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Hello 👋 I am so happy to have found this forum! I have already gleaned some excellent I formation and look forward to more. I am an avid researcher. If my interest in something, in ANYTHING is piqued, I have to KNOW all there is to know about that particular subject. A blessing and a curse. My curiosity is rarely, if ever, fully satisfied. I have been told by many, many experts that several of the things I have been finding recently are absolutely NOT in Southeast Kentucky amd I MUST be mistaken. Ummm... I live in Southeast Kentucky and most (99%) of what I have found in the past several months has been from an area within 10 miles of my home. So, what am I missing? Only so much can be explained through the occasional drop or glacial deposits. Just in the past 24 hours I have found over 30 small geodes! All between 1 inch and 4 inches in diameter. All within 30 yards of each other. NOT in or near water. Also found were bits of agate, small agate nodules, crinoids, crinoid crusted geodes, loads of Rugose (horn) coral, etc...

OK so I'm very new to basically everything about rocks and fossils. And my questions might seem ridiculous to some and I'm sorry. OK are all rocks that have crystal inside geodes? I know what round cauliflower looking geodes are. But are there untraditional ones that aren't round. And I'm find huge huge coral fossils and some other that are swirly . They all seem to have quartz inside . I guess I'm wondering are they all crystal inside and what's the best way to see without using acid and ruining the fossil itself. Cut them? I'll attached a few pics and more tom when i goto the creek . Some are still connected to the flat rock bottom of the creek.

How Miners Find and Excavate the Most Expensive Amethysts in the World Abby Tang and Clancy Morgan, Business Insider, November 20, 2023. Some papers are: Duarte, L.C., Hartmann, L.A., Ronchi, L.H., Berner, Z., Theye, T. and Massonne, H.J., 2011. Stable isotope and mineralogical investigation of the genesis of amethyst geodes in the Los Catalanes gemological district, Uruguay, southernmost Paraná volcanic province. Mineralium Deposita, 46, pp.239-255. Morteani, G., Kostitsyn, Y., Preinfalk, C. and Gilg, H.A., 2010. The genesis of the amethyst geodes at Artigas (Uruguay) and the paleohydrology of the Guaraní aquifer: structural, geochemical, oxygen, carbon, strontium isotope and fluid inclusion study. International Journal of Earth Sciences, 99, pp.927-947. Hartmann, L.A., Wildner, W., Duarte, L.C., Duarte, S.K., Pertille, J., Arena, K.R., Martins, L.C. and Dias, N.L., 2010. Geochemical and scintillometric characterization and correlation of amethyst geode-bearing Paraná lavas from the Quaraí and Los Catalanes districts, Brazil and Uruguay. Geological Magazine, 147(6), pp.954-970. Hartmann, L.A., Antunes, L.M. and Rosenstengel, L.M., 2014. Stratigraphy of amethyst geode-bearing lavas and fault-block structures of the Entre Rios mining district, Paraná volcanic province, southern Brazil. Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências, 86, pp.187-198. Juchem, P.L. and Fischer, A.C., 2004. Agate and amethyst deposits in volcanic rocks of Paraná Basin, south of Brazil. Field trip guide book, ICAM 2004, International Congress on Applied Mineralogy, September 19 to 24,2004. Kigai, I.N., 2019. The genesis of agates and amethyst geodes. The Canadian Mineralogist, 57(6), pp.867-883. Svetova, E.N., Palyanova, G.A., Borovikov, A.A., Posokhov, V.F. and Moroz, T.N., 2023. Mineralogy of Agates with Amethyst from the Tevinskoye Deposit (Northern Kamchatka, Russia). Minerals, 13(8), p.1051. Yours, Paul H.

Hello Everybody. Do You have any idea what that could be? Is any chance that could be some crystalised skull and if do what kind of crystal is? Thank You

Sparkly Rock in Museum Turns Out to Be 60-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Egg In a remarkable find, a lustrous mineral formed inside a fossilized titanosaur egg. Gizmodo, Natural History Museum of London The first known dinosaur egg? A new discovery from the Museum's collection Josh Davis, Natural History Museum of London. Yours, Paul H.

