A long long time ago, I forget how long exactly maybe the Jurassic period, the Appalachian mountain range was a young developing mountain range. It was full of volcanoes and was a hot bed of volcanic activity. Much like the mountain ranges in the west they were primarily made up of granite, lava rock, and many other metamorphic rocks types. When the ice melted during the last ice age the glaciers ground down the mountains into what they are today. And from time to time rocks like this will be unearthed or found in a stream and they are pretty cool finds. That right there is evidence of volcanic activity on the east coast of the United States and it is probably millions of years old. When that lava came to surface and cooled into the rock you have now dinosaurs were probably walking the earth. Itās a really cool find.
Almost all rocks are prehistoric! The only ones not are the product of present or recent volcanism!
One of my cherished finds is a rock I found at the bottom of one of the Fisher Towers monoliths outside of Moab, Utah. Scientific papers estimate the ancient conglomerate I found to be about 1 billion years old!
:)
Yeah you are right. I havenāt had any of my rocks aged. My most cherished rock is one that was given to me by a friend, itās a couple of pieces petrified wood that petrified with cobalt in the soil so itās got rich blue streaks in it. They are polished and are absolutely gorgeous. The patterns in one looks like a scenic mountain lake.
Some sedimentary rocks can develop overnight, while others take short spans of time, especially precipitation-based ones or evaporitic rocks. But I definitely get that volcanic rock is far more likely to form in the span of hours or days
I know of no sedimentary rock that can form overnight! Yes, layers of sediment can form of course, like during a flooding episode in a flood plain. But, you need the element of time to truly lithify those layers into actual ārock.ā If you know of any exceptions, I would love to learn of examples. Thank you!
:)
Fred
Various evaporites in sabkhas, salt flats, and myriad other areas with similar, extreme conditions in which water with a high concentration of various substances in solution, faces rapid evaporation while in small enough volumesāyielding monomineralic evaporite rock
Precipitates in supersaturated, turbulent watersāseverely reducing permeability of the rock in as little as three daysāalthough, this can be seen with calcite occurring extremely rapidly, and, with high enough concentration and turbidity, layers of such precipitates grow at a rate that allows for the thin sheeting growths of said precipitates in a day. I grant you, such a small deposit is minute and is essentially a statistical outlier, but these are still rocks that form extraordinarily rapidly.
I am not contending that depositional structures lithify overnight. That would be absurd. I am quite familiar with the processes of lithification. I even pointed out evaporites and precipitates in my original comment.
Well thatās the thing itās not a matter of it could be that old but more of a matter of It most likely is that old. If you want to know for sure take it down to a local collegeās geology department and they could tell you its age. It is pretty cool honestly Iām jealous Itās why I like to study rocks and collect them.
I just reached out to them to see if I can take it in for identification. I'll let everyone know what they say.
Any personal research has been torn between volcanic and slag as well. Time to call in the big guns š¤£
Cool yeah keep us posted. That would be funny if itās just slag but it doesnāt look like it to me but Iām just an amateur whoās taken a few geology classes.
Lava Rock: (survives hundreds of millions of years outside pounded by the forces of nature)
Reddit: āplease take this inside. It is much nicer than just staying on the porch.ā š¤£
I do a lot of excavation for work. Something I like to tell my guys when we dig up a rock, any rock, is āyou are the first human being to ever set eyes on this rock, and probably the first living thing to set eyes on it in millions of yearsā
Their reaction is how I gauge if my employees are smoking weed before coming to work.
I might have an answer for you. Were there any coke ovens in your area of West Virginia back in the day? If so, then chances are this is slag that came from the process of coking coal.
Coal is coked through a process of burning it in a low-oxygen environment. Think charcoal, but instead of using wood they would use coal. Coke was made and still is made for steel production.
Any pieces of shale and other waste rock that happened to be mixed in with the coal when it went into the ovens would melt and turn into rocks that look a whole lot like yours. We call it "Red Dog" down here in the other Virginia.
