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Agatized Coral Head


Cris

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Found this large agatized coral head today and had to load it up in the back of a truck. This thing is massive!! All I can say is one can do some amazing things with a couple old boards, plywood and a come-a-long. It has to be well over 350 pounds (it took everything I had to even roll the thing and I can deadlift 275 pounds). It may not look that huge, but keep in mind this thing is like solid glass inside.

About 5 years ago Anson and I found a single coral head that weighed about 150 pounds and we thought it was huge...after finding this one, I'm starting to wonder how large these things really get...? Has anyone seen much bigger agatized coral heads?

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Bet that broke a sweat--That is truly amazing, just huge. Is this the same material that the Native Americans used to make projectile points? --Tom

Edited by Foshunter

Grow Old Kicking And Screaming !!
"Don't Tread On Me"

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I think you need a bigger gel-cap... :P

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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Man, Cris; it's huge! What are your plans for it?

The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true.  -  JJ

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Man that thing is huge. Coffee table ????????

Galveston Island 32 miles long 2 miles wide 134 bars 23 liquor stores any questions?

Evolution is Chimp Change.

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Well, bringing the thing indoors isn't really an option for me due to limited space...A table would definitely be cool, but moving the thing would be extremely hard to do.. At first I was thinking about keeping it as a yard decoration, but seeing as how its completely agatized, its very tempting to see what it is like inside (plus I still have that 150 pounder as a yard decoration :P). Flint-knappers and people with lapidary equipment can make some beautiful things with agatized coral. As it is, it's not exactly pretty :P

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We'll open it up and see what's inside... I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

All your fossils are belong to us

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Hmm... how many slabs could you cut out of that? :)

-Dave

__________________________________________________

Geologists on the whole are inconsistent drivers. When a roadcut presents itself, they tend to lurch and weave. To them, the roadcut is a portal, a fragment of a regional story, a proscenium arch that leads their imaginations into the earth and through the surrounding terrain. - John McPhee

If I'm going to drive safely, I can't do geology. - John McPhee

Check out my Blog for more fossils I've found: http://viewsofthemahantango.blogspot.com/

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Found this large agatized coral head today and had to load it up in the back of a truck. This thing is massive!! All I can say is one can do some amazing things with a couple old boards, plywood and a come-a-long. It has to be well over 350 pounds (it took everything I had to even roll the thing and I can deadlift 275 pounds). It may not look that huge, but keep in mind this thing is like solid glass inside.

About 5 years ago Anson and I found a single coral head that weighed about 150 pounds and we thought it was huge...after finding this one, I'm starting to wonder how large these things really get...? Has anyone seen much bigger agatized coral heads?

post-1553-075153600 1290208207_thumb.jpgpost-1553-078825000 1290208212_thumb.jpg post-1553-093197300 1290208216_thumb.jpgpost-1553-082583100 1290208203_thumb.jpg

:) First off nice find.Yes I have seen larger ones in Tampa when they were building a building.They hit several[extremely]large ones.The smallest one wouldnt lay in the bottom of a pick-up but a guy wanted one anyway.When they gently loaded it on his truck it flattened his tires and broke his suspension system. The next smaller one was 2x the size of his pick-up. :D

Edited by bear-dog

Bear-dog.

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Where on earth would you find a rock saw big enough to cut that thing? :P

At a countertop shop. One fabricator I used to deal with could deliver a granite top up to 49" wide.

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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I think you need a bigger gel-cap... :P

Dang, you auspex... I was gonna say the same thing.

Cris that is cool. You know, you could just slice a small piece off of an end to look inside. I have heard that tombstone outfits might have a saw on hand to cut stupid big rocks.

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Ok, Thanks to Auspex, you don't have an excuse now. :P I say you slab it and make coffee tables and end tables out of it. Does it show the coral structure preserved inside or is it just milky agate?

-Dave

__________________________________________________

Geologists on the whole are inconsistent drivers. When a roadcut presents itself, they tend to lurch and weave. To them, the roadcut is a portal, a fragment of a regional story, a proscenium arch that leads their imaginations into the earth and through the surrounding terrain. - John McPhee

If I'm going to drive safely, I can't do geology. - John McPhee

Check out my Blog for more fossils I've found: http://viewsofthemahantango.blogspot.com/

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If it's too big to do anything else with, start banging chunks off and get them slabbed. The slabs do not sell for too much but you are going to have hundreds of them! Coral cabochons are absolutely gorgeous.

What a really fantastic find, be sure to let us know what the final disposition of that piece will be.

If you believe everything you read, perhaps it's time for you to stop reading...

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WOW!! :blink: Those things are really impressive! We don't have anything like that over here as far as I know. Curious to see what you'll be making out of it, Cris. Coral Daddy's ones are real nice. You need some equipment there, don't you?

Roger.

PS. Just curious again. What layers do they come from?

Edited by Ludwigia

 

Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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Guest N.AL.hunter

Nice find. Try splitting it and not knocking off chunks at first. I see at least one natural crack in that thing, so I would use that as my starting point. I would use a car jack/chain/wedge to split it and not whack it with sledge hammers at first. You don't want to crack off any crystals that might be in cavities.

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Ah, I thought this thread was done with. The coral turned out to be pretty disappointing. I busted a small chunk right off of the site with it and it turned out to be pink and orange translucent.....so I busted it down one of those cracks and it wasn't agatized at all in the inside....It's literally agatized about 5 inches into it all the way around and then so soft you could stick a knife 1/2 way in the center of it. I'm sure some cabs could be made from the outside agatized stuff, but it looks like slabs and flint knapping is out of the question.

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