly polished finish.

 

 

 

[MarcoSr]

3 hours ago, Wrangellian said:

Great report, I missed it until now. Wish I could try my hand at that site. My luck, it will be off limits or depleted by the time I get there!

I certainly would not overlook the hyoliths, brachiopods, etc. either. Nor the oncolites.....

 

Speaking of that, are these your pieces, Marco? I saw this same one or maybe the counterpart on the auction site recently but it got away from me. Interesting stuff. I wonder what the cone shapes are...

 

 

Yes, they are my pieces.  I bid on a similar piece and lost the auction.  Luckily I found the seller's website and contacted him about additional polished pieces.  He had 5 and I bought 3 of them.  He also had about a dozen unpolished pieces.  The below link shows my TFF post on the 3 pieces that I bought.

 

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/112932-oncolites/

 

I'm not 100% sure what the cones shapes are but the formation is rich in hyoliths whose shells are triangular or elliptical in cross-section.  The oncolites are usually nearly spherical in shape but can also be oval in shape. 

 

Marco Sr.

 

[Al Tahan]

I’ve heard about marble mountain but never been able to see what it produces! Awesome trip!! I was out west recently and I know the rigors of digging and digging for hours to reach good material. Great report  

[Sjfriend]

10 hours ago, Al Tahan said:

I’ve heard about marble mountain but never been able to see what it produces! Awesome trip!! I was out west recently and I know the rigors of digging and digging for hours to reach good material. Great report  

Thanks Al. I remember reading your west report. Still looking for other trilobite sites out west. Want to hit one in southern Nevada but won't be back til summer and have NO desire to burn to death!

 

It was a good trip though I do wish I had found more then 1 complete. And even that one is completely buried. When I can get to prepping (which I have to learn lol) I'll have a ton to go through. Brought home 26 lbs of trimmed rocks.

[Sjfriend]

20 hours ago, Wrangellian said:

Great report, I missed it until now. Wish I could try my hand at that site. My luck, it will be off limits or depleted by the time I get there!

Currently it is set aside as an accessible quarry by the government. So should be available for years. The rock face is large so should be good for a long time. Biggest problem is how much overburdened there already is and just getting worse.

[Wrangellian]

1 hour ago, Sjfriend said:

Currently it is set aside as an accessible quarry by the government. So should be available for years. The rock face is large so should be good for a long time. Biggest problem is how much overburdened there already is and just getting worse.

Yes... However you look at it, nothing good lasts forever, so get while the getting is good!

Is that oncolite material abundant at that site? I don't want to promote further exploitation of any fossil site, but if it's reasonably plentiful someone should go there and collect more of it for us.  It seems to be unfairly ignored.

 

17 hours ago, MarcoSr said:

Yes, they are my pieces.  I bid on a similar piece and lost the auction.  Luckily I found the seller's website and contacted him about additional polished pieces.  He had 5 and I bought 3 of them.  He also had about a dozen unpolished pieces.  The below link shows my TFF post on the 3 pieces that I bought.

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/112932-oncolites/

I'm not 100% sure what the cones shapes are but the formation is rich in hyoliths whose shells are triangular or elliptical in cross-section.  The oncolites are usually nearly spherical in shape but can also be oval in shape.

Marco Sr.

OK, I missed that post somehow (not been on the forum much lately). I'll leave a comment over there. If the unpolished ones are still available and cheaper, I might have to pull the trigger.

I wondered if the conical features were sponges/archeocyathids or some other critter that had broken loose and accumulated bacteria/algal growths to produce the oncolites.

[Sjfriend]

1 minute ago, Wrangellian said:

Is that oncolite material abundant at that site?

Not too much, the layer is only about 20-30ft thick and miles exposed  There are pieces from finger sized to house sized! The layer is exposed along the entire mountain range. To get any for trading / sales you have to get from private property as nothing collected on the federal lands are allowed to barter or sale.

[Wrangellian]

1 hour ago, Sjfriend said:

Not too much, the layer is only about 20-30ft thick and miles exposed  There are pieces from finger sized to house sized! The layer is exposed along the entire mountain range. To get any for trading / sales you have to get from private property as nothing collected on the federal lands are allowed to barter or sale.

Hadn't thought of that... that explains why there isn't much available, but doesn't explain those that ARE available....... 

[Sjfriend]

9 hours ago, Wrangellian said:

Hadn't thought of that... that explains why there isn't much available, but doesn't explain those that ARE available....... 

Supposedly there are a few sites exposed on private land but I'd bet most come from people that don't know or care about rules  Unlike some BLM official "fossil collecting" sites there is no signage stating the rules. You have to find the govenments online site info to see the rules.

 

After I learn how to prep what I have i should have some site finds to give away. As long as I don't destroy too many figuring it out 

[Wrangellian]

Do you mean prepping the trilo's or the oncolites?

[Al Tahan]

@Sjfriend there is a site called the oak   Spring trilobite park in Nevada that has produced nice trilobites over the years. Based on that I’ve seen from oak springs I would say next time you are in that area go give it a try. It’s managed by the BLM. 

[Sjfriend]

On 3/8/2021 at 4:25 PM, Wrangellian said:

Do you mean prepping the trilo's or the oncolites?

The trilobites. Be funny to see if anyone ever tried to prep out one of the oncolites

[Sjfriend]

On 3/9/2021 at 3:49 AM, Al Tahan said:

@Sjfriend there is a site called the oak   Spring trilobite park in Nevada that has produced nice trilobites over the years. Based on that I’ve seen from oak springs I would say next time you are in that area go give it a try. It’s managed by the BLM. 

Have seen the website for there. When I was done this winter it was frozen and my next planned trip it will be burning hot! 

[Wrangellian]

4 hours ago, Sjfriend said:

The trilobites. Be funny to see if anyone ever tried to prep out one of the oncolites

I thought so but you could have meant cutting and polishing the oncolite - that would qualify as prepping I think.

[Al Tahan]

@Sjfriend oh man...yea those hot hot conditions can be rough and dangerous in many cases...

[Sjfriend]

3 hours ago, Al Tahan said:

@Sjfriend oh man...yea those hot hot conditions can be rough and dangerous in many cases...

Yeah, I often spend time in Arizona during the summer and never even think about going out during those trips. 

[DPS Ammonite]

40 minutes ago, Sjfriend said:

Yeah, I often spend time in Arizona during the summer and never even think about going out during those trips. 

The mountains (5-6k + feet) in Arizona during the summer are tolerable when compared to the humid lowlands in other parts of the US.

[Sjfriend]

3 hours ago, DPS Ammonite said:

The mountains (5-6k + feet) in Arizona during the summer are tolerable when compared to the humid lowlands in other parts of the US.

Even Phoenix is better then the humidity of the East! Hated summers in the Washington DC area! But yes, the mountains are quite a bit better then the Phoenix valley. Though for an alaskan it's still #^*&$# hot lol. Don't know why but we are coming down for a bit the end of June.