I arrived at Gemstone Beach this morning at 8am with the temperature at 10 degrees; I left four hours later when it was 16 degrees. Low tide occurred in the middle of my time there – this meant that there were more patches of sand along the wave edge than if the tide was fuller, but it was much safer, not being forced up against banks of stones as the waves came in. I was prepared for wind and rain again but they didn’t eventuate. I managed to ford the Waimeamea River today, though one of my gumboots got a little wet on the return wade. I estimate I walked two kilometres along the Te Waewae Bay coast before I turned back.
I often don’t know what a stone will look like in close-up when I take photos after a fossick. Some stones are obviously interesting when I pick them up on the beach and look at them from half a metre distance or less. But others may be more suggestive, not clear, the details being faint. The close-up photos are often able to clarify their composition. Today had a few surprises and revelations.
This little two centimetre long stone was the most surprising. On the beach, it looked like a red jasper with some white patches plus some tiny veins. The veins seemed to have some bright white in them. The photos revealed the presence of what looks like agate. Unfortunately the close-ups, produced through cropping, are at the limit of their clarity at this level of detail.
Another red jasper I found today is much larger, being about 6.5 cm at its widest. It was partly buried in tiny pebbles but shone brightly, being wet from the wash of a recent wave. It looks like there is quartz in it, and the tiny green areas revealed in the close-ups may be epidote.
The next stone is an unusual one. It is just a little smaller than the previous stone. When I found it, what attracted my eye initially were the light-coloured spots in the dark stone. Bit I could also faintly make out some white squiggles on it, and I knew I wanted to check them out through photos. The spots are revealed as crystals (of what, I don’t know) and the squiggles turn out to be difficult to bring into clarity – they remain a bit of a mystery.
This green stone (below) is similar to many I pick up on the beach in that I can see that it is made up of many different smaller bits. The photos help to clarify the colour and shape of those bits, which may be crystals and/or tiny pieces of other stones.
Another very small stone, probably quartz, which seemed to have some mineral clouds inside it:
Finally, six other stones I found today that I wanted to check out with close-ups:
The first Post in this Series is here. The next Post, “Big Wave, My Friend”, is here. The Index to the Series is here.
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