How old is your average garden stone ?

neilep · « **on:** 26/05/2004 16:49:30 »

This is one for Exodus or anybody else who can answer it.....

Playing in the garden with my kids today we found lots of nice round stones.....My son (as Exodus knows) is well keen on collecting stones and wants to know what is the average age of your regular garden type stone ?....I said they were 'well old'...then he said 'older than you Daddy ?'...I said yes and that I knew some lovely people who could give me a more accurate answer....I did explain that they were probably many millions of years in age...and then he said 'so...not older than you dad'...then I clipped him round the ear and tickled him.

'Men are the same as women...just inside out !'

tweener · « **Reply #1 on:** 27/05/2004 05:14:20 »

Since no one else is jumping on this, I'm going to say it would depend on just where your garden is located. The range would be several million to a few billion.

----
John - The Eternal Pessimist.

Exodus · « **Reply #2 on:** 30/06/2004 07:54:37 »

quote:
Originally posted by tweener

Since no one else is jumping on this, I'm going to say it would depend on just where your garden is located. The range would be several million to a few billion.

----
John - The Eternal Pessimist.

very true... location is the key as it may allow you to check a geological map which will give specific dates... remember though that individual rocks may have come from anywhere. There are methods of dating rocks at our disposal, e.g. using rubidium/strontium decay, an age can be predicted, other decays can be used such as argon/argon and as carbon for more recent events.

This address gives a little information on how dating works...
http://earthsci.org/geotime/radate/radate.html [Links inactive - To make links active and clickable, login or click here to register]

So neil, what did the rock look like, was it a sexy little beasty?

neilep · « **Reply #3 on:** 30/06/2004 11:34:10 »

...oh yeah !!!...fnarr fnarr ! !!..it was well sexy, sensual erotic...oh boy !!..made me wish there was a geological sex line to ring !!!...err...would I find you answering it if there was such a 'getting my rocks off' service ?

'Men are the same as women...just inside out !'

Exodus · « **Reply #4 on:** 02/07/2004 06:38:51 »

I'm sure there are some pretty twisted geologists out there i could talk to about "hardcore" etc...

OmnipotentOne · « **Reply #5 on:** 30/08/2004 04:29:34 »

A hardcore geologist. Show me that and I'll show you a sober Irishman!

To see a world in a grain of sand.

Exodus · « **Reply #6 on:** 31/08/2004 17:38:40 »

You are talking to a hardcore geologist bud! [

]

neilep · « **Reply #7 on:** 06/09/2004 16:38:23 »

Rich, me old rock cake !!

Today I went in the garden and picked up some stones by random...can you tell me a bit about them ?.....are the roundy smoothy ones, ones that came from the sea ?

The middle piccy is the stone in the bottom piccy on the right showing it's other side?...is that rust ?

Your geoorientated answers are greatly appreciated..ta ![

]

'Men are the same as women...just inside out !'

Exodus · « **Reply #8 on:** 09/09/2004 22:22:15 »

Ok, its quite tough to analyse rocks without having a good play with them. The most interesting one in the top set is the angular red one. It looks highly silicious and i would suggest it is probably a flint... the red colouration is most likely due to Iron oxide in the ground which has stained it during its formation. The rounding of the pebbles makes analysis difficult. The rounding could indeed be due to a beach environment... a few things to remember however. Firstly they may not have been deposited in situ, it is possible they may have been part of an aggregate during the building process, also remember that this rounding process is still going on today and geologically speaking, does not take very long which means such pebbles may have been rounded more recently... A second possibility is they may have been rounded through glacial activity as deposits were left in your area during the last ice age.

The middle piccy also looks like a flint which has undergone weathering, you can see it is pretty well rounded. It also has the weathered puckered appearance on the surface. My favourite rock is the bottom left, i would be interested to look at that one as its dificult to put my finger on it by looking at it... it has what looks like some nice quartz veining flowing across it! when i next see you neil bring it along, it has some interesting colours!

neilep · « **Reply #9 on:** 09/09/2004 22:57:54 »

Richard,

Many Thanks indeed.....I think though, I may have reintroduced your favourite rock back from whence it came, though I was also intrigued by the line too...I shall endeavour to re-acquire it.

Now here's a toughy, what can you tell me about this one ?

[

][

]

'Men are the same as women...just inside out !'

deweys hamster · « **Reply #10 on:** 22/09/2004 11:39:20 »

I like it Neil!
It reminds me of the time there was a group of us on a geology field trip studying the features of a particularily interesting conglomerate outcrop (rock with large grains/ pebbles etc within a fine grained matrix). Turns out the outcrop was a well weathered concrete block![:I]

neilep · « **Reply #11 on:** 22/09/2004 16:14:01 »

quote:
Originally posted by deweys hamster

I like it Neil!
It reminds me of the time there was a group of us on a geology field trip studying the features of a particularily interesting conglomerate outcrop (rock with large grains/ pebbles etc within a fine grained matrix). Turns out the outcrop was a well weathered concrete block![:I]

Thanks Deweys Hamster (come on...what's your name ?)......glad you like my funny rock , but, If I interpret your response, are you saying my funny rock is NOT a natural phenomenon !!!..and there I was thinking I'd discovered something quite unique...especially as a little piece of Holly seems to be keeping it company too and therefore I thought I'd discovered a symbiotic relationship thing happenning too......[

]

'Men are the same as women...just inside out !'

