[Rockhounds] Florida Fossiling (was Club)

[Glenn Wimpee]

Jeanette were on the Peace River, which cuts through the central part of the state and the oldest limestone in Florida, last year and collected fossil shark teeth and other fossils. The limestone is very light grey, almost off white, and the fossils are shiney black. As I recall, everything black is fossil material, albeit much is very broken and rough. Mastadon, mosasaur, megalodon, and lots of other fossils are found there. Shark teeth are abundant, most are small (dime size +/-) although many specimens of much larger size are commonly found. 
 
There is a mine near Ft. Drum that has terrific sea fossils many of which have cavities filled with yellow/orange calcite.
 
The SFMS had a trip to a dolomite mine near Tampa that produced similar specimens.
 
Honeymoon Island is also near Tampa and agatized coral can be found there. (Check with the ranger before collecting. They are usually OK with it, like beachcombing. Better safe than sorry...)
 
Florida does have fosil collecting permits available, but I think only folks with dredges and such are required to be permitted.
 
Pick a local club to join and enjoy our hobby!
Glenn 

> Subject: Re: [Rockhounds] Club> CC: > > There are actually some interesting materials near here but just not in> interesting form. There are Zirconium mines an hour or so from here, but> they are mining Zirconium compounds in sand. The phosphate mines have> uranium compounds but again in not very interesting or accessible form.> > So 99% of what we have is calcium carbonate or phosphate. Or whatever else> you could expect to find on the bottom of an Eocene or Miocene shallow sea.> > BK> > On Wed, May 21, 2008 at 9:09 PM, Alan Silverstein <ajs at frii.com> wrote:> > > > I would imagine there is a lot more in Florida than most people> > > expect.> >> > Yup. Mostly limestone, but agates near Tampa, lots of fossil> > (phosphate) bone, some quartz/calcite shell geodes in various spots> > (such as years ago in a construction area in North Miami Beach). You> > can web search to learn more. Plus, shell and coral collecting is> > always fun too.> >> > If interested in a trip report from 2000, when I did some collecting:> >> > http://silgro.com/trip_reports/2000.0829_FloridaCollecting.htm> >> > And in 2006, Tampa Bay agate:> >> > http://silgro.com/trip_reports/2006.1202-09_TampaBayAgate.htm> >> > Cheers,> > Alan Silverstein> > -->
_________________________________________________________________
Give to a good cause with every e-mail. Join the i’m Initiative from Microsoft.
http://im.live.com/Messenger/IM/Join/Default.aspx?souce=EML_WL_ GoodCause

--- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts ---
multipart/alternative
  text/plain (text body -- kept)
  text/html
---