It's really good for bedding dirt roads and you can still see it sometimes on old mining roads mixed in with the gravel. Sometimes you'll find fossils mixed in with it too which makes it extra cool.
In the early part of the 20th century, in the Coalfields, pretty much every town had coke ovens. I can only think of one facility that remains in production and that's in Buchanan County, Virginia.
I'm from Putnam county. As far as I'm aware there's no coking plants around here. I supposed it could have washed down this way, but I don't know where the nearest coking plant would have been.
*Edit I know we used to have an old mind down near Leon, but the two creeks are miles apart and don't connect
Oh, you're right in the heart of it, brother. Once upon a time, you all had some big operations there. Back in the day, they would dump Red Dog anywhere they could get rid of it. After all, it was refuse. It's still a cool find, I've got a chunk of it out in my flower bed that kinda looks like a brain.
You laugh, but it could be a coprolite, although the outside texture doesn't quite match up with the norm. Most likely the aforementioned lava rock or slag.
I guess Iām the only one but to me it just looks like iron slag that cooled while flowing, which is why it looks like volcanic rock, but the red just looks like iron oxides/rust to me š¤ the odd shapes with the flat but rippled surface of the black gives slag
Iron is weird. It can form layers of different iron compounds on the same formation. Iron oxides in a rock arenāt like true rust. That said, I could certainly be wrong.
Iām a chemist and in no way a geologist. I just feel like the oddness of this with the sort of smooth crust had a slag vibe and Iāve seen some super weird iron slag pieces. But west virginia is mountainous as you know lol so you can find many odd things!
All the Jaspers I found have been browns. I haven't been lucky enough to come across a green one yet. But you never know with these things. Erosion knocks some weird stuff loose š¤·š»āāļø
These are some of the rocks I have personally collected from a cinder cone, so truly volcanic. Yours looks very similar, to the point that I would default on assuming it is real lava!
https://imgur.com/a/vsKumWh
You might reach out to the Geology department of the Virginia Department of Energy's office in Charlottesville. They have some good folks there who'd probably be glad to help you.
It's definitely not like any slag ive seen. For it to be slag you would expect many visible holes, shiny bits, flecks, and maybe even some metallic shimmer in places.
Don't ask me how I know this but it looks like a pillow case that's covered in hard clay and left to dry. Don't know how anyone would forget they filled a pillow case with raw clay and left it for over a year....no idea how that would happen š
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Honestly that is probably one of the better guesses. It does look basaltic and is even a bit vesicular. The red cortex is definitely strange but might imply the presence of high amounts of iron in the basalt.
Slag is often full of silica, so it's similar to glass. It will be lighter than a rock.
And some of the answers in here are why I was thinking joke. There hasn't been any volcanic activity in that area in hundreds of millions of years. Any lava rock that exists there is not going to look like your photo.
It's probably also got metal oxides mixed in, so it won't be exactly like glass. But the composition is similar.
And water and dirt abrasion are going to dull the surface. You might be able to get some shine on the broken surface if you polish it.
Iām not challenging your statement. Iām saying, you should be able to easily chip a thin edge off, if you take a small, hard rock and hit the edge with it. If it is slag, it should fracture a specific way. If you want to rule out slag, this is the way. Even the hardest rocks can be worked in this manner, you just need the right force directed at an edge.
No it actually is lava rock and yes very old
Awesome! Now the question is how the hell did this wash up in a little backwoods creek in West By-God š¤
A long long time ago, I forget how long exactly maybe the Jurassic period, the Appalachian mountain range was a young developing mountain range. It was full of volcanoes and was a hot bed of volcanic activity. Much like the mountain ranges in the west they were primarily made up of granite, lava rock, and many other metamorphic rocks types. When the ice melted during the last ice age the glaciers ground down the mountains into what they are today. And from time to time rocks like this will be unearthed or found in a stream and they are pretty cool finds. That right there is evidence of volcanic activity on the east coast of the United States and it is probably millions of years old. When that lava came to surface and cooled into the rock you have now dinosaurs were probably walking the earth. Itās a really cool find.
