Strata Gem

Tooele Gem & Mineral

April 2004

 

The Presidents Message

 

We had about 30 people at our meeting. What a great bunch of people we have in our club.

 

We decided to go on a field trip April 17^th for Wonder Stone.

 

Henry Chavez is going to demonstrate making silver jewelry as our next meeting, thanks Henry.

 

Don showed more slides of a field trip we made up to Henry's Lake and Yellowstone, We all looked young and skinny. La Mont Anglesey brought out a nice slide projector from Salt Lake Community Collage, Thanks a lot.

 

Erla and Jay Woods brought the treats, Thank you very much. Our newest member Robin Sawll is going to bring the treats next time.

 

Happy Easter,

Good Luck and Good Health to Everyone.

 

Your President

Ruth S. Smith

 

Tooele Gem And Mineral

Tooele Senior Citizens Center

March 9 2004, 7:30 PM.

 

The meeting was called to order by president Ruth Smith everyone was welcomed. The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved. Our treasurer Marry Lynn Titus was sick and could not come to the meeting.

 

Janet Nix reported she has purchased some polished rock for our grab bags and some fine rocks for our saw dust panning, she has also got some key chains, chains and some jump rings. It was suggested that we change our grand prize for the show from a TV to a gas barbecue, this idea was discussed and we decided to get a gas barbecue for the grand prize. Bob Titus suggested that we should also have a lesser grand prize Friday and Saturday it was discussed and decided that we will do this.

 

It was decided to have our rock bag fill on June 5^th at Jay Woods house, we will start at 10 AM we will also do some crafts for the wheel and our rock bags, it would help if we did some crafts at home also. It was announced that the ROCKY MOUNTAIN FEDERATION will have the annual business meeting in Wichita Kansas at the Cessna Activity Center at 1:00 PM Saturday April 24. The show will run April 23 thru 25^th. Some one asked where the club money goes, our club paper costs about a dollar for each member, our steak fry is paid for by the club as is our Christmas party, we donate two hundred dollars to the Senior Citizens Center for the use of the building for our meetings, we pay Search and Rescue five hundred dollars to police around the show, our federation dues are one dollar and fifty cents per member, we also make contributions to different charitable organizations, we also have been giving flowers or gift baskets to people who are sick. It was suggested and discussed that we should quit giving flowers and gift baskets to the sick and send them a card instead, this motion was passed. Sherri Miller and the Scotts both made up some photo albums for us to look at all those people pictured looked so young.

 

We will have our first rock trip on the 17^th of April it will be for wonder stone this is just passed Vernon just before you get to the rail-road tracks turn left, and go north. Henry Chavez will give a silversmithing demonstration at our next meeting. Robin Saull will bring the treats next month. Mike Houser won the door prize. The meeting was adjourned. We had treats and a slide show

 

Minutes submitted by

Larry Wilson

Secretary

 

From The

Sunshine Chairman

 

We heard after the meeting that Lida Chapman is back in the hospital. The club members wishes the best for her and send our love.

 

Ruth S. Smith

 

Just Jesting

 

Everyone has a photographic memory. Some just don’t have film.

 

You don’t stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing.

 

We can’t change the direction of the wind..., but we can adjust our sails.

 

If the shoe fits.... buy it in every color.

 

When life gives you scraps, make quilts.

 

If not for stress I’d have no energy at all.

 

Whatever hits the fan will be evenly distributed.

 

I know God won’t give me more than I can handle. I just wish He didn’t trust me so much.

 

Via the Internet

Via Port Townsend Rock Club News December 2001/January 2002

Radioactive Mineral Dangers...

Angela Churchill

 

The question of radioactive mineral danger often comes up among rockhounds. Here are some of the discussions which have taken place recently on various internet chat sites. What precautions do the pros recommend for the rockhound who has things like autunite and uraninite in their collection?

