View allAll Photos Tagged quartzite
This rock made a long journey getting here. It is metamorphic rock that was sandstone when it was subjected to intense heat and pressure, turning it into quartzite. Part of the ancient Nevada Orogeny, a predocessor mountain range (that resembled the Andes of today) to the modern Sierra Nevada (of California USA).
Quartzite falls in Baraga County Upper Michigan from a lower angle. I’m not sure which image I like better, but both were my personal favorites of my last UP waterfall tour.
For information on this waterfall and photos of cascades from 17 different states, please visit www.escapingtoparadise.com
The quartzite butte, over 400 million years old, rises 3612' above the Columbia River lava flows, only 7-15 million years old. Steptoe Butte was named for Lt Col Edward Steptoe, whose lightly armed troop of 164 US Army soldiers was defeated in an attack of 1000 native Americans in the Battle of Tohotonimme in 1858. Any hill or mountain that projects like an island above a surrounding lava field is called a steptoe, after Steptoe Butte.
I purchased this from Grandpa's rocks, in Quartzite, AZ, in 1989, along with several more preforms he had cut out of Priday (same as now the Richardson Ranch) thundereggs and glued to a letter size piece of cardboard. This is the first of those I have removed to polish, and my favorite! (I later learned this old fellow had been selling at Quartzite for many years - what I must have missed out on!)
A cold winter moonset from Site 42 on George Lake. It was -20 and the sunrise was casting a stunning violet hue over the sky. I’d visited this spot on numerous occasions in hopes of a promising scene. Lumsden Hill and first beaches north rim created an interesting bow-like shape, cradling the moon. This image also gives another insight to the fascinating landscape of killarney, with pink shield rock in the lower right and a commonly seen quartzite hill in the back, part of the La Cloche Mountains.
A quartzite statue of the priest Padiamenopet shows him as a scribe seated cross-legged on the ground. His right hand is shown as if he held a reed pen (now missing) to write on the papyrus unrolled across his lap.
25th dynasty
From Karnak
Egyptian Museum, Cairo
Leiden, Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, December 2017
The stela has the shape of a naos or tomb chapel. The owner Nebnetjeru, whose title is Scribe of the Treasury, is depicted in very high relief, flanked by his mother Tiroy (viewer's right) and wife Merytnub, adoring Re (the sun god) when he rises in the east.
AM 8-b. New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty, reign of Amenhotep III (c. 1386 – 1349 BCE). From Sakkara. Quartzite. H. 102 cm.
See the face? Eyes, nose, and mouth - the Oracle looks on within the Siou Quartzite at the Pipestone National Monument.
NESTLED AT THE FOOT OF MT. ERRIGAL (THE HIGHTEST MOUNTAIN IN COUNTY DONEGAL) AND OVERLOOKING THE BEAUTIFUL POISONED GLEN SITS THE BEAUTIFUL 'OLD CHURCH OF DUNLEWEY'.
JANE SMITH RUSSELL HAD THE CHURCH BUILT AS A MEMORIAL TO HER HUSBAND, JAMES RUSSELL, THE LANDLORD OF THE DUNLEWEY ESTATE, WHO DIED ON 2ND SEPTEMBER 1848. JAMES RUSSELL WAS LAID TO REST IN A VAULT UNDER THE CHURCH FLOOR. THE CHURCH WAS CONSECRATED ON 1ST SEPTEMBER 1853 AS A CHAPEL OF EASE TO TUL-LAGHABEGLEY. TULLAGHABEGLEY WAS THE PARISH CONSISTING OF THE PRESENT DAY GWEEDORE AND CLOUGHANEELY PARISHES.
THE CHURCH IS BUILT OF WHITE MARBLE AND BLUE QUARTZITE WHICH WAS QUARRIED LOCALLY. THE SUPPLY OF MARBLE IN THE NEARBY QUARRY HAS NOW BEEN DEPLETED. THE RED BRICK IN THE ARCHES OF THE WINDOWS WAS PRODUCED LOCALLY.
THIS IS THE GLEN AT THE HEAD OF DUNLEWEY LOCH. THERE ARE MANY THEORIES ABOUT ITS STRANGE NAME IN ENGLISH (POISON GLEN) BUT IT IS MOST LIKELY A MIS-TRANSLATION FROM IRISH.
He is wearing the red crown of Lower Egypt was found in 1964 in the same court of the temple of Amenhotep III.
Height 124 cm, width 94 cm, depth 110 cm.
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Amenhotep III (meaning Amun is Satisfied), also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent, was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. According to different authors, he ruled Egypt from June 1386 to 1349 BC, or from June 1388 BC to December 1351 BC/1350 BC, after his father Thutmose IV died. Amenhotep III was Thutmose's son by a minor wife, Mutemwiya.
