Weird rocks.

[billybob_81067]

Why not another WTF is it thread! Just going through some pictures I took tonight and had some of these weird rocks that we have on our prairie. They are big and rounded (not completely round, but smooth curves). And when they emerge from the ground they have a bunch of cracks in them and are very crumbly. After they erode a while they break apart and there are a ton of veins of crystals within them. Around the same area a guy found a fossilized ancient fish at one point in time, so are they some kind of sea life, or just a bunch of clay and shit that rolled around on the bottom of a body of water and then fossilized? They have always piqued my interest but I never have inquired about them on the internet until now.

 

[Add]

Fossilized dinosaur shit piles


They are pretty cool whatever they are

 

[smurfblue40]

Fossilized Dino-patties?



*Add beat me to it

 

[JNHEscher]

There's a lot of WTF down there. Lake beds and volcanic activity are what I usually concluded with after reading or talking with somebody that knew the area. Those do like like there were wet/molten blobs of something.

 

[Bamajeeper]

That’s where crack rock comes from. You are sitting on a fortune!

 

[billybob_81067]

There's a lot of WTF down there. Lake beds and volcanic activity are what I usually concluded with after reading or talking with somebody that knew the area. Those do like like there were wet/molten blobs of something.

If you're familiar with the area, these are located just north of the Arkansas River on Highway 71. If you're headed south on 71 from Ordway you come over a big hill and can look down into the valley carved out by the river below. The way the land is, the areas where these rocks are exposed have gotten a ton of water erosion from rare gulley washer rain storms.

 

[JNHEscher]

If you're familiar with the area, these are located just north of the Arkansas River on Highway 71. If you're headed south on 71 from Ordway you come over a big hill and can look down into the valley carved out by the river below. The way the land is, the areas where these rocks are exposed have gotten a ton of water erosion from rare gulley washer rain storms.

Quite familiar with it. Live in the San Luis Valley for a few years and traveled through the prairies east of there. I know of the gully washers. Whole state east of the mountains looks like it never gets water, but it can all flood in an hour and dry back up in two hours. I never looked into the history of the volcanic formations around there, but got the gist that it spewed some interesting stuff that landed further away. There's some articles on the San Luis Valley that talk about how that entire valley is a dried up lake bed.

 

[trampas]

Add nailed it. He knows his shit.

 

[Deuce 40s]

Most look like a cast and mold mud stone. Maybe an animal dug a hole underwater and it silted in, or some gas bubble left a void.

This one tells a different story. The dark marks look like heat transfer from super heated water shooting through it maybe? Super heated like a few thousand degrees.

 

[Pukemaggots]

You found where they buried Mr Peanut.

 

[Kyle]

Looks like sedimentary rock that fractured. Probably from freeze and thaw cycles. It looks like it may be Chert rock.

 

[0ilburner]

😉

 

[bcrewcaptain]

Given your location, this looks about right, apparently some geology shit from 30yrs ago might come in handy after all.
Photo Gallery: Muddy Creek, Orderville, Kane Co., Utah, USA (mindat.org)

 

[Splib]

Sandstone/limestone concretions. Common but much smaller in places in the north Sacramento River Valley west side in the Cretaceous Great Valley sequence. Cracks, that what rocks do. Sorry- buzz kill. Continue playing children

 

[billybob_81067]

Most look like a cast and mold mud stone. Maybe an animal dug a hole underwater and it silted in, or some gas bubble left a void.

This one tells a different story. The dark marks look like heat transfer from super heated water shooting through it maybe? Super heated like a few thousand degrees.

They all have veins of crystals in them like that last picture. The others just haven't fully broke open to reveal it yet. Some of the veins are different colors but most of them are that brown color like the last pic.

Given your location, this looks about right, apparently some geology shit from 30yrs ago might come in handy after all.
Photo Gallery: Muddy Creek, Orderville, Kane Co., Utah, USA (mindat.org)

Yeah I think you nailed it. Interesting.