January 2022, Stone of the Day #29 – Small Gemstone Beach Rhyolite Stone

It was only after visiting Slope Point a couple of times that I looked more carefully for rhyolite stones when visiting Gemstone Beach. The Slope Point rhyolites made me more aware of what kinds of stones would be rhyolite. And I started to find quite a few of them on Gemstone Beach. This one is quite a small stone but its wavy lines attracted my eye on the beach. It has a lot of similarities to Stone #27, though they were found some 140 kms apart:

The stone is 2.5 cms on its longest axis, 2 cms wide and 1 cm deep.

Other side of Stone #29.

Some of the “pattern” at the bottom of this photo are reflections, not part of the stone itself (see next photo).

Circled are reflections.

I tumbled the stone in 400 grit then 600 grit. After that, it was put in a 4lb barrel for tumbling in pro-polish tin oxide for 11 days, with a borax burnishing tumble for three days. The other 73 Gemstone Beach stones in the barrel included Stone of the Day #28. The photos below show that Stone #29 was one of the smaller ones in the batch.

The 74 polished Gemstone Beach stones in the 4lb barrel.

Stone #29 is one of the smaller ones.

Stone #29 is on the far right in the centre row.

Stone #29.

From a display in Orepuki.

Gemstone Beach, looking south-east. The people in the middle distance are standing in front of the car park.

The Index to the January 2022 Stone of the Day Series is here.

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. View all posts by tumblestoneblog