seashell found in mountain

[farmeroz]

I was quite suprised earlier today when grabbing a bucket of material from a creek a few hundred klm's from the coast and a few hundred feet above sea level....I saw a sea shell on my shovel.

I was going to give it to my daughter when I thought for a second....how did this get up the mountain?.

So my main question is how old is this shell and how or why is it in one peice still? (Dug out from a foot deep hole into the roots of a tree in the lowest part of the creek)

Or am I fooled by some kind of mountain living fresh water hermit crab?

 

[farmeroz]

Better shot

 

[Reeks]

Was this in the barrington tops?
I have found fossils of larger sea shells at around 1000m above sea level there.
I've also found large snail shells in the river that look alot like sea snail shells, but they must be a freshwater snail i'd say.

 

[farmeroz]

This one was from out at woodsreef

 

[Heatho]

Seen heaps of similar ones, mainly smaller ones though at Inverell, quite a few at Grabben Gullen too, they stink pretty bad when they all die when the water is really low. Just freshwater shellfish.

 

[Ben78]

Most of the peel fault was originally under sea before it did its rising thing. On another note, how did you go at woodsreef? Is one of those places I still need to go check out!

 

[farmeroz]

We only stopped at woodsreef to grab a bucket of material from this one spot that has been bugging me since I was there last.
We went for a trip up to bingara / upper bingara.

Grabbed 8 bags of material from ruby hill also.

Three ceeeks mine at upper bingara was well worth atoppin in at

 

[farmeroz]

Ben78 just saw that your in tamworth and you havnt been to woodsreef yet? Its your next door neighbour other than nundle

There is only a few pools of water left at woodsreef where there is color, closer to the road there is more water but no color.

Benefit is that you can dig the lowest parts easier while no water..

 

[Ben78]

So you need to drive in as far as you can up Ironbark creek? I see that where split rock dam is now was alluvial workings in the 1850s I would have thought the whole Ironbark/Manilla Creek system would have had gold in it

 

[BrisJoe]

Today when I was prospecting for diamonds, I was walking a creek and found a shell, the same 1 as you're littered along the beach, the black and whitish ones with the ribbed lines down it. Only this is 280km inland from the ocean

 

[farmeroz]

It gets you scratching the head...

 

[Paydirt]

Not sure of Tamworth area geology but I have seen marine fossils a lot higher in the Himalayas ( plate tectonics are a beautiful thing). Stick it in vinegar, if it fizzes and dissolves its still calcium carbonate - relatively recent deposition. If not the carbonate has been replaced by silica - fossilized, but it would most likely be imbedded in a rock.

 

[TenOunce Tone]

There are crabs. Yes CRABS up in the South Palmer area. Real surprise when I saw my first one. Thought ut was some big spider..

That is an interesting shell. Not all land snails look like the common garden brown snail

Cheers, Tone

 

[silver]

Fresh water crabs in South east Queensland too, I happened upon them about 200 metres up a creek above the salt water( a fresh water feeder creek) in a fresh water dam. I was amazed, wondered why we don't see them in aquariums, unless most people don't know they exist.
Potential pet market ?

 

[GOLD Billyen]

Tsunami from 18,000 years ago?

We due for a new one any day now.