Hello, Call me Cat. New to all this but I love rocks, geodes and fossils!

This was from a trip quite a few years ago to collect crinoids and geodes. Found this in shallow area of the river. Any ideas? thanks!

I found these several geodized Mississippian marine fossils in southern Indiana. They may not all be hollow with quartz crystals inside, but many are. The fossils usually balloon in size in the geode-forming process. Here's 2 sides of a crinoid calyx...

We were geode hunting near Mississippi river at Illinois Iowa border. Found lots of nice yet small geodes & this. It looks like a vertebrae bone? Or some kind of bone. Was at the same level of the rock bed as the geodes. I try to show measurements in pics. Its skinnier on one end than the other & "slopes" a little? Any ideas? Could it be a dinosaur bone?

Cephalopods Bivalves Brachiopods Gastropods Coral(wearing a sponge hat) Geodized sponge Geode

My boy and I decided to try cleaning some geodes with Iron Out. We left them in a mixture for a few days, and found that all of them had some degree of black staining when we pulled them out. I Googled it, and it turns out that this can happen when you either don't clean the geodes well enough ahead of time or don't properly mix the Iron Out into the solution. I'm probably guilty on both counts. Is there anything I can do to clean them? I made some progress with a simple toothbrush and running water, but also broke some crystals this way. There's also no way I can get into all of the cavities with a toothbrush. Would putting it back into a better mixed Iron Out solution fix things? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

One of the rock clubs I belong to decided to go on a geode hunt near Keokuk, Iowa. Our private hunting area was not accessible due to flash flooding that previous evening, so we went to another dig site. A good 20 inches of goopy muck unfortunately overlayed the rock that contained the geodes. So I was hot and exhausted by the time bedrock was found. For fear of heat exhaustion, I quit at about 3/4ths of a bucket full. I will take these to the children's fossil pit for the kids to "find". Here is what the collecting site looked like., a split slab showing some geodes surrounded by MUD! With geodes in hand, or at least in the back of my truck, off I went to collect some Burlington Limestone that contained fish teeth. Permission was granted from a quarry known to expose the layer needed. Once the correct "pile" was located, I quickly put about 50 pounds of matrix containing the teeth in with the geodes. This matrix will painstakingly be broken down this winter in order to extract the teeth. Here is some of the material collected showing how rich the rock is in fish pieces. All of the black specks are fish remnants. While loading the truck, mother nature was beginning to expose a mayfly hatch. No mayflies were present when I arrived, but a short time later, the hatch began. I had multiple routes available to take home and decided on one that took me through some Pennsylvanian strata. This would be new territory and hopefully interesting material for me to explore. An old mining operation near Oskaloosa, Iowa was converted into the Russell Wildlife Refuge. There are 5 mine pits on the property exposing the mississippian Pella Formation. I chose this site because it contains blastoids. Unfortunately, the blastoids evaded me. But plenty of new fossils were found!!!!!!!! Brachiopods were the predominant fossil found, but some bivalves, crinoids, gastropods, and bryozoans showed up. Brachiopod ID was difficult due to the lack of much information. I tried my best and am open to changing the identity of anything labeled or adding a name to the unknowns. The rugosa coral has a beautiful appearance and is know for the protrusions on its surface. Most fossils found needed very little cleaning and are presented as shown like these corals. All fossils found are on the small side, That is why this burrow surprised me. I wonder what "large" animal existed in this environment. I have always had an affinity for epibionts. And they were plentiful here! As mentioned earlier, this site is known for blastoids. But the other unique feature is the presence of crinoid stems with bryozoan epibionts. This was a fun spot to hunt and recommend it for a great variety of Pennsylvanian fossils!!! Mike

I found these geodes and when I broke them open I realized they had this reddish brown stuff on them. I would like to remove this stuff but I do not know how I can do it without ruining them, or if I can do it at all. These geodes are fragile so I can not clean them with a tooth brush.

