Taun Posted June 23, 2015 #1 Share Posted June 23, 2015 As some of you might know and/or remember, last Saturday I went out on a Rose Rock hunting trip to a local city lake.. What are rose rocks? They are Baryte (Barite) Crystals that were laid down about 230 million years ago, when Oklahoma was under a shallow sea... Over the years, they formed a distinctive shape that resembles a rose blossom (see the pics later in this thread)... Oklahoma is the only place in the world where these crystals took on a rose shape - though there are other locations with this type of mineral deposits... Hunting for rose rocks is very, very easy... You just find a dirt road and walk down it after a heavy rain... You can literally find hundreds of them just laying about on the top of the ground.. Though if you want to find the more spectacular cluster formations and the larger rocks, you will have to dig a bit... We did no digging, just walked around (in the 95+ deg (F) heat!) and just scanned the ground for loose rocks... In less than 2 hours we had found thousands of them - though all were fairly small... I kept a dozen or so, but one lady (and her two grade school aged kids) kept about a hundred of them... I had found so many, that after a while I stopped collecting - unless I found a special one - and then I stopped looking all together... There were just too many! I will attach pics of the rocks I found (and decided to keep)... If any one would like a free Rose Rock souvenir of Oklahoma (It is our official State Rock) Just PM me and we can work something out... This offer is good until I run out of rocks - so about a dozen or so... the pics: This is the road we walked down... Virtually all the rocks found were found out in the road - uncovered... This is what they look like when you find them... The rose rock is the largish rock near the center of the pic: 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taun Posted June 23, 2015 Author #2 Share Posted June 23, 2015 A cluster of "Baby" Rose Rocks as we found them... Close to thirty in this shot alone This isn't a rose rock (obviously)... One of the women was a Geology Professor and found this fossilized small animal burrow... She wondered out loud what type of animal lived in it, and so of course I piped up with "Tyrannosaurus Minimus... He was tiny... but he was a mean sucker!" 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taun Posted June 23, 2015 Author #3 Share Posted June 23, 2015 Now for some shots of the rocks I found... Some of these rocks actually have the rose pattern on both sides... I only took pics of the "best" side... 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taun Posted June 23, 2015 Author #4 Share Posted June 23, 2015 The two blue lines are 1 inch in length - just for scale... 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taun Posted June 23, 2015 Author #5 Share Posted June 23, 2015 I found two "Double roses" The shadow that seems to lurk about is my cat... who WAS lurking about... He really wanted to play with the rocks! 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seeder Posted June 23, 2015 #6 Share Posted June 23, 2015 A cluster of "Baby" Rose Rocks as we found them... Close to thirty in this shot alone This isn't a rose rock (obviously)... One of the women was a Geology Professor and found this fossilized small animal burrow... She wondered out loud what type of animal lived in it, and so of course I piped up with "Tyrannosaurus Minimus... He was tiny... but he was a mean sucker!" Just out of curiosity, did the woman have a prosthetic arm? The forearm looks so different where it meets the elbow crease... Anyway, great shots, good day out !! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taun Posted June 23, 2015 Author #7 Share Posted June 23, 2015 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taun Posted June 23, 2015 Author #8 Share Posted June 23, 2015 A "Baby" rock 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taun Posted June 23, 2015 Author #9 Share Posted June 23, 2015 I gathered a few more, but the photo's came out a bit dark (my cat kept getting in the light after the camera had decided no flash was required - grrr!) And to answer your question seeder.. no she had no prosthetic... It was just a weird angle... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Space Commander Travis Posted June 23, 2015 #10 Share Posted June 23, 2015 (edited) I can see why they're called "rose rocks", I thought it would be because of the colour or color, but they do look like fossilised roses. Just out of curiosity, did the woman have a prosthetic arm? The forearm looks so different where it meets the elbow crease... Anyway, great shots, good day out !! I thought she had a rubber Glove on. Edited June 23, 2015 by Norbert the Incredible 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taun Posted June 23, 2015 Author #11 Share Posted June 23, 2015 I can see why they're called "rose rocks", I thought it would be because of the colour or color, but they do look like fossilised roses. I thought she had a rubber Glove on. Nope.. She was in her mid 60's I guess... and for a lot of women the upper arms tend to "go soft"... that adds to the effect in the pic... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KariW Posted June 23, 2015 #12 Share Posted June 23, 2015 Taun that is just so awesome! That is the type of thing I love doing on the weekend! I would be wiling to guess you have quite a rock collection at home! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taun Posted June 23, 2015 Author #13 Share Posted June 23, 2015 Taun that is just so awesome! That is the type of thing I love doing on the weekend! I would be wiling to guess you have quite a rock collection at home! Just these in the photos (and a couple that I did not post)... I live in an apartment and "things" tend to clutter it up from time to time - so I try to keep the clutter down... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seaturtlehorsesnake Posted June 24, 2015 #14 Share Posted June 24, 2015 i love it! i'm going to show this post to my sister (she's a professional geologist) i'll ask her too, but do you know where to color they have comes from? this makes me miss going hunting for copper. gotta try to to that again someday. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taun Posted June 25, 2015 Author #15 Share Posted June 25, 2015 i love it! i'm going to show this post to my sister (she's a professional geologist) i'll ask her too, but do you know where to color they have comes from? this makes me miss going hunting for copper. gotta try to to that again someday. The color is either from the red clay that makes up most of Oklahoma's "Soil" or from the Barite itself (perhaps a combo - I'm not sure)... To give you an idea of the all pervasiveness of the red clay, we have a festival here annually that is called "The Red Earth Festival"... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ealdwita Posted June 25, 2015 #16 Share Posted June 25, 2015 Looks like Martian rabbit poo to me! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taun Posted June 25, 2015 Author #17 Share Posted June 25, 2015 (edited) Looks like Martian rabbit poo to me! So... You have a lot of experience with Martian rabbit poo then?... Edited June 25, 2015 by Taun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Msummers860 Posted September 9, 2018 #18 Share Posted September 9, 2018 The red comes from the iron oxides present in the air at the time of formation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Msummers860 Posted September 9, 2018 #19 Share Posted September 9, 2018 I wish I knew how to post a picture- I have some that weigh over 10 lbs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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