FB Group Posts: 12, 13 & 14 May 2021 – A Back Beach Breccia and Two Birdlings Flat Quartzites

This is the fourth in this Series reproducing my recent regular Posts in the Facebook Group “New Zealand Lapidary, Rocks, Minerals, Fossils”. The first Post in this Series is here.

Wednesday 12 May 2021: Tumble-polished stone (6.5 cms long) from the Back Beach, Riverton/Aparima. In some ways, a very ordinary looking stone. A closer look reveals complexity, subtlety, beauty. [Probably a breccia stone, made up of fragments in a fine-grained matrix.]

Thursday 13 May 2021: Small Birdlings Flat quartzite, just out of the tumble-polisher this morning, collected sometime between one and two years ago. Very smooth, nice colours, 3 cms long.

Friday 14 May 2021: Another Birdlings Flat quartzite that finished tumble polishing yesterday, 5 cms long, very smooth except for one small shallow crack along the side. I wasn’t sure what it was until I did the close-ups. Interesting iron staining.

[I added a comment to this Post: “I think the grey colour of the stone, like most of this is, is kinda the neutral base for the yellows and reds. At least, that is the thought that has been going around in my mind for a couple of years now”, and a Group Member replied: “I too have looked at them and thought it’s as though different colours, in varying degrees of coverage, have been washed over a grey base. I’ve also looked at the stones I have of that type and wondered if some of the variation was due to them being at different stages of formation or ocean tumbling…”]

The next Post in this Series is here.

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Author: tumblestoneblog

Retired Academic, male, living in the New Zealand countryside near Whanganui with his wife as well as Jasper the dog, Fluffy the cat, Dancer and Penny, the horses, and a shed half-full of stones. Email john.tumblestone@gmail.com.

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