I have been tumbling quite a few Slope Point stones recently and this Series of Posts features a selection from a 3lb barrel. The batch tumbled in a fresh lot of tin oxide polish for 12 days then was burnished in borax for eight days. The order of presentation is random. Many of the stones are likely to be rhyolite but I am unsure about the identification of most of them.
The first stone has similar features to others I have found at Slope Point. It appears to be some kind of breccia, with some of the small fragments containing fine white lines. It is just over 4 cms long. The following are photos of four sides of the stone:
Stone 2 appears to be partly brecciated:
Stone 3 contains some orbicular features:
Stone 4 has a different composition than the previous three stones, close-ups revealing many tiny fragments. I don’t know what kind of stone it is.
Stone 5 is again different from the previous stones. It is probably a flow-banded rhyolite.
Another rhyolite with a complex composition is Stone 6. Its two sides have different colour patterns.
Stone 7 is a light-coloured stone, white and caramel. It is just over 2 cms long. It is most likely another rhyolite.
The last stone in this Post, Stone 8, is another brecciated rhyolite. In this sense, it is similar to Stone 1 but the fragments that make it up are from a different source.
See here for an account of one of my fossicks at a Slope Point beach, and here for an account of another. Many of the Slope Point stones have arisen from Jurassic Era volcanic activity and debris flows.
The next Post in this Series features another eight stones from the same tumbling batch.
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