Hi guys! I am looking for new areas to hunt for rocks and fossils around the KC area. I have been to the Blue river, Kansas river, Cedar creek, Tuttle creek, Perry Lake, Mill creek, and abandoned quarry areas. Anyone have any general locations of where I can find some stuff? I am an avid hunter for all sorts of fossils and rocks (rockhounding is my favorite past time)! I've had the most luck at the Kansas river and Perry lake. Some of my finds include cow skulls, cone coral, shells, agates, vertebrae, and a bunch of druzy quartz geodes and chalcedony. I have included pics of some of my finds - the petrified wood was sanded down and polished up to 3000 grit. Any suggestions are GREATLY appreciated!!!!! Much love KC!

I went out with Paleo Cris from YouTube (and the Fossil Forum! @Cris ) and we found some killer fossilized coral geodes in South Georgia. It was so much fun. The riverbed was basically just coral instead of rocks. I’d never seen anything like it. Video here: https://youtu.be/J9h4twIG_d4

Last night I scored! A house threw out a ton of stuff, told my friend stop the truck and have a look see. A big recycle tub had over 50 pounds of rocks and fossils. I have a large hunk of quartz crystals, several with decent clusters of purple crystals (amythist?) A good 2 or 3 pound hunk of petrified wood in great condition, rock solid. A small stalactite and a huge (20 pound?) stalagmite. One is pointed and comes from the ceiling, stalactites are rounded and form on the floor. Also a geode the size of a grapefruit. Geodes are spherical rocks that contain hollow cavities lined with crystals. The name geode comes from the Greek word Geoides, which means "earthlike. I was going to attempt a nice clean cut with my angle grinder and cut off wheel but you really need a diamond blade. So I dropped it on the concrete until it broke into several chunks. It had a good void inside, all bearing small crystals, nothing spectacular though. The Giant quartz crystal, star of the show ^ 2 views of the petrified wood, not a great pic of the end but you can see the rings Small one is the stalactite, larger one is the stalagmite. Part of the geode. the purple ctystals.

Has anyone ever found any geodes while out along the Niagara river?

Hello from Linn Co., Iowa, I'm new to this site...but not new to sites...or fossils. Yet, there is much to learn, so, that is why I am here. I hope to get answers for some of the things I have found that I can't ID, both fossils and rocks/minerals etc. Of those things, all were, or are, generally found along creeks and river beds. There are some particularly fine sites not too far from me in this state with interest to fossils, and of course, geodes. So, all things considered, I hope to make some extensive travel to visit and or revisit them with something to bring back and share with you. Until then, thanks for the opportunity to be part of this site and I hope I can add to it something of interest for others. ~ Jarl

Hello everyone! Glad to be a part of an enthusiastic forum that i have seen for a long time but never registered! I don't know a lot about fossils and geodes but i have been collecting rocks forever. Hope to learn a lot from all you guys! Thanks!! Dave

Hi my name is Candie. How do I find out what a fossil I found in 2011 on a construction site in Rochester MN is. I believe it in geodes in a cluster or crinoids. What are tags. Can anyone help to identify what it might be so I may post it

http://www.timesobserver.com/news/local-news/2019/02/how-are-geodes-formed/

I believe this is a large geode or vug? Do I open it, or not? Any suggestions??

I think this is a geode, but it's pretty big. Can anyone tell me if it is, or whst it is? Please. I received it from a friend, I believe they found it in Montana, but I can't say for sure.

Last fall a buddy and I attended the annual Geodefest in Hamilton Illinois. Its a 3 day festival to collect and crack open the famous Keokuk geodes. The organizers hold half day hunts at various private and public locations to collect geodes. I have gone for 3 years now and its always a great time. And I always come home with buckets of geodes, big and small. My buddy and I had been talking about setting up a time to go through and crack our geodes but never found the time. Well last weekend I pulled out my soil pipe cutter and rigged it for a night of cracking! I loaded my truck with my buckets of rocks and my cutter and met over at my buddy's house. We spent 5 hours cracking over 4 five gallon buckets of geodes. His daughter also joined in the fun of the cracking! You never know what you are going to find in these rocks which is the fun. Here's highlights of the night. Enjoy!

