-----Original Message-----
From: mineral enquiries
Sent: Thu 3/5/2009 4:27 PM
To: Lorna Steel
Cc: mineral enquiries
Subject: LAWRENCE, Ms Martha (via Lorna Steel, Palaeo) - odd Derbyshire specimen
Dear Lorna,
Thank you for your enquiry on behalf of Martha Lawrence.
It is not our preference to try and make accurate identifications from images alone, as they can never really substitute for the look, and feel of the real specimen. I can get no idea from these images of the real texture, and none of the weight, or hardness etc. However, if I had to make an educated guess, I'd say it could be a piece of chert. It looks vaguely siliceous, and in one image appears to have an outer weathered surface pattern very much like some flints/ cherts. It also doesn't appear to have any kind of cleavage, just a sharp fracture, which again would be consistent with chert. The end on picture shows a rather strange tapering hexagonal(?) structure going towards the centre, but I can't see this on the side images. This though is exactly why we don't like to make identifications from images alone! Chert is found in some parts of Derbyshire, but I can't recall exactly where Cressbrook is, and probably would not know whether it was near the chert areas (it need not be of course, even if this is chert).
I hope this may add something.
Yours sincerely
Peter Tandy
(Curator:Minerals)
________________________________
From: Lorna Steel
Sent: 05 March 2009 12:22
To: mineral enquiries
Subject: FW: Object enquiry
________________________________
From: The Geological Curator's Group mailing list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Lawrence,Martha (Cultural & Community Services)
Sent: 05 March 2009 11:43
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Object enquiry
A member of the public brought a stone object in for identification recently and, as a non-geologist, I am a bit stuck on what it might be. Attached are three photographs - two side views and an end-on view.
The outside is smooth light grey stone with a darker grey stone inside, and some banding between the two. It has jagged fractures at both ends of the stone. It was found near Cressbrook in Derbyshire.
Any ideas?
Best wishes,
Martha Lawrence
Assistant Museums Manager
Buxton Museum & Art Gallery
Terrace Road
Buxton
SK17 6DA
Tel: 01298 24658
Fax: 01298 79394
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