I’m a geologist and a rockhound sharing locations to rock and fossil hunt around New Mexico - where to go and what to look for - along with some occasional geologic nerdery
Haven't gone yet, and will let you know how it goes, but just want to thank you right now for this video. I had no idea that this type of stuff was right there by the Valles Caldera! I know of various hot springs in the area, but this is next level stuff that I can't wait to check out! Thanks!!
@@twobikesandadrone I’ve heard that the mudpots and bubbling springs can dry up later in the season, would be interested to know how you find it when you go! It really is a unique and special place geologically, I hope you enjoy it!
The sutures are so awesome. ❤I think they resemble oak leaves. I would love to see you prep and polish some of your finds. I just found your channel, and I’m looking forward to watching your videos. 🎉
@@GeoRockNerd I wish I could add a photo to this question… I went left in the arroyo instead of right as you did. I found some absolutely fantastic purple, lavender, green, and orange fluorite in that direction. Absolutely stunning specimens were found. I then went higher up on those bentonite ridges where I found a fairly clear, cubit material, with long striations on the surface. Is that gypsum? I also found a seem of copper green mineral. Do you possibly know what I am referring to?
Thank you so much for posting this! I've lived in this area of NM for many years and have wanted to visit Sulphur Springs but thought it was on private land and off-limits. Now I'm definitely going to go as soon I can! Thanks also for the NPS links and location info. Very helpful.
So, to reach the fluorite seams, after going thru the gate, do I go to the left, & walk up the big arroyo to the left? Or, do I follow the path to the right, which goes over the hills? Thanks
Go to the right? I do not remember a large arroyo to the right. After going thru the gate, how far to the right is the large arroyo? Thank you for helping me on this.
@@GeoRockNerd I have since realized it is a chert nodule. It looks like the end of a bone. Waxy. Probly some ooze but I like to imagine a bone from something like the Merman from cabin in the woods.
That's so awesome! My girlfriend and I are in the process of planning a trip in the long term future to go out west and get all kinds of minerals from some of the dig areas in NM, AR, UT, etc. Maybe we will have to swing by and check this out! By the way, since fluorite and calcite are fluorescent, have you guys tried taking a black light out there to look for some? I bet that would be super cool to see!
Checked out Shark Tooth Ridge for the first time yesterday. I don't really know what I am doing so I didn't find any sharks teeth, just some small tube fossils in the rocks, crinoids maybe, and a couple chunks that weathered out. Next time I plan to bring a sieve to sift some of the sand away and see if that helps? I suspected maybe a lot of people have visited and maybe the teeth aren't as easy to find
Clean your Pyrite with toothpaste and a stiff toothbrush to help restore shine. I also noticed a piece of the Hematite from Dona Ana Co., that me and my brother found. Cool.
This was our first time rock hunting and I have to say THANK YOU!!! The directions were so clear and your explanations made it so easy to find them! We found a ton of rocks in only an hour! We found our new hobby as newlyweds :)
I lived/worked in Grants on my first job as a geologist, drilling water monitoring wells in the area. There are some good minerals at some of the mines in the area, but a lot are private property.
I am so glad to find someone else who goes absolutely wingnut over Apache Tears. There are times I'll spend hours every day just obsessing over every shiny black rock that grabs my attention. Great info on this one too. Have you ever looked closely at the red ant hills? They are loaded with larger granular rocks that they mined from their tunnels.
Thank you! If you like to come to our club and give a talk about the agate/geode video you have that will be great. Super great content in your channel. Thanks for the great information and sharing locations
Thank you for your kind words, appreciate that! I would have loved to give a talk to your rock club but I move to the northwest in 2021 for job and don’t make it back home too often, sadly!
My suggestion is next time dig all the detritus around the ammonite first insitue first. It kind of looked like you could have gotten it out in 1 to 3 pieces. Might have saved you time in reconstruction. Really nice find nonetheless. Good information. I have dugout many cretaceous ammos in texas and live in Arizona today today. I want to make a trip to New Mexico to hunt for some of those ammos. Tthanks for th video i sure wish i cold contact you and talk ammonites. I have some really cool specimens id like to show you. I must say from what you salvaged you did a fantastic job of preparing and reconstruction. I know frome experience it is way easier said than done. Lane Reese nine 4 zero 3 six five 99 two 4
Good question, but not that I’m aware of! Calderas in general are often good places to prospect for metals since the hydrothermal systems are usually very dynamic and persistent for many years post-eruption.
The way you just tossed that chunk like it's trash.. Unknowing that that's the equivalent of the best piece I've ever found lol. I must admit, I'm a wee bit jealous. That'd be a crazy haul. I can't believe someone left it. Guessing they must've scored something sweet!
This area in particular was completely unpicked over, so many choice pieces, and I have so much already, I left sooo much, including all those trees too!
