Fieldtrip report:
Martin Marietta Quarry
Cross, South Carolina
April 17th, 2004
______________________Hello members, we had a great day collecting at the Martin Marietta Quarry in Cross, South Carolina. This is the Berkley Quarry. Me, RJ and Travis met with Steve and Little Dave and proceeded on the 3 hour drive to the site, there we met with John Deney. I had called last week to gain permission to collect here as I had not visited the site in a couple of years. When we arrived we found the site posted, no fossil hunting is allowed anymore, I talked with the forman on duty and he allowed us to collect for the day since we had driven so far, we had a good turnout for this trip but I wish more of our members could have come along, we had some members at Glendon N.C. collecting pyrite and others in Indiana collecting geodes, I am glad that some of us were able to collect this one last time at this site. This quarry (active gravel mine) cuts 40' through the Cooper Formation (Pliocene Marine), the Cross Formation (Middle Marine Eocene), and the Moultre Formation (Middle Marine Eocene), the site provides both vertebrate and invertebrate fossils. More than a dozen new species of Eocene Crabs have been found here. This mine has also produced more Middle Eocene Archeocete (Protocetid) material than any other location in the US. This is an excellent site to collect a variety of brachiopod fossils, small shark teeth, iridescent shell fossils and much more. Once we were granted permission to collect we were allowed to drive into the quarry to the collecting area. As Steve pointed out, a person could spend a lifetime just going through material at this site, everyone found many excellent specimens and I have been to this location several times and can trade some material if anyone is interested. Here are a few pics:
John D., Steve and Little Dave getting ready for the hunt!
Ready to get dirty!
Rare fossil in matrix.
My largest sanddollar of the day, it is actually the size of a silver dollar.
Sanddollars and sponges on matrix. Actually according to John D. these are sandnickels and quarters due to their small size!
If anyone knows what this is let me know, I have heard crableg and seed pod, I cannot find it in any of my fossil books.
We encountered this dust devil while travelling through the mine!
This mine is in Cross S.C. and above us the planes made a cross.
We borrowed this little truck to haul our specimens home, ha, ha, ha 8^)
I know everyone found some great material, John D. found a very nice shell covered with pyrite, Little Dave hauled a few buckets of specimens home, Steve walked around behind John D. and picked up all the nice sanddollars John missed, RJ loaded a 150 matrix specimen in the car for me to play with when I got home, as always a great day of collecting with good friends, until next time, happy rockhunting!
***please note that I will add the scientific names for the fossils in the pics tomorrow after I look them up in my fossil bible.
