Rock Talk: The Montana Agate Story
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ก.ย. 2024
- Join Kate as she explores the origin of the Montana agate, from gigantic volcanoes to rivers and glaciers. Montana agates, which are a dendritic type of chalcedony, are found all up and down the Yellowstone River. Learn about how these beautiful stones were formed!
Note: Kate is NOT a geologist - just a rock and research enthusiast. If she has gotten something wrong, please drop her a comment to let her know. She'll post all corrections on a pinned post at the top of the comment thread, so folks aren't getting wrong information. Thanks!
#rocktalk #thefinders #geology
One addendum, thanks to my fact checker Thirst Fast: The gas bubble holes in basalt are called VESICLES, not vugs. I will quote TF: "Vugs are usually things that opened up after the rock formed, and were then lined with crystals. Things like faults, fault breccia, or carbonate weathering (esp dolostone ;) )that end up filled. They can be any shape and size. 'Vesicles' refers specifically to cavities left when gas bubbles are captured during solidification, which typically only happens near the surface, since that's where the pressure is lowest (lower pressure means gas can form bubbles when ascending quickly)." Thanks again, Thirst Fast! (see his channel here: th-cam.com/channels/k3tpp330yro8-AkeGvD2rg.html )
Great lesson ! now for one on petrified wood on the Yellowstone !
Lol, it’s on my list!
Every agate I find, I picture its birth to the present. In Crowley's I can see that the pockets on the outside are actually the birth place of the quartz growth. And as the water level rises and drops it fills the void and deposits the silica rich water with different other minerals which cause the different colors of the banding. Plus I notice with our agates is as the void fills with quartz the crystal structure gets larger. So the size of the crystal structure is banded also.
How wonderful! Looking up Crowley’s as soon as I’m done here. Thanks for sharing your knowledge! 😊
@@KatyDidRocks my channel "Gravel Bar Hopper "
Headed there! Always glad to get new channels. 😊
Well I just learned some things. Thank you.
Yay! I think it’s just fascinating.
As the redoubtable Nick Zentner has shown me, your area has been incredibly geologically active since the end of the Cretaceous period. The entire northwestern quadrant of the now United States was incredibly active with multiple volcanic periods, seismic events the likes of which we couldn't begin to imagine, massive flood basalts, repeated eruptions from the Yellowstone hot spot......gods how I envy those of you who grew up there!
I never really appreciated how amazing this place was until I left for a time.
Wow!!! Learn in a easy way the formation of agate. What form the banding in agates? Different density silica?
That seems a good guess. I actually don't know for sure - I'll have to look it up.
Very cool and intriguing knowledge and info thank you katy
KATE! That was excellent! You have a manner of talking that holds attention from start to finish. Thankyou for your efforts in putting that together. One of the things, now I've found others who share my love of rocks that strikes me is that we all really love to learn about the whole process. There's so much going on in our minds, the wondering, imagining of lands long ago, volcanoes, plants and animals long extinct, oceans and rivers, forests and people. Are you a professional educator? And sorry I'm so late to class haha.
I love rocks123 I teach English. I also LOVE research and sharing the info. Thirst Fast has agreed to help fact check my next script, so hopefully the details will be spot on. 😊 I have another project that I would like to contact you and Rookie about - send your email address to bigskyartworks@gmail.com if you want. Thanks for watching!
@@KatyDidRocks you are. Great storyteller..Your students must love your spirit ..Lucky them 🤗
I came over from Michigan rocks. I enjoyed your collaboration with him.
Thanks, Debra! :)
Some are in Missouri......Yellowstone River flows into the Missouri River....
Nice!
Amazing story,great job on video!!! Thank you so much for shearing...
Thank you. :)
Thanks for the Geology lesson. Even I could understand the way you explained it.
:) It's the benefit of not actually being a geologist - I have to make myself understand stuff at a basic level, so it's easy to explain simply. Thanks for watching!
