Just realized I was totally wrong about that weird rock in my yard

I was clearing some brush in my backyard in Boise last spring and kept hitting this big, ugly, pitted gray rock. I was convinced it was just some old, crumbling concrete someone dumped there, so I was about to haul it off to the dump. My buddy, who's into this stuff, came over, took one look, and said 'Dude, that's vesicular basalt, it's full of gas bubbles from a volcano.' He showed me the tiny holes and explained how it forms. I felt like a total fool lol. Has anyone else mistaken a cool geological feature for plain old junk?

2 comments

2 Comments

jade8856d ago

The real kicker is how many cool rocks get tossed in landfills. People mistake geology for trash all the time, and it's a permanent loss. We should really have more public ID days at local colleges.

henry_grant6d ago

Happened to me with a piece of petrified wood! Looked like a rotten log for years. I finally posted a blurry picture on a geology forum. They ID'd it in minutes. Now it's a doorstop. Sometimes you just need a second set of eyes from people who know rocks.