By Dion Stewart
West Georgia is littered with small pit quarries where iron ore (mostly hematite) was mined in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. These small time operations often did an “on-site” smelting of the ore in which the melting of the iron produced a silica-rich liquid layer that floated on top of the molten iron.
This hot siliceous liquid was dumped near the edge of the pit where it cooled so quickly it formed a “glass” slag. Ray Borders, our trip leader took us to a site on private land where one of these old pit mines existed and where glass mounds in small heaps can be found in his woods. We collected glass with color variations from purple to green but mostly in beautiful shades of blue.
The glass that was at the top of liquid layer had many bubbles, but glass from lower in the layer was compact and showed beautiful conchoidal fracture. Some of the glass from the very bottom layer even contained small swirls of iron with the blue glass. The only equipment you needed for collecting was a “rake” as the abundant glass blocks are imbedded in the soil, and a simple pull of the rake would turn over multiple pieces of glass.
We had a great group of new and old members who shared finds and had a great time getting to know each other. Even though we had our Field Trip Nurse with us, no snakes crashed our collecting party! Ray however, will be sitting back in an easy chair until 2017, leading 3 trips already this year. Thanks Ray!
What’s New on the Website
Site Map