Iron Oxide Concretions/Paint Pots

[Jarl]

So here are a few pics of the iron oxide concretions I find quite often. From what I've found these are also known as 'Indian Paint Pots'. It would figure, under the assumption that said rocks can produce a useable pigment. In the beginning years of my rock collecting I had often found fragments of these and thought they were some kind of slag...they looked rusty and often had some blackish material within them. Eventually I figured out that a lot of these questionable finds were actually the same thing, just in a different stage along it's development or disintegration. I've classified these stages that I find them in. But in order to do that, I have to explain the basic anatomy of these things first. It's simple, as far as I can tell...there's the outer and the inner part. The outer part is what appears to be pretty much the same material as the inner, but it's had some time and influence from the surrounding materials to become dense and hard, so, it forms a shell which eventually breaks away by weathering or some other force. Therefore, the outer part I refer to as the 'shell'. The inner part, which is composed of fine silty or muddy material, is generally very soft...soft as chalk in many cases, I refer to it as the 'heart'. There may be scientific terms for it, but that's easy enough for me. Now, the four conditions I find them:

1. Whole: very rarely do I find them like this, which assumes that the shell is intact with little to no breach of the heart material. I've read elsewhere that whole specimens often 'rattle' because of lose debris trapped in voids with in. The larger one featured here rattles.

2. Breached: meaning that the shell has given away to reveal a good portion of the heart material.

3. Exposed Heart: in this state the shell has completely been weathered away leaving the soft heart material only. There can be very minute traces of the shell material but generally none will be left. In this state, some of the ones I've found seem to have become more solidified while others remain very soft, nonetheless, they're still scratchable with a knife blade in their 'hardest' state. It seems that the darker they are the harder the material.

4. Empty Shell: in this state you find a breached shell with little to no heart material left inside.

Maybe it wasn't necessary for me to go through the trouble of making this post, and perhaps it's already been done in a more scientific manner. It doesn't matter either way. So, that's my take on the subject. Lastly, also pictured is an example of the heart material mixed with water and applied to paper. Typical colors will be yellows, browns and reds...all indicative of iron presence. The least common are the reds though. Thanks for looking!

[south fork]

We find concretions once in awhile

[Jarl]

Cool! That one looks like a little shrine or something.

[SGT.Digger]

Cool post . I find paint rock that very well may be part of your concretions . I’ve found similar features that would make good 😊 d paint pots but I believe the ones I find are sandstone but may need to scrutinize them more

[Jarl]

Thanks for the compliment. I'd like to see your specimens sometime. I find what I think is sandstone here, too. But this material can be really beautiful actually. Last gem and mineral show I went to a vendor was selling chunks of royal Egyptian jasper. I was amazed at how similar it was to the sandstone that I find...I'll upload pics of that at some point.

[Cecilia]

Very very cool. I understood everything you said, but that prolly not good sign!

[Jarl]

Thanks, Cecilia. I feel accomplished if people can understand me...it's a good thing. My post isn't scientific per se, but I think it's relative to my home terrain and hopefully useful to others in some way.