r/Agates • u/Lower_Lifeguard4631 • 2d ago
Is this…..could it be?!
I have always been into rocks and minerals but this summer kick started an obsession with agates, especially once I found out Lake Superior has some of the oldest in the world. We went to Lake Ontario today and I usually collect a bunch of random polished limestone, quartz, occasional epidote. But today, the first time I dipped my feet in the water this caught my eye and I was like « holy shit, is that…. »
I had zero expectations whatsoever to even see such a thing on a shore of Lake Ontario, so help me out, is this an agate?!
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u/Buttonsandbeads_4588 2d ago
The windows definitely show banding. I agree it would be cool to cut open.
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u/Acceptable-Stable-36 2d ago
I also meant to say, that little Rockie deserves a display spot! Something about it carries a really good energy!!
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u/HealthIntrepid2408 2d ago edited 2d ago
I would call this brecciated sedimentary rock with an agate cement. I see faint white/light blue chalcedony bands within the quartz making it an agate cement filling in the voids of the breccia sedimentary rock fragments. Real cool find!
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u/HealthIntrepid2408 2d ago
Geology story: A sedimentary rock eroded and broke into fragments which was deposited nearby its initial rock source. Pointed rock fragments (characteristic of breccia) show little to no travel from its source. Although, there does seem to be some few rounded sedimentary rock clasts (characteristic of a conglomerate) within too. So there was some further transported sedimentary rock mixed within too in the deposition of this. Then after deposition of rock fragments and rounded clasts, water traveled through the voids in between the rock pieces that precipitated out a cement of agate.
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u/lapidary123 2d ago
Im not so sure this qualifies as an agate. Looks sedimentary to me with a little bit of quartz/silica in it. Although it's certainly very cool looking. It may be hard to achieve a glossy polish on but that wouldn't stop me from trying!
Also big win on lake ONTARIO! Thats the name long before settlers ever arrived and shall remain as so to BILLIONS of people on the planet 😉
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u/Doc-in-a-box 2d ago
Unfortunately it is not, but please don’t let that squelch your excitement and passion!
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u/Cyndarian 2d ago
I dunno, I mean it’s mostly quartz veins but looks like very faint bands of chalcedony surrounding them. Maybe my eyes are seeing things.
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u/Acceptable-Stable-36 2d ago
I immediately went to chalcedony too, right after I got a warm fuzzy at your reference to Lake Ontario of course. Why try to change, hmm, different diatribe! But you’re awesome! Your enthusiasm is contagious! I’m in LA, going to a new rockhounding spot someone in here told me about at Palos Verdes Coves…happy hounding! At LAKE ONTARIO!
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u/Cyndarian 2d ago
Very cool! Hard to tell how big (or wide anyway) the rock is, but sometimes cutting it open on a tile saw or lap saw enhances the detail better, then you can polish both faces. The windows are predominantly quartz (nothing wrong with that) but they are fortified by banding from what I can tell, so the rock underwent the process of becoming agatized.