Strata Gem

Tooele Gem & Mineral

 

The Presidents Message

 

We had a nice turn out on Tuesday. Selma Jockish brought the treats and we all enjoyed them.

 

We talked about our Christmas Party and I hope everyone can came, and I hope it don't snow, drive safely please.

 

The meeting was very short so we watched a video of the diamond mines. How they get the diamonds and how they cut them up and facet them. It was nice to watch.

 

See you at the Christmas Party.

Good Luck and Good Heath to Everyone.

 

Your President

Ruth S Smith

 

Tooele Gem And Mineral

Tooele Senior Citizens Center

November 11^th 2003

 

 

     The meeting was called to order by president Ruth Smith everyone was welcomed.  The minutes of the last meeting was not read, the treasurers report was read and approved.  Jay stated we now have the siding for our shed, when the weather is right they will be calling for volunteers to help put it on, he also reported that the roof repairs and fascia had been completed.     

 

       Ardith Higley reported that our Christmas party will be on December 9^th at Marie Callender’s Restaurant 2882 W. 4700 So. Social 6:30, Dinner 7:00 every one who was planning on going signed up and indicated their choice of items on the menu.  Melva Scott won the door prize.  The meeting was adjourned, and a video was shown.

 

Minutes submitted by

Larry Wilson, Secretary

 

 

Did You Remember The Christmas Party

December 9^th

 

Our Annual Christmas Party will be held on December 9^th at Marie Callender’s Restaurant, 2882 W. 4700 So., West Valley City. Social 6:30, Dinner 7:00. You will have your choice of Meatloaf, Lemon Chicken or Roast Turkey. The club will pay for the member’s meal, nonmembers will have to purchase their own.

 

Reservations need to be in by December 1^st!!!

 

Happy New Year

 

May your friends be faithful, hood and true,

Your future rich and rosy.

May your holidays be filled with fun,

Your fireside warm and cozy.

 

Nay laughter echo in your heart

Throughout each passing hour.

May you see your dearest dream unfold

Just like a lovely flower.

 

Nay there never be a gloomy cloud

To mark your clear blue sky.

May good luck always follow you

And heartaches pass you by.

 

May every season that you live

Be wonderful as spring.

May your days be blessed with happiness,

The best that life can bring.

Author and source unknown,

 

from Rock Rollers 1/93, via BRECCIA 1/99

Via The Glacial Drifter 1/03

 

HEE-HAWS

 

Q:  How did dinosaurs pass exams?

A: With extinction!

Q:  What do you call a dinosaur that steps on everything in its way?

A:      Tyrannosaurus wrecks!

(From The A - Z Encyclopedia of Jokes)

 

Via T-Town Rockhound 5/03

 

Eureka! New Benitoite Discovery

 

Benitoite, the world's rarest gemstone, comes from only one place on the globe, deep within a remote mountain of southeast San Benito County. The Benitoite Gem Mine, home of our state rock was sold after being held for 35 years by two Fresno miners. The new owner's plan was to gather what was profitable from a century of rubble, then open the remote, 40 acre mountain site to rockhounds. That plan may be put on hold.

 

His lucky day

Bryan Lees, a rock and gem shop owner in Golden Colorado and the new owner, struck pay dirt April 1st, after his first week on the job. Digging with a backhoe in an area long thought to be depleted, Lees’ crew found part of a benitoite gem vein. Within hours, Lee hit a long hidden shelf of blue schist, the matrix that blankets benitoite crystals.

 

Lees had known the former owners, Buzz Gray and Bill Forest, for 15 years. The two miners had played a major role in Lee’s present love affair with the gem. In fact, it was Forest who was operating the backhoe when a scoop reveled what could be a rich haul.

 

Environment

The Benitoite Gem Mine - historically called the Dallas Gem Mine after the man who first marketed the stone commercially sits on a three-tiered serpentine mountain of magnesium silicate. The dirt is dark and fresh because the mountain is constantly being worked during the eight-week mining season that runs from March through April, when the headwaters of the San Benito River are strong enough to provide water to pump into the screening equipment.

