What is Unique about your State or Country?

[carrie-on]

Michigan has a state rock too...it's called a Petoskey Stone and can only be found in Michigan.
http://www.petoskey.com/images/smallrock.gif
Petoskey Stones are fossilized colony corals (Hexagonaria percarinata). Their origin is traced back to Devonian seas that covered Michigan's Lower Peninsula about 350 million years ago.

The soft, living tissue of corals is called the polyp. A limey substance is secreted by the polyp, hardening into corallite -- a skeletal base which supports the polyp and keeps it from being buried alive by bottom debris. Petoskey stones found in Michigan consist of massive corallas of varying sizes. The limey skeletons were replaced by calcite or silica in a cell-by-cell process called petrifaction.

When glaciers scraped the bedrock surface, fragments of this rock were carried and deposited elsewhere, primarily in the north half of the Lower Peninsula. In 1965, the Michigan legislature became the first in the nation to select a fossil as its state stone.

Petoskey stones may be found on beaches, road cuts, ditches, gravel pits and sand blows all over the state. Similar fossils of the Hexagonaria genus occur in many parts of the world, but the "percarinata" is limited to the Traverse Group.

 

[Jenny _S]

A few more things about Oregon...

Our Rose Festival started tonight for a two week run...the Grand Floral Parade is the the second largest all floral float parade in the world...second only to Pasadena's Tournament of Roses Parade. (Usually about 500,000 people line the parade route and it is televised nationally.)

RedRyder,
You forgot to mention the most outstanding thing about Oregon. We historically have a very strange mini-baby boom every
March with nearly 25% of the babies born then. How very odd
that that should align perfectly with the Rose Festival and the
US Navy coming up the Columbia River to spawn every year.
Don't you think?

Jenny

 

[tonitits]

A few more things about Oregon...

Our Rose Festival started tonight for a two week run...the Grand Floral Parade is the the second largest all floral float parade in the world...second only to Pasadena's Tournament of Roses Parade. (Usually about 500,000 people line the parade route and it is televised nationally.)

RedRyder,
You forgot to mention the most outstanding thing about Oregon. We historically have a very strange mini-baby boom every
March with nearly 25% of the babies born then. How very odd
that that should align perfectly with the Rose Festival and the
US Navy coming up the Columbia River to spawn every year.
Don't you think?

Jenny

That is pretty cool about the mini baby boom! But you have one of the best things to me. You have the King of the Brats, AA!!!!!!! He holds a very dear place in my heart!

 

[Annabelllee2003]

Hillary Clinton

*sorry*
GAG
*sorry*

 

[Bachlum Chaam]

Bachum Bloody Chaam makes England bloody unique.

Why thank you Stark, of course you are correct

 

[alwaysawake]

Here is what a thunderegg is and what it looks like when cut in half and polished...

Even before the Oregon sunstone was adopted as Oregon’s official gemstone, another geological souvenir thundered onto Oregon’s state symbols roster. The thunderegg was adopted as Oregon’s state rock on March 30, 1965.

The first choice of rockhounds throughout Oregon, thundereggs are pretty dull on the outside. But like a cream-filled cookie, they’re filled with agates of various colors and exquisite designs best revealed when polished.

To make a thunderegg, all you need is a volcano that produces lava rich in silica, the stuff of which quartz is made. As the lava cools, steam and gases trapped within the lava form bubbles. Melted silicas may harden into crystals inside the bubbles, forming spherulites.

Gas pressure sometimes forces spherulites apart, forming a central hollow which may be filled with more minerals. Water carrying dissolved silica may seep into the cavity, leaving behind banded agate, chalcedony, clear quartz crystals or amethyst. A thunderegg can contain several layers of different minerals. Some thundereggs boast star-shaped patterns. Thundereggs are found around the world. In Oregon, they are found chiefly in Malheur, Wasco, Jefferson, Wheeler and Crook counties (our desert counties.) Thundereggs range in diameter from less than one inch to over four feet. In 1968, an enormous thunderegg was put on display on the Capitol grounds in Salem. This thunderegg measures four by five feet and weighs 3,500 pounds! Millions of years old, it was speculated that it might be Oregon’s largest known thunderegg. This “thunder boulder” was found in a “nest” of similar rocky eggs on a steep slope in the Deschutes gorge south of Maupin by Elliott Parker, Bend, Oregon State Highway Department division geologist.



http://www.geobop.com/World/NA/US/1Images/Geo/Thunderegg.jpg

 

[redrider4u]

Here is what a thunderegg is and what it looks like when cut in half and polished...

Even before the Oregon sunstone was adopted as Oregon’s official gemstone, another geological souvenir thundered onto Oregon’s state symbols roster. The thunderegg was adopted as Oregon’s state rock on March 30, 1965.

