Deformed Rock

Deformed Rock

I found this rock while looking through the bucket of rocks.  I was immediately drawn to it.  The curved lines are mesmerizing.  I started wondering how it was made.  I would have expected to see the lines straight like a tootsie roll first and then be bent or folded by some strong force.  I looked in my field guides for an ID.  It appears to be Chalcedony, a derivative of quartz.  Heat made it pliable like the tootsie roll and then the force bent it.  If the tootsie roll were in the freezer before the force was applied, it might break instead of bend. The freezer would be like the rock being on the surface of the earth.  The heat, of course, came from down inside the earth.  The force, no doubt, came from there also.

While looking into this, I found a marvelous resource on the web.  It is at kids.gov.  It is called The Dynamic Earth.  It is published by The Smithsonian Institute and it relates to this and other issues.  

Deformed Rock

These rocks would be beautiful as they come out of the tumbler!  The thing that I am noticing for photography is that I would almost rather they retain the sharp corners and edges.  They are more interesting.  They don't have the shiny surface which is an added difficulty when photographing them.

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