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East Tn Smoky Mt rock? fossil bone?


SCSeaGal15

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I found this interesting rock on the banks of a stream near the Great Smoky Mts. in Eastern Tennessee. I loved the unusual shape and the 2 white lines that run the length of the piece and taper as the piece does. If you look at the ends, you can also see that the lines and different color are present on both ends. Is this just a rock or possibly a fossil bone or something else? Any ideas appreciated.

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Looks like a metamorphic rock to me.

Yes; basalt, I believe.

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"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 agree, it looks metamorphic, not fossil. This would not be surprising, as the Smokies are entirely composed of igneous and more or less strongly metamorphized rock. They are part of the "core" of the Appalachians; when that mountain chain was produced during the collision of the North American tectonic plate with what is now the European and African plates, these rocks were deeply buried and were strongly deformed and metamorphosed.

Don

Edited by FossilDAWG
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Great info all of you. Helps me a lot. When I searched metamorphic rock I did see one that was similar but it had a lot more lines rather than 2 distinct. I'm new at learning and I appreciate you guys taking the time to help. When I start researching info I learn on TFF, it always leads to learning and great new additional info! Loved the info on the Smokies given by FossilDAWG.

Thank you!

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I agree with the others about the rock.The other is a very nice "brain coral". :)

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" We are not separate and independent entities, but like links in a chain, and we could not by any means be what we are without those who went before us and showed us the way. "

Thomas Mann

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Yes thanks and the wood it is sitting on is sinker cypress. Guess you can tell I have an affinity for all things old and rescued, especially natural. (: Never met a piece of old coral, fossil or not, that I didn't like.

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By the way, what I said applies just to the Smokies. There are a lot of other mountain ridges (and valleys) to the North of the Smokies that are made up of Paleozoic sedimentary rock and are fine fossil hunting territory. Knoxville itself is on and surrounded by excellent fossil territory. About a month ago I collected some nice Ordovician trilobites, brachiopods, and cystoids not far from Bristol, Tennessee, and those formations extend right through Knoxville.

Don

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Thanks I will do that. With the naked eye I can't see micaceous. No layering I can see but will hunt up my magnifying glass.

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nice gneiss

"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"_ Carl Sagen

No trees were killed in this posting......however, many innocent electrons were diverted from where they originally intended to go.

" I think, therefore I collect fossils." _ Me

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."__S. Holmes

"can't we all just get along?" Jack Nicholson from Mars Attacks

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Thanks Herb! When I researched gneiss, I saw several almost identical to mine. I'm learning a lot today. That is a good day. (:

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