Help identify this rock!!

I found this in a field in Eastern NC, USA. 5 pounds or so. Looks like melted rock more than a rock. Smooth feeling...Any ideas??

That's solidified swamp gas!

Great find

Type of calcium or limestone? Now I have to google NC's geology......mutter....mutter....


www.ncgeology.com...

Maybe sedimentary??

a reply to: earthart

A clearer photo, with descriptions of the colour/colour variations, whether you can scratch it with your nail, or a knife, the colour of the streak it leaves on porcelain ( and any variations of this colour), any visible grains/crystals and are they well-rounded, sub-rounded, sub-angular, or angular....etc etc. The more information, the better chance of getting a positive identification.

a simple rudimentary guide for ID

Good luck!

a reply to: aorAki

Agreed. If one doesn't know what it is, any bit of information can help. It's like a UFO investigation. Temperature, humidity, position of stars, clouds, bases in vicinity, 4 million other factors

Looks like slag from a furnace. Any foundries around?

Im on the far right of that NC map and the closest area to look for NC rocks is Tringle area-Raleigh. The ONLY Rock we get here id Aqua-fir rock wich is grey and has fossils of clams and animals all over it. We call it Rip-Rap around here. I dont know the name of our aqua fir rock here.Thanks for the help though.
a reply to: Caver78

None! a reply to: lonegurkha

originally posted by: earthart
I dont know the name of our aqua fir rock here.Thanks for the help though.
a reply to: [post=18702168]Caver78[/post

Aha, you mean 'aquifer' rock

I'm gonna try to get a few more pics for everyone. Its smooth like it tumbled in a stream but it has holes all over it that do not go through it. In my pic you see the slightly darker side. The opposite side has many more holes in it. There are a few places that i can knife scratch it and it is grey pencil lead colored and some material did remove, and there are places particularly the side you can see in my original pic that you cant scratch it and remove anything or make any sort of marking on it.






a reply to: aorAki

Yes, sorry a reply to: aorAki

The other side.a reply to: aorAki

a reply to: earthart

a reply to: earthart

Its a Indian sex stone

For real looks as if its porous sandstone.

I think we these two you can see all the holes on the lighter side and can see the contrast in color from one 1/2 to the other. Seems super heated to me. Rock is 7-8 inches long and about same in diameter.a reply to: earthart

its not porous. Im a landscape contractor and i use rocks, all kinds of rocks, all the time. I dont think so. Wish you could see it in person.a reply to: hillbilly4rent

a reply to: earthart

Its hard to tell with out holding it. The reason I called it that we have some in a creek not far from here (where we get our fairy crosses from). That look some what simular. Kind of soft stone it can be broken in my hand. The pits are formed from sand and harder stones that get caught in a eddy and sworal around from a period of time cutting out the pits.

a reply to: earthart

Using landscape rock is a bit different from field identification I'm afraid.

If I had it in my hand, maybe. To make a good guess a person would need to know the properties in addition to the photo. Some things can be loosely identified from photo but not a rock like that.

Just looking, sandstone, siltstone or mudstone. Is it gritty to the touch and if not, normally I'd say rub it on your teeth and see if it's smooth or gritty, but I can't do that not knowing if it may be toxic. Mudstone would feel smooth, but that does not look like mudstone and a bit more like a siltstone.

That looks like both wind and water erosion combined which leads me back to sandstone.

silt,sand,and mudstone from the pics i got online seem to be more rough textured and always angular. This is smooth.It makes you want to roll it around it your hands to feel its smoothness. No rough edges at all sort of like it had been melted. It is non magnetic. We do have a carbonate rock aquifer very close, and a phosphorous mine close by.
Let me ask you this. Do you think it is worth pursuing to find out what it is.
I agree with id capabilities of landscaping to rock identification, but i have to say that ALL the rock we use here is from Pennsylvania,Virginia,West Virginia, Western NC, and Tennessee. My point on the landscape end would be that i also have dug way more holes, and excavated a WHOLE bunch of earth in my career right here in Eastern NC and never found one like this. I guess thats why i kept it!?! a reply to: Blaine91555