The souls guy says it looks like it soaked into the ground. Kinda looks porous like lava rock but tighter. No smell.
Kind of reminds of me of a rotted tree that fell and got covered a long while ago.
My guess is what a coal burning kiln leaves? This is a clay tile factory now. May have been brick way back when? Has these brick walls with a 12" clay pipe poking out of them. Some are close to these things, some not. I'm not edjumacated on this (guessing)50's ish tech.
My first thought was coal but coal seams are usually in hard rock. When you mention kilns that makes some sense. It apparently hasn't been burned yet or it would just be ash. Is it in lumps or like fine granules that are shiny in the light?
Kinda looks like it was a puddle and soaked thru the sandy rocky creek layer. Comes out it yard sized chunks.
Which Tile factory? 50-ish tech was mostly natural gas fired kilns in the Riv-Corona-Chino area. Lignite came from Alberhill (Pacific Clay), S. Harrington 6, Dawson Rd. Temescal Canyon areas. Open Brick Kilns were built on the ground. Stacking un-fired bricks were used to build the kilns. The black chunks could be natural gases' carbon saturated dirt beneath the fused surface. Open natural gas brick kilns would glow for 3-4 days after shutting down. The remaining walls with clay pipes could have been for the natural gas pipes and manifolds. Natural gas used 1870s for clay sewer pipe https://www.gladdingmcbean.com/our-history.html#event-production-machinery-arrives
THATS> Dinosaur poop..
Come and listen to my story about a man named Jed A poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed, And then one day he was shootin at some food, And up through the ground come a bubblin crude. Oil that is, black gold, Texas tea. source: https://www.lyricsondemand.com/tvthemes/beverlyhillbillieslyrics.html
Slow natives?
Hoffa.
Could be 'Cat Black Drain Oil', recycled; came from the ground, back to the ground. Standard procedure until late 70s
That's interesting. Its corona. Us tile on the building, which you can, or at least could, see from the 91. So I'm guessing this is likely carbon build up from the natural gas soot in the chimneys that melted into the ground over the years? That's pretty cool. PITA to clean up for footings, but still cool. This was the initial guess. =D
Lightning strike?
I think it's more like the gas permeating into the hot soil and carbonizing the soil without oxygen present. Like what a rich acetylene flame will do. You can see the burnt area close to the black area, so you know it was hot.
US Tile / Railroad St. Corona Clay supplied all of the various clays over the years. CC founder/owner worked at the fruit packing house on Railroad (next the S.Cal Edison sub-station and lumber company) with my mom in the depression years. High wages $0.18 per hour. CC provided roll-off dumpsters for the 'grog', rejects, broken tiles etc. Used for baseball in-fields, tennis courts and track-field tracks. Recyclable waste turned into a money making products. Prep for more apartments like Robinson's project on Main St / Old Sears outlet store? Delmer's idea; gas permeating into the hot soil....probably correct. Cheers
Nah, just onsite upgrades. Expanding storage and controlling rain water. Clay factories make for fairly ugly soils conditions.... Great info guys! Cheers! I'll post some closer pics of what this stuff looks like in the morning.
That is a nice looking 235 you're running.
Come and listen to a story bout a man named SAM. Never went to work & he didn't give a dam, Then one day he was sh!ttin in the grass.. & up came a snake & bit him on the Azz,, Hole that is.. Right in the brown spot.. {hahaha}
Thats what I thought too. Then I see the *** and catwalks grinding on the bank. It made it that long in that shape then some donkey F's it all up.
I'm going with a meteorite. You may have just gotten richer than everyone in town!
Didn't get the pics until just now. I split it open with the loader for you.
Lol, it's just a bit of paint off the counter weight..... there isn't much left anyways. Ya, there's a story behind that. Let's just say it wasn't the operator's idea. He wasn't happy about it either. The compression seal on the stick ram is leaking too(supposedly just started. It has been sitting for a few months). Other than that it's pretty clean.