kai602•5mo ago

Spent 3 hours trying to identify a single quartz vein in the field

I was out near Tuolomne Meadows last weekend and found this weird quartz vein cutting through granite. It had these dark green streaks I couldn't figure out, so I spent like 3 hours chipping samples and staring at them with a hand lens. Turns out it was just chlorite staining from old hydrothermal activity, nothing rare at all. I should have just checked my field guide first instead of guessing. Has anyone else wasted a whole afternoon on something that turned out to be super common?

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julia_carter5mo ago

3 hours on one quartz vein? Man, I would've given up after 30 minutes and called it a mystery.

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kellyr185mo ago

Did you at least name the vein before you figured it out? I would've called mine "The Great Green Mystery" and made it sound way cooler than it was.

1

jason3285mo ago

@julia_carter you're not wrong, but 30 minutes is generous. Probably would've named it "The Dead End" after an hour and moved on. That vein probably looked like something special but turned out to be nothing. Happens all the time with those quartz veins around here.

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