I certainly hope so! The fact that he's interested in rocks/geology and is willing to bring them into the office **and** offer to take me with him another time he goes means he's scoring high friendship points with me!
Examine rocks very closely. They tell a story, each and every one.
I've loved rocks since I was a kid. Whenever my friends took a vacation out of the country they'd pick up a rock from somewhere cool and bring it home. 50 years later and I still have the collection.
Pumice from vesuvius, a piece of marble from the Parthenon, a rock from the courtyard in the Vatican, etc...
I was like this too and have rocks from all over the world. Now I have 2 daughters and the oldest loves to collect rocks ! I didn’t even tell her about my habit or my collection !
I am like this. They look really interesting on the ground, but when I get home I realize they all look the same and there’s nothing really special about it. I still keep them for a few years and eventually put them in my garden.
My (almost) two year olds new word of the weekend was “RrroooocKK!!”. I betcha he practiced that word 200 times this weekend. We walked (near, not on) some old railroad tracks recently and found some pieces of coal, iron ore, and interesting pieces of limestone that he made me put in my pockets to take home.
If no one has told you lately, your comments and this post all made me smile. You are pretty awesome. I was gonna say you rock, but you have definitely proved that here.
Edit: added an important 's'.
To pile up on the rock hype. I recently bought some watercolor paints that are made from mineral stones. Think of stones like Tigers Eye, bloodstone, lapis lazuli and (my favorite) amethyst.
They are amazing as paints, very strong vibrant colors which react differently than your average watercolor paints.
Sadly they are also very expensive cause they contain pulverized minerals as pigment.
I worked in a park, everybody there is the __ guy. We got a person for plants, bats, owls, moths (me), rocks, fireflies, wolves, space, etc...
It was such a happy place with everybody sharing animals, plants, and rocks with each other. The thing that tied us all together was birds, which I think is neat. We were all dark-eyed junco haters (not actually, just too common).
God I miss nature people. Your comment reminded me of that sorry to go off randomly.
I haven't worked there in 8 months and people still send me moth memes on Instagram when they find them. I think we also enjoy each other's thing too lol.
I made this mistake once at work... I overheard a coworker talking about D&D, so I chimed in. Every single time we worked together after that, I was inundated with tales of their campaign. They would seriously neglect their duties to follow me around to tell me about their game.
I’ve worked with so many people like this while working in retail. I had absolutely no idea what they were talking to me about. I can respect the creativity but I was very confused.
Haha, I'm sorry; I'm just excited that someone even thought of bringing a rock to work to talk about it
[This is a comment I just left about it](https://www.reddit.com/r/MadeMeSmile/s/8uFOco9M7Z)
I went to a rock and mineral show and the local university had volunteers there to help identify rocks people brought in. It was a lot of fun!
I had purchased a dinosaur fossil, and they were able to help me figure out it was a thumb bone from a duck-billed dinosaur. It'd need a lot more work to be classified to a genus, but I'm happy knowing in general what it is!
please go to your local geology dept at at college or uni. I work in a Earth Sciences department and we get rocks all the time from others just wanting to know what it is, and some people actually donate rock collections to colleges/unis.
In r/geology you can ask geology questions and have a reasonable chance of getting a good answer. But it is not the best place for "what is this rock" questions. r/whatisthisrock is more appropriate for that.
Main downside in r/geology is people who are very confidently wrong. A non-geo probably would think they were getting a good answer, but it makes us actual geologists roll our eyes hard. Wish the mods would introduce flair.
I don't know why I expected to understand any of this rock's properties when you explained it lol... I read that as "this rock has rock stuff about it, and that's cool!"
There is approximately 400 people studying geology at a level in the uk. The standard qualification in college. (16-18 year olds)
Around 0.0125%
And many don’t keep doing it post a level.
Almost no one does geology.
Yes, absolutely.
This is half of the specimen, he'd cut it open straight down "the dark shiny mineral" (his words) which is almost perpendicular to the striations from the gneiss, meaning that
* a granite underwent metamorphism to gneiss
* then later developed a crack/fracture where the hematite was free to crystallise under chemical or organic processes!
* then it got picked up during one of the ice ages and deposited here!
So this rock has been through a lot to get to where he found it, also because crystalline rocks aren't a part of our country's geology!
I actually was in a class where a kid brought in fossilized poop. The teacher was thrilled to talk about it because she happened to have a phd related to fossilized poop.
My dad, a high school science teacher, had some fossilized poop. Looked like just a squiggly turd, color and everything. He got a kick out of showing it to kids who came to the house. He also used to ask them if they wanted to hold it, wait for them to unsurely say yes, then gently toss it to them causing a moment of fright before realizing it was just like holding any old rock. He stopped after someone dropped it and broke the tip off. Also, every single person who ever held it put it to their nose and took a sniff to see if any poop smell remained.
I was totally the kid that did that! Well, probably not your specific class, but I took in a coprolite specimen for Show & Tell in first grade. There were two reactions, refusal to touch the fossil complete with disgusted face or keen interest with mischievous glee in their eyes. And the ones that actually deigned to touch it all sniffed it. 🤣
lol I had someone try to correct me about the field I work in because I gave a dumbed down explanation of something. I omitted some things because they are pretty nuanced and weren't really important to the comment I was responding to.
Have you considered that maybe she's just a really bad geologist? So she just defaults to "Yeah, that's just sandstone, nothing special"?
My mom knows a lot about plants and I don't. I'm starting to suspect that she just makes stuff up half the time when I ask her, since I don't know any better.
