Deserts

 

Whenever we think of deserts, we usually picture a really hot place where the sun is blazing down and there is no water. In reality, there are four different kinds of deserts ranging from the blazing hot Sahara to the frozen wasteland of Antarctica. Deserts are found on every continent. The only thing they have in common is that they receive less than ten inches of rain a year.

Four factors influence the formation of deserts. The most important one is high pressure. This type of desert is usually found between 15 degrees and 30 degrees latitude. Back at the equator, the air is heated and rises. Then it cools, condenses and rains before it sinks back down toward the earth. Because the air mass has already lost its moisture, no clouds form and no rain falls. The Sahara is an example of a high-pressure desert. Another high-pressure desert but very different from the Sahara is found at the South Pole. Antarctica is the driest place in the world. It is even drier than the Sahara. It is so cold there that the air is unable to hold any moisture.

Cold, up welling ocean currents along the western coasts of continents cause the second type of desert. Here the air is so cool that it won’t hold much moisture and no rain reaches the land.

The third cause of a desert is the rain shadow effect. The Mojave and Death Valley are the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. As the air tries to rise and get over the mountains, it cools, con­denses and rains on the western side of the mountain. By the time the air gets over, no moisture is left.

The fourth and last type desert is found in the middle of continents. By the time the air mass reaches here, most of its moisture has already been lost so a desert forms. The Gobi desert in China and the Australian deserts form this way.

Wind and water are the main forces that sculpt the deserts. During the few storms that do occur in deserts, water, moving with great force, carries soil, rocks and other debris and dumps it in cone shaped alluvial fans. This is a great place to go rock hunting.

Wind is responsible for the beautiful sand dunes found in most deserts. Bryce Canyon in Utah was formed from huge dunes piled up by the wind 200 million years ago. Wind has since eroded the sandstone layers into dramatic forms. Many of our beautiful land formations out west were formed this way.

 

Via Rockwood Rockhound News

Via The Gemrock 12/98

Via The Glacial Drifter 9/01

 

Are You A New

Rockhound?

 

What to do? -- Have you decided yet? If you’re a new rockhound you may be confused by the many phases of our hobby. Do you wonder just, which Earth Science suits you best? Perhaps a little vocational guidance will help you make up your mind...

 

THE HOARDER:

Are you a hoarder at heart? Are your closet,, attic and basement bulging at the seams with things you just can’t bear to part with? If the answer is yes, I suggest you become a MINERAL COLLECTOR. (WARNING—be sure you have at least one empty room he fore you start, because you won’t be able to part with any of your collection and it will grow at an alarming speed.) if you are an apartment dweller, try collecting miniatures, and if your hacienda has only one room to hang your hat, micromounts are the thing for you. If you have a pack-rat personality, you can enjoy collecting beautiful minerals and crystals no matter how limited your space.

 

THE PERFECTIONIST:

Are you a perfectionist? Do you admire the perfect shape and beautiful color? If so, you’re a born LAPIDARY. No lop-sidled cabochons for you! They will all come out with perfect contours and you can be sure your cab, will have a mirror-like polish every time.

 

LIKE NUMBERS?

Are you good at mathematics? Do you have the touch of a gentle breeze? May I suggest you try FACETING? This is one hobby where, a mind with a mathematical flair can whiz through a set of angles that would baffle a lesser genius. Th. results are probably more spectacular than of any other ‘facets’ of our hobby.

 

HOW ABOUT VARIETY?

Do you find it hard to stick to one thing for very long? May I suggest NOVELTIES? You can try polishing flats and then use them for pen bases Try cab, and if you tire of them, make a picture out of them. Try a sphere and if you never get beyond the pre-form stage, make it into a paperweight.

Do you think leftovers taste better than the original dish? Thee I suggest TUMBLING for you. Just pick up all the leftover rocks around the house and put them into the tumbler. You’ll be surprised what comes out!

OR, are you like a child on Christmas morning? For you, I suggest FLUORESCENTS. Each time you look over your collection, you will recapture the beauty of a lighted Christmas tree.

Do you keep a diary? Are you fascinated by history and the records of past life on this planet? You are the one to collect FOSSILS. You will find a wonderful pastime and sermons in hones, collecting the remains of these past earthlings.

Seriously, there are so many avenues to explore in the earth sciences. In addition, there’s CARVING, JEWELRY MAKING and WEEKEND FIELD TRIPS, all worth a try! You would be wise to investigate them all until you find one (or several) that suits you best.

