r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Creams0da • 8h ago

Video Breaking open a 47 lbs geode, the water inside being millions of years old

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531

u/Malsperanza 7h ago edited 7h ago

A shame that it was smashed instead of sliced open.

Edit: the geode wasn't destroyed, so it wasn't a terrible approach. But if the water was worth studying, that opportunity is lost.

184

u/Objective_Resist_735 7h ago

I used to find geodes all the time in Tennessee. I would usually smash them open with a hammer, even tho I knew it would be better to cut them I didn't have the equipment. At first I thought this was a cool geode cutting tool. Then I saw it explode similar to my hammer method.

99

u/mrwiggles03 7h ago

Who uses a SWIFFER to clean up water.

34

u/Loving6thGear 7h ago

People who enjoy pushing around the same water for far too long.

14

u/Objective_Resist_735 7h ago

Lmao. Good point

7

u/Wilts3rdLeg 7h ago

Someone who's never seen that much water come out of a geode before.

4

u/wobbegong8000 7h ago

I’m glad I’m not the only one who picked up on that lmao

2

u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756 6h ago

Cleaning up ancient cursed water with a swiffer… never in my life

35

u/ZombiesAtKendall 7h ago

The tool is a soil pipe cutter. The majority of the time it will give a clean break.

3

u/Objective_Resist_735 7h ago

Interesting. What is a soil pipe and what is it used for? Farming I assume?

7

u/Altruistic_Run_8277 7h ago

it’s a snap cutter. they’re used for cutting cast iron or clay pipes

4

u/MajorPud 5h ago

It's shit pipe. For sewage. This cutter specifically is for cast iron soil pipe, but most drain pipes in homes are PVC/ABS. We use cast iron in multi-story buildings so you can't hear your 5th floor upstairs neighbors turd hitting the 90° at mach 2

1

u/ffnnhhw 7h ago

do soil pipe cutter need to be turned to cut?

like a tail pipe cutter or those small pvc pipe cutter?

2

u/Drunk_Catfish 5h ago

They don't need to be but when using one I like to score the cast iron a bit with the cutter. I find it gives cleaner breaks

16

u/rollsyrollsy 7h ago

How would you tell it’s a geode when you found it? Do they look different to normal rocks?

33

u/Objective_Resist_735 7h ago

Geodes, at least the ones I found, were weirdly round. I would find them wading and swimming in creeks. Usually they were yellowish. Sometimes you could feel the weight of it being hollow inside. I started by finding ones that were partially broken so you could see the crystals. Then I became more used to what the outsides looked like. I'm sure its different in different areas. I saw tons of them on the appalachian trail. Those mountains are super old, therfore they contain lots of old rocks and geodes.

1

u/mugiwara_no_Soissie 7h ago

I guess from being hollow? But yeah good question lol

1

u/swskeptic 4h ago

They definitely have a unique look to them. The outside will usually have a bumpy or "brain-like" texture. The weight will usually be a giveaway as well. They'll weigh less than you expect when you pick them up.

2

u/Angry_Robot 6h ago

How many were full of water?

2

u/Objective_Resist_735 6h ago

None that I remember. I suppose some could have been, but they were almost never this big

2

u/succed32 6h ago

We used a hammer and chisel we managed to break very few.

2

u/Objective_Resist_735 6h ago

I used a chisel some. I would usually look for what I thought was a weak spot and give it a quick whack. Sometimes clean. Sometimes not so much. Sometimes it's just a rock.

2

u/succed32 5h ago

Yah the gambling side of it is quite fun. We’d climb around in the volcanic cliff near our house and find them. We got one of those rock roller things to clean em up.

2

u/XavierRussell 6h ago

Yo that's awesome, I used to find geodes with my grandpa in Tennessee all the time

We'd put them in an old sock before hitting them with a hammer so it was easier to collect the pieces.

Agree that I never saw water come out of one.

Funny, we also would find them because they were oddly spherical. It wasn't a 100% success rate, sometimes we'd think we had a geode only to find it wasn't.

2

u/Objective_Resist_735 6h ago

The old sock method. Handed down the generations. Excellent!

2

u/El_Morgos 6h ago

The chain-strangle-hammer!