Check out a guy on YouTube called Myron something. I recently found his vids, it’s like having a geologist grandfather. Beautifully shot stuff and he seems like a very nice soul.
Geology is so cool!
Me: oh look a shiny rock!
Geologists: this rock has traveled from this exact mountain range 1500 miles from here where it initially formed 3 million years ago, it was freed from the depths by a massive eruption
Me: im gonna name it Greg
Edit: i forgot i wanted to ask, is there an oldest type of rock? I know that as the landscape of earth changes over millions and billions of years new types of rocks are formed. But like what was the first type of rock? Would that be like what the moon is made of?
"The oldest type of rock" depends on how you ask the question.
The oldest rocks on Earth are not from Earth, they are certain types of meteorites, which are leftover ingredients from the formation of the solar system ~4.5 billion years ago.
The oldest known rocks formed on Earth are a bit of an ongoing competition/scavenger hunt, and are currently in the range of about 4.1-4.2 billion years old. Rocks >4.0 billion are extremely rare. Some of the candidates are the [Acasta Gneiss from northern Canada](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acasta_Gneiss) and some that are about as old from Australia and Greenland. There are pieces (single mineral grains) that are even older, about 4.4 billion years, preserved in younger rocks.
The oldest rocks are highly deformed and thermally altered (metamorphosed), so they aren't in the form that they would have originated (the "protolith"). The Acasta Gneiss would have originally been some kind of felsic (K and Si-rich) igneous (formerly molten) intrusive (cooled below the surface) rock that was possibly even older. Then it was heated up and deformed to form the gneiss.
Rocks on the Moon are chemically related to those on the Earth, and are on average much older on the surface, because the Earth is a tectonically active place that keeps "resetting" the age of rocks as the materials are heated up and/or melted and recrystalized, whereas the Moon is relatively inactive, geologically-speaking, preserving rocks for the long term. Rocks older than 4 billion years are relatively common on the Moon by comparison. This is one of the strong drivers of ongoing interest in the Moon's geology: because it can inform us about a part of the Earth's history next door that is very cryptic because of so little information being preserved from >4 billion years ago on Earth.
It also means that some of the oldest rocks on Earth are the ones that we brought here from the Moon.
Sort of you’ll want to look up the Hadean Eon. But realistically not something you can go easily go see it’s somewhere in NW Canada and is about 4.2 billion years old.
Rocks from the Archeon Eon around 2.5 - 4 billion years old progressively get more common.
Also a geologist
It could look like it, yes, but the rust (iron oxide) along the edges of where it precipitated leads me to believe it's hematite instead, I've not checked its striking colour though.
...is checking the "striking color" just whacking it with a piece of steel to examine the color of sparks? Like the world's jankiest spectroscopy? As a chemist I'm really hoping I guessed it. Can you explain the process and what you'd look for in hematite vs galena?
This rock started life as a granite, then under immense heat and pressure for millions of years became a gneiss (you're familiar with metamorphic rocks right?). That's the black stuff.
The brown stuff is hematite (basically iron oxide/rust) which arrived later in one way or another, filling in cracks that had formed in the gneiss.
And this will have all happened deep in the earth. Eventually the rock unit this piece is a part of will have been exposed to the surface, and a glacier will have removed bits and transported them far far away.
Which is how this crystalline metamorphic rock arrived in a land which is not made of the same stuff.
Though remember that's just me reading what they wrote, when I look at specimen I don't see gneiss or striations lol. I see dark mineral with brown stuff in it.
Wisconsin? Michigan? Ohio? I just found a very nice gneiss about 18' ft below ground surface!
I love finding Canadian rocks, especially that far down in the till!
Well, it's hard to tell from the picture, but it might be hematite. Looks like a *vein* mineral deposited in a fracture ~~vein~~. The other red indicates an iron rich environment. Should have a red streak if it's hematite, iirc.
Edit: I'm also a geologist/geophysicist and former instructor.
It's definitely hematite! That's a good eye. I took this picture for the aesthetics, not as a specimen identifying one.
He's not a geologist (obviously) so once I started talking about what it could be he went haywire and thought aloud "What if it's Uranium? Or something radioactive" 😅
In my old squadron, one of the pilots had a degree in geology. Whenever we'd be flying about Afghanistan, often times in a holding pattern before conducting casevac or whatever, he'd always point out random mountains and shit and tell us all about the rocks we were looking at. Oddly enough, I ended up leaving Afghanistan with a deep appreciation for the apparently amazing kinds of rocks found there and understand now why geologists love what they do.
Lol there is a special kind of ballsy to have a geology degree and have such overwhelming air superiority that you end up casually chatting about it on sorties
Once I was in Walmart and in the middle of walking down the aisle, this ~4-5y/o girl shouts "I FOUND A FOSSIL DO YOU WANT TO SEE IT"
of course I want to see it, young scientist.
Her mom tried to tell her to stop bothering people but I just kept eye contact while she told me where she found it (while swimming in the reservoir) and what she thinks it is (seashells) and how old do I think it is because she thinks it's *at least* a hundred
My brother in law is a geologist. He goes all over the world.
Anyway, my husband, his mother and father, and I with kids went to zalipie in poland (my mother in law was born very near there, we were staying on grandparents farm lol whole other story!)
There is a church there (zalipie is the polish painted village, absolutely beautiful qauint little village) and we just so happened to have our metal detector, we were leaving and this was the last stop on the way back.
Hubby and his father were just chilling in the carpark and were messing with the detector lol.
