While walking the streets of Solana Beach with mojostones, we came across a unique seating arrangement. Here, polished agates are incorporated into several benches which allow the public to look directly inside multiple mineral specimens.
The benches you see in front of you contains very well preserved speciments of agates and one notable large "chunk" of basalt. Agates are made up of mostly chalcedony and quartz. Agate is a type of sedimentary and igneous rock. Quartz and other disolved minerals in hot water find they way into an igneous cavity. Overtime, these minerals in solution start to crystalize within these cavities and beautify crystals form. There are several nice examples on these benches.
The "banding" or "layers" you see are due to the speed in which the water was able to flow. The darker colors means the water was stagnate, which allowed silica to grow and accumulate in that region. The lighter bands are regions where water flow was quicker and deposition of silica was also faster.
Works Cited
https://geologycafe.com/class/chapter3.html
https://www.mindat.org/min-51.html
TO LOG A FIND ON THIS CACHE YOU MUST ANSWER ALL THE QUESTIONS BELOW. YOU CAN CONTACT ME THROUGH MY EMAIL OR THE GEOCACHING MESSAGE CENTER TO SEND YOUR ANSWERS. ANY INCORRECT ANSWERS MAY RESULT IN A CLARIFICATION RESPONSE FROM ME.
1. "Solana Beach Agates" on the first line of your email AND list all geocaching names of your party so I can match your answers to them. If you all want to learn something, I would prefer each cacher send me individual emails in the spirt of earthcaching.
2. Take a photo of your favorite agate using some sort of scale. Geologists often use coins, GPS', pens, shoes, notebooks, ect. You might want to be creative in what you use for your scale, however, the scale that you choose is entirely up to you. Make sure your photo is close enough to capture the bandings which should be clearly seen. This photo MUST be attached to your "found it" log. Please do not send any photos through the message center as Groundspeak compresses images.
3. Describe the (a) textures, (b) colors, (c) sizes, and (d) shapes of the agates.
4. Compare and contrast the agates to one another, referring to your answers for #3.
5. Describe the banding patterns of the aggates. Specifically, are they flat, wavy, circular, etc.? What might this tell you about the flow of water as it was forming?