Delving deep

In the 1880s, the town of Total Wreck was home to a thriving silver mine and a few hundred people. Now, all that remains are a few stone walls and caved-in tunnels. The geology in the area is very strange: I found a bedrock cut on the side of a stream-bank, with rock mostly a blue color, interspersed with bright red nodules. As you see in today’s picture, the colors were vibrant, but almost sinister. Does anyone know what minerals these are? It doesn’t look anything like the tailings or ore body from the mine…

Edit – an update from a friend: “the blue is copper sulfate and the red is copper oxide.

2 Comments

  1. Alyssa says:

    sounds like the town’s name was a self-fulfilling prophecy! amazing colors, though.

  2. bblonder says:

    Thanks Alyssa! I wonder what the town’s founder was thinking when he gave his mine such an auspicious name…

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