 

Mining the gem is difficult because, unlike gold, in which veins generally run in one direction, benitoite veins are twisted and erratic. Lees says benitoite was formed hundreds of thousands of years ago, when San Benito County was under the ocean, and silt pushed through fault lines. The silt contained barium titanium silicate.

 

Today, the mining operation resembles a Rube Goldberg apparatus that includes an old turkey feeder. The loader dumps a yard or more of dark dirt and blue schist rock, the flaky kind that splits easily, as well as the hard crossite ore into the feeder, where the big rocks tumble aside and the promising stones wash through a screen to a jib below. The jib sifts and separates the precious stones from the common ore. Below the equipment are two large settling ponds where water is recycled back up the hill to start the process all over again.

 

The Statistics

Benitoite is only 6.5 on the Mohs scale, compared to diamond at 10. However the light refraction index – the characteristic that makes sparkle - is higher than diamonds. That means that blue benitoite is more brilliant than clear diamond.

 

From The Pinnace 4/12/01,

Summarized by the Breccia, 5/01.

Via The RockCollector 11/01

 

The Legend of “Leaverites”

 

“Leaverites” are the most common of all stones. Some are older than others and many moons old. They generally cannot be used for much because of their ugly nature. These stones are said to be so ugly that only mother earth could love them and want them. They are truly the loneliest stones in the world.

 

As legend would have it, one day long ago, a little boy and his grandpa were diggin’ for gold. Each time the little boy chipped out a stone, he would show it to his grandpa and ask, “Is this gold?” His grandpa replied, “Na, that’s just an ugly stone. Leave ‘er right there.” Later that day when the boy showed his grandpa some other stones he found, he asked, “Is this gold or are these some more of the leav-erite-there’s?” From that point on, the little boy and his grandpa called those ugly stones “Leaverites” for short. Over the years, the “Leaverites” have become so lonely that they grow eyes and look for someone to take them home.

 

from SCFMS Newsletter Sept/Oct 2001

via Rockhound Rumblings, 8/03

via SCRIBE Oct.-Dec., 2003

 

Notes on Colorado’s New State Mineral Rhodochrosite

By Jack Thompson, Colorado Springs Mineralogical Society

 

The name comes from Greek Rhodon (rose) and Chrosis (color). Miners called it raspberry spar or hirnbeerspat. The cave-like formations in Argentina were called rosinca. Rhodochrosite is manganese carbonate belonging to the calcite group with a formula of MnCO₃. The hardness is 3.4 to 4 on the Mohs scale and has a perfect cleavage in 3 directions forming a rhombohedron. Rhodochrosite forms in medium temperature hydrothermal veins with sulfide ore minerals. It also rarely forms in pegmatites and cave-like formations. The colors of rhodochrosite range from a light baby-pink to deep cherry-red, and sometimes with a brown or orange hue. The elements manganese and iron in the rhodochrositelsiderite solid solution series can replace each other, starting with end-member siderite (iron carbonate) to mangano-siderite, to ferro-rhodochrosite to end member rhodochrosite (manganese carbonate). Other metallic oxides may be present as trace elements. Rhodochrosite alters in air to pyrolusite and other manganese oxides.

 

Edwin Eckel in Minerals of Colorado, as up-dated by Colorado Chapter, Friends of Mineralogy, lists rhodochrosite as being found in 55 Colorado localities. The number one location for Colorado rhodochrosite is the Sweet Home Mine in Buckskin Gulch, west of Alma in Park County.

 

At least three of the world’s finest specimens came from there. In 1966 the Alma Queen was found and is the best color of the three. The Alma Queen, which measures 4-inches, is now in the Houston Museum of Natural Science.

 

Next of the “big three” came to light in August, 1922, with the discovery of the Rainbow Pocket”, in which the Alma King was found. It is a perfect 5-inch red rhombohedron now on display at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

 

The Alma Rose also came from the Rainbow Pocket, and is a group of seven penetrating crystals on a 17-inch matrix, now in the Rice Northwest Museum or Rocks and Minerals just west of Portland, Oregon.

 

Other well-known Colorado localities include the Sunnyside Mine, at Gladstone, San Juan County, one of the most prolific producers of rhodochrosite.