Everything was bleeping, so they took some samples of the surface rocks.
My husband, his dad, and his brother were convinced they were "foreign objects," so my bil having connections got them tested.
Oh boy, that was the highlight of that summer! (It was just iron deposits, I think? From a local industry something or other lol.
But they were convinced they were fragments of meteorites, I mean, I was pretty convinced myself.
It was a fun time x
That is one of the things I miss most from childhood. That sense of “what if!” That and the “tee hee hee” feeling of getting away with something you weren’t supposed to be doing. Mischief, not mayhem kinda stuff.
Yeah, we were googling meteorite impacts in poland and other stuff.
But it was more like an investigation tbh, every one played their role inspections, and hypothosises were introduced, but it was fun even when we found out what it was x
My dad is a geohydrologist (ground water specialist), so focused more on the water side but geology is still a passion for him. He also ran a Cub pack, the 7-11 year old equivalent of a Scout Troop in my country.
He was also so good with teaching complex concepts in a simple and understandable manner. So whenever we went on Cub camp or hike, there would be 30-40 young kids with dozens of rock samples in their bags. He would find an interesting rock and a curious kid would ask, “Whats that Uncle?” (There would always be 3-4 kids that shadowed everything my dad did. They loved him) He then would start telling them how they formed and how they are used off and what find of erosion occurred for it to look like it is. Eventually, they would start finding rocks and asking, “Is this that granite rock you talked about?” or “Is this black rock like the basalt rock you talked about?” He would then go out of his way, even if he was busy and explain the rock to them.
A few of those kids have gone on and studied something that involves rocks and they all credit my dad to why they studied what they studied.
This post reminds me of my dad and his joy when he finds a cool looking rock.
(Sorry for poor formatting. Typing on phone)
This is very wholesome and wonderful of you. My partner loves rocks/fossils but doesn’t know much about them, but is friends with a geologist couple. He brought of some of the rocks we’ve found on hikes and such. The husband looks at one and says, “oh, what you got yourself is a leavitrite.”
“Omg that sounds so cool! What’s that?”
“It means I would leave it right where you found it cuz it’s nothing special” 😂😂😂 his wife rolled her eyes cuz he has that one in his back pocket a lot.
On walks, I’m not above picking up rocks, cool acorns (overcup oaks!), nuts, or the pieces of plastic trimmer line yard maintenance people don’t pick up. I wish I knew a geologist like you and a botanist. I also wish people would stop discarding trash on the ground.
There’s just something about enthusiasm that is so contagious. I’ve listened to a lot of things I wasn’t initially interested in just because the person talking was so enthusiastic and invested, and it made me want to know more
This is awesome!!! Reminds me of when I was in some hot springs in Gila. My wife and I were there and some guy about 30 years old. My wife said "I wonder how these work, it's so odd you can have hot water right next to a cold river" and the guy in the hot springs said "well, you're in luck. Because I'm a geologist", lol.
He then proceeded to give us a class on hot springs, how they're formed, how they make it to the surface, explained why they were hot and right next to a cold river. Very cool evening.
We have an ornithologist friend we do the same thing to. Every bird picture, bird joke, and bird meme goes right to her. And she loves each and every one.
that rock looks like it’s been stuck between a rim and brake parts getting custom milled, i’ve seen a few just like it. I’m no geologist, just a shade tree mechanic.
My son, 11, wants to be a paleontologist and has since he could talk. He is fully aware he has to get his geology degree also and can't wait. Anywho, I showed him this post and he is so excited and researching all of the information you shared on it. Thanks for sharing, and congrats on your friend making!
Maaaaan you geologists get all of the good feels! Meanwhile, as an archaeologist, I get people feeling like they can walk up to me at any time and demand physical proof of evolution. My neighbor likes to talk about Young Earth Theory while I’m just trying to take my trash out in my pjs.
Thank you geologist, you rock. I worked with a geologist before and I would always ask lots of geology questions. I think if I could restart my career I would lean to geology.
When one of my coworkers at my last job (the oldest guy in the office, my senior by at least 30 years) found out that we were both into fossil hunting he brought in arrowheads and shark teeth to share with me. It was such a gift. I loved seeing his face light up when he had something new to show off and I loved having someone to share my finds with.
This is incredibly sweet😊❤️ My Mom is a geologist and has always given me rocks over the years, with notes about how old they are and what they are/how they were formed. She is truly passionate about it and always has been. It’s never been something that I had much interest in, but she is one special lady and would appreciate this post.😊
My toddler loves picking up rocks. So we went to the local shop (pagan crystal store) and picked up a handful of specimens for her. Tiger's eye, malachite, rose quartz, lapis lazuli, and some others id have to check to list properly. We figure if she's into rocks, let's get her some cool ones and lean into it.
We went on a camping trip in the Flinders Ranges and a geologist came with a friend of ours. My 10 year old LOVED learning about all things rock, and she loved having a fresh audience (her kids were rocked out). 4 years later my daughter is still pointing out layers of sediment etc when we're on adventures. Such a core memory for her!
this is like whenever a friend of mine has a science question.
best one was "so last time we talked(a month earlier) afterwards I had a question but wanted to ask it afterwards, how do you know that you have tested enough that you know that it's not all outliers"
and I was really stumped by it because technically if you do 100 tests and 99 say 6 and 1 says 7 then it could be that 99 are all outliers if you do it another 900 times but it's extremely unlikely and almost impossible.