Exodus · « **Reply #12 on:** 24/09/2004 10:09:47 »

quote:
Originally posted by deweys hamster

I like it Neil!
It reminds me of the time there was a group of us on a geology field trip studying the features of a particularily interesting conglomerate outcrop (rock with large grains/ pebbles etc within a fine grained matrix). Turns out the outcrop was a well weathered concrete block![:I]

Have i found a fellow geologist on here?

? aweeeeeesome!

deweys hamster · « **Reply #13 on:** 27/09/2004 10:19:20 »

well it was a long time ago but yes, i've looked a a few pebbles in my time

Exodus · « **Reply #14 on:** 27/09/2004 21:55:27 »

How many moons have passed? or is this a little rude? [

]

chris · « **Reply #15 on:** 28/09/2004 17:48:56 »

At least 1 a month, generally !

"I never forget a face, but in your case I'll make an exception"
- Groucho Marx

deweys hamster · « **Reply #16 on:** 28/09/2004 21:17:53 »

well it was about 180 moons ago but whenever somebody asks me a geology based question you would think it was 180 years. i did not get a job in the geological field and so it has probably been a case of if you don't use it you lose it.

thinking about this has prompted me to ask a new question- why does the brain appear to forget all information that is no longer used on a day to day basis, but simply being prompted to the answer brings it all back to to the front? this has happened a few times reading the threads on this site where someone has asked a question that i feel i should know the answer to but my mind is a blank. when someone answers then it all comes flooding back.
i don't know if it is ok to leave this question here or should i move it? if there is some site protocol i've broken here then many apologies[

].

Exodus · « **Reply #17 on:** 30/09/2004 10:18:36 »

quote:
Originally posted by chris

At least 1 a month, generally !

"I never forget a face, but in your case I'll make an exception"
- Groucho Marx

that was..... really bad....

neilep · « **Reply #18 on:** 30/09/2004 20:03:06 »

quote:
Originally posted by deweys hamster

well it was about 180 moons ago but whenever somebody asks me a geology based question you would think it was 180 years. i did not get a job in the geological field and so it has probably been a case of if you don't use it you lose it.

thinking about this has prompted me to ask a new question- why does the brain appear to forget all information that is no longer used on a day to day basis, but simply being prompted to the answer brings it all back to to the front? this has happened a few times reading the threads on this site where someone has asked a question that i feel i should know the answer to but my mind is a blank. when someone answers then it all comes flooding back.
i don't know if it is ok to leave this question here or should i move it? if there is some site protocol i've broken here then many apologies[].

Dewey, I've just created a topic related to your query....I hope it's along the lines of what you were going on about....here's the link http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1370 lets hope we get some answers.

'Men are the same as women...just inside out !'

deweys hamster · « **Reply #19 on:** 01/10/2004 23:08:32 »

neil,
thanks for that.
you're a star [

]

quote:
quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by chris

At least 1 a month, generally !

"I never forget a face, but in your case I'll make an exception"
- Groucho Marx

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

that was..... really bad....

i quite liked it chris!

Exodus · « **Reply #20 on:** 04/10/2004 20:42:54 »

quote:
Originally posted by deweys hamster

neil,
thanks for that.
you're a star []

quote:
quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by chris

At least 1 a month, generally !

"I never forget a face, but in your case I'll make an exception"
- Groucho Marx

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

that was..... really bad....

i quite liked it chris!

i wouldnt encourage him...

neilep · « **Reply #21 on:** 04/10/2004 21:53:35 »

I just created a miniature cinema in my garden and showed a naughty film !!..all the stones in my garden attended !! See !!!..without being a geologist I have found a way to discover that all the stones in my garden are over 18.

'Men are the same as women...just inside out !'

Exodus · « **Reply #22 on:** 05/10/2004 09:48:41 »

I held a similar event in my garden last year. Instead mine was a 'Rock Concert' with the 'Rolling Stones' headlining! [

]

Kiss · « **Reply #23 on:** 15/10/2004 07:10:32 »

The stones of my parent garden are a mix of late Cretaceous flints and can be dated with the fossils. We have found two Urchin species at date. But this doesn't prove anything, in fact other early human artifacts are found within the soil, like beer capsules, gold chain, marbles, nails, plastic toys. Perhaps the fossils were gathered by these primitive disrespectful human population. Who knows.

daveshorts · « **Reply #24 on:** 09/05/2005 16:48:42 »

Looking at Neil's pictures the lower left rock looks very like Sweedish Gniess (rock that has been so metamorphosed it has recrystallised) which they used to build sea defences where I grew up in Devon - apparently it was cheaper to import the rocks from Sweeden!!!

Were there any boulder sea defences near where you picked it up Neil?

neilep · « **Reply #25 on:** 09/05/2005 17:23:59 »

quote:
Originally posted by daveshorts

Looking at Neil's pictures the lower left rock looks very like Sweedish Gniess (rock that has been so metamorphosed it has recrystallised) which they used to build sea defences where I grew up in Devon - apparently it was cheaper to import the rocks from Sweeden!!!

Were there any boulder sea defences near where you picked it up Neil?

Fraid not Dave....the rock came from my garden here in North London. It's a puzzle eh ?

Men are the same as women.... just inside out !!

Bass · « **Reply #26 on:** 10/05/2005 04:44:33 »

Ice rafting- the only logical conclusion??

Prediction is difficult, especially the future. -Niels Bohr

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How old is your average garden stone ?

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