The first choice of rockhounds throughout Oregon, thundereggs are pretty dull on the outside. But like a cream-filled cookie, they’re filled with agates of various colors and exquisite designs best revealed when polished.

To make a thunderegg, all you need is a volcano that produces lava rich in silica, the stuff of which quartz is made. As the lava cools, steam and gases trapped within the lava form bubbles. Melted silicas may harden into crystals inside the bubbles, forming spherulites.

Gas pressure sometimes forces spherulites apart, forming a central hollow which may be filled with more minerals. Water carrying dissolved silica may seep into the cavity, leaving behind banded agate, chalcedony, clear quartz crystals or amethyst. A thunderegg can contain several layers of different minerals. Some thundereggs boast star-shaped patterns. Thundereggs are found around the world. In Oregon, they are found chiefly in Malheur, Wasco, Jefferson, Wheeler and Crook counties (our desert counties.) Thundereggs range in diameter from less than one inch to over four feet. In 1968, an enormous thunderegg was put on display on the Capitol grounds in Salem. This thunderegg measures four by five feet and weighs 3,500 pounds! Millions of years old, it was speculated that it might be Oregon’s largest known thunderegg. This “thunder boulder” was found in a “nest” of similar rocky eggs on a steep slope in the Deschutes gorge south of Maupin by Elliott Parker, Bend, Oregon State Highway Department division geologist.



http://www.geobop.com/World/NA/US/1Images/Geo/Thunderegg.jpg

Hi there, AA.
good article today in USATODAY about Oregon's wine industry and it's challenges.

 

[alwaysawake]

Hi there, AA.
good article today in USATODAY about Oregon's wine industry and it's challenges.

Thanks, I'll take a look at that--I deal with a bunch of those wineries in my job...LOL. Oregon is rapidly gaining a reputation as one of the premier wine producing areas in the world...I can attest to that! Another label...from Washington State...that has produced superb wines that are relatively inexpensive is Columbia Crest. I highly recommend them--don't let the price of between 5-10 bucks fool you--they are excellent and made in the eastern Washington desert...LOL! Here is a link for their website:

http://www.columbiacrest.com/

This is my favorite winery in Oregon...Valley View in the booming metropolis of Ruch, Oregon...LOL

http://www.valleyviewwinery.com/

 

[GoddessOfSouls]

~smiling~ FINALLY

Michigan has a state rock too...it's called a Petoskey Stone and can only be found in Michigan.
http://www.petoskey.com/images/smallrock.gif
Petoskey Stones are fossilized colony corals (Hexagonaria percarinata). Their origin is traced back to Devonian seas that covered Michigan's Lower Peninsula about 350 million years ago.

The soft, living tissue of corals is called the polyp. A limey substance is secreted by the polyp, hardening into corallite -- a skeletal base which supports the polyp and keeps it from being buried alive by bottom debris. Petoskey stones found in Michigan consist of massive corallas of varying sizes. The limey skeletons were replaced by calcite or silica in a cell-by-cell process called petrifaction.

When glaciers scraped the bedrock surface, fragments of this rock were carried and deposited elsewhere, primarily in the north half of the Lower Peninsula. In 1965, the Michigan legislature became the first in the nation to select a fossil as its state stone.

Petoskey stones may be found on beaches, road cuts, ditches, gravel pits and sand blows all over the state. Similar fossils of the Hexagonaria genus occur in many parts of the world, but the "percarinata" is limited to the Traverse Group.

Morning Miss Carrie!!
making note of the "LOWER" in that piece on Petoskey stones, and remind your Hubby of this.. Now thats one reason for a Bridge!! iam sure we can find more hehe hehe ..
well sweets was just checking in, hope all is well with you, I seen in the Bar that you were outta town take care of you and yours I will catch you when your back ..

 

[redrider4u]

Thanks, I'll take a look at that--I deal with a bunch of those wineries in my job...LOL. Oregon is rapidly gaining a reputation as one of the premier wine producing areas in the world...I can attest to that! Another label...from Washington State...that has produced superb wines that are relatively inexpensive is Columbia Crest. I highly recommend them--don't let the price of between 5-10 bucks fool you--they are excellent and made in the eastern Washington desert...LOL! Here is a link for their website:

http://www.columbiacrest.com/

This is my favorite winery in Oregon...Valley View in the booming metropolis of Ruch, Oregon...LOL

http://www.valleyviewwinery.com/

Thanks for the info. I'll check out Columbia Crest at the state store here. In PA, can only buy wine from the state.

I did not realize until your postings and the USATODAY article that Oregon had such a vibrant wine industry. My old home state, VA has been pushing wine growth for some time. At one time, they featured the local wines prominently at the front of the state stores.

Another decent source for reasonable priced and good tasting vino is the Biltmore Estate in western NC. They produce their own wine on the estate and sell it right there to the public. I particularly like "Cardinal's Crest."

www.biltmore.com