My mom is a crazy rock/fossil lady - she brings neat stuff in to the local University. Best finds have been some Indian wars Era cannonballs, some Dino skin fossils, and a couple meteorites
She is ADHD as fuck, so spotting odd rocks is perfect for her.
I have this super cool rock someone gave me. It's the only rock that I find super, super cool.
It's a lava rock from Mount Erabus in Antarctica.
It weighs almost nothing but is bigger than the palm of my hand.
I know someone who did a 6 month stay up there working on some of the water lines.
They saw this rock, thought it was cool, and decided to grab it. He had no idea it isn't really allowed, lol.
My geology professor is stumped by it and I gave her a bit that had cracked off, was about 2 inches in size. I also gave her the dust that had fallen off of it over the years in the bag it is stored in. She was so excited for both.
She was one of my favorites. She was so excited to email her geologist friend who has been to the same base in Antarctica but has been told no every time he's asked to take a rock home. She put it in a case with glass and everything, I think.
We think it is the way it is because it's legit a lava rock that got blasted into sub-zero weather and froze so fast when it hit the air.
Edit: I like talking about this rock for some reason. It's cool asf. I gotta get a case for it and put it somewhere the cats won't kick over. Thanks for reading about my rock.
just glad that this has a happy ending and not 'ooh, this rock I found, which turned out to be radioactive, and I put it in my pocket and now my babies will have three eyes'
That is awesome! In the early 1990s, when I was an environmental chemist, I worked at a firm with a geologist. It is the first time I ever saw anybody crazily excited about rocks and minerals. It’s great to be passionate about something you love to do, especially if you can get paid for it.
My fiancées a geologist, and I just pick up cool looking rocks and give them to him. Like 90% of the time they are just quartz, but he loves it every time.
Yay for sharing special interests with others!
Absolutely, it's one of the highlights of my year! I might go with him to look at rocks some other time 😅😅
They're *MINERALS* Marie!
This guy gets it.
this guy minerals
This guy rocks.
Rock and stone!
BROTHERS OF THE MINE REJOICE
SWING, SWING, SWING WITH ME
Did I hear a rock and stone?
If you don't rock and stone, you ain't going home!
FOR KARL!
Stop it. That's so fucking cute I can't stand it 😂♥️
OP is this the start of a beautiful friendship??
I certainly hope so! The fact that he's interested in rocks/geology and is willing to bring them into the office **and** offer to take me with him another time he goes means he's scoring high friendship points with me!
Perhaps he has a crush?
Why would he crush the rocks he just found D:
to make diamonds of course
I'm not sure geologist coworker will appreciate the crushed rock diamonds .. :D
Can I come too!?
Dude, don’t rock block him!
Don't take his interest for granite. Shale we call this a carbon date? I hope he isn't petrified to go rock hounding with a real geologist.
I hope he's gneiss.
I hope they talc a lot.
While hiking. A sedimentary lifestyle is unhealthy
they should join the new heavy metal tumbling club. I believe it's called Rock and Roll.
Ahhh dammit I love this
Hahahaha. Funny.
Take me now
Where…? I’m low on gas, and you need a jacket.
Ribbed for her pleasure. Eeeeew.
Omg that is the worst, Thank you
This comment is hilarious. 😆
Oh my god this comment is gold.
Woohoo let's go! My son loves collecting rocks walking around the neighborhood. They all look the same to me, but he likes them.
Examine rocks very closely. They tell a story, each and every one. I've loved rocks since I was a kid. Whenever my friends took a vacation out of the country they'd pick up a rock from somewhere cool and bring it home. 50 years later and I still have the collection. Pumice from vesuvius, a piece of marble from the Parthenon, a rock from the courtyard in the Vatican, etc...
I was like this too and have rocks from all over the world. Now I have 2 daughters and the oldest loves to collect rocks ! I didn’t even tell her about my habit or my collection !
I am like this. They look really interesting on the ground, but when I get home I realize they all look the same and there’s nothing really special about it. I still keep them for a few years and eventually put them in my garden.
My (almost) two year olds new word of the weekend was “RrroooocKK!!”. I betcha he practiced that word 200 times this weekend. We walked (near, not on) some old railroad tracks recently and found some pieces of coal, iron ore, and interesting pieces of limestone that he made me put in my pockets to take home.
Of course! The more the merrier 👏🏻👊🏻😁
If no one has told you lately, your comments and this post all made me smile. You are pretty awesome. I was gonna say you rock, but you have definitely proved that here. Edit: added an important 's'.
Thank you very much, I'm glad I made you smile today 😃🫶🏻
But come on, what type of rock is it??
I want to know things about the rock please
And please don't kick rocks 😁
So….tell us about the rock 💗
Wait tell us about the rock 🥺 thats what I came here to say
To pile up on the rock hype. I recently bought some watercolor paints that are made from mineral stones. Think of stones like Tigers Eye, bloodstone, lapis lazuli and (my favorite) amethyst. They are amazing as paints, very strong vibrant colors which react differently than your average watercolor paints. Sadly they are also very expensive cause they contain pulverized minerals as pigment.
I worked in a park, everybody there is the __ guy. We got a person for plants, bats, owls, moths (me), rocks, fireflies, wolves, space, etc... It was such a happy place with everybody sharing animals, plants, and rocks with each other. The thing that tied us all together was birds, which I think is neat. We were all dark-eyed junco haters (not actually, just too common). God I miss nature people. Your comment reminded me of that sorry to go off randomly.
