Tuesday, 9 April 2002

 

Geode Hunting

One of the first exciting things that I found when I was little was a half geode. I found it on Herne Bay beach, lying in the shingle. I was walking on the promenade above with my family, and spotted the crystals sparkling in the sun, it was a flint nodule with a large cavity, and tiny sparkling yellow quartz crystals inside, the geode had been split open by the sea.

Since that day, whenever I feel I'm in the right environment I have a little hunt about for geodes, and half geodes. I have to say that by far the best place I have ever found geodes, and minerals in general, has been in the mountains around Granada, Spain.

I picked up so many pieces of rock from Andalucia that my airport case was far too heavy to pass the 25kg weight limit. You should have seen my ex-boyfriend's fathers face as I unpacked various large crystal and rocks from my bags in a panic at the airport terminal.

I managed to keep three of my favorites, but left some beautiful rocks behind in Spain. The quartz crystals in the photo to the left are quite large, they were inside a round but crusty gray rock, really rocky looking. I gave it a smash with a hammer and broke off this piece.

When I was geode hunting in the Spanish mountains my technique for finding geodes was to look for a roundish, or oval, even long, shaped rock, with a crusty exterior, the rougher and crustier the exterior, the more chance I found that it would be a geode when I split it open.

On the beach the rocks are much smoother, although around the cliffs you can find rough rocks that have been washed out from them. Some of the geodes on the beach will have been split in half by the action of the sea. These are really easy to spot as the cavities are really noticeable, then in the right light you will spot sparkling crystals. I find that it's easier to find these when the pebble is dry.                                                                                                             Of course on a beach geodes that have been exposed for a while (especially large crystals) will have been ground down by the sea, sand, or pebbles, so it's better to look closer to the cliffs for large crystals or undamaged specimens. Look for round, or egg shape rocks, that feel lighter or sometimes heavier. I hit these with a hammer to break them open. (always wear goggles when you do this) There are better, more precise ways to split a geode but I don't have the tools or experience to do it.

The flints with crystal cavities that I find on the beach are generally smooth like pebbles, they're lighter than other flint pebbles the same size. Some of them may have holes already in them giving a glimpse of whats inside. Others may just look like pebbles, and many will have been split open. I've noticed that most of my flint nodules with crystals have white speckles or patches on the pebble, that's the only constant.

As you can see I have added my own sparkles in the colours of the actual crystals that are inside the cavities of my stones. My camera was not  doing the crystals justice, these stones are very sparkly!



I have also found marcasite geodes (which I originally thought were iron pyrite), these look very circular, almost like a planet, with metaly/brown coloured rock, which has a smooth (in parts) but pitted surface. Smashing one of these in half is an amazing experience, and the insides are absolutely beautiful to see. These can degrade over time though and become rusty on contact with damp air. 



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