His reign was a period of unprecedented prosperity and splendour, when Egypt reached the peak of its artistic and international power. When he died in the 38th or 39th year of his reign, his son initially ruled as Amenhotep IV, but then changed his own royal name to Akhenaten.
When viewed from ground level, particularly from the coast, Arkle has the appearance of being a big lump. The reality is very different, as it has a really nice narrow ridge that includes this Quartzite pavement.
Monty the Mountaineer is taking in the view, and as you can see we are roped together for safety. He loves the mountains and has incredible stamina. There were a couple of places where the quartzite boulder field was particularly rough, so he did get carried for a short distance to save his paws.
Here and there on mountain trails in the Berkshires, at random, one comes across good-sized stones of what looks like pure quart.
Peggy and Ted are taking me on a road trip today and I will be posting random photos along the way.
“Big Rock (also known as either Okotoks Erratic or, by the Blackfoot, as Okotok) is a 16,500-tonne (18,200-ton) boulder that lies on the otherwise flat, relatively featureless, surface of the Canadian Prairies in Alberta. It is part of the 930-kilometre-long (580 mi) Foothills Erratics Train of typically angular boulders of distinctive quartzite and pebbly quartzite.
This massive angular boulder, which is broken into two main pieces, measures about 41 by 18 metres (135 by 60 feet) and is 9 m (30 ft) high. It consists of thick-bedded, micaceous, feldspathic quartzite that is light grey, pink, to purplish. Besides having been extensively fractured by frost action, it is unweathered. “
Leiden, Rijksmuseum van Oudheden. January 2022
The head of a statue of a god with the features of Amenhotep III.
F 2015/6.1. New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty, reign of Amenhotep III (1386 – 1349 BCE). Provenance unknown. Quartzite; 13 cm.
How fortunate for Wyoming, that it has ever so much more going for it than Dick Cheney! Truly, within its borders are some of the most spectacular scenery in the entire world, but no doubt most know little beyond Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. But here, hundreds of miles from either of those two fantastical places lies another scene of glorious beauty. I had previously uploaded another shot from my recent trip to this location here: www.flickr.com/photos/80014607@N05/21237983879/in/datepos...
Alas, the dead trees here, though they were terrific as elements in the photo, are worrisome harbingers. Millions of trees are dying in our western forests as an indirect result of global warming. The warmer winters have meant that the species of beetles that were usually killed off by the cold, now thrive, and live to kill the trees. And as the trees die, there will be less CO2 converted to wood, and so there will be more CO2 in the atmosphere, which means a warming climate, which will mean even more beetles surviving--further and further north. And so the cataclysmic chain of events continues.
On that other photo referenced above, I wrote about the things that drove me to visit here, which I append below:
"The most beautiful place." So thought my Dad. And he wouldn't be far wrong. I have been referring to my most recent trip (August 2015) as a trip to Colorado, which it was, but the ultimate destination was a spot in South-Central Wyoming--a spot that had long since taken on mythic proportions in my memory. As a child, my family--father, mother, 7 year old sister, 1 year old sister, and twin sister/brother who had just started to make themselves indirectly visible by the unmistakable expansion of my Mom's waist--drove to Colorado from Topeka. It was to be a trip of short duration as my Mom began to experience morning sickness which extended into much of the day. But in those few days, I saw my first mountains--unless you count the Ozarkian Hills as mountains. That first moment when the clouds on the horizon resolved into the awesome realization that they weren't clouds, but snow--snow on mountain peaks--remains one of the sentinel moments of my life. But there was to be yet another such moment, and that was when we drove north into Wyoming, passing over Wyoming Highway 130 through the Snowy Range. There, at or near the highest point of the drive was a scene my Dad had always remembered as perhaps the most glorious sight he had ever witnessed. Great peaks, towering cliffs made of stuff that seemed more a creation of a fantasy writer than reality--quartzite. (If you're not familiar with the stuff, it's a very hard stone made mostly of quartz, and is usually whitish in color.) The beauty of the place absolutely staggered me. And it was more than "just" a few white mountain peaks--it was a string of white thousand foot cliffs rising from a string of beautiful alpine lakes, with forests and meadows overflowing with flowers all about. This was a spot that would leave even the most jaded traveler breathless with astonishment.
Or at least, so I remembered it. I had never ventured back to this much venerated site in the intervening decades, and after a time, I became fearful of doing so. It occupied such a prominent place among my memories--What if a return trip revealed that it didn't measure up?