Ahh! Im tired of literally having _dreams_ of finding a log only like 1/12th of this size... I'm in CO but I'm super tempted to plan a trip to NM to view some pieces like this. I've seen all the massive pieces you've shared with us. My 10lb find is cool and all but it's far from a log. I need 2 logs. One for me, and one for my mother. That's the dream! Thanks for sharing!
Best advice if you want to find wood in New Mexico, check maps where BLM or Forest Service land intersects with outcrops of the Triassic Chinle Formation, the Cretaceous Ojo Alamo Formation and the Eocene Galisteo Formation. The rockhound guidebooks for NM are good resources too!
@@GeoRockNerd I'm definitely taking note, thank you! I'll get down there one day. Probably later than sooner but who knows.. If I can find someone to drag down there with me I might be down there next month! (yeah right) Happy hunting!
I cant seem to grasp the difference between Agate, Flint, Chert, and Jasper. Im even questioning what I thought quartz is. The cherry on top is petrified wood... I don't understand
I was thinking of doing a video on this topic because it is confusing. The first thing to note is all those things are also varieties of chalcedony - micro or cryptocrystalline quartz. Petrified wood is usually a chalcedony (often jasper) replacement of the wood structure over time, although it can be replaced with things other than chalcedony, like opal, copper minerals, pyrite etc, like other kinds of fossils. Agate = concentrically banded chalcedony nodule, onyx = straight banded chalcedony often found in veins aka “waterline agate”, jasper = opaque chalcedony (often forms from the silicification of mudstone or rhyolite lava), chert = chalcedony that forms as a chemical precipitate in lake beds and ocean floors and often contains microfossils of silicic sea creatures like radiolarians. Flint = a variety of chert found as nodules in the chalk deposits of Dover, UK and is grey/black or brown in color.
@@GeoRockNerd I appreciate you taking the time. :) Although it only raises twice as many questions as it answers.. I need to pick someones brain in real life. I have too many nuances I need clarification on. I should've studied geology....
Thank you so much! we found our way to obsidian hill! It was sooooo beautiful and the obsidian/apache tears are PLENTIFUL! We even ran into a man who had watched this same video, had the coordinates and was collecting too! Thank you so much for your generosity in sharing the locations to your wonderful adventure. Because of your kindness, we were able to have a wonderful, AMAZING adventure too. <3 John, if you see this, it was great meeting you! Good luck hunting for the agate!
That would be cool, but unfortunately I moved out of NM for a job and no longer in an area with great options for hounding, sadly. There’s a couple good rockhound groups in Northern NM though, bet they’d love to have you join them for some field trips! Let me know if you want some info!
That’s an agate, it has concentrically banded chalcedony on the outside and then the rectangular bits are waterline agate/onyx. This represents a loss of pressure within the agate over time while it was developing. Thanks for watching!
There is no meaningful way to know for sure, since these are found out of context (not in-situ) in modern river gravels, but we can make an educated guess that they are likely weathering out of the Cretaceous Paguate Member of the Dakota Formation where similar species are found. The Rio Puerco downcuts and drains through a lot of Cretaceous rocks, so that’s kind of my hypothesis.
Thank you for the great video. My daughter and I are beginners and were so thrilled to find fluorite exactly as you described. Is there a method to clean it up that you prefer? We’d love to display a few pieces. Also, we found some beautiful white crystals on the Western side of the wash. What might that be? Thanks again!
Oh yay so glad you found some stuff! Not sure without seeing the white crystals you found, but there are calcite and barite out there too which are both possibilities! Thanks for watching!
As far as cleaning it, warm water and a soft toothbrush will get most of it pretty clean. If you see an iridescent sheen on it, that’s iron oxides so don’t use iron-out if you want to keep that sheen. Otherwise, there’s a lot of videos on RU-vid with instructions on cleaning rocks with various acids, but I don’t normally find those necessary
I tried entering the coordinates for the agate but it wouldn't work in my maps? I was out in jemez today for a little road trip but couldn't find the spot
You need to go south on 137 from 266, then when 137 splits off to the right you stay left. There is obsidian in the arroyo right after the split. If you keep going towards 492, the intersection where it splits off and the area all around there is great for both the obsidian as well as agate. Up the hills in the area and along the road, all have the potential for good stuff. The seam agate area is on 138, also off of 266, but any area around can have the agate, drusy and obsidian.
@@John_Mcclain007 Yes but that section is very short at the beginning, and there’s not really other spots like that once you get through it! All the many many times we went out there we never met a vehicle going in the opposite direction that we had to back up from!
@@GeoRockNerd You need to be a bit careful as of May 2023. They are doing a lot of logging up 266 Monday to Friday. Also, this is not a road you want to try and use if conditions are dicy, i.e. rain, wet or snow.
@@John_Mcclain007 New Mexico is so great for rockhounding, I realized once I moved away how extremely lucky we are in NM! Where I live now is a mining area so you can find sulfides on old mine dumps, there’s gold in the creeks and garnets in various streams, but back in Santa Fe I lived within minutes of petrified wood beds and ammonite fossils!
