Rock Identification: Help Identifying a Sparkly Odd Rock Found After Accident
Question
Odd rock 1 Odd rock 2
Can you tell me what this might be? I found this one night out off a highway after hitting a deer and wrecking my car. I had to climb up a sand hill to get cell service to call a tow truck.
I used the flashlight on my iPhone to look around.
You cannot see by my picture but there is a very sparkly vein that runs through this.
Any help would be appreciated.
AnswerThese look like river transported pebbles hence their roundness and could have come originally from anywhere upstream. The river might be long gone and these are pieces of prehistoric sediments. While hard to tell from the picture, the bigger rock with the "sparkly" vein might be limestone with some calcite crystals. Put some strong vinegar or better yet muratic acid tile cleaner on it and see if any part of your rock effervesces (fizzes). A sure indication of calcite and limestone. The other pebbles are most likely chert, a variety of common quartz. Hope this helps.
If you really want to know, our university offers free mineral identification as part of our community outreach. Please see http://college.earthscienceeducation.net/MINPET/MINID.pdf for details.