Whether it did or not, after my father died some years ago, I decided I would bury some of my father's ashes there. He never indicated this was what he wanted, but I was as certain as I could be that he would approve. Unfortunately, a vicious psychopath paid my home a visit when I was on vacation and stole my father's ashes, along with numerous other very personal things. Nonetheless, having determined to return to the Snowy Range, I decided to do so on this trip. Even without the ashes, this trip was very much about my Dad, and he was often in my thoughts. I took the same route he took so long ago, in as much as I could recreate it, which also contributed to his being in mind. I was still worried about finding this purportedly magical place a let down, but no matter, only a serious accident would deter me from revisiting the place. After a week-long trip through Western Kansas and then to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park, I drove up Colorado Highway 125 toward my goal (I've recently uploaded three photos of that portion of my trip). As I drew closer, I started to feel anxious--more and more as I felt the temperature drop as I gained altitude. Would it measure up? Coming from the west, there is no distant preview of what lies ahead--trees and smaller mountains/hills block ones view. I nonetheless strained to see my goal miles before it was possible. And then, rounding a bend the mythic peaks revealed themselves all at once. I realized two thing almost simultaneously. One--I had arrived at the wrong time of day. It was late afternoon and the sun was behind the peaks, which meant that their whiteness was much subdued compared to the time I had previously been there--at mid-day. But secondly, I realized that I needn't have been concerned about disappointment. Wrong time of day or no, I was once again witnessing the fantastical. If you, dear reader, have never been to this spot, then I can hardly wish anything better for you than that you someday stand in awe of these magnificent peaks and their crystalline lakes. Assuming I have yet some years to trod upon the earth, I myself will return yet again--this next visit with more time at my disposal--and will dedicate several days to trying to capture these beauties with my camera.
Poor time of day notwithstanding, I did my best on this occasion. But most of my few hours there I spent simply communing with nature. And, of course, the spirit of my Dad. Terribly imperfect father that he was--he was still my Dad. I wish I could have left a little of him there as I intended.
Located 10 km (6.2 mi) west of Okotoks and southwest of Calgary, the Big Rock is the largest glacial erratic in the world. Left behind after the Ice Age, far from its original home in the Rocky Mountains, the enormous quartzite block weighs 16,500 tonnes, and was a major landmark and place of legend for travelling Blackfoot tribes. The Big Rock, after which a popular Calgary beer company is named, was Alberta's first natural feature to be determined as a provincial historic site in the 1970s.
Okotoks, AB
Geology in Chewacla State Park is complex. This outcrop of Hollis Quartzite is nearly vertical. For more information: www.agu.org/books/ft/v167/FT167p0021/FT167p0021.pdf mrdata.usgs.gov/geology/state/sgmc-unit.php?unit=ALph%3B9
From my 2015 trip to Western Kansas, Colorado, and Wyoming. This is one of my favorite spots in all the world, and was one of my Dad's as well. I wrote at modest length of my trip here with my Dad and family back in 1960 for the two previous photos I uploaded from here. ( www.flickr.com/photos/80014607@N05/21826377425/in/album-7... and www.flickr.com/photos/80014607@N05/21237983879/in/album-7... ). I was so thrilled that the beauty here more than lived up to my memories, I just had to share my feelings with someone. I was there by myself, so I buttonholed the only other person there and share my memories and my feelings about my return. I practically had to sit on him to finish my story! (Not really :-) Next time I come here, I will spend a couple of days here at least, and take photos when the sun is more favorably positioned.
To be clear, the whiteness of the peaks here isn't due to snow--there was none (but try coming here in a couple of months!). What accounts for the whiteness is that these mountains are made largely of quartzite--something I have yet to run across anywhere else.
Heaven's Poison at Dunlewey.
At the end of Dunlewey lake, inbetween the sweeping forests of the Guinness estate and the quartzite bulk of Mount Errigal, lies the Poisoned Glen.
But where is the poison in this most loveliest of places? The sloping sides of the glen are home to wild deer, not witches’ potions. No alchemist watches over this valley, but the silent snow-tipped shape of Slieve Snacht.
As with all the best stories, there are different versions. The most popular centres around the mythical Balor.
Balor na Suíle Neimhe (Balor of the Evil Eye)
Balor was king in Tory. He had a daughter more beautiful than any eye could behold. Such was her radiance, and such were the ethics of the day, he imprisoned her in a tower, never to come within sight of man. But as things would have it, legend of her rapturous looks spread, and had the reverse effect. Balor was obviously unaware of the powerful effect of hype. Attempts on her tower became quite the thing among the men folk, and it wasn’t long before one succeeded in breaking in and taking her away.
Balor followed her across the seas to Magheroarty and stalked her captor across the mainland, killing him with a giant stone. One such stone stands in the entrance to the Poisoned Glen, and is said to be the evil, or poisoned, eye of Balor.
We might do well to heed this story today, and its underlying symbolism. For beauty itself is innocent, and it is only poison, in the eyes of those who would seek to imprison it for themselves, that makes it otherwise.
Want to hear the true story?
The Irish word for poison, “neimhe” (pronounced niv-uh), differs in its spelling by only one letter from the word for Heaven, “neamh” (pronounced nyow-uh). The glen used to be called the Heavenly Glen by local people, as it was, to them, like they imagined Heaven itself to be.