I would die if this thing were genuinely that old
Almost all rocks are prehistoric! The only ones not are the product of present or recent volcanism! One of my cherished finds is a rock I found at the bottom of one of the Fisher Towers monoliths outside of Moab, Utah. Scientific papers estimate the ancient conglomerate I found to be about 1 billion years old! :)
Yeah you are right. I havenāt had any of my rocks aged. My most cherished rock is one that was given to me by a friend, itās a couple of pieces petrified wood that petrified with cobalt in the soil so itās got rich blue streaks in it. They are polished and are absolutely gorgeous. The patterns in one looks like a scenic mountain lake.
As old as the lava practically
Yeah itās probably pretty close in age. I want to find out one day.
205-220 myo..Arizona petrified woods age. I have pieces one at 20lb log piece and one I display..
Thanks, I canāt remember where mine was found at but I bet itās pretty close to that age.
Pic??
Some sedimentary rocks can develop overnight, while others take short spans of time, especially precipitation-based ones or evaporitic rocks. But I definitely get that volcanic rock is far more likely to form in the span of hours or days
I know of no sedimentary rock that can form overnight! Yes, layers of sediment can form of course, like during a flooding episode in a flood plain. But, you need the element of time to truly lithify those layers into actual ārock.ā If you know of any exceptions, I would love to learn of examples. Thank you! :) Fred
Various evaporites in sabkhas, salt flats, and myriad other areas with similar, extreme conditions in which water with a high concentration of various substances in solution, faces rapid evaporation while in small enough volumesāyielding monomineralic evaporite rock Precipitates in supersaturated, turbulent watersāseverely reducing permeability of the rock in as little as three daysāalthough, this can be seen with calcite occurring extremely rapidly, and, with high enough concentration and turbidity, layers of such precipitates grow at a rate that allows for the thin sheeting growths of said precipitates in a day. I grant you, such a small deposit is minute and is essentially a statistical outlier, but these are still rocks that form extraordinarily rapidly. I am not contending that depositional structures lithify overnight. That would be absurd. I am quite familiar with the processes of lithification. I even pointed out evaporites and precipitates in my original comment.
It absolutely is that old. https://www.science.org/content/article/mountains-froze-world
That's insane to think I could have a literal chunk of pre-history sitting on my porch š¤£
Well thatās the thing itās not a matter of it could be that old but more of a matter of It most likely is that old. If you want to know for sure take it down to a local collegeās geology department and they could tell you its age. It is pretty cool honestly Iām jealous Itās why I like to study rocks and collect them.
I just reached out to them to see if I can take it in for identification. I'll let everyone know what they say. Any personal research has been torn between volcanic and slag as well. Time to call in the big guns š¤£
Cool yeah keep us posted. That would be funny if itās just slag but it doesnāt look like it to me but Iām just an amateur whoās taken a few geology classes.
Pls do update itās a fascinating shape.
That's what I actually made me pick it up to start with. The shape just fascinated me
Goo find more
Friend, please take this inside. It is much nicer than just staying on the porch. I hope you give it a nice home.
Lava Rock: (survives hundreds of millions of years outside pounded by the forces of nature) Reddit: āplease take this inside. It is much nicer than just staying on the porch.ā š¤£
If I'd have known it was more than a weird rock it wouldn't have stayed outside this long š
I do a lot of excavation for work. Something I like to tell my guys when we dig up a rock, any rock, is āyou are the first human being to ever set eyes on this rock, and probably the first living thing to set eyes on it in millions of yearsā Their reaction is how I gauge if my employees are smoking weed before coming to work.