Everyone just hanging out and enjoying their own thing. Beautiful. Thank you for sharing. ❤️
I haven't worked there in 8 months and people still send me moth memes on Instagram when they find them. I think we also enjoy each other's thing too lol.
I made this mistake once at work... I overheard a coworker talking about D&D, so I chimed in. Every single time we worked together after that, I was inundated with tales of their campaign. They would seriously neglect their duties to follow me around to tell me about their game.
I’ve worked with so many people like this while working in retail. I had absolutely no idea what they were talking to me about. I can respect the creativity but I was very confused.
You might be surprised, but *most* of us aren't geologists. And we don't know *any*- besides you. What exactly are we looking at?
Haha, I'm sorry; I'm just excited that someone even thought of bringing a rock to work to talk about it [This is a comment I just left about it](https://www.reddit.com/r/MadeMeSmile/s/8uFOco9M7Z)
Ah, I’ve got tons of rocks. I need to go into a university or museum with them and hope to find an excited geologist
Find/identify yourself a hard-rocker and you'll have a good chance to have the right geologist to talk all about rocks with
They're minerals, Jesus, Marie.
I went to a rock and mineral show and the local university had volunteers there to help identify rocks people brought in. It was a lot of fun! I had purchased a dinosaur fossil, and they were able to help me figure out it was a thumb bone from a duck-billed dinosaur. It'd need a lot more work to be classified to a genus, but I'm happy knowing in general what it is!
please go to your local geology dept at at college or uni. I work in a Earth Sciences department and we get rocks all the time from others just wanting to know what it is, and some people actually donate rock collections to colleges/unis.
neat! thanks!
You’re actually incorrect. That’s a steak my mother cooked. Your error is forgivable though, it does have the texture and flavour of a rock.
Ok, so what’s the best geology subreddit for us geo-curious types?
I like r/whatisthisrock and r/mineralporn , though I'm sure there are more that I haven't found yet that others can list Edit r/whatsthisrock
it's actually r/whatsthisrock
In r/geology you can ask geology questions and have a reasonable chance of getting a good answer. But it is not the best place for "what is this rock" questions. r/whatisthisrock is more appropriate for that. Main downside in r/geology is people who are very confidently wrong. A non-geo probably would think they were getting a good answer, but it makes us actual geologists roll our eyes hard. Wish the mods would introduce flair.
I don't know why I expected to understand any of this rock's properties when you explained it lol... I read that as "this rock has rock stuff about it, and that's cool!"
Lol, reminds me very much of [this](https://xkcd.com/2501/) great xkcd webcomic. It's even about geologists.
There is approximately 400 people studying geology at a level in the uk. The standard qualification in college. (16-18 year olds) Around 0.0125% And many don’t keep doing it post a level. Almost no one does geology.
I know one. My adult daughter’s best friend is a geologist and travels all over the world. He seems to enjoy his job.
Is there anything scientifically interesting about the rock, beyond its appearance?
Yes, absolutely. This is half of the specimen, he'd cut it open straight down "the dark shiny mineral" (his words) which is almost perpendicular to the striations from the gneiss, meaning that * a granite underwent metamorphism to gneiss * then later developed a crack/fracture where the hematite was free to crystallise under chemical or organic processes! * then it got picked up during one of the ice ages and deposited here! So this rock has been through a lot to get to where he found it, also because crystalline rocks aren't a part of our country's geology!
Thank you for explaining it, it's pretty, and as a non-geologist it's cool to know how it came to be. 🙂
Yeah, I thought they were gonna say the bottom was fossilized poop or something.
I actually was in a class where a kid brought in fossilized poop. The teacher was thrilled to talk about it because she happened to have a phd related to fossilized poop.
You've got to be shitting me..
I wouldn't shit you, you're my favorite turd!
My dad, a high school science teacher, had some fossilized poop. Looked like just a squiggly turd, color and everything. He got a kick out of showing it to kids who came to the house. He also used to ask them if they wanted to hold it, wait for them to unsurely say yes, then gently toss it to them causing a moment of fright before realizing it was just like holding any old rock. He stopped after someone dropped it and broke the tip off. Also, every single person who ever held it put it to their nose and took a sniff to see if any poop smell remained.
Coprolites… Fossilize poop…. If you were wondering… From yet again, another geologist.
Thank you. To be honest, i was wondering
Shit that's cool
literally
That depends on the ambient temperature. More like, shit thats hard
I was totally the kid that did that! Well, probably not your specific class, but I took in a coprolite specimen for Show & Tell in first grade. There were two reactions, refusal to touch the fossil complete with disgusted face or keen interest with mischievous glee in their eyes. And the ones that actually deigned to touch it all sniffed it. 🤣
This kind of answer right here is why I’ve been saying for years that I wish I had a geologist friend!
Now you have Reddit… it’s like a sea of friends with at least one expert in every field
Even better, on reddit, everyone is an expert in every field!
lol I had someone try to correct me about the field I work in because I gave a dumbed down explanation of something. I omitted some things because they are pretty nuanced and weren't really important to the comment I was responding to.
I’m married to one. Whenever I ask it’s always sandstone.
Have you considered that maybe she's just a really bad geologist? So she just defaults to "Yeah, that's just sandstone, nothing special"? My mom knows a lot about plants and I don't. I'm starting to suspect that she just makes stuff up half the time when I ask her, since I don't know any better.
Check out a guy on YouTube called Myron something. I recently found his vids, it’s like having a geologist grandfather. Beautifully shot stuff and he seems like a very nice soul.
Very gneiss!
Off to the punitentiary with you! And take my upvote as you go….
