Rockin' at the Beach

Sorry I haven't posted for a few days. I went to the coast for a little bit, without my computer or internet.  I went on a late night fossil hunt with an out of work ranger and found some awesome fossils. Let me say, where I went it was legal to bring home the shells.  We also discovered sow bugs the size of my thumb! The tide was out and we were able to reach a few spots that usualy arn't accessable. I found a couple fossil conglomerations. One the size and shape of a brain, another a giant heart with lots of different kinds of shells, imprints and even a shell in the process of being agatized! My ranger friend decided it was too heavy to bring back, but ever perseverating i got up extra early and went to try and bring it back myself with a duffle bag. This is the super secret beach my friend showed me at 7:15 am.

Along for the walk was Tabitha

Fossils were quite literally just laying around.

There were several major geological events that caused fossil formations on the Oregon coast, most being volcanic. In the rock layers one will see plain rock, then a layer filled with fossils. This was a patch of fossils being erroded away. 15-million years and counting! 

Here is the mini-cave that my rock was found in

I tried putting it in a duffle bag, but when it was too heavy to pick up and i had to roll it into the bag. well, i eventually decided it might just be easier to photograph it.

Seriously, thats pretty sweet. some of the shells still had shine to them. How wild!

Another batch of fossils embeded in the rock walls.

As I'm leaving for another beach.

Doggy and I got a chance to play fetch...with fossils. Of course once I tried to photograph it she stopped.

Tube worms in a big rock:

Two of my good finds: that black rock is supposedly a piece of wood that got charred during a lava flow millions of years ago. That pretty piece of agate is called a "clam belly." It is agate that formed inside a clam and over time the shell wore away. Now all thats left is the agate cast of the clam.

Agatized clam belly.

Early morning rock-hounding wore out the puppy dog.  

We had a good time...wish I could have stayed longer. Now its time to get back to my bench