 

One should use common sense for instance and not carry around a uraninite specimen in a pocket or store a box of material under the bed and store the specimens away from areas of the house that are used more. If there is a substantial collection of uranium minerals, they could be stored in a lead lined box and the display glass could be leaded glass. - David Von Bargen

 

The Health Physics Society has a fairly detailed web page answering this question which can be found at: www.hps.org. In general, most radioactive minerals contain either Uranium or Thorium (232Th). The naturally occurring isotopes of these elements (235U, 238U, and 232Th) are predominantly alpha emitters with very long half lives. Alpha radiation is stopped by about 10 cm of air, a piece of paper, or the dead skin cell layer on your body. In addition, the sample sizes that most people collect are small enough that there is very little hazard. Keeping a piece of Uraninite or Autunite in your pocket, even for several days or weeks, isn't going to present any significant health hazard or risk. I would feel quite comfortable displaying my prize piece of Uraninite, Autunite, or Pitchblende on my mantle without any worries.

 

On the other hand, ingesting (either through inhalation or eating) such minerals would present some risk since there would be no barrier (air, paper, dead skin) between your internal organs and the alpha radiation. Thus, I would be quite careful in handling such minerals if they were easily friable and make sure not to inhale any of the dust. The bottom line is that you shouldn't store them under the couch. Wash your hands (or gloves) after handling them. Keep them in an air-tight container so you don't have to deal with radioactive dust and keep them in a well ventilated area. A container made out of something like plexi-glass (which often has a small amount of lead in it) is good enough to cut down most of the radioactivity. As you noticed, at a distance of about 4 feet of air, you should be reading only background. If the counts are still high at that point, you might want to consider a lead lined box. - Dolores G Durant, PhD

 

We once asked a radiation safety person about a display that contained uraninite. He said that you would have to stand in front of the display all day to exceed the permitted daily radiation dose. So don't keep the specimens on your desk or under your pillow. Ingesting dust is dangerous and the collector should be sure to wash their hands after handling radioactive specimens. Radon might be a problem if the storage room doesn't have ventilation. Ben Shaub, who taught at Smith for many years, had quite a bit of uraninite in his home in his personal collection. He died a few years ago at age 100, perhaps due to the presence of uraninite. - John B. Brady, Department of Geology, Smith College, Northampton, MA

 

The danger is accumulated radon gas emitted from decaying elements, so when the minerals are inspected they should be ventilated away from people for some time especially if contained for periods of time.

 

Even more so in glass containers. Most of the radioactive minerals are not really harmful to humans if not handled often and also anyone should use gloves to hold them or at least wash their hands well afterwards. The big danger is the radon gas that you can inhale upon opening a container after any time period.

 

From Geminews – Burlington, 10/02

Via THE RockCollector 11/02

 

Crinoids

Roger Van Cleef MAGS Member

 

One of the most abundant fossils found in the mid-south are the crinoids. The crinoids belong to the group Echinoderms (spiny-skinned animals), which also includes starfish, sand dollars and sea cumbers. Crinoids first appeared in the fossil record during the early Ordovician. By the end of the Paleozoic, many of the crinoids died out, a few have continued on until the present

 

The crinoids can be divided into four (4) groups or “orders”.

1) INADUNATA: This group is the oldest and most primitive. They survived to the early Triassic.

2) FLEXIBILIA: A semi-flexible crinoid, they were present during the Ordovician to the Permian.

3) CAMBRATA: The most diverse of the crinoids, they were present from the Ordovician to the late Permian.

4) ARTICULATA: This group contains both stalked and stalkless crinoids. The structural parts of this group were highly flexible, which enabled them to move and attach in various areas of the sea. Most all of the Mesozoic and Cenozoic crinoids belong to this group.

 

Crinoids were composed of several structural parts:

1) HOLDFASTS - ROOTS OR BASE: This structure was located at base of the crinoid and enabled the crinoid to attach to the bottom or on floating objects.

2) STALK OR COLUMN: This segmented structure was composed of “coluninals” and served as support for the calyx.

3)  CALYX: This structure contained the cup which enclosed the mouth, food grooved and anal sac. The calyx also supported the “arms”.

4) ARMS OR BROCHIA: Attached to the calyx, the arm contained food grooves and acted as filters which moved organisms from the water and directed this food to the mouth.

 

Because the crinoids are segmented, when they die, the crinoid usually breaks up into many parts. (See diagram).

 

Good locations for collecting crinoids near Memphis include Pope Quarry, Pickwick Dam and Vulcan Quarry.

 

For more information see THE FOSSIL BOOK by Fenton and Fenton, Doubleday, 1989.