Thx for a very informative video👍.i love stones of anykind.they are just beautiful to look and to think how they have formed.nature is ful of wonders💕
It truly is!
I love agates, rockhounding and appreciate gaining some knowledge from you as to how they were formed. I sure hope to get up there next spring or summer. BTW, I saw my first katydid yesterday. :-) All The Best! Tere
Great! I'm glad I can help.
Love the Rock Talks. Would love to see more. Very informative.
Thanks! I need to do one on jaspers and rhyolites - thanks for the reminder. :)
I live in Billings Montana and I've been finding them for about 15 years. My dad used to take me and my sister every chance we had and now my wife and I take our two kids. We actually just got done from searching, we found about ten each but my 8 year old found a really big one, he's such a great rock finder. I introduced my wife into agates and now we have a rock garden just full of agates. I decided to learn how they were formed and found this video. I thought our river banks were over picked but we found about thirty today in a popular spot. My son finds the tiny pebbles at the school playground like I used to do during recess. I search the yard at my job and my wife found a pretty big one in the alley behind her work. Reddit has a bunch of agate searchers I'm going to post there later today with our garden
That's great! Rock hunting is a wonderful family hobby.
Thank you, Kate! That's such a cool process! I never would have thought that the silica would be in the form of a gel and that the dendrites and other inclusions got their place in the agate in that way. But it makes perfect sense. Now, why are the agates so big? There must have been something about the lava that allowed it to create very large bubbles. There is a fellow on the Big Island of Hawaii who has been posting videos since Kilauea began erupting in his neighborhood in May of 2018. He purchased a lot that is about 80% new lava and he takes his viewers out onto the lava to explore. The lava is sponge-like, with lots of very small bubbles, or vesicles. But there are also voids that have formed as the lava flows built up and tree molds and other inexplicable formations out there. Maybe in 50 million years his lot will have agates! Oh, I watched a lecture out of Central Washington University that talks about the formation of petrified wood in eastern Washington. That also requires volcanic activity and is quite interesting. There's a whole bunch of lectures on the geology of the region put out by a CWU geologist, Nick Zentner. He's dynamic and fun to watch as well as listen to. He makes great use of a chalk board and lots of chalk ends up on his trousers! 😁
Nick is awesome! My parents know him - he used to live in the town where they live. :) Buying lava fields sounds like an amazing plan. How fun is that!
Loved the video! I've wondered at the outside shape of agates before. Nice to know the origin of the term, too.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I've always wondered how these were formed. Thanks!
I think it's fascinating!
Hey Katy, great video.. May I share this on my rock site on F/B?
Of course! :)
~ vugs means any cavity filled with crystals. These agates are forming in vesicles.
So, NOT vugs?
@@KatyDidRocks Vugs are usually things that opened up after the rock formed, and were then lined with crystals. Things like faults, fault breccia, or carbonate weathering (esp dolostone ;) )that end up filled. They can be any shape and size. 'Vesicles' refers specifically to cavities left when gas bubbles are captured during solidification, which typically only happens near the surface, since that's where the pressure is lowest (lower pressure means gas can form bubbles when ascending quickly). You're right about water percolating down filling the vesicles with calcedony/agate (again, proximity to the surface is critical, otherwise rain would not get down far enough), but they can also be filled by water percolating upward due to seawater trapped in rocks being heated by the magma chamber feeding the flows that contain vesicles. Those are usually filled with calcite (and maybe aragonite), metals like copper and silver through metasomatism, and sometimes zeolites (like thomsonite) due to the depth and temperature being in the zeolite facies.
Haha, maybe I better run my videos past you next time before I publish them! ❤️
@@KatyDidRocks Think of it as the difference between a vug and a geode. Vugs can form in any rock. Geodes are usually vesicles that just didn't fill up all the way, usually in basalt or rhyolite. Once it's full, it's a nodule. Agate nodule, chalcedony nodule, calcite nodule, etc... In some areas, none of them are full, and you have geode fields. Some areas, they're all full, and very few are geodes. Those are all clues to the depth and conditions of the formation of the rock and the vesicle filling.
