Thunder eggs vs Geodes

So what's the difference between thunder eggs and geodes.  The lady at the Rock Hound state park in NM said geodes are hollow with crystals and thunder eggs are solid.  Problem was she had numerous rocks labeled as thunder eggs that had voids in them. I tried Wikipedia for help. "A thunderegg is a specific geological structure. A thunderegg may be referred to as a geode if it has a hollow in it, but not all geodes are thundereggs because there are many different ways for a hollow to form.  Okay, so not all geodes are thunder eggs, but just because a thunder egg has a hollow doesn't preclude it from still being a thunder egg.  I guess the geological structure or formation process is the key.  Okay, here are some pictures of a geode and thunder egg?  Interesting-facts-about-geodesThe thunder egg was found at NM Rockhound State Park.  Yes they let you dig in a state park for rocks.

I found this thunder egg in the park.  It has a solid quartz center (Needs some polishing)

I found these nodules near the NM AZ border.  I suspected they might be geodes.

Geode with Tabular quartz crystal

Geode with dirty center (chalcedony)

Geode? No void/vug

Geode with tinted green Chalcedony

These have a hollow inside with what appear to be chalcedony

NM Trip: Rhyolite

Fence and house made of "candy" Rhyolite

Next stop on our vacation was to a town called Truth or Consequences in search of Rhyolite.  Not sure what to expect from a town named after a TV game show. The particular rhyolite we were looking for is called "candy" rhyolite by the locals.  This rhyolite has enough quartz in it that it polishes up fairly nice.  The instructions we received to get to the site were not very helpful.  The road we were to travel on split into several other roads and then split again.  GPS coordinates would have helped.  We asked somebody at a nearby shooting range if they knew anything about it and they said they were from Albuquerque, although he did mention his interest in the diamonds found in Arkansas.  After searching for about an hour and getting eaten up by some fire ants we gave up and looked for Rhyolite in the town. We found a house made of Rhyolite (see above)!  If at first you don't succeed, just buy a chunk of Rhyolite from a nearby rockhound store (see below).

Purchased Rhyolite from Rock Store :-)

Rockhounding trip to NM: Fluroite, Barite, Galena and more at Blanchard Mine

Nice Specimen with Blue Fluorite

Usually once a year in the fall or spring my wife and I take a one week vacation doing some site-seeing and rock hounding.  Most of our rock-hounding on this trip was technically outside of the Rockies in southern New Mexico, but its still rock-hounding.  Our first stop was at a world famous mine outside of Bingham NM.  We had tried to call the caretaker of the mine several times, but our cheap cellphone kept telling us no service.  Since the site was only 30 miles east of the Interstate, we took a chance to see if they were open for business.  While it took some time to get someone to open the store, eventually the caretaker invited us in, we signed a disclaimer and followed a provided map to the mine site. This site is a fee only site, so you pay a flat rate of $10 per person to rockhound.  You may take as much as 20lbs of material per person.  This seemed like a lot of rocks at first, but when the primary minerals are Galena, Barite and Fluorite the weight adds up quickly.  The caretaker was somewhat upset by an individual who wanted to take 120lbs out the previous week even though you sign paperwork that says all you can have is 20lbs per person.  We followed the map to the mine and began exploring.  Both my wife and I looked for an hour or so til she found some bluish fluorite near a mine entrance.  It appeared that someone had done some field trimming of specimens there and there was quite a bit of debris.  We decided to go through the other person leavings and we ended up finding some nice specimens.  We guess this was from the guy who visited the previous week and tried to take out 120lbs.  This fall day the temperature was in the upper 70s and we were happy for a breeze that picked up at noon.

Fall Colors in the Rockies and Goethite with Smokys

Fall in the Rockies near Lake George CO

I've looked for advertisements on-line for goethite and there doesn't seem to be much of a market for it.  I guess that's because it would be tough to incorporate in jewelry.  However, the mineral collector should still seek it out.  I think goethite is somewhat under appreciated.  Goethite was named after a German who first named it.  Some folks like to pronounce it like gerthite.  I guess that is due to the German background.  Evidently there must have been finds of goethite in Germany at some point.  I dug where I had found crystals before and was pretty sure I would find more today. The results of my dig are pictured below.

Off to rockhound and take some fall pictures.

Somewhat unusual goethite balls perched on smoky quartz. 

Goethite crystals are displayed here as needle sprays

Not sure what is coating this plate, maybe goethite in another form.

Rockhounding Streams in Colorado

Every once and awhile Colorado Springs gets a good rain that churns up the creek.  There is no telling what you'll find after a flooding event.  Normally the rocks get moved around, new stream channels are cut and sandbars appear where there was a stream before.  I've found everything from smoky quartz, petrified wood, fossilized bones, agate and jasper.  Most pieces require some hunting, but they are there for the taking.  The other day I noted 4 other people combing Fountain creek before I got there.  While I only found a couple pieces of petrified wood I did find some nice smoothed smokys.  I probably won't try this again til spring.

Fountain Creek Really Got Churned Up After a 4+ Inch Rain

Smoothed Smoky Found On A Sandbar

Can You See the Smoky?  Pick it Up!

Now that's the color of amazonite!

Amazonite comes in different colors of blue-green.  Some light blue, others very green.  The amazonite I found this past week although somewhat small is near the optimal color of blue/green. 

We went up to Lake George again, famous for its smoky quartz and amazonite.  After doing some initial prospecting I came across some amazonite on the surface kicked up by a fallen tree. As I searched for the originating pegmatite I kept running into amazonite float.  While the amazonite was dinged up some, the color is spectacular for amazonite.

The pictures that follow show me working the amazonite dig.  Eventually I did find the source of the amazonite and am probably going to work that area a few more days.  There were some smoky quartz crystals with the amazonite, but they were of very poor quality.

After finding quartz float I begin to aggressively prospect

I've excavated a trench following amazonite float and am working uphill.

First nice size amazonite on the edge of the pegmatite

Some sidewall amazonite.... no pocket yet.

Cleaning the float amazonite

Extraordinary Arrowhead

Once and awhile you find something that's really exciting.  This arrowhead was found near Florrisant Colorado on private property.  I had been given permission to prospect the area and found a little quartz, but no collectible crystals. I found no other artifacts and concluded that the arrowhead was lost during a hunting expedition.  I can find no evidence on-line of similar quartz arrowheads from Colorado.  Sometimes it's amazing what you can find when prospecting.