as a vey new rockhound, this explaination was very clarifying to this specific chert/flint confusion i was having, as well as illuminating how different feilds catergorize the same thing in different terminology. Great vid!
Great information and it explains to me why I find Chert with fossils in it. Now that I understand that the Chert is built with the sediment from those ancient seabed’s. Thanks so much!
As one who finds “Jasper” on the American volcanic west coast, I appreciate your simple clarification on chert, flint, and jasper being geologically the same. Much of the jasper we find here, like the picture jaspers, formed in mud flows.
Glad you liked the video, I think some of the confusion comes from the fact that rocks/minerals can often form under varying conditions and so there is an immediate thought they have to be different, but then in the most basic geological terms they aren't consider different due to their chemical makeup basically being the same and that is where i think ppl often get confused.
Awesome information! If I could ask, where do agates and chalcedony fall geologically? They seem to be quite closely related in appearance somewhat, especially with the more opaque varieties.
Chert, jasper, and agate are a chalcedony, when compared to a chert or a japer agate is generally transparent to semi transparent, though that is not always the case for which makes it more confusing. Sometimes, you will find them mixed together, like a jasp agate, or a chert with agate pockets. In general the different varieties of chalcedony are confusing bc some material that is called a chert or flint might be called an agate or a jasper elsewhere. Also, agate can form in volcanic and sedimentary formations.
Nice informative video. Quite a bit of the chert I find here in Wisconsin and in Illinois along Lake Michigan is found with some fossilized remains and appears to be a mixture of chert and chalcedony which are both microcrystalline. I also find lots of beautiful white and yellowish colored chert and banded chert. I've even heard people say flint is black chert, lol. But, I just say chert. I'm a huge fan of chert as it tumbles so well and is a beautiful rock. Found your channel on the rockhound group. Subbing to your channel, bud. Nice to meet ya. 😁👍
Yes I have noticed that people have mentioned that black chert is flint, my theory is that for the chert that forms in chalk the environment might be conducive to causing those cherts to usually be black or darker in coloration. Therefore black chert is tied to idea of flint.
Glad you liked it! So agate is that same as chert, in make up, but it's used to refer to the clearer stuff, basically jasper, agate, and chert are all variations of chalcedony which is micro/cryptocrystaline quartz. Obsidian is different as it has very little crystal structure when compared to chalcedony and also its only compromised of 70% quartz along with other things while chalcedony is depending on the variation 80-100% quartz.
@@Ontario_Rockhound Another thing is to remember is that the micro/cryptocrystaline chalcedony/chert family are sedimentary "rocks". Obsidian is an igneous rock, ie volcanic .
It's not a one day thing, it's a slower process where the dead diatomes are dissolved during something called diagenesis, and then the silica which is now in solution precipitates out and form the chert/flint.
Technically all same in terms of the makeup, all are micro and crypto crystalline quartz. Just usually the stuff that is called jasper is opaque. The the clear colorless stuff is chalcedony. And agate is transparent to translucent chalcedony that has features in it like banding, plumes, etc.
From a lapidary sense or North American archeological sense that is usually the case that they go by colour but geologically speaking it's about the limestone vs chalk distinction. Which is what makes this topic messy and confusing in the first place.
@@Ontario_Rockhound have a buddy that whipped out paperwork and gave me in Illinois once. Cause I called stuff flint that was not 🤣. Gave me a folder of it he did,lol. Great guy , knows his rocks Alot better than me. Im wanting to find some more Kaolin chert nodules. River goes down, I'll be out there. Bol bud✌️
There are so many variations of feldspar so ppl often confuse one type for another, like using when I show peristerite to somebody who's outside of Ontario or not in the know they automatically mistake it for moonstone or labradorite.
😊I KNEW you're going to pull this friend! ... Now that's a healthy debate. We could go on & on, who's flint & whos chert or jasper ALL DAY LONG!😂 ..im on the Cincinnati Arch myself. ❤ Will be structurally speaking I'd be a little careful😅. I like it!
Here in Saint John NB we have lots of limestone. No chalk that I'm aware of. On the west side of the city on the beach there are flint nodules. They are toffee coloured with orange peel skin and dark flint on the inside sometimes or toffee . We also have flints with chert coating . ( I think) A soft white outer layer.
@@Ontario_Rockhound Any eastern Canada locations near a beach/port have a good likelihood of having a bit of flint because it came over from England as ballast in sailing ships. The Superstore in the South end of Halifax was built on a big flint dump. During construction knowledgable rockhounds would go to gather British flint. It is possible that this was the source of the flint in NB.
nice video, out here they use Chert, Agate, Jasper, Opalized wood, Obsidian, argillite, rhyolite, and Dacite i am still looking for the sources of each stone
Sound like some local material, probably and chert that is a bit more granular with large micro quartz crystals which I would guess makes it look a bit sparkly.
Are you talking about the triangle point. It is actually a levanna style point, it's a local style found in the North East of the USA and in Canada in Southern Ontario.
Unfortunately I don't have any examples of flint nodules in my mineral collection though could have shown some pictures. As for obsidian I left it out of this discussion due to the fact that yes it is silicone dioxide but it crystal structure is not the same as chert, flint, and jasper. Obsidian is more like glass structurally hence why it's called volcanic glass.
Come to SW CO. I’ve found around 11-12 points and two were jasper. One was a tiny, red, and snapped bird point. And the other was a breathtaking whole yellow jasper point. It has serrations on one side and a red streak running through it. I’ve even found raw unknapped jasper cobbles near Buena Vista.
Very cool, some places will definitely have a higher concentration of jasper points, all depends on what type of knappable material can be found locally
In my area, thick layers of braciopods can be found at certain levels. There is no chert. It is very yellow clay/sandstone predominant. These brachiopods are undoubtedly from the Ordovician period. There is over 400 feet of lifeless material above the brachiopods. Atop that was a 20 to 40 foot capstone layer of very hard conglomerate comprised of quartz gravel and sand. I'd like to know more about the source of these different materials.