The Bat Signal! In a Thunderegg!

I have a habit of looking for geology-related stuff when I’m in the little shops attached to parks. Usually, I’m disappointed. Geology gets very little mention. But you’d expect Lava Lands Visitor’s Center to have a little something, seeing as how their whole thing is the volcanoes. They had a nice bin full o’ bits of the rock types you find round Newberry Crater, collected from the area, which was awesome. They also had Oregon’s state rock, the thunderegg.

It’s amazing what rhyolite gets up to. In this case, little nodules have formed within the lava flow and filled up with all sorts of delicious chalcedony. The Ore Bin has a nice PDF on how it became the state rock and what a thunderegg is.

The patterns within can be wild. And these weren’t expensive, so I decided I might as well get one. I went through several, looking for a pleasing pattern, before this one caught my eye, and I knew it was The One:

Bat Signal Thunderegg

No self-respecting Batman fan and geology addict could possibly pass that up, amirite?

I couldn’t decide whether russet or navy set it off best, so I took a photo of both:

They’re amazing little things. Look at the outside, and you’d never suspect what’s inside:

Thundereggs exterior

Then you cut ’em open, and bam! Beauty. Also, Batman.

Beauty and the Bat

Fun with rhyolite, people. This is how I spend my evenings. I’m such a geek.

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The Bat Signal! In a Thunderegg!
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5 thoughts on “The Bat Signal! In a Thunderegg!

  1. 1

    i think the navy sets it off best… i’ve always loved those and geodes — something special about having to break them open to find the treasure inside. didn’t know they were the or state rock.

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