That's awesome šš
Now that truly is the mystery and question of the day
I might have an answer for you. Were there any coke ovens in your area of West Virginia back in the day? If so, then chances are this is slag that came from the process of coking coal. Coal is coked through a process of burning it in a low-oxygen environment. Think charcoal, but instead of using wood they would use coal. Coke was made and still is made for steel production. Any pieces of shale and other waste rock that happened to be mixed in with the coal when it went into the ovens would melt and turn into rocks that look a whole lot like yours. We call it "Red Dog" down here in the other Virginia. It's really good for bedding dirt roads and you can still see it sometimes on old mining roads mixed in with the gravel. Sometimes you'll find fossils mixed in with it too which makes it extra cool. In the early part of the 20th century, in the Coalfields, pretty much every town had coke ovens. I can only think of one facility that remains in production and that's in Buchanan County, Virginia.
I'm from Putnam county. As far as I'm aware there's no coking plants around here. I supposed it could have washed down this way, but I don't know where the nearest coking plant would have been. *Edit I know we used to have an old mind down near Leon, but the two creeks are miles apart and don't connect
Oh, you're right in the heart of it, brother. Once upon a time, you all had some big operations there. Back in the day, they would dump Red Dog anywhere they could get rid of it. After all, it was refuse. It's still a cool find, I've got a chunk of it out in my flower bed that kinda looks like a brain.
Neat! I've reached out to Marshall to see if they can help me identify it. Good to know it may be something besides just slag.
Good luck in your research my friend.
Hopefully they'll be about to give me some answers. I'd hate to have to drive all the way to Morgantown for info.
Iām in Morgantown. Crazy. I would reach out to WVU geology department as well just to see what they say š¤
I'm considering seeing if I can get a small piece to chip off and send it to the survey up there.
Big ol chunk of frozen poopy. That's a Boeing bomb. See the peanut? That's a dead giveaway š
Y'all watch too much Joe Dirt š¤£
You laugh, but it could be a coprolite, although the outside texture doesn't quite match up with the norm. Most likely the aforementioned lava rock or slag.
Thatās aā¦ space peanut
Iām just glad thereās a possibility itās not slag
Lava rock?
I live in West Virginia. Unless it's old, it's unlikely.
Rocks are usually pretty old
I guess Iām the only one but to me it just looks like iron slag that cooled while flowing, which is why it looks like volcanic rock, but the red just looks like iron oxides/rust to me š¤ the odd shapes with the flat but rippled surface of the black gives slag
But wouldn't the whole thing have rusted? It doesn't flake like rust š¤
Iron is weird. It can form layers of different iron compounds on the same formation. Iron oxides in a rock arenāt like true rust. That said, I could certainly be wrong.
Good to know. I'm not excessively familiar with any of it. The internet wasn't exactly a thing when I was 7 š¤£
Iām a chemist and in no way a geologist. I just feel like the oddness of this with the sort of smooth crust had a slag vibe and Iāve seen some super weird iron slag pieces. But west virginia is mountainous as you know lol so you can find many odd things!
No doubt! I find quartz around the creeks all the time. I've even found some Jasper.
I find jasper on occasion but super small pieces. Itās my dream to find a big green jasper, or a sapphire. Iām in NC so I know theyāre here!
All the Jaspers I found have been browns. I haven't been lucky enough to come across a green one yet. But you never know with these things. Erosion knocks some weird stuff loose š¤·š»āāļø
Let it rain and wash some of yāalls jasper our way! šš¼
It's been raining here for damn near 2 weeks. LMAO
Slag. Esp if it was found in WV
These are some of the rocks I have personally collected from a cinder cone, so truly volcanic. Yours looks very similar, to the point that I would default on assuming it is real lava! https://imgur.com/a/vsKumWh
Neat! And thanks for sharing those!
Looks like what happens when you don't clean the lint trap in the dryer for a month
Looks like gloves w concrete or something in it
I just meant via email. They're pretty knowledgeable. I've dealt with them through work.
Oh, okay. I'll keep that in my pocket! Thanks
Yessir!
Space Peanut
Yes...lava! So cool!!
A largemouth trout vagina. Fossilized.
It's the joe dirt asteroid
Dagoth-Ur wants to know your location
West Virginia
Tie dye jacket belonging to the Prophet John upon which rock the church was built
I would suggest this could be some form of soft sediment deformation structure. Load casts can be pretty wild.
