Captivating Find at The Carver Agate Field —The Final Word
The Rock & Gem article above referenced, published in the October 2020 issue, summarized a longer and more detailed article submitted by Bill Halepeska and John Carver. In the interest of accuracy and geology clarity, we are making the following clarification.
The part of the Rock & Gem article captioned ‘Authors’ Opinions’ contained several misstatements that we would like to correct.
Bill and I have not in any way come to differing conclusions about the geology of the ‘deep pit.’ In fact, we collaborated on formulating our opinions and have come to exactly the same conclusions. While another geologist that I know differs from our conclusions, Bill and I in no way disagree and have concluded as follows. The ‘deep pit’ nodules and geodes formed in and then weathered out of gas bubbles formed in lava before hardening. Since these nodules and geodes are only in one small area of the ‘deep pit,’ we do not believe that they were formed where they were found, nor weathered out in their current location. We both believe they formed elsewhere (in the Paisano volcano, several miles to the west of The Carver Agate Field) and that subsequent to the formation, the nodules and geodes were transported to the ‘deep pit’ as post volcanic debris flows that traveled through a ‘channel, not unlike the dry washes seen in the area.’
The medium of transport was a thick ash mudflow moving in a minimum to non-turbulent flow. Therefore, the ‘deep pit’ nodules and geodes came from the Paisano volcano, miles away, and were not formed from a different volcano that developed the highly diverse and colorful Carver Agate Field materials.
The photos included here illustrate the difference between typical Carver Agate Field nodules and agates that contain lots of internal sagenitic material. The top photo featured above is a typical Carver Agate Field specimen, while the photograph on the bottom typifies the ‘deep pit’ material. We believe the material was formed from the Paisano volcano and then transported to The Carver Agate Field, where it was recovered from the ‘deep pit.’ We do not believe this geode was formed from the volcano that created The Carver Agate Field’s extraordinary diversity of sagenitic materials.
The unabridged original unedited article submitted to Rock & Gem can be viewed in its entirety at texasamethystagate.com. For a more nuanced and detailed geological discussion and many more photos of the mysteries of The Carver Agate Field and ‘deep pit’ find, take a look. Feel free to contact us via the texasamethystagate. com website if you have questions or comments you would like to share.