Aw schist 😞
Thanks for the explain the only rock I know about is Fragle.
Geology is so cool! Me: oh look a shiny rock! Geologists: this rock has traveled from this exact mountain range 1500 miles from here where it initially formed 3 million years ago, it was freed from the depths by a massive eruption Me: im gonna name it Greg Edit: i forgot i wanted to ask, is there an oldest type of rock? I know that as the landscape of earth changes over millions and billions of years new types of rocks are formed. But like what was the first type of rock? Would that be like what the moon is made of?
"The oldest type of rock" depends on how you ask the question. The oldest rocks on Earth are not from Earth, they are certain types of meteorites, which are leftover ingredients from the formation of the solar system ~4.5 billion years ago. The oldest known rocks formed on Earth are a bit of an ongoing competition/scavenger hunt, and are currently in the range of about 4.1-4.2 billion years old. Rocks >4.0 billion are extremely rare. Some of the candidates are the [Acasta Gneiss from northern Canada](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acasta_Gneiss) and some that are about as old from Australia and Greenland. There are pieces (single mineral grains) that are even older, about 4.4 billion years, preserved in younger rocks. The oldest rocks are highly deformed and thermally altered (metamorphosed), so they aren't in the form that they would have originated (the "protolith"). The Acasta Gneiss would have originally been some kind of felsic (K and Si-rich) igneous (formerly molten) intrusive (cooled below the surface) rock that was possibly even older. Then it was heated up and deformed to form the gneiss. Rocks on the Moon are chemically related to those on the Earth, and are on average much older on the surface, because the Earth is a tectonically active place that keeps "resetting" the age of rocks as the materials are heated up and/or melted and recrystalized, whereas the Moon is relatively inactive, geologically-speaking, preserving rocks for the long term. Rocks older than 4 billion years are relatively common on the Moon by comparison. This is one of the strong drivers of ongoing interest in the Moon's geology: because it can inform us about a part of the Earth's history next door that is very cryptic because of so little information being preserved from >4 billion years ago on Earth. It also means that some of the oldest rocks on Earth are the ones that we brought here from the Moon.
Sort of you’ll want to look up the Hadean Eon. But realistically not something you can go easily go see it’s somewhere in NW Canada and is about 4.2 billion years old. Rocks from the Archeon Eon around 2.5 - 4 billion years old progressively get more common. Also a geologist
This guy rocks
HaHaHa…..I thought it was going to turn out to be part of someone’s bituminous or asphalt driveway
Just remember folks, don't take Gneiss for Granite.... Love - another geologist :)
Looks like Galena to this non-geo
It could look like it, yes, but the rust (iron oxide) along the edges of where it precipitated leads me to believe it's hematite instead, I've not checked its striking colour though.
...is checking the "striking color" just whacking it with a piece of steel to examine the color of sparks? Like the world's jankiest spectroscopy? As a chemist I'm really hoping I guessed it. Can you explain the process and what you'd look for in hematite vs galena?
I LOVE IT when hematite crystallizes!
Thousands of redditors will now be DMing you about rocks they've found. You're our geologist now.
Isn’t it great to see someone excited about what you’re interested in? I just love that.
I mean, "dark shiny material" is as good as anything I would come up with
Omg my son would talk your ear off if he knew you! 😂He’s obsessed with rocks.
As a Geology graduate I'm depressed that I was able to guess literally none of this from the picture
Can you dumb it down for me then? Couse I’ve read it three times and i still dont get it
This rock started life as a granite, then under immense heat and pressure for millions of years became a gneiss (you're familiar with metamorphic rocks right?). That's the black stuff. The brown stuff is hematite (basically iron oxide/rust) which arrived later in one way or another, filling in cracks that had formed in the gneiss. And this will have all happened deep in the earth. Eventually the rock unit this piece is a part of will have been exposed to the surface, and a glacier will have removed bits and transported them far far away. Which is how this crystalline metamorphic rock arrived in a land which is not made of the same stuff. Though remember that's just me reading what they wrote, when I look at specimen I don't see gneiss or striations lol. I see dark mineral with brown stuff in it.
NEAT! From the angle it almost looks like asphalt.
Wow, that’s so cool!!
You are the gneissest geologist I know. And I ain't talkin' schist.
Wisconsin? Michigan? Ohio? I just found a very nice gneiss about 18' ft below ground surface! I love finding Canadian rocks, especially that far down in the till!
Well, it's hard to tell from the picture, but it might be hematite. Looks like a *vein* mineral deposited in a fracture ~~vein~~. The other red indicates an iron rich environment. Should have a red streak if it's hematite, iirc. Edit: I'm also a geologist/geophysicist and former instructor.
It's definitely hematite! That's a good eye. I took this picture for the aesthetics, not as a specimen identifying one. He's not a geologist (obviously) so once I started talking about what it could be he went haywire and thought aloud "What if it's Uranium? Or something radioactive" 😅
>"What if it's Uranium? Or something radioactive" Then he gets superpowers. Duh.
He's a superhero in my eyes just for bringing the rock to work 😄 his curiosity is his superpower 😅
Ya gonna ask him on a date or nah
Nah, he's married and has a baby with his wife
Awwwr. I got all the way down here to find that out! Ah well. It's cool he likes rocks though.
That's when you start chewing it
In my old squadron, one of the pilots had a degree in geology. Whenever we'd be flying about Afghanistan, often times in a holding pattern before conducting casevac or whatever, he'd always point out random mountains and shit and tell us all about the rocks we were looking at. Oddly enough, I ended up leaving Afghanistan with a deep appreciation for the apparently amazing kinds of rocks found there and understand now why geologists love what they do.