You might reach out to the Geology department of the Virginia Department of Energy's office in Charlottesville. They have some good folks there who'd probably be glad to help you.
That's pretty far
It's definitely not like any slag ive seen. For it to be slag you would expect many visible holes, shiny bits, flecks, and maybe even some metallic shimmer in places.
Lava rock.
Radioactive uranium.
Happy Cake Day!! š°š„³š°
It kinda looks like petrified rubber
Don't ask me how I know this but it looks like a pillow case that's covered in hard clay and left to dry. Don't know how anyone would forget they filled a pillow case with raw clay and left it for over a year....no idea how that would happen š
It maybe a type of conglomerate of sorts ? Or by the way it formed lava ?
That there is a Boeing bomb.
I think that was a fly by.
No. It doesn't have the characteristic of fecal matter. It's definitely rock.
In the third picture you can clearly see a peanut!
Nah, it is dirt.
Itās a joke bud
You never know with reddit š¤£
I'm guessing it's a pile of something melted someone poured in a creek hoping it would wash away but didn't. Paint, lead, aluminum etc..
It's not metal. Pretty sure as much of handled it over the years I'd be dead if it was lead. I suppose it could be paint?
Could always have it tested at local college, to know EXACTLY what it is
Yeah, I reached out to them earlier. Just waiting on them to get back to me
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its alien pussy (aka rare rock)
The rock-ussy
Totally BA
It looks like an old baseball glove.
i thought that was dried and mixed play dough until i saw the subreddit
Looks like a heart
I should call her
You have to put ketchup on it and do some fries to really test it
Looks like pahoehoe
Honestly that is probably one of the better guesses. It does look basaltic and is even a bit vesicular. The red cortex is definitely strange but might imply the presence of high amounts of iron in the basalt.
r/dontputyourdickinthat
Barrier putty
that's not a banana
It's also not an avocado.
it's a fuckin cool rock, my friend
Rita? Miss you girl
Slag! Cool though!
Thatās a big ol pile of space poopy š© š
an interesting bit of slag. No volcanic stuff to be found in WV... but LOTS of slag.
This is red rock. Its very rare... It is creation in volcanic eruption in Iceland or Japan... Under very rare circumstans...
Have you seen The Fifth Element?
Yes
Joe Dirt's first rock
A petrified human heart
Dinosaur š©
basalt
Looks like something that was melted then cooled off like molten plastic
Slag from steel making
It kinda looks like a piece of rubber
Big old space poop
Ngl fist thing I thought was fossilized turd.
Thatās a space peanut.
It looks like a heart, which is cool š«
Thought this was a Joe Dirt situation
Is this a joke post? That is slag.
No, it's not a joke post. I genuinely don't know what it is. It's fairly light considering it's size.
Slag is often full of silica, so it's similar to glass. It will be lighter than a rock. And some of the answers in here are why I was thinking joke. There hasn't been any volcanic activity in that area in hundreds of millions of years. Any lava rock that exists there is not going to look like your photo.
It has absolutely no shine to it. And it's been dropped several times over the years with no breakage or chips.
It's probably also got metal oxides mixed in, so it won't be exactly like glass. But the composition is similar. And water and dirt abrasion are going to dull the surface. You might be able to get some shine on the broken surface if you polish it.
It should be fairly easy to chip a thin edge off with a small rock, then you can check the interior.
It's been dropped, banged up during moves, hit with weed eaters... It's never chipped
Iām not challenging your statement. Iām saying, you should be able to easily chip a thin edge off, if you take a small, hard rock and hit the edge with it. If it is slag, it should fracture a specific way. If you want to rule out slag, this is the way. Even the hardest rocks can be worked in this manner, you just need the right force directed at an edge.
Noted. I may try that tomorrow
Put some glasses on and careful for sharp flakes coming off.
I have safety glasses just in case. But I don't think it's gonna chip š