 Hello, welcome to the Rugged Rock Hound. This week is kind of family week with July 4th and Asking the family where they wanted to go decided to come where I went last week Where I found the limonite pseudomorphs after pyrite. So I got some good friends here Thanks for my brother and my dad So we're gonna dig into this and see what we can find today I thought it might be nice to explain what a pseudomorph is and how these crystals form As hot water rich in iron and sulfur moves toward the surface of the earth it encounters areas of lower pressure Such as a space filled with air Due to the decrease in pressure the saturated water will deposit these elements Which will attach to each other in a structured network kind of like bricks building a house as They attach over time they form into crystals The more time that passes with the hot water bringing in a constant supply of new materials The larger the crystal will form Iron and sulfur combine to make pyrite in this scenario Then when a new system introduces oxygen to the crystals The oxygen will begin to replace the sulfur Thus rusting the pyrite into a new mineral known as limonite or girtite Depending on who you ask as the pyrite is replaced by the new mineral The new mineral keeps the shape or structure of the old mineral This is what is known as a pseudomorph. Well, they've been digging a few minutes Digging over there This one Right now They see it working on getting this one out right here. I'm going to crack this so it should come out pretty quick There it comes You see I'm popping out right there There it is It's got a it's got two cubes like this one agree that way Pretty cool. My dad just pulled his first one out There it is right there. Very nice cube And it looks like you've got another one right there. Let's see. Oh, yeah, it's bigger than that one So there's the other one that can have that. Oh, it's rusted Well Some of them are like that Well, there we go now Think I might have something right here. Oh, yeah, that one Right to the bucket got one poking out right there See it the rock right there and flip that out right there. It's actually a very big crystal right here There's these smaller ones on it Rested quite a bit though, so I don't know how it'll come out after I wash it I think I see another one about to come out right there. I once again very rusted I think I got a cluster right here So I was just digging there and I came back this way I think I have a nice cluster Oh, that's nice Look at that one. That's a cluster right there. You want to see that? That's what we're looking for Like he just opened that pocket and you can see there's a cube there cube there cube there three cubes four cubes Might be more in there, too A little one right there All right found a couple of really nice ones Beautiful All right Very cool. It's a twin to crystal Very nice edges and very shiny in them This one my dad found Just perfect just a quick info here I just popped this out right here and as a cube But as you can see so many of the cubes quite often are very rested. It just has this face that has survived pretty much Other times you'll hit pockets like this where the whole thing just crumbles to rest. I Got one of those right here a nice big one that just was rust This might happen when it gets near the surface too much water going through it And it just rusts get oxygen down here and it rusts these plates out so that any cubes Or other crystals have all basically dissolved to rust Yeah So you get that a lot Just have to get used to it Keep looking They go for a bit and there we go nice looking one right there Pull this thing out Cluster Just after pulling that out I realized Just above it That's nice too. All right. I'm in a good spot. It's been a little while I'm a good one over there Just keeps getting bigger So colors are small, but they're nice. Yeah, I get big ones. They're kind of ugly Looks like we got this rock way Going look at that it keeps going and going so that's where I pulled that big cluster out and boom Another nice one and then right underneath it. Look at that. Hey, that's rusted out and just the edge Okay That looks really nice. Oh, yes Busting this rock up. We already pulled out one very nice Good Right here at the back of this one. So I just there was a huge pocket right here about this big and it was all rusted away Here just pieces of rust Look at that. So sad We've been a huge pirate cluster But so we might have something good here. So he just broke open this rock. He was trying to get that one out right there And as he broke it pop that one out and this one is a beauty look at that Beautiful turn of crystal. Perfect colors on it That is that is a nice one. I'm still trying to get to that one But I moved the roof. A nice one popped out and then look at that. Those two right there That's big. Just pulled the rock out of here on the back side There's a crystal still stuck on the back. Looks like I just exposed another cluster, right? Another big cluster Okay, I got this rock off so I think I'm gonna build that one. Buster number one. Buster number two is better. All right, there's finally He's been having a rough time. He didn't find very big stuff, but came over here and now Looks like he's finding some big stuff. Let's see what we've got here Hey, got the edge of one rusted out in the middle, but the edge is nice Let me show you that big one you found. I forgot to show that Pulled this one out of the ground Nice big cluster. Look at that thing Obviously he's in the right spot All right, Kyle, what we got here? So we had a big rock in the way and we got out of the way and look what it was hiding Look at those shiny things. All right, get those things out Might have to bust the rest of that rock out. That's pretty. That's very shiny Look how dark those are. That's beautiful. These ones have an altar very much. They're still mostly high right on the inside Okay, he just pulled this one out Beautiful, really nice. I think I found another cluster right here, but it might be rusted. It's pretty close to the surface Extract it and see what we got That's big Well, that's where I'm gonna leave it for today and back tomorrow day two Well, that is the end of day one Why don't we take a look at what I found? The area is so much that I found today that I Don't really know how to show it off I'm gonna try and go in close and just show you I found so many limonite cubes and clusters Over here's got some of the better clusters and that was These sorry this one and this one were my favorites from the day So let's just take a quick look at some of these but a lot of these really nice dark cubes Beautiful things whole bunch like that just all over occasionally get a little crystal poking out of it And over here we've got some beautiful clusters whole bunch of them Whole bunch of these clusters. So I like I like I did two weeks ago I cleaned these up pretty much just scrub them with a toothbrush and there's all these Deposit still on it. Some of it is clay like in between these cracks is still the kind of the host rock Which is more mostly a clay stone and I think I'm gonna try a sonic bath to see if I can get that get that out and then the White calcite. I think it's calcite is coating some of these crystals If it doesn't come up with come off with the sonic bath. I'll try maybe some hydro dilute hydrochloric acid So let's take a look at my two favorites this one. I like to call the pine cone So it's a huge cluster Beautiful and the way it stands up like that It's so cool. And then of course the monster from the dig This huge cluster with giant crystals on it Beautiful if I can just get all that stuff off So stay tuned for when I try to get all of these cleaned off. So that's day one Let's see what we can find on day two