Descent into the Pit - Savannah, GA

[Brett Breakin' Rocks]

Hello Everyone,

 

I had the honor of being invited by @markmg to a trip down into essentially ... a big hole in the ground.  Woo Hoo !!

 

A rather large gravel/sand pit that is being mined to 50-60ft ?  We were not quite sure but hopefully at least as deep as the dredging that happens on the river.  You know .. a play date ! .. haha 

 

Well, having just rained out my river trip on Friday I came prepared to slog through some mud.  Let's just say it was lucky we didn't have a The Princess Bride (1987) moment because the water made the sand and mud a bit soft in some spots.   The open pit has to be constantly pumped out or it would fill up with water and you'd have a nice deep pond ... not so good for a gravel business.

 

Mark had been down in the pit on several occasions and asked that I join him and see if I couldn't help him find anything ... Mark was being brutally teased having previously come out and found - ON THE RAMP- a partial meg tooth.

 

 

Well, we didn't find any mega-sharks down in the pit, but after exploring for about 90 minutes, the first small hints of the phosphate pebbles we were looking for started showing up. They were washing out of a layer sitting just above an impermeable formation of red compacted clay with shell impressions.  Unfortunately the preservation was poor. And very crumbly .. I'm assuming these first finds had been sitting out too long and they were returning to the ground.  They were encrusted with precipitated minerals and were delicate.

 

The first hints that maaaaaybe this wasn't a dry hole ??

 

Some of the encrusted bone that didn't crumble to dust ....

 

 

 

 

[Brett Breakin' Rocks]

Though .. now that we had the layer pegged we made our way to the other side of the dig to see how the layer fared on the opposing wall. Well, it was much better, but as you can see it was a jumble of little bone bits and material that would be a micro-fossil hunters dream. Filled with tiny sharks teeth, fish bones, verts, drum fish teeth aplenty etc .....

 

 

A few tiny shark teeth ....

 

 

 

Fish vertebra washing out of the layer ... in context.

 

Mark on the hunt ...

 

 

The finds ...

 

 

A portion of cetacean vertebra. We found a few pieces and parts but never anything terribly complete.

 

And is this digit possibly from a pinniped ? .. a seal.  I wasn't sure if they were ever found on the East coast .. my mammal knowledge is limited. It was on the fragile side of the exposure and I was surprised it made it home.

 

It was a fun hunt and we both came away with some decent cetacean material (dolphin/whale), bony fish, turtle, shark, ray .. etc ....

 

Cheers,

Brett

[grandpa]

Wow, collecting a shovel-full of the micro-matrix alone would be worth the trip!!

[Brett Breakin' Rocks]

6 minutes ago, grandpa said:

Wow, collecting a shovel-full of the micro-matrix alone would be worth the trip!!

Yeah .. you know .. I really didn't have anything to carry it with. Next time .. if there is a next time, I will be prepared !

 

B

[Fossildude19]

Nice report and finds, Brett!  

Thanks for posting it.

[sharkdoctor]

Great report, Brett! Thanks for all of the great site photos. That site looks like more fun than a barrel of monkeys!

 

If you ever get some of that micro-matrix, sign me up for a trade.

 

[Brett Breakin' Rocks]

1 hour ago, Fossildude19 said:

Nice report and finds, Brett!  

Thanks for posting it.

Thanks Tim ...

8 minutes ago, sharkdoctor said:

Great report, Brett! Thanks for all of the great site photos. That site looks like more fun than a barrel of monkeys!

 

If you ever get some of that micro-matrix, sign me up for a trade.

Thanks guys ! ... yeah, next time I will be better prepared for the small stuff. I had the 1/4" sifter up in the car but I'd need to haul down a nice bucket and maybe some window screen to see if I couldn't collect and wash it on-site.

 

Cheers,

Brett

[Shamalama]

That is a cool pit to explore. Always nice to find the fossils in situ or at least close by. Thanks for the report!

[Brett Breakin' Rocks]

3 hours ago, Shamalama said:

That is a cool pit to explore. Always nice to find the fossils in situ or at least close by. Thanks for the report!

Sure .. this would be my first fossil trip where I am seeing the fossils in their native environment .. so to speak. Not dumped there by a large pipe or reworked in a creek .. or on a beach.  The hunting and finding was the most exciting. I'm hoping the photos I took can help me at some point to determine the approximate age of the formation.

 

Cheers,

Brett

[Darktooth]

Nice report and pics, Brett!

[Brett Breakin' Rocks]

1 hour ago, Darktooth said:

Nice report and pics, Brett!

Thanks Dave ! ....

[markmg]

Thanks for the fantastic report Brett! It was great meeting you and having someone with your knowledge along for the adventure.

 

This was my third and longest stay in the pit. Aside from the one tease of a Meg fragment (on the ramp...ha!), it was a struggle to find much until Brett discovered the thin little fossil layer that was exposed near the bottom of the pit. We had a lot of fun combing through it for a couple hours - amazing to see so many small fossils everywhere you looked.

 

I've got a few pictures I will try and post this week as well.

 

Looking forward to the next trip, maybe Brett will find the rest of that elusive Meg tooth for me!

[Brett Breakin' Rocks]

30 minutes ago, markmg said:

Thanks for the fantastic report Brett! It was great meeting you and having someone with your knowledge along for the adventure.

Hey Mark .. it was my pleasure ! ... I had a great time and if you have some pictures throw them up when you get a chance.  That layer was uber thin and it sounds like, from the USGS survey they did near that area looking for viable phosphate deposits, that it probably does not get much thicker than that. My assumption is we were in the 60-70ft range in the upper Miocene/lower Pliocene ?

 

Thanks again,

Brett

[goatinformationist]

Wonderful news for Savannah Brett!  It is good to know that a site like this is close-ish by.  Thanks for the great pics too.

[hoffy]

The bone in the 6th 7th and 8th picture maybe a dugong or Manatee skull cap if that's what it is I be a great find

[Brett Breakin' Rocks]

23 hours ago, goatinformationist said:

Wonderful news for Savannah Brett!  It is good to know that a site like this is close-ish by.  Thanks for the great pics too.

Thanks ! ... I wanted to document the location and the formation as much as I could for later research.

 

5 hours ago, hoffy said:

The bone in the 6th 7th and 8th picture maybe a dugong or Manatee skull cap if that's what it is I be a great find

Thanks. I'll keep that under consideration and give it a look .. I keep leaning towards a partial vertebra missing the processes ... in the lumbar region ? the sacrum ? ... I will continue to look.