It was, predictably, an English cartographer who made the mistake in translation that was to ‘poison’ the name of one of Ireland’s most beautiful places for ever. Did you know that there is only one lake in Scotland - the rest are all Lochs? The Lake of Menteith, as it is called, was similarly mis-translated by a Dutch cartographer.
Jesus said, in the middle of a heated debate on dietary habits, that it is not what goes in the mouth which poisons people, but what comes out of it. With people, as with places, sometimes a name just sticks
About 3" long I came across this large pebble on a beach on Lake Michigan. It has a striking likeness to an old doll's head. The stone appears to be quartzite.
A quartzite statue of the priest Padiamenopet shows him as a scribe seated cross-legged on the ground. His right hand is shown as if he held a reed pen (now missing) to write on the papyrus unrolled across his lap.
25th dynasty
From Karnak
Egyptian Museum, Cairo
Commentary.
Another view from the southern summit of Ben Nevis.
Layers of glen, hill, mountain and moorland cascade into the distance, culminating in the distinctive pyramidal peak of Schiehallion, in Perthshire, between Lochs Rannoch, Tummel and Tay.
The quartzite summit of Sgùrr a’ Bhuic is middle ground
and the deep valley separating Nevis from Aonach Beag, is in the foreground.
On a clear day almost half of the Highlands and Islands
can be enjoyed from nearly 4,500 feet.
I could spend hours identifying every mountain and landmark.
In reality, however, one only spends 20-30 minutes taking refreshments, in order to get back to base camp before it gets to twilight.
13 hours, 5 kilometres, 9,000 feet of ascent and descent at 30-40.°
I nearly cried with joy when I eventually had that long-awaited pie and a pint.
Shot from the lower of the two peaks and showing a hiker on the summit of Errigal.
Errigal is a 751-metre mountain near Gweedore in County Donegal, Ireland. It is the tallest peak of the Derryveagh Mountains, the tallest peak in County Donegal, and the 76th tallest peak in Ireland. Errigal is also the most southern, steepest and highest of the mountain chain, called the "Seven Sisters" by locals. The Seven Sisters includes Muckish, Crocknalaragagh, Aghla Beg, Ardloughnabrackbaddy, Aghla More, Mackoght and Errigal. The nearest peak is Mackoght, which is also known as Little Errigal or Wee Errigal.
Errigal is well known for the pinkish glow of its quartzite in the setting sun. Another noted quality is the ever-changing shape of the mountain depending on what direction you view it from. Errigal was voted 'Ireland's Most Iconic Mountain' by Walking & Hiking Ireland in 2009.
Paris, Musée du Louvre, August 2012
A 94. Late Period, 26th (Saite) Dynasty, reign of Psamtik II (595 – 589 BCE). Quartzite. H 148 cm
An amazing way to ascend a mountain! - up the huge area of quartzite slabs on Sgurr Ban's east side above Loch an Nid in the Fisherfields.
The nearest lump on the very right is Meallan an Laoigh, and the peaks beyond that are the Fannichs. This image is compressed but gives an idea of the expanse of the slabs, although this was far from all of it!
Quartzite falls in Baraga County Upper Michigan. This was my most favorite waterfall picture from my last tour in the UP because of the wonderful rock formation around it. It’s now on the homepage of my website www.escapingtoparadise.com . I hope you like it.
Quartzite in the Precambrian of South Dakota, USA.
Extensive outcrops of pinkish, Paleoproterozoic-aged quartzites are present at Falls Park along the Big Sioux River in the city of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The quartzites here have nicely water-worn, sculpted surfaces. These rocks are part of the Sioux Quartzite, which consists of 1.65 to 1.70 billion year old metamorphosed sandstones. Despite the metamorphism, original sedimentary features such as horizontal stratification, cross-bedding, and ripple marks are still preserved.
The Sioux Quartzite is an erosion-resistant unit in America’s midcontinent. It has formed a long-lived paleotopographic high since Precambrian times - the Sioux tectonic core. This high is part of a northeast-to-southwest trending series of paleotopographic highs & depressions known as the Transcontinental Arch, which extends from Arizona to Minnesota (see Carlson, 1999).
Quarries of Sioux Quartzite occur in southeastern South Dakota and southwestern Minnesota. The rocks are used as building stone, road gravel, sidewalk and paving gravel, and erosion control material.
Stratigraphy: Sioux Quartzite, upper Paleoproterozoic, 1.65-1.70 Ga
Locality: Falls Park, near Sioux Falls along the Big Sioux River in the town of Sioux Falls, southeastern South Dakota, USA
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Reference cited:
Carlson (1999) - Transcontinental Arch - a pattern formed by rejuvenation of local features across central North America. Tectonophysics 305: 225-233.