Color:  Newala Chert ranges in color from black to gray, white to faint purple with bands of smoky gray to olive green.

Texture: Fine grain, hard

Luster:  Dull

Translucency: 

Silica Fabrics / Fossils:

Patina:  

Heat Treatment:  Heat treatment darkens the colors and changes the faint red and purled to dark red and orange.  The luster increases to glossy.  However, the chert also becomes very brittle and tends to shatter.  The banded chert tends to shatter.

Knapping: 

Notes:  Newala chert has many overlapping characteristics of Knox Chert and is difficult to distinguish the two types out of the formational contex.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Distribution Comments:

Newala Chert is associated with the Newala Limestone Formation of Alabama and Georgia.  Primarily occurs as nodules and thin discontinuous beds in Shelby County, Alabama and Polk and Floyd counties, Georgia. Also found along Tiger Creek, Catoosa County, Georgia.