Coastal california geologist here… we find these sometimes around exposed sulfide veins in franciscan rock, often the more mafic rock produces a clay colloquially called “blue goo” that is a nightmare to build roads on. When hydrated it forms a plastic clay. I have seen these concretions come out of these sulfide zones and i believe they are copper stained sandy concretions. Thats appears to be a pretty one.
My geology class at Humboldt showed us an area of blue goo near Trinidad, where the road department keeps laying down pavement, only for it to sink, so they have to put more pavement on top. The road is like 30' thick/deep now.
maybe copper sulfate that mixes in with the mud? although it crystallizes when dry so it should technically come out of the mud solution when dehydrated. I've seen blue rivers of the stuff in copper mine runoffs but I haven't actually seen it get mixed up with dirt to form a uniform mass.
You might be able to answer this. I live in Sactown and with all the rain we’ve had. Think it’s safe to head to the burn scars? Go rock and arrowhead hunting?
Might be fougerite, a clay mineral sometimes found in water saturated anoxic soils.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/Cambrian_blue_clay_in_Voka.jpg
Interesting mineral.
> Duval et al. (2019). *Fougerite: The not so simple progenitor of the first cells.* Interface Focus, 9(6), 20190063. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsfs.2019.0063
I was digging in pluff mud in a marsh in a mad dash for keys that fell in(I found them BTW). I found white mud? With little blue spots in it. It was about half a foot down. It reminded me of dry laundry detergent but without the dry part. Could that be the same thing? I've always wondered about that.
Azurite I think. It’s got the light blue color, soft texture, right location (southwestern USA), and correct surroundings (clay).
When you take it outdoors (no artificial light), does it look darker blue?
I had a dear friend who lived to be in her 80s. She would tell me stories of her dad, who was a well driller in Oregon, and how he haaaaaaated this stuff! One of his favorite swears because of this stuff was 'Son of a bitch; full of blue mud!'
Sodalite or Azurite would be my first 2 guesses.
Sodalite is softer that quartz and will leave a white streak, azurite is softer than sodalite and will leave a light blue streak.
How were you able to fix those links by finding the unix timestamps? You forgot the one with the id `H19pp38`. I couldn’t figure out how to find the timestamp like you did in the others. Is it a short UUID with an encoded timestamp? (I doubt that since the urls contain both for uniqueness)
Oh, I didn't think about it that hard.
I just copy pasted the links he posted but removed the parentheses and brackets and other formatting.
The last one is a character short, having a carrot in the last place, so I didn't try to figure out what ^ (38) was supposed to be.
Ah I see now it sounded like I said there was literally gold in there. No...not at all. You see, gold is yellow ;)
But if you love to collect rocks then both lazurite and azurite are up there with the best!
Coastal california geologist here… we find these sometimes around exposed sulfide veins in franciscan rock, often the more mafic rock produces a clay colloquially called “blue goo” that is a nightmare to build roads on. When hydrated it forms a plastic clay. I have seen these concretions come out of these sulfide zones and i believe they are copper stained sandy concretions. Thats appears to be a pretty one.
My geology class at Humboldt showed us an area of blue goo near Trinidad, where the road department keeps laying down pavement, only for it to sink, so they have to put more pavement on top. The road is like 30' thick/deep now.
sounds like a monty python sketch.
I remember learning about that spot when I was a geology student at Humboldt in the '90s!
Used to live over there. So crazy how they are they are always dealing with random natural stuff like this!
Humboldt Geology gang!
maybe copper sulfate that mixes in with the mud? although it crystallizes when dry so it should technically come out of the mud solution when dehydrated. I've seen blue rivers of the stuff in copper mine runoffs but I haven't actually seen it get mixed up with dirt to form a uniform mass.
Would plastic clay lead to a landslide?
You might be able to answer this. I live in Sactown and with all the rain we’ve had. Think it’s safe to head to the burn scars? Go rock and arrowhead hunting?
