Hot silica and Ultra Ancient Star Drill Holes in America (USA).
Ancient means old. Ultra ancient means extremely old.
Silicon (Si) and Oxygen (O) combined are the chemical elements that make up crystal quartz. As a crystal grows the atoms within its domain are arranged in an ordered and repeating fashion, creating its shape.
Quartz crystals commonly grow in pegmatitic environments, such as a vug (cave-like cavity or geode) containing mineralized solution. Over time the minerals grow within the solution by evaporation.
The 2 geodes shown below were sliced open to reveal colored quartz crystals. Purple colored quartz is called Amethyst and the golden yellow colored quartz is called Citrine.
Mines in Bolivia contain quartz crystals that are part amethyst and part citrine called Ametrine.
The designer pendant (below center) has an Ametrine mined from Bolivia.
The interior of a geode has large crystals and as you look closer to the geodes outside rind you will notice the crystals get smaller and smaller until they become microscopic and invisible to the eye.
Micro-crystalline quartz is called chalcedony. Chalcedony with visible lines is called agate and if no lines are present its called jasper. Both quartz and chalcedony are piezoelectric.
Melting quartz with charcoal will separate the silica from oxygen, creating silicon
Silicon is hard yet brittle and is not easily worked unless using an ultrasonic machine for drilling and carving. Today we use silicon as a semiconductor for computers. Without the understanding of minerals, we would not have computers.
Obsidian is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extrudes from a volcano and quickly cools.
The ability of light to bend within glass is called its refractive index. Man-made glass can bend light at many different degrees, whereas obsidian is a constant 1.49 on the refractometer.
Shaping obsidian with pressure by a blunt object creates conchoidal (shell-like) fractures. The primitive process of shaping obsidian is called knapping. Brown obsidian is called mahogany obsidian and has the same refractive index as black obsidian (1.49).
Cristobalite has the same chemical formula as quartz, SiO₂, but has a crystal structure to it, whereas obsidian is amorphous (no crystal structure).
Cristobalite is also piezoelectric.
White cristobalite in black obsidian is called snowflake obsidian. Candy coated rocks may look like snowflake obsidian, but they are not. One is tasty and the other will break your teeth.
Silica (sand) can also get really hot from a meteor impact or nuclear blast. The nickel iron meteorite (below left) is an example of a Pallasite. The green olivine mineral peridot has a nice contrast to the metallic nickel.
After a nuclear blast or meteor impact, hot silica is shot up and splashes back down to the ground, solidifying as glass. Splash glass is called a Tektite.
Moldavite is a variety of tektite and is only found in the czech republic. All splash glass has a melted exterior. Moldavite is unique because it shares the same refractive index as obsidian (1.49).
Tektites have a melted exterior, illuminating the glass internally helps in observation. Unlike moldavite, another tektite “Libyan desert glass” bends light at 1.46 on the refractometer.
Lightning plasma is ultra hot and melts quartz bearing sand Si (silica) at a much higher temperature than molten magma.
Due to the hot plasma strike in the sand by lightning, the silica rapidly melts and cools, forming hollow tubes called fulgurites. The melted tube color is the native color of its environment.
Heat and high pressure can deform the atomic planes within quartz and is referred to as “shocked quartz”. The planes are melted to an amorphous state and are detected by microscopic examination.
The force is strong in my family. Luke skywalker had a light saber, baseball Hall of famer Luke Appling had a bat, and Ultra Arky jeff appling has an expandable flashlight and gem lab.
(Below left) Crinoids are fossilized sea lilies that have round or star shape appendages and when dissolved out of its host rock will leave behind star and round shape indentations in stone. Ultrasonic drilling of rock with a star shape tube will create star shape cores similar in appearance to that of star shape organic crinoids.
Nature does not make precision geometric holes in stone unless a geometric shape mineral has dissolved out and away from its host rock.
Ultrasonic core drilling creates precision drill holes in any shape from whatever shape tube is used.
Any size hole can be made using ultrasonics. A common star hole size found around the world and here in america is about 7cm in diameter (2.75 inches).
Star holes with precision are recorded up to 10″ wide (inside diameter).
Tafoni are irregular cavities in sedimentary rock caused by weathering. John V. found and showed me the below tafoni and following star drill holes in pescadero, california.
John also explained how the higher tafoni along the coast of pescadero is from mountain building. The rising of the american plate from the pacific plate.
Should a star drill hole contain Tafoni inside the hole?
The star drill hole will be older than the weathering that caused the cavities of tafoni.
Weathering and erosion of rock in a fluvial areas (creeks and rivers) can heavily abrade (wear down) any sharp cuts over time.
The 2 below holes in a boulder found within pescadero creek by John V, are now worn down. The star shape hole has 5 even lobes and transitions to a round internal hole. Due to the nature of heavy erosion, I cannot conclude these as ultrasonic drilling.
However, if you erode away a precision star hole it will wear down at the same rate as seen below.
Round dynamite blasting holes commonly found along the california coast are about 1.5 inches in diameter and are round only (dynamite-stick stuffers)
Ultra ancient star holes have precision cuts internally. The inside walls of a star hole are evenly shaped and show the shape of the drilling tube used. A mirror reflection of tube and hole.
In June of 2022, I received an email with images from Glenn K.
The images from Glenn (pictured below) are of star or geometric shape holes found along the shore of the Ashokan Reservoir in upstate NY. The star shape holes were discovered in July of 2020.
The star shaped holes are not too abraded by erosion to determine ultrasonics. This is a wonderful example of what ultrasonic drilling looks like in a rock.
New or old, the machine marks shown here are of ultrasonic drilling origin. A hallmark so-to-speak.
All minerals within the rock were evenly ground away with precision. This 7-lobbed star drill hole in new york was created by using a 7-lobbed metal tube to ultrasonically bore through the stone at a high rate. The 7-lobbed tube for drilling was made by using a drawplate.
Read my past blogs on ultrasonic drilling for further understanding and better clarity of how precision star drill holes are made in stone.
Ultra Ancient Star Drill Hole
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The focus of the ultra arky is not on who made the machined star drill holes in stone, nor all the conventional ways that don’t work. The focus is always on the technology that works.
Learn the technology and you will have a glimpse of the people.
A special thanks and gratitude to both John V. and Glenn K. for their keen observations, knowledge, and willingness to share their findings with me…………………..YOU GUYS ROCK!
