Gone Hiking, Part 3

[Dylan]

Howdy folks!

So took advantage of a beautiful friday afternoon with my girlfriend. Went for a hike on the river bed that I usually sport alone. She hasn't found any fossils/fragments before so I was more then willing to help her find her first. Came up with a couple finds, Pictures posted below. One coral and another a fragment of an Ammonite. I tried getting the best possible shot i could with my phone camera for the colours on this piece. Pictures do no justice when it comes to the array of colours this piece emits. 

Then for lunch we settled down for a little wiener roast by the stream. As she was finishing up her lunch, I walked to a near by eroded hill. I stumbled upon a ton of calcite crystals.. no fossils but still very unique to find around here.
 


 

Edited April 23, 2017 by Dylan
Posted In Wrong Section.. Sorry.. Should of been under Fossil Hunting Trips

[Dylan]

[Kane]

Sounds like a lovely time outdoors. 

 

thanks for posting these. Although it is a challenge to make the camera do justice to the irridescence of the ammonite, many of us have seen ammos like these in person, and they are stunning. 

[Coco]

Hi,

 

Are you sure they are calcite ? They look like gypsum. May we have more pics please ?

 

Coco

[Wrangellian]

Those look like gypsum to me too.

[fifbrindacier]

So do i think, gypsum.

[Fossil-Hound]

@Dylan please note the river name and your location. Excellent color on that ammonite.

[abyssunder]

Maybe they are Barite crystals.

Could you determine the hardness and the specific gravity?

Edited April 23, 2017 by abyssunder

[Dylan]

Haha thanks guys for all your input!! Embarrassing when you think it's calcite but everyone tells you it's gypsum or barite..from what I'm looking at on google images and the sort it looks more like gypsum...it's clear for the most part, fairly brittle..it marks up easy! Found within a eroded sand hill...thanks for viewing the post guys

 

[Wrangellian]

There seem to be quite a few sites in the Prairies where this kind of gypsum crystals come out of the clay. I've got some myself (not self-collected, but acquired from other rockhounds) Sorry I don't have a pic but they are unmistakable. Soft enough to scratch with fingernail, right?

[Ridgehiker]

The gypsum are selenite crystals.  

 

Gypsum is most commonly found in Alberta in transitional zones...terrestrial and marine....an area where both ammonites and vertebrate bones ( dino, etc.) 

 

In these areas there are hoodoos with a rough surface of soft bentonite clays we call 'popcorn'. They are usually bare of vegetation.  For some odd reason they often yield random but good quality fossils like a tyrannosaur tooth or champsosaur vertebra. Rarely the thousands of fragments, chunks, etc. found elsewhere.   The tooth is just 'there' as if saying 'pick me up'...nothing else around it for 10 meters but bare clay.

 

A good example of this in Alberta is Southwest of Medicine Hat....neat scenery, wildlife, native artifacts and fossils. The top of that flat grey mound in the  background will yield selenite crystals and likely a fossil or two.  The adjacent coulees may have either ammonites or terrestrial vertebrates. Faily remote area...Pronghorns, Rattlers, Golden Eagles, etc...but no people ( yay!).

[Ridgehiker]

Related to the the topic.

 

I was out Tuesday on a hike.  Not really looking for fossils or collecting anything.  This is a terrain in which those types of crystals are found. The one photo shows gypsum on the surface and  there would be crystals in the clay if one was digging for them.

[Ridgehiker]

In this type of popcorn bentonite clay there are concretions...I didn't have a hammer or anything but inside are often ammonites.  These are about soccer ball size.

[Ridgehiker]

Both marine and terrestrial fossils among the gypsum crystals.  A Baculites and a Hadrosaur caudal vertebra.  For whatever reason the dino fossils are usually good quality but isolated specimens 'just sitting there'.