 

RAVE FUN AND GOOD LUCK!

 

from ESCOMO, 11/87;

BEEHIVE BUZZER 10/01 & others

 

Igneous Rocks

In The Making

 

The Hawaiian Islands sit over a “hot spot’ in the earth’s crust similar to the hot spot that we call “Yellow Stone National Park”. If you will recall the earth’s surface is made up of large plates that the ocean and continents ride on. The hot spot is a weakness or hole in the earth’s crust which allows magma to vent to the surface.

The Hawaiian hot spot is moving south­eastward on the Pacific plate across the ocean floor, building islands as it moves. Kauai the oldest island, just a mere 1.9 mil­lion years old, is eroding. Hawaii, the youngest island, is still building itself.

Kilauea, an active volcano on the island of Hawaii, is a very efficient magma producer according to Hawaiian geologists. The possi­bility of a disastrous eruption is always pre­sent in the thoughts of the local residents. Impromptu offerings of leis, sea shells and coins are placed along side the highways for Pele, the Goddess of fire who lives in the volcano. Steam vents can and do open up at random near the volcano.

The phrase “Don’t make Pele mad.” is heard as casually in Hawaiian conversation as we might say “Have a nice day”.

While in Hawaii I visited Kilauea several times and in a variety of ways. First I went swimming at the Kalapana ponds located on the eastern side of the volcano. The kala­pana flow happened in 92 and buried a whole town. These are natural pools are filled with seawater that is heated by steam vents from the volcanic activity further down in the earth. The ocean waves spill over a retaining wall and keep the water at a comfortable warm bath temperature. It’s a great swim­ming hole.

I went to the lava flow one evening to watch molten rock spilling into the ocean. The melted lava smelled like a combination of sulfur and steam. My sis and I had to hike a mile or more over fairly rough ground from the parking area to the lava flow.

We heard stories about a young couple that had gone to watch the lava flowing into the water one night who were found dead in their sleeping bags the next morning... cooked from a steam vent that unexpect­edly opened up where they were sleeping.

Whether the story was true or not at about 10p.m. park rangers were escorting strag­glers from the viewing area.

I visited the Volcano National Park and the Kilauea Caldera. The lava there is black and clean looking. Not at all like the dusty stuff we have here in Idaho. Probably has more to do with the fact that they have 100 plus inches of rain a year and we are lucky if we get 10.

It is odd the soil on the Island of Hawaii is fairly shallow and not much more than chunks of lava but plants grow profusely. I swear if you were to pound a fence post into the ground there it would sprout.

I’ve read that different minerals melt at dif­ferent temperatures. The theory goes that if you put the right minerals and chemicals to­gether and melt them different gemstones will form as the brew cools.

Olivine crystals or peridot are found under the rim of the caldera and in the basalt near Kalapana, Hawaii.

Outside my sis’s house near the beach are tree molds where lava surrounded a tree and cooled. An impression was made where the tree had been. (see photo)

I brought back a piece of Hawaii, chuck of Pahoehoe lava, as a souvenir.

 

Dixie Reale, editor

Northside Gem and Hobby News 2/02

 

Sapphire Of Biblical Time

by Yuliya Korchevskaya

 

“Real precious lazurite is only that which could be in fire for ten days and doesn’t lose its color” - it is said in the Armenian manuscripts of the XVII century.

People born in December may choose as their birthstone the beautiful blue stone - lazurite, side by side with turquoise. The stone is more widely known in the U.S.A. by the odd name of Lapis Lazuli. The first part of the name comes from the Latin word for “stone”, and the last part from the Arabic word for “the blue of the sky.” Another origin of the name comes. from the Persian word “Lazhward” which means “blue “. Lazurite is the stone of Jupiter.

The colorful history of this amazing stone, color “the blue of the sky”, has been interlaced closely with the spiritual, cultural and economical life of man for some 7,000 years. Nature is extremely stingy when it comes to blue stones. The rarity of blue color in our Earth is as if compensated for in contrast with plenty of blue colors that are shown in different tints of sea and sky, especially in the South. So poetic­ally the Indian Lapidaries would answer about a rarity of blue stones in the Earth.