 

taken from ARKANSAS ROCKHOUND NEWS 4/02

THE GLACIAL DRIFTER January 2004

 

The Agates Of Northern Mexico

by Nova Wells

 

Did you happen to attend rock shows in the 50’s and 60’s and fall in love with the beautiful banded agates of Laguna and Coyamita? Did you dream of the day when you could take a trip to Mexico and hunt the agates yourself’? According to author Brad Cross, your best chance is to watch for estate sales from Texas rockhounds.

 

The credit for discovering Mexican agates and Laguna, in particular, goes to Dr. Ralph Mueller and a reference published in Lapidary Journal in the late 1940’s. Most of the agates are named for the large ranches (Spanish land grants of over 35 million acres to seven families between 1884 and 1922) in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. The state of Chihuahua includes migrating sand dunes, the Mexican portion of the Sonoran Desert (grassy plains) and igneous mountains overlaying limestone deposits. Mining and cattle ranching are the two primary businesses. Each agate site produced distinctive banding, different from the others. Manganese compounds produced shades of violet and iron contributes reds and yellows.

 

When you first begin researching, it sounds like the supply of beautiful agates in never ending. They are produced in the gas pockets of volcanic flows that may be as thick as 500 feet and contain as many as 20 different flows. More reading reveals that the agates occur in only the top layers, and not in all of them. Finally you learn that in the 40’s and 50’s when rockhounds first began collecting, the agates lay loose on the ground, product of countless years of weathering. Once the ground surface had been cleaned, local people began hand digging in the hard andesite matrix to free the agates. Most of the favorite and best known sites have been exhausted to the point only small and not particularly colorful agates are produced, if any! Geodes and crazy lace agate is still fairly plentiful.

 

The local people in Chihuahua are well aware of the value of the agates produced there, so don’t kid yourself into thinking you can take a trip and get good agates cheaply! The mines are hand dug with picks and shovels and rarely with bulldozers. Top grade agates are rare so miners like to sell “mine run.” Since they deal commercially with wholesalers, (Mr Cross says) they will probably not even show their best finds to the vacationing visitor.

 

from The Hound’s Tale 2/00

via Golden Spike News 11/01

 

New Method For Placing Loose Fossils Back Into The Strata, Uncovering “Fakes”

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/03/020328074119.htm

 

A paleontologist’s worst nightmare: a fossil bone is found lying on the ground. Where in the earth’s strata did it come from? How does it fit into the evolution of that creature? Or, is the fossil even real?

 

Now, thanks to a new geochemical method developed by Temple University graduate student Doreena Patrick, scientists have a new tool to aid them in placing loose fossils back into the earth’s strata or determining the fossil’s legitimacy.

 

“Paleontologists need to know where a fossil goes in the strata in order to understand the grand picture of evolution, as well as the evolution of that creature,” says Patrick, who conducted her research under Temple geology faculty members David Grandstaff and Dennis Terry. “What I wanted to do, ultimately, was be able to place a fossil back into its correct strata, which is called ‘fossil provenience’ (the horizontal and/or Vertical position of an object in relation to a set of spatial coordinates).

 

By analyzing a fossil bone for rare earth elements (REE), which are located at the bottom of the periodic table, Patrick is able to identify a unique signature for that bone and match it with other fossil material from the same strata.

 

“During the fossilization process, the calcium in the bone is replaced by trace elements, some of which are rare earth elements,” she adds. “The REEs that are within the bone can tell where in the earth’s strata that bone was originally located.”

 

Patrick, who earned her bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Temple in 1984, found that the trace elements are taken in preferentially, depending upon where in the strata the bone is sitting. The bone will pick up the rare earth elements in direct proportion to the amount of rare earth elements in that particular strata, earning it a unique rare earth signature.

 

A resident of North Wales, PA, Patrick says the studies have revealed that it takes, theoretically, about 10,000 years for a fossil bone to pick up its signature.

 

“That bone’s signature can then tell me, with its concentration of rare earth elements, where in the earth’s strata the bone had been sitting,” she says.

 

Since presenting her initial findings at the Geological Society of America’s national meeting last November, Patrick has received requests to test bones for fossil provenience from universities and museums in Arizona, Montana, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming.