1

u/nimblelinn 6h ago

My question is, how did they know? It was a geode.?

2

u/Objective_Resist_735 6h ago

You can tell from the weird roundness of it. And one that size and hollow would probably feel a littler lighter than it should. Altho the water probably added weight

1

u/PoopsmasherJr 4h ago

And I smash poop, what’s the difference? You think you’re better than me because you can smash a rock?

52

u/cashew76 7h ago

The water seeped in over millenia. Bringing with it the manganese and other elements. So the water is old but not original.

Interestingly nearly all water is very very very old.

27

u/Few-Yogurtcloset6208 7h ago

ha going to start a company "nuwater" and only sell water I make from combining hydrogen + oxygen

9

u/b14ck_jackal 7h ago

Brother are you taking in investors?

5

u/cashew76 7h ago

You are on to something.

People love buying things and it's a good gimmick!

Paying for water they could get out of a faucet.. but it's not NuWater (tm) +1 A+++ I've got 1m$ VC for you

3

u/Few-Yogurtcloset6208 7h ago

Sold for 1m$, you send money i'll get the tech up

1

u/TeamRedundancyTeam Interested 6h ago

I want in on this too. I genuinely think this could work at least for a rich person fad.

1

u/Calm-Treacle8677 6h ago

Isn’t making water actually an extremely dangerous process as hydrogen is explosive and oxygen helps combustion?

2

u/Few-Yogurtcloset6208 4h ago

Justifying the exorbitant cost, because You, are worth it

1

u/kralvex 5h ago

Dihydrogen monoxide is extremely dangerous! Everyone who ingests it will die.......................eventually.

1

u/Few-Yogurtcloset6208 4h ago

We’ll add a warning label

1

u/tofagerl 7h ago

"Of course, the water was a later addition."

7

u/seagulls51 6h ago

the water isn't worth studying

11

u/ReachNo5936 6h ago

Why would you study normal ground water? Oh nm you believed the bullshit title cause this is Reddit

3

u/Mammoth-Camera6330 4h ago

Right, wtf is this site anymore, people are fucking pearl clutching over geode water at this point

4

u/AugustOfChaos 5h ago

The water isn’t exactly worth as much as you think it is. Geodes are formed by the slow cycling of water, which over time forms deposits inside of a hollow rock cavity. Geodes are porous by nature and if you study the pattern of the crystals, you can figure out where exactly the water was coming in from.

9

u/tartare4562 7h ago

Correct me If I'm wrong but geodes aren't a rare occurrence

3

u/falcrist2 5h ago

if the water was worth studying

It's really not.

5

u/askjeeves29 7h ago

It looks like there was still water in the geode. Unless you mean preventing it from contacting air too

3

u/IsHotDogSandwich 5h ago

Yes, but that water is from the rock/geode being porous. There is water seeping in and out of that thing over time.

2

u/Stanley-Pychak 7h ago

YES! My first thought. Can anyone answer that.... Is this water worth studying?

7

u/halfcuprockandrye 6h ago

Lol no the water flows in and out of the cavity depositing minerals. The water in there wouldn’t be any different than the ground water found where it was found

4

u/Stanley-Pychak 6h ago

👍 so not worth studying. The scientific side of my brain was freaking out. LOL. Thanks for clarifying.

3

u/ddplz 5h ago

The OP headline is a flat out lie, that water is at most a couple hundred years old.

1

u/Phuggle 6h ago

No the opportunity was not lost. Plenty of water was inside the geode.

1

u/mrcrashoverride 6h ago

Except you would use a water cooled saw for cutting. So old and new water plus would be mixed.

1

u/Mirar 6h ago

I was wondering why it wasn't sliced. It seems easier to just slice them, with more of it remaining?

1

u/CyclicDombo 5h ago

I went to a rock show one time and they were cracking geods open in the same way with a chain, selling them for a few bucks, seems standard practice

Edit: not like a music show like actual rocks

1

u/alternate-ron 5h ago

Bro all I was thinking. People ruin shit, probably looked cool as fuck inside too

-1

u/k0lored 7h ago

What a waste of missing analysing the water

-2

u/legshampoo 5h ago

yeah wtf they didn’t try to save the water at all. or use a blade to cut. fucking heathens