Sunday, June 24, 2012

6/24/12 Report - Debby Headed Towards Texas & Find Actually Millions of Years Old


Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.


Sea Weed Covered Beach Before Low Tide Yesterday

I took a look at a few different beaches yesterday just to see what is going on.  They all looked pretty much the same.  There was a good bit of sea weed on all of the - some more than others.  The photos show that variation.  The one beach was pretty much covered by sea weed.  I understand it can be used as fertilizer.

There were also a good number of shells on the beaches -  again more on some beaches than others.  Unfortunately the shells were mostly small and broken pieces.  Not very good for either the shell collector nor the person that inspects shell piles for other goodies.

Both the sea weed and accumulation of small shells indicates building rather than eroding beaches.  Not a good sign for the detectorist.

The water was gentle - definitely smooth enough for the water detectorist, but murky.  Visibility near shore was poor.  The sea weed would also be a nuisance for both the beach and water detectorist.   Not to mention those little irritating pests that float in the sea weed.  A wet suit or some other  protection is recommended.

On the beach fronts in the accumulating sand, there were a variety of lighter targets, such as iron or aluminum, that got washed up with the new sand.  I've discussed before how it is really not weight that is important, but rather density and shape that influences where you will find objects on a beach, but I say light or heavy instead, simply because it is quicker, and I think you generally know what  I mean.

Another Beach Near Low Tide Yesterday Afternoon
I also recently mentioned that there are some dangerous sharp objects on some beaches now.  On one beach that doesn't have many targets of any kind, I dug a foot-long piece of barbed wire.  I don't know where that came from.  I haven't seen any barbed wire on that beach before.  While the barbed wire could possible cut you, it is not nearly as dangerous as those broken pieces of steel cable down at Walton Rocks.  Be careful of sharp objects that may appear on any beach.







I made a mistake the other day when I mentioned a possible age range for the horse magnum fossil that I showed.  Fred D., the fossil expert that often helps me to identify found fossils, indicated that I was not even in the ball park, for the age of that fossil find.  Instead of thousands of years, I should have been talking in terms of millions of years. 

Here is what Fred D. said.  The Pliocene goes back at least 5 million years to about 2 million before the present. Because of its dark coloration and degree of  mineralization, it is most definitely Pliocene. Judging by the size, it could be one of the two toed horses.

Thanks once again Fred.


Projected Path of Debby From NOAA.
It looks like Debby isn't headed towards Florida at all.  It looks like she is headed towards Texas.  That might be a good thing.  They had so much drought this year, that they can probably use the rain.

The sea is flat this morning.  It will increase a bit later in the day, but not much.

The wind is out of the south and will remain that day until later in the week, when we'll have a  few hours of a north wind, and the seas will increase up to about four or five feet around Thursday.

No change in detecting conditions expected for a few days.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net