Lapis Lazuli was known to the ancients as “Sapphire”. Many have believed that “Biblical Sapphire” was, in fact, lazurite. Since the time of ancient Egypt due to its wonderful color Lapis lazuli enjoyed success among the nobles and priests. Even the price of this gem was equated to the price of gold. Inscriptions on ancient papyrus tell us that lazurite personified the power of the gods that were worshiped in ancient Egypt. Pharaohs wore lazurite stones cut in the form of an eye and set it in gold. In this version the stone represented a very strong charm.

The Chinese called Lapis lazuli “dark blue gold stone” and they carved snuff bottles out of it. Out of larger pieces they made pearl studded screens.

A famous Russian mineralogist Academician A. Phersman, described Lapis Lazuli in this lovely way: “It is precisely bright blue, blazing by dark blue fire, which burns your eyes, or pale blue with the tenderness of tone like turquoise, or it has red taint of white and dove-colored spots, interlacing in motley and various pattern.”

Really Lapis Lazuli differs from sapphire because it has other minerals in it. These are lazurite, mainly responsible for the wonderful color of it, sodalite, another blue mineral, and roselite. Because Lapis Lazuli contains more than one mineral, it is, really, a rock, not a single mineral. Lapis Lazuli is opaque, (not transparent as sapphire), soft, violet—blue stone composed of sodium, calcium, aluminum, and sulphur. Usually, it is found in grainy masses spread through the surrounding rocks. The true surface of such gemstone is dotted with golden specks of pyrite or “fools gold” and often little streaks of white calcite.

Roman historian, Pliny the Elder, described Lapis Lazuli as looking like “the star— bedecked night sky.”

There are three known varieties of Lapis Lazuli, indigo—blue, light blue and green. The light blue variety is fairly abundant. Much rarer is the deep violet—blue lazurite, the “Sapphire of Biblical Times”. It comes from the Badakshan district of Afghanistan, and it has been known and intermittently worked for 5,000 years. Lapis Lazuli is formed in the earth by heat and pressure when there is an intrusion of molten granite into impure limestone. Lapis Lazuli and other minerals are then separated out.

There are abundant deposits of Lapis Lazuli throughout the world: North and South America, Russian Federation, Siberia, Sayan Mountains, etc., but the deep violet blue lazurite, the “Biblical Sapphire”, was only known from Afghanistan, from inaccessible altitudes of the Pamir Mountains. The highly prized material occurs in veins of black and white limestone, partly changed into marble. The Badakshan Lapis Lazuli is embedded in cliff rocks. Natives build fires against the cliffs, then subsequently chill it with cold water. The amazing dark blue color of Afghan Lapis Lazuli may be due to this heating. Marco Polo, the famous adventurer, described these mines in his travel records in 1271.

Mentally, we would be carried away from inaccessible altitudes of Badakshan into the 18th century when the magnificent “Winter Palace” was created by the famous architect J. Rastzelli. Catherine the Great at that time was interested in lazurite. She insisted on the necessity of purchasing lazurite for facing the majestic “Lion Hall” in the Hermitage (St. Petersburg). The Badakshan Lapis Lazuli was prohibitively expensive.

Fortunately for the Russian Treasury in 1786 the Finnish pastor Eric Laksman found the first pieces of lazurite on the shores of the river “Slydiynka” near Lake Baikal. Shortly after the first group of stones was sent to St. Petersburg. The General Samoilov had reported this find to Catherine the Great. Impressed by the General’s report and the need for the lazurite for revetment of “Lion Hall” in the Hermitage, the Russian Tsarina commanded that 3,000 golden rubles be handed over for organizing a mining operation.

At last in 1787 about 320 kg of the mineral lazurite was sent from Irkutsk, Siberia, to St. Petersburg for revetment of “Lion Hall”. The beauty and peculiarity of this Hall exists in that, like the famous “Amber Room”, it was revetted by one stone – tender-blue Russian (Sayan Mountains) lazurite. This gem has light blue color with a gamut of hues; from dark green to dense crimson.

But, anyway, the Baikal Lapiz Lazuli couldn’t be a deserving competitor for Badakshan Lapis Lazuli. Catherine the Great declared: “However, the Afghan lazurite is brighter than our Siberian.”

The centuries have passed. Meanwhile the legends and rumors have been spread about the bright-dark-blue stone on the inaccessible altitudes of the Pamir Mountains (“the Roof of the World”). The surrounding geological environment has confirmed folk rumor because the spurs of Range Gindu-Kush, where the Badakshan lazurite mines are, stretch through the area belonging to the Soviet Union.