 

The crystals are pink rhombohedra on white quartz, and occasionally with green fluorite frosted with micro-quartz. The maximum size was about 2-inches. Many old labels list these specimens as coming from the American Tunnel, but it was only a haulage tube that produced almost no ore or rhodochrosite.

 

The Eagle Mine at Gilman, Eagle County gave us many very attractive light pink specimens. This mine is one of the spots where rhodochrosite grades into the iron carbonate, siderite, in various ratios from ferro-rhodochrosite to mangano siderite. The color also grades from pink to tan depending on the ratio of the two metal elements.

 

The Julia Fiske Mine at Leadville, Lake County had small, light pink crystals in association with pyrite, sphalerite, and galena. Some other mines in the area produced very small amounts of rhodoch rosite.

 

The Climax Mine on Bartlett Mountain, at Climax, Lake County had very few mineral specimens survive the block-caving method of mining molybdenum. The rhodochrosite seen from here is very similar to the Sweet Home Mine, both in color and crystal size. In the same area the John Reed Mine produced find red rhodochrosite associated with pyrite.

 

Many pink rhombohedra of rhodochrosite, some very bright pink, were found at the Mountain Monarch Mine on Engineer Pass in Ouray County. These were associated with small, white quartz crystals. The mine was known at the time as the Mickey Breen.

 

Another Eagle Mine, this one at Bonanza, Saguache County, produced flattened rhombohedra of tannish-pink color, associated with dark, forest-green fluorite.

 

The Grizzly Bear Mine on Engineer Mountain, Ouray County produced rhombohedral rhodochrosite up to two-inches, but most were much smaller, and all were coated with a bright white quartz. Specimens are sometimes labeled as coming from the Zannett tunnel.

 

The Moose Mine near Central City in Gilpin County produced some very fine cherry-red crystals, some larger than 2-inches. Crystals and cleavage pieces can still be found on the mine dumps.

 

Many other Colorado silver mines also had lesser amounts of small crystals of Colorado’s state mineral, rhodochrosite.

 

Source Rockhound Ramblings, North Jeffco G&M, Arvada CO, July 2003

 

Via Quarry Quips 8/03

 

Your Car Can Be A Lifesaver

 

Statisticians point to 38,000 highway fatalities in one year alone, but it is usually overlooked that the family car can save lives, too! In emergencies, your car is a fortress. Be­neath its hood and within its steel body, can be found ma­terials for family survival.

 

·        The average car’s radiator holds 16-2 1 quarts of water. If it hasn’t been contaminated by ANTIFREEZE that is water enough to last a family of four for four days (takes lots of water).

·        Hubcaps, cleaned with sand, pinch-hit for cups and for shovels.

·        Your horn can alert rescuers as far as a mile down­wind.

·        Under the hood are four gallons of oil A quart of oil, burned in a hubcap in the still air of morning, spews a miniature atomic cloud high into the sky — a smoke signal visible for miles. Lube oil used as a salve against searing sun or frosty winds, can save your skin.

·        A hose from the motor will convert into a siphon for getting gasoline from your tank.

·        The windshield washer tubing becomes an effective tourniquet for stopping bleeding, when needed.

·        Door panels become ground blankets insulating you from frozen, wet, or scorching ground.

·        Dome light’s glass can be a sun-focusing fire starter.

·        The glove compartment door and sun visors double as shovels

·        Slip covers, floor mats, and rugs make into blankets and clothing.

·        Many a hunter has warmed himself (and stayed alive) over a tire-fire. A little siphoned gasoline ignites your tire-fife. Average tires burn three to four hours.

 

One family, their car broken down on a little-used fire trail, carefully removed a sealed-beam headlight and, leaving it still wired to the battery, directed its beam upward in wide, sweeping arcs. A rescue team quickly spotted them.

 

“Drastic” , you say, “to destroy your car”. A California Highway Patrolman says, “Everything you need to live, except food, is found in the average car, but not one motorist in a hundred, when he finds himself up against it, thinks of his car as a survival kit. His first inclination is to set out for help. Too often he is beyond help when we find him a couple miles down the road, dead from exhaustion, heat, or cold.”

 

Don’t get excited! Stay with your car! Use your imagination to make it a “life saver

 

Via Rock Chips 9/03

 

Did You Know....

 

The Eisenhower Interstate system requires that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as air-strips in times of war or other emergencies.

