Hematite Concretions

Hematite concretions
West Odessa, Texas

July is usually a dry month, but not this year. We've had lots of rain, and rain not only makes everything green and pretty, but also makes it a good time to go scouting for these little "rocks," hematite concretions. They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, some in other parts of the world are big enough for a person to stand on! I find these little roundish, ones regularly -- being round they like to roll into the ruts of oil field and utility roads. The first one I found last summer was so perfectly round I thought was some sort of buckshot.

Concretions can be found in many parts of the earth and these could be many million years old. In this batch, I especially like the one on the far left, still embedded in a piece of caliche. The larger ones on the right are split in half :( And the split one at the very top you can see is concave.

Interestingly, concretions like these were found on Mars, nicknamed "blueberries." They are part of the reason that it is believed that there once was water there, as concretions are formed by water and a bunch of other science stuff I don't quite understand.

For more information you can read these links:

• "Earth Has Blueberries Like Mars" from the University of Utah.
• Concretions are sometimes mistaken for meteorites -- "meteorwrongs" as per a Washington University site.
• To see more you can also google image search for "Moqui Marbles." They were supposed to be used by Shamans and the ones from Utah are now sought by New Agers.