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- May 21, 2011
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Girls, guys,...
The last three weeks I had two occasions on which I was able to visit one of the quarries I frequently hunt for fossils. Each locality I visit has its own characteristics and fond memories, but this is a rather special one for several reasons. First of all, the method of collecting differs quite a bit from the other localities. This doesn't really require shovelling or sifting sand, or like the classic view, picking rocks with a special hammer and chisels. The deposit we're interested in is a clay deposit. It was deposited at the end of the Cenomanian/early Turonian (Upper Cretaceous) in a marine environment. Hence: there's shark teeth in it and that's what we're after. This layer is located about 2 metres below the surface. Diggin through two metres of clay and silt is quite hard, actually. It sticks to your material like crazy. Anyway, we need to gather large chunks of fossiliferous clay, put them in bags, leave them in a storage room for about a year until the clay has dried out. Then we make it wet again (yup
) so it can dissolve, then we can sieve it and see what's inside.
So whenever I come home from here, my girlfriend asks me: have you found anything? And every single time I have to explain that I don't know yet and I'll tell her in a year or two when it's sieved, dried, and searched.
Beneath the marine deposit, there are alternating sandy, silty and clayey deposits, of which most are continental deposits which can be situated in some sort of flood plain. Swampy area, wildifres, floods... Pretty much exactly where Beckerheads like to build shelters and the like. Except, it dates back to a tad more than 100 million years ago. And there were dinosaurs. Most famously: Iguanodon (which was discovered pretty nearby in the same deposits).
I'm usually pretty busy already with digging down to the marine deposit and gathering that, but from time to time I take a stroll through the quarry, looking for other stuff. The bottom part is filled with fossilized wood (mostly charcoal) that is very brittle. Some scientific articles have mentioned seeds and cones could be found, but I hadn't yet...
But, you're here for pics, not for this chat that has gone out of control.:thumbup:
Upon arriving, three weeks ago:
We have to dig down...
Until we reach the green and yellow deposit above the black marsh deposit.
This is about the dept until we reach the good layer (which is yet to be excavated in this pic).
Then we can start gathering... To give you an idea, we usually bring home between 20 and 30 bags worth of 25-30 kilos of clay each.
Also, notice the strange fellow with beckerhead patches on his hat:thumbup:
From time to time, you'll see a broken tooth embedded in the clay, but the real bounty we only know after a while (as I've explained above).
Some quarry pics...
Water will find its way...
That was last week. We headed back there yesterday, because I had some leave at the office and wanted to get out, and the weather was still good.
Morning glory:
We'll need coffee...
And start digging down... That's my buddy, not me.
The other fellas who were there continued at the spot we started three weeks ago (we didn't 'cause we wanted to try out a different part of the quarry).
Some more quarry pics:
Some fossil wood debris, covered in Pyrite nodules...
Close-up which failed because of the glare.
Quarry pics and some more fossil wood debris, covered in pyrite in some photos...
Aaaand, aw yisss!! My first pine cone from this locality! Used the 11 to help it regain freedom from the clay.
The hole we dug, crossection
If you've paid attention in the pic above, you could have noticed a grayish "gully" at the top of the deposit, just below the surface.
It's probably a Pleistocene deposit (read: much younger) that forced the underlying layer in a strange fold. During the Pleistocene, the area was covered in ice and glaciers, and they have a geological effect on the underlying material known as "cryoturbation". The force of the ice pushed the underlying orang/yellowish sandy layer in a thin strip of sand, going vertical between the top layer of gray clay. It's a pretty spectacular and extremely local phenomenon.
Well, that's about it. I thought I'd take you along on one (or two) of my trips. I hope you've enjoyed it.
I've cleaned the cone and hardened it with a wood glue solution. I'll take some pics today, as well as a few pics of other finds that came from the quarry. To be continued...
The last three weeks I had two occasions on which I was able to visit one of the quarries I frequently hunt for fossils. Each locality I visit has its own characteristics and fond memories, but this is a rather special one for several reasons. First of all, the method of collecting differs quite a bit from the other localities. This doesn't really require shovelling or sifting sand, or like the classic view, picking rocks with a special hammer and chisels. The deposit we're interested in is a clay deposit. It was deposited at the end of the Cenomanian/early Turonian (Upper Cretaceous) in a marine environment. Hence: there's shark teeth in it and that's what we're after. This layer is located about 2 metres below the surface. Diggin through two metres of clay and silt is quite hard, actually. It sticks to your material like crazy. Anyway, we need to gather large chunks of fossiliferous clay, put them in bags, leave them in a storage room for about a year until the clay has dried out. Then we make it wet again (yup
) so it can dissolve, then we can sieve it and see what's inside. So whenever I come home from here, my girlfriend asks me: have you found anything? And every single time I have to explain that I don't know yet and I'll tell her in a year or two when it's sieved, dried, and searched.
Beneath the marine deposit, there are alternating sandy, silty and clayey deposits, of which most are continental deposits which can be situated in some sort of flood plain. Swampy area, wildifres, floods... Pretty much exactly where Beckerheads like to build shelters and the like. Except, it dates back to a tad more than 100 million years ago. And there were dinosaurs. Most famously: Iguanodon (which was discovered pretty nearby in the same deposits).
I'm usually pretty busy already with digging down to the marine deposit and gathering that, but from time to time I take a stroll through the quarry, looking for other stuff. The bottom part is filled with fossilized wood (mostly charcoal) that is very brittle. Some scientific articles have mentioned seeds and cones could be found, but I hadn't yet...
But, you're here for pics, not for this chat that has gone out of control.:thumbup:
Upon arriving, three weeks ago:
We have to dig down...
Until we reach the green and yellow deposit above the black marsh deposit.
This is about the dept until we reach the good layer (which is yet to be excavated in this pic).
Then we can start gathering... To give you an idea, we usually bring home between 20 and 30 bags worth of 25-30 kilos of clay each.
Also, notice the strange fellow with beckerhead patches on his hat:thumbup:
From time to time, you'll see a broken tooth embedded in the clay, but the real bounty we only know after a while (as I've explained above).
Some quarry pics...
Water will find its way...
That was last week. We headed back there yesterday, because I had some leave at the office and wanted to get out, and the weather was still good.
Morning glory:
We'll need coffee...
And start digging down... That's my buddy, not me.
The other fellas who were there continued at the spot we started three weeks ago (we didn't 'cause we wanted to try out a different part of the quarry).
Some more quarry pics:
Some fossil wood debris, covered in Pyrite nodules...
Close-up which failed because of the glare.
Quarry pics and some more fossil wood debris, covered in pyrite in some photos...
Aaaand, aw yisss!! My first pine cone from this locality! Used the 11 to help it regain freedom from the clay.
The hole we dug, crossection
If you've paid attention in the pic above, you could have noticed a grayish "gully" at the top of the deposit, just below the surface.
It's probably a Pleistocene deposit (read: much younger) that forced the underlying layer in a strange fold. During the Pleistocene, the area was covered in ice and glaciers, and they have a geological effect on the underlying material known as "cryoturbation". The force of the ice pushed the underlying orang/yellowish sandy layer in a thin strip of sand, going vertical between the top layer of gray clay. It's a pretty spectacular and extremely local phenomenon.
Well, that's about it. I thought I'd take you along on one (or two) of my trips. I hope you've enjoyed it.
I've cleaned the cone and hardened it with a wood glue solution. I'll take some pics today, as well as a few pics of other finds that came from the quarry. To be continued...
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Those shark teeth are awesome! Do you sell them at all?