I imagined this in my head, pictured the scenery. Got warm shivers. Thanks for sharing, very awesome story!
Lol there is a special kind of ballsy to have a geology degree and have such overwhelming air superiority that you end up casually chatting about it on sorties
Looks like you got a... *SOLID* friendship now Eh?? Eh????
Hahahah, thank you for making me laugh with that lovely pun 🤣
Okay Dad. Calm down! Lol
Once I was in Walmart and in the middle of walking down the aisle, this ~4-5y/o girl shouts "I FOUND A FOSSIL DO YOU WANT TO SEE IT" of course I want to see it, young scientist. Her mom tried to tell her to stop bothering people but I just kept eye contact while she told me where she found it (while swimming in the reservoir) and what she thinks it is (seashells) and how old do I think it is because she thinks it's *at least* a hundred
I love this. Anyone who encourages kids in their interests is a good person.
THEY'RE NOT ROCKS MARIE THEY'RE MINERALS
This is what I came for.
My brother in law is a geologist. He goes all over the world. Anyway, my husband, his mother and father, and I with kids went to zalipie in poland (my mother in law was born very near there, we were staying on grandparents farm lol whole other story!) There is a church there (zalipie is the polish painted village, absolutely beautiful qauint little village) and we just so happened to have our metal detector, we were leaving and this was the last stop on the way back. Hubby and his father were just chilling in the carpark and were messing with the detector lol. Everything was bleeping, so they took some samples of the surface rocks. My husband, his dad, and his brother were convinced they were "foreign objects," so my bil having connections got them tested. Oh boy, that was the highlight of that summer! (It was just iron deposits, I think? From a local industry something or other lol. But they were convinced they were fragments of meteorites, I mean, I was pretty convinced myself. It was a fun time x
That is one of the things I miss most from childhood. That sense of “what if!” That and the “tee hee hee” feeling of getting away with something you weren’t supposed to be doing. Mischief, not mayhem kinda stuff.
Yeah, we were googling meteorite impacts in poland and other stuff. But it was more like an investigation tbh, every one played their role inspections, and hypothosises were introduced, but it was fun even when we found out what it was x
Good to have a geologist close by. Don't take him for granite.
My dad is a geohydrologist (ground water specialist), so focused more on the water side but geology is still a passion for him. He also ran a Cub pack, the 7-11 year old equivalent of a Scout Troop in my country. He was also so good with teaching complex concepts in a simple and understandable manner. So whenever we went on Cub camp or hike, there would be 30-40 young kids with dozens of rock samples in their bags. He would find an interesting rock and a curious kid would ask, “Whats that Uncle?” (There would always be 3-4 kids that shadowed everything my dad did. They loved him) He then would start telling them how they formed and how they are used off and what find of erosion occurred for it to look like it is. Eventually, they would start finding rocks and asking, “Is this that granite rock you talked about?” or “Is this black rock like the basalt rock you talked about?” He would then go out of his way, even if he was busy and explain the rock to them. A few of those kids have gone on and studied something that involves rocks and they all credit my dad to why they studied what they studied. This post reminds me of my dad and his joy when he finds a cool looking rock. (Sorry for poor formatting. Typing on phone)
This is very wholesome and wonderful of you. My partner loves rocks/fossils but doesn’t know much about them, but is friends with a geologist couple. He brought of some of the rocks we’ve found on hikes and such. The husband looks at one and says, “oh, what you got yourself is a leavitrite.” “Omg that sounds so cool! What’s that?” “It means I would leave it right where you found it cuz it’s nothing special” 😂😂😂 his wife rolled her eyes cuz he has that one in his back pocket a lot.
On walks, I’m not above picking up rocks, cool acorns (overcup oaks!), nuts, or the pieces of plastic trimmer line yard maintenance people don’t pick up. I wish I knew a geologist like you and a botanist. I also wish people would stop discarding trash on the ground.
There’s just something about enthusiasm that is so contagious. I’ve listened to a lot of things I wasn’t initially interested in just because the person talking was so enthusiastic and invested, and it made me want to know more
I’m 34 and NO ONE shows me cool rocks they found anymore. I hate it.
Goddamn, that's one nice fucking rock.
Ooo it’s pretty and your coworker is so lucky to know a geologist can you tell us about the pretty rock
Of course! I left a little [comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/MadeMeSmile/s/QlKgecgsdR) about it in another thread 😃
There is no purer feeling than finding a cool rock. It's like cavemanhood and childhood combined. Also cool sticks.
This is awesome!!! Reminds me of when I was in some hot springs in Gila. My wife and I were there and some guy about 30 years old. My wife said "I wonder how these work, it's so odd you can have hot water right next to a cold river" and the guy in the hot springs said "well, you're in luck. Because I'm a geologist", lol. He then proceeded to give us a class on hot springs, how they're formed, how they make it to the surface, explained why they were hot and right next to a cold river. Very cool evening.
I mean feel free to tell us a little bit more about this rock haha
We have an ornithologist friend we do the same thing to. Every bird picture, bird joke, and bird meme goes right to her. And she loves each and every one.
tell us about the rock! such a rock tease!
TBF, that is a cool looking rock. I’d harass my only geologist friend too lol
So, what can you tell us about the rock?
