We specialize in hard to find items
All Categories
Agates and Other Collectibles of the Pacific Coast: Your Way to Easily Identify Agates (Adventure Quick Guides)
Share Tweet
*Price and Stocks may change without prior notice
*Packaging of actual item may differ from photo shown
- Electrical items MAY be 110 volts.
- 7 Day Return Policy
- All products are genuine and original
About Agates And Other Collectibles Of The Pacific
Product Description Your beachcombing guide to California, Oregon, and Washington Keep this tabbed booklet close at hand on your next rock-hunting adventure. Based on Dan R. Lynch’s best-selling field guides and featuring the most common and desirable agates and other collectibles along the Pacific Coast, the booklet is organized by rocks/minerals and then by general appearance for quick and easy identification. With six varieties of agates, as well as popular finds like Jasper, Quartz, and even Jade, this handy guide has the information you want. Narrow your choices by appearance, and view photos of just a few specimens at a time. The easy-to-use format means you’ll quickly find what you need to know. Plus, the quick guide is much easier to use than laminated foldouts, and the tear-resistant pages help to make the book durable in the field. About the Author Dan R. Lynch has a degree in graphic design with emphasis on photography from the University of Minnesota Duluth. But before his love of art and writing came a passion for rocks and minerals, developed during his lifetime growing up in his parents’ rock shop in Two Harbors, Minnesota. Combining the two aspects of his life seemed a natural choice, and he enjoys researching, writing about, and taking photographs of rocks and minerals. Working with his father, Bob Lynch, a respected veteran of Lake Superior’s agate-collecting community, Dan spearheads their series of rock and mineral field guides―definitive guidebooks that help amateurs “decode” the complexities of geology and mineralogy. He also takes special care to ensure that his photographs complement the text and always represent each rock or mineral exactly as it appears in person. He currently lives in Madison, Wisconsin, with his wife, Julie, where he works as a writer and photographer. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Fortification Agates Agates can take on a wide array of appearances and patterns, but the classic, concentric, band-within-a-band structure most associated with them is known as a fortification pattern, named for its similarity to a fort or castle’s walls when viewed from above. These are the “truest” agates, formed under ideal conditions that allowed their banding to properly develop. As such, they also tend to be the most sought after variety of agates, especially examples with colorful and highly contrasting banding. Fortification agates have ring-like bands by definition, but not all specimens exhibit this trait. This is usually a result of a less-than symmetrical pattern but also can simply be a result of weathering. Much of the Pacific Coast saw some glacial activity in the past ice ages, and the immense sheets of ice broke and wore down even the toughest rocks and minerals, including agates. Today, most agates found on beaches are not whole, but merely pieces of larger ones. As such, fortification patterns are often incomplete or obscured. Fortification agates also frequently have a center cavity, called a geode, as a result of incomplete formation. Similarly, they can also have a center filled with larger, coarser quartz crystals, thought to be a result of there not being enough available silica during formation to develop chalcedony. Color: Varies greatly; usually gray to brown, yellow, orange, or red Structure: Ring-like bands that get smaller as they near the center of the agate, sometimes with a quartz center Rarity: Fortification agates are the most common variety Where to look: You’ll find fortification agates virtually anywhere along the Pacific Coast; Oregon’s coast is particularly lucrative