 

from Hellgate Breezes, 8/99, via GOLDEN SPIKE NEWS, 11/99

 

*          *            *

 

Every afternoon, a young boy named Giovanni rushed to Michelangelo’s studio to watch the famous sculptor chip away at a 14-foot high block of marble. Week after week the boy sat by and silently watched in wonder as the magnificent form of David began to take shape. When the statue was finally done, the boy asked in amazement, “How did you know he was in there?”

 

from THE SOUTHWEST GEM, 12/98

Via The Glacial Drifter Feb./Mar. 2002

 

Notes From Andy Archers Desk

“Some Tips On Using Your Diamond Slab Saw”

 

1)   A diamond blade should still have enough diamond to cut rocks if: there is at least a 1/16 inch of diamond edge left, and, if you can still see diamond crystals with a l0x loupe.

2)   Run an 18 inch diameter blade at 600-650 rpm. Run a 6 inch diameter blade at motor speed, 1725 rpm. Check with the saw manufacturer for larger diameter saws.

3)   A good substitute for commercial and expensive saw oils like Almag or Velocite #6 is a mixture of 5 gallons of common diesel fuel to 1 quart of 30 weight motor oil. Do not add any liquid soap to the mixture.

4)   When your blade starts to cut slowly, you can “sharpen” it by cutting 1-2 slices from a red brick, or from an old silicon carbide grinding wheel. However, a better and more long lasting treatment is to hammer peen the complete edge, both sides, of the blade. I use an 8 ounce ball-peen hammer, striking smartly but not too hard as not to deform the blade. The idea is to restore the nickel edge which includes the diamond dust to it’s original kerf thickness.

5)   Barranca Diamond Products, Inc., of Gardena< California, can repair damage to most notched rim blades. The current cost of repair of an 18 inch blade is $45, which includes shipping and handling. Barranca replaced the older Star Diamond Industries.

 

Depending on how you use a saw blade, there should be many years of normal cutting in each blade. Good luck!

 

Via News & Views 8/03

 

AMMONITES:

Fossils That Are Related To The Chambered Nautilus

 

Ammonites (pronounced AM-uh-nites) were names from Amun (also spelled Ammon), an ancient Egyptian god who is pictured as having ram’s horns behind each ear (which look like ammonites).

 

Ammonites make up the order Ammonoidea and are an extinct group in the phylum Mollusca and class Cephalopoda. These marine animals had no vertebrae and were protected by a hard shell made from calcium. They first appeared in the Devonian Period (410 to 360 million years ago).

 

Ammonites make up one of the most complex of all the mollusks. These creatures had a hollow chambered shell most often coiled either loosely or tightly, (and) a few types were even straight. The shell contains many small empty chambers and one large living chamber at the outer end. Where each chamber wall meets the main shell, a suture line occurs. These are often visible on the fossil.

 

The closest living relative to the ammonite is the chambered nautilus. Like the chambered nautilus, the ammonites’ ability to swim was due to the unique construction of its shell. The shell contained many air-filled chambers, called the phragmocone. These chambers were divided by thin walls called septa. The septa were penetrated by a tube-like structure called a siphuncle that extended from the ammonite’s body into the empty shell chambers. The ammonite secreted gas through the siphuncle into the shell chambers, enabling it to control the buoyancy of the shell. Ammonites moved by jet propulsion, expelling water through a funnel-like opening to propel themselves in the opposite direction. The ammonite lived in the last chamber, which ranged in size from half to one and a half whorls of the shell. The animal protruded out the end of its shell through the aperture. They fed on plankton, sea lilies, and smaller ammonites.

 

Ammonites diversified during the Mesozoic Era (65 to 245 million years ago) into a variety of forms and were abundant and widespread in the seas of Jurassic and Cretaceous periods (65 to 175 million years ago). Ammonites probably lived for one to six years, with the majority living two to four years. Ammonites ranged in size from under an inch to about 9 feet in diameter. They became extinct at the close of the Cretaceous Period along with the dinosaurs.