Yesterday morning my cousin Matt picked me up at my in-laws in Alpine, UT at 6:30 am and we travelled down to U-Dig south of Delta to dig for Cambrian trilobites and other marine life. It was a three hour drive and we came into the quarry at the perfect time. Robin (Rob), the helper on site brought out some very neat finds including an ammonite hash, ammonite, and an Asaphiscus wheeleri with a green tint to it. Rob guided us to a spot that had been ripped up the previous day by their onsite bulldozer. There were large slabs of shale everywhere for the splitting and we where the only ones out there besides another early riser who's name also happened to be Matt. I'll call him M2 (Matt the second). To my utter shame and disappointment I did not take any pictures of us or the quarry we where digging in because I was having so much fun splitting shale open and going through large slabs of shale as fast as I could. My arms and hands are very sore today but it was worth every second. Towards the end of the day Rob came over and let us split some shale in their 15 foot layer which is famous for containing large Asaphiscus wheeleri. These trilobites are much harder to find than the ever so common Elrathia kingi and the layer is usually off limits to the public. Within about an hour at the 15 foot layer I pulled out 3 complete A. wheeleri along with 3 large A. wheeleri molts and some E. kingi's. There were molts everywhere. It was a really good day and despite getting very sunburned I walked away with a large bucket of about 25-30 complete trilobite molts and complete trilobite remains. Unfortunately because I flew out to Utah I was only able to bring home about 5 nice ones from the trip. The rest are in the bucket and shall just have to wait for when I'll return to reclaim them. I might move out to Utah soon so hopefully they won't be in my parent-in-law's garage for to much longer. Rob showing off a large and nearly complete A. wheeleri. I swapped M2 a ryolite nodule from a nearby location for some shark teeth. He was more than happy to do the swap and Rob used the onsite rock saw to slice the nodule in half revealing the inner crystals. The bucket full of trilobites (Asaphiscus and Elrathia) in my in-laws garage. The other half of the nodule. Large E. kingi that needs some more polishing. I'm not certain that this is an Elrathia nor is it an Asaphiscus. The pygidium on an Elrathia is much wider. There's a slight chance that this could be an Alokistocare because a Bolaspidella's axial lobe would be much thicker. I would be happy if this was a Alokistocare because they are very rare. Regardless of the species this appears to be a molt. To bad it's not the real deal but I still like it and Rob did a good job at prepping it out of the shale. Rob puts mineral oil on the tops of the trilobites to give them a dark black coating. @Fossildude19 please call in the trilobite experts to assist in the identification of this one. It could be a compressed Elrathia but I'm not certain. This is a large Asaphiscus I found a few years ago and it has a greenish hue. About 6 diggers went through U-Dig that day and I found the largest Elrathia kingi. Doesn't that merit some kind of free dinner or gift card? ;-) Large Elrathia kingi. Another decent sized Elrathia. Rob showing off his green Asaphiscus from his own personal dig from last week. M2 showing off some topaz on a piece of ryolite. Rob gave me a little baggy to place my large Elrathia in and it had this cool info sheet in it. I'm very impressed at the way U-Dig has gone above and beyond to get everyone in the family involved in the thrill of paleontology and geology. Rob showing off a compressed ammonite he found a few weeks ago. I absolutely love the color on this rare (for Utah) fossil. The entrance to U-Dig. Really wish I would have taken a before and after photo of the quarry because we tore up so much shale that day. Here's a nice multi-plate of two Elrathias. One is a real specimen the other the molt. Perhaps the real specimen was buried shortly after it shed it's exoskeleton. I ordered some Riker cases a few weeks ago and was pleasantly surprised to see them at my door step upon arriving home from Utah today. Here's some of my nicer finds from U-Dig in a smaller Riker case.