Sea Stone
The Seas Roll In
the new edge of the continent stabilizes and the ocean deposits sediments across Oregon
(100 million years ago-present)
Sea Stone
This Timestone is made of mudstone, part of the thousands of feet of sedimentary rock that was deposited on top of Siletzia and now make up the Coast range. The stone began as a layer of mud deposited on the seafloor off the coast of Oregon 42 million years ago. The mud was compressed into rock as later layers buried it thousands of feet deep. Mudstone is rarely used in sculpture because it crumbles easily, but this rock is densely cemented and can be polished to a silken sheen and carved to a crisp edge. The white layers are volcanic ash, and you can see tiny dark spots which are the fossilized burrows of some unknown creature.
The base for this piece is porphyritic basalt from Siletzia. Most basalt is very fine-grained because it cools so quickly that crystals have little time to grow. Sometimes the basalt may begin to crystallize while still pooled up underground, growing large crystals of plagioclase, which are then frozen into the lava when it reaches the surface and cools quickly.
Stone and base from Coos County
(100 million years ago-present)
Sea Stone
This Timestone is made of mudstone, part of the thousands of feet of sedimentary rock that was deposited on top of Siletzia and now make up the Coast range. The stone began as a layer of mud deposited on the seafloor off the coast of Oregon 42 million years ago. The mud was compressed into rock as later layers buried it thousands of feet deep. Mudstone is rarely used in sculpture because it crumbles easily, but this rock is densely cemented and can be polished to a silken sheen and carved to a crisp edge. The white layers are volcanic ash, and you can see tiny dark spots which are the fossilized burrows of some unknown creature.
The base for this piece is porphyritic basalt from Siletzia. Most basalt is very fine-grained because it cools so quickly that crystals have little time to grow. Sometimes the basalt may begin to crystallize while still pooled up underground, growing large crystals of plagioclase, which are then frozen into the lava when it reaches the surface and cools quickly.
Stone and base from Coos County
