Saturday, December 18, 2010

Dendrites - Plant Pseudofossil?

While at the home and garden supply store picking up concrete materials, this rock was in the landscaping area.  I could not let it get torn up so I saved it from becoming part of a walkway.  Not sure where it came from or exactly what it is. The rock is in layers in a pinkish-red color with dendrite patterns through out.  On one edge is a collection of small crystals.  If the rock could be split it appears more layers have the dendrite pattern.




2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The rock looks like a shale; the reddish color is probably due to Fe₂O₃. Dendrites form from MgO and are often mistakenly identified as the mineral pyrolusite. Nice piece to add to your mineral collection.

Michael Popp said...

Thanks for the identification.

The slab is somewhat larger than I am use to collecting and storing though.