It was autumn of 1930 when some courageous geologists left to seek the wonderful gem­stone. The way was extremely difficult and dangerous. Even native carriers had refused to continue the trek because of very steep slopes, the chaotic conglomeration of fragments of stones and high altitude rarefied air didn’t allow one to climb quickly. The struggle had begun for the blue gem.

The group spent the first night in a cave. At dawn they began once more to climb. At an altitude of about 5,000 meters, against a dark-blue sky background, they saw where a white glade had been opened by a huge glacier. The glade was covered by very large fragments of marbles and gneiss that had fallen down the cliffs. Among the snow—white marbles were big pieces of lazurite of different hues: from tender—blue to bright dark—violet—blue color could be seen in the form of veins and nests or pockets. The Soviet geologists had discovered the Pamirian’s Lapis Lazuli deposits. Now the way was known to the blue stone of the Pamir. The next year a camel’s path was made, and about 6 tons of Lapis Lazuli was removed by this trail.

Since that time more than 60 years have passed. The district of the snow-white marble on the “Roof of the World” brought forth different gemstones; dark-red rubies resembling Burmese “pigeon—blood” rubies, pink-reddish spinel, beautiful green and pink tourmaline, etc., for the Soviet Union. An amazing blue stone it has adorned Russian museums, the stations of underground “Metro” in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

 

from The Trilobite 2/99, via Stoney Statements,

via THE SOUTHWEST GEM 12/2000

via The Glacial Drifter January 2002

 

Lechuguilla Cave

Deepest cave in the United States

 

Location: Carlsbad, New Mexico. The cave is only about five miles from the Carlsbad Caverns in the Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Lechugullia Cave holds the record for being the deepest cave in the United States.

Awesome Stats: the cave is a winding, twisting underground maze that has yet to be completely explored and mapped. Currently, 97.8 miles of Lechuguilla have been explored and mapped, with no end in sight. So far the deepest part of the cave measured goes down 1,571 feet!

The deepest cave in the world: Lamprechetsofen - Vogelshacbr, in Salzburg, Austria is 5,354 feet deep.

 

from extremescience.com via Gem Time 10/0 1

via Golden Spike News 11/01

 

Cloth Of Gold

 

Until the Middle Ages, underwater divers near the Mediterranean Coast line collected golden strands of the pen shell, which used the strands to hold itself in place. Called “byssus”, the strands were woven into a luxury textile “cloth of gold” and made into ladies’ gloves so fine that a pair could be packed into an empty walnut shell. Examples of this lost art exist in some museums, where the cloth retains its color and softness.

 

Hard Rock News via Ft Lewis Rock Club News 8/01

Via Golden Spike News 11/01

 

Devils Tower

By Chuck DeFlorin, Minnesota Mineral Club Member

Most of the area around the Devils Tower consists of sedimentary rocks. The dark red sandstone, siltstone and shale were laid down during the Triassic age (225 million years ago) in a shallow sea. Seas came and disappeared many times adding layer upon layer of sedimentary rock.

During the Tertiary period (around 65 million years ago) near the end of the dinosaur age the earth started to change. The Rocky Mountains were lifted up and the Badlands were formed. Magma started pushing its way through the sedimentary layers creating a dome. The molten magma started to solidify and as it did so, it started to shrink as it cooled down, splintering into vertical columns. It actually came to a complete stop about 3,000 feet below the surface. Millions of years later the Belle Eourche River had washed away the surrounding landscape. Gravity and erosion stripped the soft layers of sedimentary stone, bringing the once subterranean volcano plug to the surface. It is a volcano that never made it to the surface.

There is still an ongoing debate about Devils Tower. All of the geologists agree that the tower was formed by the intrusion of igneous material. The rock is called Phonolite Porphyry, based on its mineral composition, which includes Anorthoclase, Aegirine-Augite and Sphene. What the geologists can’t agree on, is how the process took place. Some believe it is a eroded remnant of a laccolith. A laccolith is a mass of igneous rock that got through sedimentary rock beds but never made it to the surface. Another theory is that the tower is a huge volcanic plug, perhaps the neck of an extinct volcano.

Today the ancient monolith has a base diameter of almost 800 feet and rises vertically 1,267 feet into the sky. All around the base of Devils Tower are huge slabs of stone which have broken from the sides and toppled down. It is a testament on what erosion and gravity are capable of doing. One of the many park trails loops around the tower’s base and is only 1.3 miles long. There are three other trails and five miles of park roads. The hiking is great!

