Stunning in Red and White

A friend and colleague showed me his new lifestyle property on the edge of Armidale a couple of weeks ago. He is an observant soil scientist and noted that his land consisted of poor quality soils which grew only resilient grasses and some typical New England gum, stringy-bark and box woodland. He was curious about the rocks that were common on the surface of the dusty grey-brown soil. I was not surprised of the poor soils because the property is located on a geological unit called the Sandon Beds.

The Sandon Beds are common in the Armidale district, especially just to the north of the town. They were laid down sometime during the Devonian to Carboniferous periods. The rocks of the Sandon Beds are varied and include mudstones, conglomerates, volcanics and bio-chemical sedimentary rocks. The deposition of the unit was in the ocean debris flows from the continental shelf would form turbidites (coarse to fine grained repeating sequences), layers of fine mud would accumulate and occasional basalt volcanic rocks would occur. Sometimes, while a long distance from landmasses or spreading ridges very little would happen - only the gentle settling of dead primitive ocean organisms with silica skeletons.

Brecciated Jasper (chert) of the Sandon Beds

The settling of silica on the sea bed produces a rock called chert. It is common in the Sandon Beds with a red colour. The chert occurs in beds interspersed with dull mudstones, siltstones and the like. Possibly because of regional scale metamorphism or the effect of fluids in the rock the chert has been affected and displays its red colour. Because of the red colour it is often referred to as Jasper which is seen by some as a semi-precious stone.

Throughout my friend's property could be traced lines of chert running essentially north-south. This is because the beds have been tilted to a nearly vertical direction. There was nothing out of the ordinary with these beds but in one area some of the red chert caught my eye. I could not see the actual outcrop but scattered around one little area was red chert with bright white quartz veins. The chert had been broken apart and re-cemented together with the quartz rich fluid. The result was quite striking, a stunning red and white. In this one little area, at some time after the chert had formed and turned into hard rock it had been blasted apart apparently by hot fluids. A 'brecciated jasper' occurring in a little area that just happened to be on a friends new property just ready to be discovered.