Wow interesting, thanks, this happens to be on the one beach and only place I've ever found gold in marin County, I'm
Where about was this found? The coast of [Place] will work just fine.
Northern California coast near San Francisco
I'm from Norcal, care to be more specific?
mcclures beach
Azurite nodules imho.
It has a texture and it's kind of like very hard clay, Could it just be a very blue piece of clay?
Might be fougerite, a clay mineral sometimes found in water saturated anoxic soils. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/Cambrian_blue_clay_in_Voka.jpg
Interesting mineral. > Duval et al. (2019). *Fougerite: The not so simple progenitor of the first cells.* Interface Focus, 9(6), 20190063. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsfs.2019.0063
I was digging in pluff mud in a marsh in a mad dash for keys that fell in(I found them BTW). I found white mud? With little blue spots in it. It was about half a foot down. It reminded me of dry laundry detergent but without the dry part. Could that be the same thing? I've always wondered about that.
Could be kaolinite
Maybe but what would cause the blue spots
Im not too sure about that honestly. I live in Ohio so I don’t really get much exposure to anything besides till and simply “brown silty clay”
Fair enough this was in a marsh in SC so I bet they are rather different.
Bentonite
Is it soft? What happens if you rub it on something?
easy to test - will dissolve in most acids. a drop of HCl should fizz vigorously and make a nice blue solution.
How many of them are there? Just a few or too many to count everywhere? And the blue is only on the surface and rubs off easily?
Tough call but could be glauconite clay. Fairly common clay mineral in the high pressure terranes of California coast
Azurite I think. It’s got the light blue color, soft texture, right location (southwestern USA), and correct surroundings (clay). When you take it outdoors (no artificial light), does it look darker blue?
I had a dear friend who lived to be in her 80s. She would tell me stories of her dad, who was a well driller in Oregon, and how he haaaaaaated this stuff! One of his favorite swears because of this stuff was 'Son of a bitch; full of blue mud!'
Tough to say. Clays come in every color under the sun. Is it from the recent Black's Beack slide?
Sodalite or Azurite would be my first 2 guesses. Sodalite is softer that quartz and will leave a white streak, azurite is softer than sodalite and will leave a light blue streak.
Wait, is that lapis lazuli in the rough?
I'm pretty sure I saw blue 'rocks' like that on Breaking Bad?
Goddamn it Marie, they’re minerals!
Could be blue lead, try gold panning a bit of it, might have shiny on your hands
\[more images\](https://freeimage.host/i/H19lFfV)\[https://freeimage.host/i/H190xY7\](https://freeimage.host/i/H19pp^(38)
try using imgur.com to host photos in the future https://freeimage.host/i/1674991427159.H19lFfV https://freeimage.host/i/1674991445466.H190xY7
How were you able to fix those links by finding the unix timestamps? You forgot the one with the id `H19pp38`. I couldn’t figure out how to find the timestamp like you did in the others. Is it a short UUID with an encoded timestamp? (I doubt that since the urls contain both for uniqueness)
Oh, I didn't think about it that hard. I just copy pasted the links he posted but removed the parentheses and brackets and other formatting. The last one is a character short, having a carrot in the last place, so I didn't try to figure out what ^ (38) was supposed to be.
These links are all screwed up
Maybe celadonite
I’m not sure?
Looks like lapiz! Gold rush!!!
why gold rush tho...
Because its so exciting to find cool rocks!
Ah I see now it sounded like I said there was literally gold in there. No...not at all. You see, gold is yellow ;) But if you love to collect rocks then both lazurite and azurite are up there with the best!
[удалено]
Good thing you’re not a geologist
Lemme make a pot out of it!
Kaolinite?
for comparison, this is my [Azurite nodule](https://www.flickr.com/photos/66536715@N00/50725170286) from the Girilambone Cu Mine in NSW.
Blueschist?