Reminds me of an elephant's foot.

[Gracekvasq]

So I'm looking for any information on this beauty.  It is part of my late husbands collection. 

 

 

Info:

Location:

Unsure but I'm guessing Texas because my husband never traveled outside of Texas. 

 

Colors:

white/grey

black 

Gold/copper (solid)

Gold (semi-translucent)

Metallic silver

 

Dimensions: (approximate, please see pictures)

Smaller diameter- 2.5 cm

Larger diameter- 5cm

Height-4.25 cm

Width-3.5 cm

Length-4.5

 

Key details:

It looks like a elephant foot to me. 

On the smaller circle (top) it looks like there is a smaller triangular-ish circle.

There is a opaque goldish/copper color on several spots , they seem somewhat like veins. 

On the larger circle (bottom) there is a semi translucent goldish color. It seems iridescent when the light hits it. 

 Thr metallic silver color is on different spots all over it but seems to mainly be where there is a nick on the rock.

When dry it is a white/gray color but when wet it has a yellow/tan-ish color. 

It is not magnetic. 

It sparked while I was cleaning it. 

 

 

I have added many pictures.

 

If there is any info I missed or any pictures of the rock you may need, please don't hesitate to let me know. 

 

Thank you all for any help you can give and any info about it. 

 

 

 

 

[Lone Hunter]

That's different, and interesting, cut cross section of something? Only a few of the pictures are clear enough to be helpful however. What did your husband collect? Minerals? Fossils?

[Gracekvasq]

Thank you for your response.

 

I'm not to sure exactly what all he collected, I do know in the collection there are bivalves(?), Geodes, lots of flint, petrified wood and more that I will be posting to try and figure out what they are. 

 

Can you please explain "cut cross section" I have heard that before but I'm unsure of what it is. Sorry the newbie in me is showing. 

 

I will take some different pictures with my actual camera so maybe they will come out better. 

 

Once again thank you for your response. 

[Lone Hunter]

Cross section is basically like cutting something in half to expose the middle. You covered the gammet of collections but I still have no idea and I'm a Texan. It almost looks like art glass but again hard to tell from pics and I'm no expert. Hopefully tomorrow some locals will have a look and be of more help. Look forward to seeing the other things!

[Gracekvasq]

That's what I figured it was but thank you for the clarification.  What tools would be best to do this? 

 

And from what I can tell from the collection, if it was cool, he would bring it home. 

 

And I will definitely get some better pictures, outside and with a better camera, tomorrow. 

 

 

[Lone Hunter]

5 minutes ago, Gracekvasq said:

And from what I can tell from the collection, if it was cool, he would bring it home. 

That describes most of the people on here And I meant it looks like it's already been cut and that takes specialized tools, sorry for the confusion! 

[Lone Hunter]

Just thought of something, if I were to guess maybe plume agate?

[Ludwigia]

Plume agate might be a possibility. At any rate it appears to be more mineralogical than fossiliferous to my eye.

[Brandy Cole]

Agates are rock formations that often have several colors combined, which makes them pretty to look at.  People often will cut one cleanly so that there's a polished side to highlight the colors.  The top portion of the rock in your first picture is so flat that it looks like it may have been cut this way.

 

It's very interesting looking!

Edited August 8, 2022 by Brandy Cole
Spelling correction

[JohnJ]

From these photos, it looks like a colorful chert/chalcedony nodule.  I've seen pieces like this that are a kaleidescope of colors.  However, most often, the exterior colors are not the same inside the stone.

[Gracekvasq]

It does seem to be cut by man not nature.  The shape is extremely strange. The pictures definitely don't do it justice. 

 Here is more details, from my POV about the shape. When I say it reminds me of an elephant's foot, I literally mean it you cut the the elephants leg from the knee down, that is what it looks like, maybe a bit more flared at the bottom. It's almost like bell shaped.

[JohnJ]

If it was cut, it would be perfectly flat and you could see striations from the saw (unless it was polished to a glassy finish).  Chert forms into unusually shaped nodules that can be fat to thin to fat, again (picture two different sized footballs connected by a smaller tube).  It is not unusual for it to 'snap' in two at a smaller part of the nodule with the break being almost flat.  

[supertramp]

looks like amygdaloidal basalt