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Post by Agates Of The Oregon Coast.

Timothy DiGennaro's Black Agate found on the Oregon Coast

Photo by Timothy DiGennaro

Beautiful black agate found on the Oregon Coast by beachcomber Timothy DiGennaro. Notice how the center cavity is framed or outlined so nicely by a lovely fortification pattern or design. The exterior looks like an exquisite china pattern.  Nice find there Timothy, thank you for sharing this with the agate world.

A Rare Purple Agate found on the Central Oregon Coast

Purple agate is a rare find here on the coast.

Congratulations to our new resident beach comber Darrel who  last night shared his purple agate found here on the Oregon Coast at the Oregon Coast Agate Club meeting.

Beach Combing Treasures found on the Oregon Coast

Rewards from Monday 

Monday the Oregon Fossil Guy and I had a nice afternoon checking out the beach. Conditions were clear and we pretty much had the beaches to ourselves.  We had a rather successful day.

I hadn't been out there in some time to see these conditions exposing the tide pools out beyond the normal tide line.  I came home with a nice piece of bone, some petrified wood, beautiful fancy jasper, brecciated jasper and a few agates.  Much to our disappointment the blue appearing agate on the right is NOT a blue agate but just a cloud agate with a bluish rind.  Hopefully today's storm will remove the sand necessary to expose the gravel bars further up the beach.  Please be careful out there and don't try beach combing today with this storm lasting until 6:00 tonight. Today is definitely a good day to storm watch from the safety and comfort of your warm beach front hotel room.

Fossils, a Concretion, Petrified Wood etc. 

Nice Zeolite found recently on the Oregon Coast

Zeolite

Pat our very talented beach comber and agate calendar photographer hauled in this spectacular zeolite.   To learn a little more about zeolite minerals check out Karen's blog explaining the difference between Prehnite and Thomsonite. Pat also found a 1¼ lb. partial carnelian agate along with many smaller agates two days ago. I have only seen one more complete zeolite like this and that was a few years ago by Linda Davis of Lincoln City.  Nice collecting there folks.

Yachats 3rd Annual Agate Festival

We look forward to seeing all of you Saturday and Sunday, January 18 - 19 at the Yachats Commons.  K. Myers, author of the pocket guide Agates of the Oregon Coast will be doing identification of rocks found along the Pacific coastline.  Sunday, the Oregon Fossil Guy will join us for Fossil identification.

Back to back Agate events on the Central Oregon Coast

DiTorrice and Myers after Lincoln City event

Yesterday's Lincoln City Visitor and Convention Bureau's  Agate and Fossil trip was moved indoors to the Lincoln City Cultural Center out of concern for the safety for all attending beachcombers.  This was a standing room only event and put on by two long time members of the Oregon Coast Agate Club, Guy DiTorrice known as the Oregon Fossil Guy, and K. Myers, author of Agates of the Oregon Coast a pocket guide.  

If you missed this event DiTorrice (Sunday only for fossil ID) and Myers will also be assisting with identification of local agates during the 3rd annual Agate Festival in Yachats, next Saturday and Sunday, January 18th and 19th from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Yachats Commons. The event is free.

Featured speaker this year is William Orr, emeritus professor of geology at the University of Oregon and director of the Condon collection at the Museum of Natural and Cultural History at the University. Orr will speak at the Commons Saturday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. and his topic will be “How geologists use fossils.”