@@KatyDidRocks Lol no worries, you're still pretty bang on, and I enjoy your take on your local geology!
Katy, have you ever met the Nesper brothers of Sidney?
Hi! I have not, although of course i have heard of them.
Rock talk time! Love all the variety of agates
Thanks, Patricia. :)
I'm revisiting this Video. Last Summer my wife and I moved to Heart Butte, to be closer to once distant family. 2 weeks ago we moved to Boulder Montana. To our new(built in 1930) forever home(Cabin in a gulch in Radon rich former uranium mine camp). Finding tons of Jaspers and even some gold. But I am excited to soon take a trip to find my first Montana Agate. It would be a dream come true to meet you and your Pupper. Hope we do run into you.
Matthew, Theo and I, along with some others, plan to host an event in Billings in mid-July for people to join us in a rock party. Keep your eyes open for the announcement!
@@KatyDidRocks That is exciting news!! I will keep my eyes open. One question I can forsee myself(and wife) asking: will our Puppies, Hematite and Theramin be welcome? Or should we find a dogsitter!
Subscription earned! Thanks for the lesson :)
Oh I was redirected from your and Michigan rocks video :)
Thanks and welcome! 😊
How nice to know about how agates were formed!
Glad you liked it!
Great vid kate ! I have found montanas in minnesota myself. There were overlapping glacial drifts, 5 or 6 glaciations i understand. They all have names that escape me at the moment but very informative. I hope to get out there this coming season. Offer still open to trade for some gorgeous lake superior stones so you know. Thanks !
I find it fascinating that the stones have spread so far. As far as the trade... I would love to! Are you looking for slabs, or rough?
KatyDid rough actually. My favorites are full nodules that show interesting windows. The lsa’s i have are naturally exposed finds. Mostly only have smalls left now but high quality. Sold my large stones to fund my jeep gear. Some sold for1 to 3k so top shelfers. Would like to find one around 1-2 pound class with good translucense and naturally exposed windows. I am on facebook and instagram and have pics there of some stunners. Jeepsailorjk on instagram and jeff luka on facebook.
Wonderful storyteller!!
:)
Very informative
Glad it was helpful!
Awesome thanks 💕
Thanks for visiting!
Great information, thank you
Thanks for watching!
The exact same agate is found in saskatchewan. If you saw some of the pics of them or saw them in person you would swear they came right out of the yellow stone river.
I have seen those! I belong to the Saskatchewan rock group as well. The Montana agates spread over a huge area - it wouldn't surprise me if they got up as far as Canada.
@@KatyDidRocks saskatchewan is in canada. Its the middle provence.
Very well done
Thank you very much!
Haha thanks for the shout out!
:)
Wow!
:)
Wow..That was quite a journey in TIME..You had me absolutely holding onto every word & visualising the lava & the bubbles & jelly & the dendrites creeping thru..Thank you..It was fascinating to go back to the formation period of our current Planet Earth..Was like a 3D movie listening to you..Abs fab👍👍👍
:) You are sweet. Glad you liked it.
Excellent video, great info. Thanks and good job. I do most of my hounding on the Mississippi River and tributaries in Northwest Illinois and Eastern Iowa. My rocks of choice are Jasper, Chalcedony, and Lake Superior Agates(LSAs) pushed south by the last 5 Ice Age glaciations then washed down the rivers from Wisconsin and Minnesota.
Mmmm, love me some jasper! I am currently in Oregon for the holidays - I have learned I know NOTHING about rocks in this area. It's interesting how much rockhounding is all about learning how to see the rocks. :D
Great presentation! You are correct in saying Thirst has a vast source of knowledge. I sure hope to meet ya next summer when I get up there, Havagudun Lady!
Thanks, E.D.! :)
I just learned something new and you make it so interesting. Thank you!
Fantastic! I find it VERY interesting - glad you learned something. 😊
Hahaha I've been jazzed on your channel to Kate!
:)