Glossary Category: Locations & Site Types

Walk a bench edge and check the lip, face, and toe for fresh breaks and concentrated fragments shed from the exposed level.

A boulder field sweep is a systematic scan across a boulder-strewn area, checking cracks, shaded sides, and contact points where material collects.

Creek Walking is a field method collectors use when creek walking fits the geology, tools, and access rules at a site. It affects what you can recover, how clean the material is, and how much disturbance the method creates.

An inside bend scan focuses on point bars and low-energy deposits where heavier pieces and fossils often settle during normal flow.

Bedrock exposed at the surface in its original position; rockhounds use outcrops to read local geology and locate the source of nearby float and mineralization.

An outside bend scan checks cut banks and erosion faces where fresh material is exposed but stability and safety can change quickly.

A deposit on the inside of a stream bend where current drops sediment; point bars can concentrate fossils, minerals, and heavy material.

A slope of loose, angular rock fragments below a cliff or steep face; scree can concentrate fresh material but is unstable.