1 - Asbestos Mine
While rock hounding along the shore of Lake Chatuge, I came across an old mine as I was heading back
to my truck. It turns out that it was an old asbestos mine, another product of the ultramafic sill that runs
through the Chatuge area. Little (i.e. apparently nothing) is known about the mine's production.
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Entering the old mine area
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Old asbestos mine
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Asbestos mine cut
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Boulder in wall of mine cut
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Asbestos
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Looking down into a mine cut
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Lichen growing on the wall of the mine cut
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Lake shore below the mine
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Lake Chatuge shore (with lake at winter draw-down level)
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2 - Limonite pseudomorphs after Pyrite
Found along the Chatuge shore at different locations. Pyrite crystals, often
cubic-shaped, are altered by hydrothermal activity, with Limonite replacing the
Pyrite. The Limonite "pseudomorphs" retain the shape of the original crystals.
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Limonite after Pyrite pseudomorphs
I have better examples that I have found in earlier years.
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Limonite after Pyrite pseudomorphs
I need to take a photo of some of my earlier finds.
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3 - Bald Cypress Trees
When I came across this stand of Bald Cypress trees while shooting the aurora back in October, my first thought was that I needed to come back and photograph them when their needle-like foliage turned color. Then I forgot all about it until early December! I should have returned a few weeks earlier; many of the trees had lost their needle-like leaves, but at least a few still had some remaining foliage.
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Bald Cypress trees
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Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum)
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Bald Cypress trees
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Bald Cypress trunk
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Bald Cypress along the shore
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