Since prehistoric times the Native Americans felt that the tower was a holy place. They think of this sacred rock as a cathedral in nature. This place of power was used as burial grounds for the northern plain tribes. Today, as before, the tower is the site where vision quests I)egin. These Native Americans call the tower “Mateo Tepee,” Bear Lodge. The name Devils Tower came about, when in 1875, the Indians called it the “Bad God Place.” It was translated into Devils Tower because “devil” is considered a bad god. In Kiowa Indian mythology, it is said that once upon a time seven girls were playing in the woods. While in the woods they came upon some bears that chased after them. They found refuge on a great rock that rose into the sky with them on it. The bears tried to pursue them, but no matter how they struggled, they could not get at the girls. The bears claw marks are still seen in the tower’s sides, henceforth, Mateo Tepee, Bear Lodge.

One legend of the Kiowa doesn’t tell about the creation of the tower but what is below it. A man from Wyoming was visiting in Yankton, South Dakota. While there, he showed a picture of Devils Tower to an elderly Sioux Indian who became very excited. The Indian wanted to know if the passage at the base of the tower had been found yet. The man said that a passage had not been found. The Indian then passed on to him the Sioux legend regarding the tower. Many years before there were three braves hunting near the base of the tower. While exploring the base, they discovered a passageway underneath it. They made torches and followed the tunnel until it opened up into a cavern. In the cavern was a underground lake, 25 yards long by 15 yards wide, and all around it there was gold. Large quantities of gold laid all over the ground and the cave walls were also golden. The braves couldn’t take the gold with them, so they left the tunnel and hid the entrance. They were going to return later, but never made it back to their golden cavern. One

of the l)raves on his death bed told the story to members of his tribe. If there was a cave under Devils Tower, no one has found it yet. Maybe the lost cavern is not under the tower but nearby. It would be impossible to have a cavern in a laccolith. There are caves in the area, but none under the tower. Usually there is some truth in legends, could the golden cavern still be there waiting to be rediscovered?

 

References:

1.    “Lost Gold of Devils Tower’ by http://unmuseum.mus.pa.us/dtgold.htm

2.    “Devils Tower National Monument” by http://volcano.und.nodak.ed/parks/devilstower.html

3.    “Devils Tower Geology” by http://www.nps.gov/geo-slides/geology.htm

4.    “Black Hills Badlands” by Mike Link and Craig Blacklock

 

from The Rock Rustler’s News 12/01

 

Kids Corner

Utah Minerals Scrambled Word Puzzle

from Dennis Chapman

 

1. Precious yellow metal (lodg)                                      

2. Mixed with clay and limestone that harden into a solid with the addition of water, used as a construction material (2 word " rtokcmecne")                                

3. A radioactive chemical element (iumnura)     

4. A loose mixture of small stones, pebbles, and sometimes sand (velgra)

5. Used for making bricks, pottery, and tiles (aycl)                

6. A hard black or dark brown substance found in the earth and burned as fuel (alco)    

7. Used in making brass & nickel (nczi)           

8. A silver-white metal that rusts rapidly in air, can be easily magnetized (onir)           

9. Silver-white solid metal that is often alloyed with other metals, esp. iron, to increase their hardness (ednmuomlby)                

10. Any of numerous mineral, animal, plant, that are viscous, usu. liquid, and greasy (loi)   

11. Loose grains of finely ground rock (ndas)          

12. A sticky brown to black bituminous substance and used for paving, roofing, and waterproofing (alathsp)                       

13. In pure form as a white, ductile, highly lustrous and reflective metal solid (vrisel)         

14. Used chiefly for preserving and seasoning foods (lats)  

15. Reddish brown metal (porecp)      

16. Chiefly used in alloys with copper and in aerospace material (ilmulebyr)   

17. In pure form as a bright white, lustrous, ductile solid metal used in some alloys (admuavin)  

18. Hydrated calcium sulfate, that resembles chalk and is used to make plaster of Paris, plaster and wallboard, and fertilizers (symugp)     

19. Can be isolated as a divalent ion essential in plant and animal nutrition, or as alight, ductile, silver-white solid that bursts into a bright flame when heated above room temperature, used for flares, fireworks, and the like (ismueamng)                   

20. Used primarily in the manufacture of fertilizer (sohapt)       

21. A very dense, malleable bluish gray metal (edal)              

 

