What is it? (Page 2): I searched 'rocks found on Long Island' and found" " Long Island's primary rocks are quartz, feldspar, jasper and hematite, although some low‐grade amethyst has...

Bill_de Loc: US

quixdraw wrote:

A good many decades since a couple of semesters of Geology, but I don't believe this was native to LI. It reminds me of an outcropping of rock in Westchester we used to go to as kids to get "jewels" and Mica. I think it is a foliated metamorphic rock. Looked a bit online, couldn't find a close match. Will make a very attractive doorstop.

I searched 'rocks found on Long Island' and found"

"Long Island's primary rocks are quartz, feldspar, jasper and hematite, although some low‐grade amethyst has been found on the North Shore."

https://www.nytimes.com/1971/10/10/archives/l-i-poor-in-rocks-rich-in-collectors.html#:~:text=Long%20Island%27s%20primary%20rocks%20are,found%20on%20the%20North%20Shore.

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Harry0 Loc: Gardena, Cal

Bill_de wrote:

In 1989 I dug this up while preparing a garden at our new house on Long Island. In 2005 I moved and brought it with me. It has remained in the bird bath since then. After soaking it in a bucket of bleach it went back into the bird bath this morning. Hosing it off caused some white flakes to come off.

Any guesses or factual information?

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It kinda looks like my last MRI ....

ken patton Loc: Portland, OR

Looks like quartz to me. There was a lot of it laying around the Blackhills in South Dakota in the 70‘s. Folks would just pick it up. Nowadays it‘s hard to find there. Guess it made for a great keepsake.

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

It looks like a geode to me.

badapple Loc: Twin Lake, Michigan

Numbers 1 and 2 remind me of fossilized wood.

fourlocks Loc: Londonderry, NH

Thinking way outside the box but it looks like several pieces of petrified wood I found in New Mexico. Doesn't tell you the composition though and I don't think there's any way it would be native to Long Island which I believe is a glacial terminal moraine from the last ice age.

jimvanells Loc: Augusta, GA

Looks more like a quartz containing rock. Quartz is actually silicon oxide or SiO2 which is pretty inert. However, some of the other material may not be as inert as the quartz. The bleach you soaked it in has pH of around 12.0 and can leach out some of the other parts of the matrix and cause any quartz crystals to break off.
IMHO

Bill_de Loc: US

fourlocks wrote:

Thinking way outside the box but it looks like several pieces of petrified wood I found in New Mexico. Doesn't tell you the composition though and I don't think there's any way it would be native to Long Island which I believe is a glacial terminal moraine from the last ice age.

You are correct about the glacial terminal moraine. There is an east/west road called Hillside Avenue. Driving the road, in many places, turn north and you go up a steep hill. Many of the houses have very large rocks in the landscape. Turn south and it is flat all the way to the south shore.

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boberic Loc: Quiet Corner, Connecticut. Ex long Islander

If you really want to know, take it to the Cold Spring Lab in Laurel Hollow on the north shore. Used to live near there. It's one of the worlds top geological research labs.,James Watson ( the discoverer of the DNA ) Met him in a local Deli a long time ago, used to be the director of the lab. There is a neat fish hatchery across 25A from the lab. The kids love it. You can even feed the brown trout. BTW Cold Spring Harbor is a very Quaint village-great restaurants. Just across the harbor east of the lab on 25A

Bill_de Loc: US

boberic wrote:

If you really want to know, take it to the Cold Sp... (show quote)

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I'm curious, but not that curious. Like you I am an ex-Long Islander. Moving off the island made it easier to retire at 55. It's a great place to make a living, and a great place to be from.

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Bill_de Loc: US

Dup

J-SPEIGHT Loc: Akron, Ohio

Bill_de wrote:

In 1989 I dug this up while preparing a garden at our new house on Long Island. In 2005 I moved and brought it with me. It has remained in the bird bath since then. After soaking it in a bucket of bleach it went back into the bird bath this morning. Hosing it off caused some white flakes to come off.

Any guesses or factual information?

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relbugman Loc: MD/FL/CA/SC

Want another guess? I'd say it comes from a quartz seam, probably in a granite bedrock, and it contains mica, the dark flaky stuff, and felspar. Flowed molten into a crack and crystalized very slowly so crystals are large.

Bill_de Loc: US

relbugman wrote:

Want another guess? I'd say it comes from a quartz seam, probably in a granite bedrock, and it contains mica, the dark flaky stuff, and felspar. Flowed molten into a crack and crystalized very slowly so crystals are large.

I appreciate all guesses. The pieces that flaked off were white. You can see a couple in the water.

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bodiebill

Bill_de wrote:

In 1989 I dug this up while preparing a garden at our new house on Long Island. In 2005 I moved and brought it with me. It has remained in the bird bath since then. After soaking it in a bucket of bleach it went back into the bird bath this morning. Hosing it off caused some white flakes to come off.

Any guesses or factual information?

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probably a glacier "erratic", a rock from a distant origin carried by the glacier. Perhaps from Canada.
Try the hardness test, will it scratch glass or be scrathed by steel?, or the acid test.