February-March 2022 Fossicking Trip: Stone of the Day #13, A Gemstone Beach Jasper

I spent nearly four hours on Gemstone Beach today, most of it as the tide was retreating. Bright sunlight persisted throughout this period. The Stone of the Day looks like a light-coloured jasper to me, being 3.5 cms long and 2.5 cms wide:

Stone of the Day #13.

Other side of Stone #13.

There were a number of people on the beach again today. As usual, most of them stuck fairly close to the carpark, with only a minority wading the Taunoa Stream and less than a handful venturing further. Down the beach, close to the Waimeamea River, I spoke briefly to one couple from Whangarei, giving them a small hydrogrossular garnet I found.

Today the Waimeamea River was not flowing in a channel across the beach to the sea, as it had been doing the last couple of times I had visited. The high tide had thrown up enough stones to block its outlet. This increased the number of water seepages flowing under the stones in front of the lagoon, increasing the area of wet stones that could be searched. Some of the seepages were strong enough to cause scouring:

The southern end of the Waimeamea River lagoon, where yesterday it folowed out across the beach to the sea.

Scouring by seepages of water from the lagoon.

Water flowing from under the stones near the lagoon.

Other stones I collected today included a number of black and white ones:

Light coloured stones also feature today:

Small hydrogrossular garnet with a blush of blue.

Quartzite.

A kind of quartz??

Perhaps a kind of argillite??

Trace fossil stone, argillite.

The first Post in this 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