Moqui Marbles

Moqui marble embedded in sandstone

Moqui marble still embedded in the sandstone.

Moqui marbles are not terribly interesting photographically but very interesting from a curiosity perspective.  They are round iron balls filled with sandstone ranging in size from roughly 1/4 inch up to several inches in diameter.

Apparently an iron solution permeates a sandstone ball and then converts to hematite (iron rock) where it has permeated.  This leads to heavy iron balls with soft sandstone cores.

Where does the iron come from?  Well all that red rock is iron, and in geologic time, some of the iron was bleached from the sandstone  turning the sandstone white, while the solution settled.  Then, when the solution hits error, the iron comes out of solution as a precipitate.  The result are sheets of iron bearing rock, moqui marbles and other unique formations as well as the white and red sandstone.

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In the picture above, you can see the moqui marbles, and broken moqui marbles that have collected in the low spots.An easy read on the geology is here.