 

“It’s important to know where in the earth’s strata these fossils came from,” says Patrick, who will receive her master’s degree in May. “Otherwise, it’s just a bone sitting in a museum.”

 

Patrick’s new technique, which uses only one-fifth of a gram or less of bone material for analysis, can potentially be valuable in detecting “fakes,” in which composite creatures or species are made from different fossils.

 

As an example, Patrick points to the “archeoraptor,” which was put on display a few years ago.

 

“Someone took dinosaur bones and put them together with the bones of a newer species of bird and tried to pass it off as a very important new species,” says Patrick, a native of Northeast Philadelphia.

 

“The ‘archeoraptor’ would have been considered a major find, but it happens more frequently with smaller fossils,” she adds. “It happens on a daily basis with things like dinosaur eggs, where people are trying to create eggs and say they’re original. In actuality, the pieces are coming from very different spots.”

 

Using her new technique, Patrick would be able to compare the rare earth signatures of the bones or pieces to see if they matched. “If they’re not all from the same strata, they will not have the same signature.”

 

Patrick, who taught chemistry, math, and physics for 15 years, became interested in geology when she accompanied her oldest son on a dig in Utah a few years ago.

 

“When the paleontologist at the site found out I had a degree in chemistry, he suggested I pursue geochemistry, since there’s a shortage of geochemists working in paleontology,” she says.

 

She returned to Temple in January 2001 to major in geology, and while working on her thesis about rare earth elements, began to look at bone types and the amount of rare earth elements they contained.

 

“The preliminary research was successful in identifying a fossil to its original unit from the Pierre Shale, near Chamberlain, South Dakota, and fossils from other geographic locations in Oregon, Wyoming, and Montana,” says Patrick. “This type of tool had not been available to scientists prior to this research.”

 

Now, thanks to Doreena Patrick, it is.

 

(This story adapted from a news release issued by Temple University via A VIEW FROM THE ARBUCKLES 10/03)

Via T-Town Rockhound 11/03

 

Riddle

 

I dig out tiny caves and store gold and silver in them. I also build bridges of silver and make crowns of gold. They are the smallest you could imagine. Sooner or later everybody needs my help, yet many people are afraid to let me help them. Who am I?

 

A Dentist.

Your House

Comes Out of a Mine

 

·     The majority of the raw materials used in building your house were furnished by the mining industry.

·     The foundation is probably concrete [clay, limestone, shale, gypsum and aggregate].

·     The exterior walls may be made of brick [clay] or stone [dimension stone].

·     The insulation in the walls may be glass wool [silica, feldspar, and trona] or expanded vermiculite [vermiculite].

·     The interior walls are usually wall board [gypsum].

·     The lumber in the structure will be fastened with nails and screws {iron ore and zinc].

·     The roof is covered with asphalt shingles; the filler in the shingles is from a variety of colored silicate minerals.

·     Your fireplace is probably of brick or stone, lined with a steel box [iron ore].

·     Your sewer piping is made of clay or iron pipe [clay or iron ore].

·     Your electrical wiring is of copper or aluminum [copper or bauxite].

·     Your sanitary facilities are made of porcelain [clay].

·     Your plumbing fixtures are made of brass [copper and zinc], or stainless steel [nickel and chrome].

·     Your gutters are made of galvanized steel [iron ore and zinc].

·     The paint is manufactured with the mineral fillers and pigments from mining.

·     Your windows are made of glass [trona, silica, sand, & feldspar].

·     Your doorknobs, locks, and hinges are of brass or steel [copper, zinc & iron ore].

·     And finally your mortgage is written on paper made of wood or cloth fibers, but filled with clay.

 

Source: SME Foundation for Public Information and Education, Littleton, CO

 

Via The Rock Bag 9/03

 

Jewelry Care, Tips

 

·        Wear pearls frequently to absorb natural skin to give them greater luster.  Put pearls on after applying cosmetics, perfume, and hair spray.

·        Opals are sensitive to extreme temperatures so avoid very hot or cold weather, direct sunlight, or dish washing.

·        Have emeralds oiled by a jeweler every few years to maintain beauty.

 

Via Cutting Remarks 3/98,

via Burrow Express 4/98