--------Key----------

1. gold

2. cement rock

3. uranium

4. gravel

5. clay

6. coal

7. zinc

8. iron

9. molybdenum

10. oil

11. sand

12. asphalt

13. silver

14. salt

15. copper

16. beryllium

17. vanadium

18. gypsum

19. magnesium

20. potash

21. lead

 

The World’s Largest

And Oldest Meteorite

 

The world’s largest and oldest meteorite has been discovered in China near the northeast city of Shenyang. The meteorite, locally called Haushita Hill, is estimated to be 4.5 to 4.6 billion years old and fell to earth 1.9 billion years ago. The meteorite mound is 600 feet long, 250 feet wide and about 300 feet deep. It weighs about 2 million tons and is covered with granite. The meteorite is older than any natural earth rock. The site is planned to be a state protected nature reserve.

 

Northwest Newsletter 10/00 via Del Air Bulletin 6/01

via Golden Spike News 8/01

 

Hint & Tips

 

How to saw a thunder egg or nodule: it is impossible to cut a thunder egg or nodule in half when it is clamped in a conventional diamond saw vise. With this system, you can slice it right down the middle.

Cut two pieces of soft ¾ inch wood (such as pine) the same width as the vice jaws and about two inches longer than the jaws. Cut a block of wood to 1 inch shorter than the diameter of the thunder egg to be cut. (The larger the egg the greater may be the difference between the length of the block and the diameter.) A large egg may be placed as much as ¼ inch ahead of center. For smaller eggs, the angle of the jaws should be kept about the same and a short block of wood used. When the jaws are tightened, the wood will grip the rough matrix. This method can also be used to cut coconuts as well as some Brazilian agates.

 

From The Rockytier 9/94 via The Gemrock 2/02

Via Osage Hills Gems 3/02

 

Gem Show Calendar

 

If you know of any events coming up, PLEASE let me know as soon as possible. If anything is wrong PLEASE let me know as soon as possible.

 

July 12-14 Four Corners Gem & Mineral Show, La Plata Co. Fairgrounds Durango, CO.

 

Aug 9-11 Contin-Tail Show, Buena Vista Fairgrounds, Buena Vista, CO.

 

Aug 31- Sept. 2 The Grant County Gem & Mineral Society Show, Silver City Recreation Center, 1016 North Silver St., Silver City, NM.

 

Sept. 13-15 Denver Gem & Mineral Show, sponsored by the Greater Denver Area Gem & Mineral Council, Denver Merchandise Mart Expo Hall, 451 East 58th Ave., Denver, CO.

 

Sept. 27-29 Tooele Gem & Mineral Show, Tooele City Recreation Complex, 400 W. 400 N., Tooele, UT.

 

Oct. 11-13 The Huachuca Mineral and Gem Club Show, Oscar Yrun Community Center, Sierra Vista, AZ

 

Oct. 18-20 Wasatch Gem, Utah State Fairpark, Promontory Hall, North Temple & 10^th West, Salt Lake City UT.

 

Oct. 19-20 Hells Canyon Gem Club Inc. Show, Nez Perce County Fairgrounds 1229 Burrell Lewiston. ID

 

Oct. 19-20 Chaparral Rockhounds Show, 500 South Richardson Roswell, NM

 

Nov. 9-10 Lake Havasu Gem and Mineral Society Show, Lake Havasu City Community Center, 100 Park Ave, Lake Havasu City, AZ

 

2003

July 11-13, RMFMS Show and Convention, hosted by the Natrona County Rockhounds Club, Parkway Plaza Hotel and Convention Center, Casper, WY.

 

Advice For Rockhound Watchers

 

Can you spot a rockhound?

The species isn’t rare.

You can tell him by his honest face,

and his willingness to share.

You can tell him as he saunters by,

his eyes glued to the ground.

No matter where he goes,

he’s sure there’s gemstones to be found.

You can tell him by his friendly smile,

he’s an all—round pleasant guy;

But the sure—fire way to spot him,

is the flashy bola tie!!

 

From EUREKA NEWS 1/86

via QUARRY QUIPS 4/01

Via Beehive Buzzer 11/01

You know you’re a rockhound if---

 

You find yourself compelled to examine individual rocks in driveway gravel.

 

(editor‘s note--it took my granddaughter half an hour to walk 30 feet to the mailbox and back when they lived in Minnesota.’)

 

--via Lisa A. Rossbacher’s Geologic Column,

Geotimes. 2/2000

Via Hy Grader 1/02