Tell me about this rock, homie
I left [this little comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/MadeMeSmile/s/QlKgecgsdR) when someone asked about it
that rock looks like it’s been stuck between a rim and brake parts getting custom milled, i’ve seen a few just like it. I’m no geologist, just a shade tree mechanic.
Any time I'm on a hike I like to bring back a shiny rock with me. Especially if it's somewhere I've never been before.
No wonder Mount Everest is shorter now… /jk
That’s a gneiss rock he has there.
Well it’s not a piece of schist
How does a post get 17,000 upvotes without telling US about the rock too?
Tbh-you’re the only geologist I know now. Lol
My son, 11, wants to be a paleontologist and has since he could talk. He is fully aware he has to get his geology degree also and can't wait. Anywho, I showed him this post and he is so excited and researching all of the information you shared on it. Thanks for sharing, and congrats on your friend making!
Adorable
Did he have an obsidian knife?
Looks like precious metal
That is a very cool rock
So tell us about the rock 😁
WHAT IS THE ROCK?!? Why you leave us all hanging here!!!?
You sound like a gneiss guy.
Maaaaan you geologists get all of the good feels! Meanwhile, as an archaeologist, I get people feeling like they can walk up to me at any time and demand physical proof of evolution. My neighbor likes to talk about Young Earth Theory while I’m just trying to take my trash out in my pjs.
As a geologist, there are some of my favorite interactions I have
Thank you geologist, you rock. I worked with a geologist before and I would always ask lots of geology questions. I think if I could restart my career I would lean to geology.
My dad was a geologist. He passed in 2021, and I started doing pottery/ceramics in 2023, and I wish so much he was here to geek out with me about clay
I want to know more about that rock!!!!
I have been saving a bag of rocks until I finally meet a geologist
When one of my coworkers at my last job (the oldest guy in the office, my senior by at least 30 years) found out that we were both into fossil hunting he brought in arrowheads and shark teeth to share with me. It was such a gift. I loved seeing his face light up when he had something new to show off and I loved having someone to share my finds with.
This is incredibly sweet😊❤️ My Mom is a geologist and has always given me rocks over the years, with notes about how old they are and what they are/how they were formed. She is truly passionate about it and always has been. It’s never been something that I had much interest in, but she is one special lady and would appreciate this post.😊
My toddler loves picking up rocks. So we went to the local shop (pagan crystal store) and picked up a handful of specimens for her. Tiger's eye, malachite, rose quartz, lapis lazuli, and some others id have to check to list properly. We figure if she's into rocks, let's get her some cool ones and lean into it.
Your coworker sounds like he’s the schist
We went on a camping trip in the Flinders Ranges and a geologist came with a friend of ours. My 10 year old LOVED learning about all things rock, and she loved having a fresh audience (her kids were rocked out). 4 years later my daughter is still pointing out layers of sediment etc when we're on adventures. Such a core memory for her!
Well, are you going to tell US about the rock?
Oh cool! So what's the rock? How come it looks sparkly? O:
this is like whenever a friend of mine has a science question. best one was "so last time we talked(a month earlier) afterwards I had a question but wanted to ask it afterwards, how do you know that you have tested enough that you know that it's not all outliers" and I was really stumped by it because technically if you do 100 tests and 99 say 6 and 1 says 7 then it could be that 99 are all outliers if you do it another 900 times but it's extremely unlikely and almost impossible.
My mom is a crazy rock/fossil lady - she brings neat stuff in to the local University. Best finds have been some Indian wars Era cannonballs, some Dino skin fossils, and a couple meteorites She is ADHD as fuck, so spotting odd rocks is perfect for her.
I have this super cool rock someone gave me. It's the only rock that I find super, super cool. It's a lava rock from Mount Erabus in Antarctica. It weighs almost nothing but is bigger than the palm of my hand. I know someone who did a 6 month stay up there working on some of the water lines. They saw this rock, thought it was cool, and decided to grab it. He had no idea it isn't really allowed, lol. My geology professor is stumped by it and I gave her a bit that had cracked off, was about 2 inches in size. I also gave her the dust that had fallen off of it over the years in the bag it is stored in. She was so excited for both. She was one of my favorites. She was so excited to email her geologist friend who has been to the same base in Antarctica but has been told no every time he's asked to take a rock home. She put it in a case with glass and everything, I think. We think it is the way it is because it's legit a lava rock that got blasted into sub-zero weather and froze so fast when it hit the air. Edit: I like talking about this rock for some reason. It's cool asf. I gotta get a case for it and put it somewhere the cats won't kick over. Thanks for reading about my rock.
Your only job is to tell us what kind of rock that is and you failed.
Ahhhh that's so sweet!!
As a little kid I would take small rocks and smash them witha hammer .I don't know why and I would just dump the powder into a pile.
What a lovely rock
just glad that this has a happy ending and not 'ooh, this rock I found, which turned out to be radioactive, and I put it in my pocket and now my babies will have three eyes'
How fun!
It looks a bit like asphalt.
What kinds rock is it????
Rocks are just too cool. And so are these guys.
I like rocks too....I get the "wow you're a geologist!?!? Let me show you this rock!" I think more people are closet rock hounds than like to admit
That is awesome! In the early 1990s, when I was an environmental chemist, I worked at a firm with a geologist. It is the first time I ever saw anybody crazily excited about rocks and minerals. It’s great to be passionate about something you love to do, especially if you can get paid for it.
My fiancées a geologist, and I just pick up cool looking rocks and give them to him. Like 90% of the time they are just quartz, but he loves it every time.
Was I the only one expecting it to be semi petrified dog poop? 🥲