 

From Quarry Quips 10 02

via THE ROCK, PICK, & CHISEL 3/03

via T-TOWN ROCKHOUND 5/03

 

You Know You Live In

 

You live in California when ... You make over $250,000 and still can’t afford to buy a house. The high school quarterback calls time-out to answer his cell phone. The fastest part of your commute is going down your driveway. You know how to eat an artichoke. You drive to your neighborhood block party.

 

You live in New York when ... You say

“the city” and expect everyone to know you mean Manhattan. You have never been to the Statue of Liberty. You can get into a 4-hour argument about how to get to Columbus Circle from Battery Park, but can’t find Wisconsin on the map. You believe that being able to swear at people in their own language makes you multilingual. You’ve worn out a car horn. You think eye contact is a sign of aggression.

 

You live in Alaska when You only have 4 spices: salt, pepper, ketchup and Tabasco. Halloween costumes fit over parkas. You have more than one recipe for moose. Sexy lingerie is anything flannel with less than 8 buttons. The four seasons are winter, still winter, almost winter, and construction.

 

You live in the Deep South . . .You get a movie, a cup of coffee, and bait in the same store. After 15 years you still hear, ”You ain’t from ‘round here, are ya?” “He needed killin” is a valid defense. Everyone has two first names.

 

You live in Colorado when ... You carry your $3,000 mountain bike atop your $500 car. You tell your husband to pick up Granola on the way home, and he stops at the Day Care Center. A pass does not involve a football or dating. The top of your head is bald, but you still have a ponytail.

 

You live in the Midwest when ... You’ve never met any celebrities, but the mayor knows your name. Your idea of a traffic jam is 10 cars waiting to pass a tractor. You have had to switch from “heat” to “A/C” on the same day. When asked how your trip was to any exotic place, you say, “It was different.”

 

You live in Florida when ... You eat dinner at 3:15 in the afternoon. All purchases include a coupon of some kind — even houses and cars. Road construction never ends anywhere in the state. Cars in front of you are often driven by headless people. You don’t know how to vote

 

Via Leslie Neff of the The Agatizer 6/03

Via The Rock Bag 9/03

 

Words of Wisdom:

 

·  Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.

·  Drive carefully. Its not only cars that can be recalled by their maker.

·  If life gives you lemons, squeeze the juice into a water gun and shoot other people in the eyes.

 

Via Golden Spike News 12/01

Strange Sea Shells

by Marjorie Spees, TRMS

 

Perhaps you have wandered along the sea shore looking for shells or brightly colored pebbles. One of the commonest of these beach puzzles is a twisted brownish or yellow object like a number of little leathery lozenges strung together on a cord (1). Another mystery is the odd sea collar or sand saucer which looks like a flaring collar or the rim of a hat made of sand and membrane (2). These odd things are eggs or shells or nests of shells.

 

An interesting shell is the scallop (3), which is eaten by people in many places. This animal is a fast swimmer, swimming by opening and closing its hinged home and forcing water through it. They can even jump out of a boat! Scallops also have many eyes along the edge of their mantle, a beautiful turquoise blue with green edges. Maybe that is why they can escape nets and enemies.

 

Shells were used as money in south sea islands (not in modern times). The money cowry (4) is pale yellow with a patch of purplish gray or dull orange on the upper surface. Also these are used in Africa, but it would take thousands of cowries to trade for a ship’s cargo. Just as some rich men wear flashy clothes and diamonds, and drive expensive cars, naked Africans would wear cowries around their necks, in their hair, and around arms and legs. They would also deck their canoes, shields, and weapons with them.

 

Indians living on the Pacific coast would use tusk shells. East coast Indians cut coins out of shells as wampum. The colonists made coins with a simple machine to make beads, then strung them together in six-foot lengths. Cameos used to be made from shells.

 

It’s a dog-eat-dog world at the bottom of the sea. As you scuba dive along the placid, beautiful water of a blooming reef, all is not as peaceful as it seems. The food chain has many links among the mollusks. The oyster (5), which is popular as food, is used to grow pearls. In fact, oyster farmers have their own territory marked out, and fertilize their water farms with old shells and pebbles. It is a fight to keep other sea creatures from eating the oyster. The starfish is the worst enemy — he twines himself around the oyster until the muscle inside tires out, and when the oyster opens the starfish turns himself inside out and eats his fill! Moonshells (7), whelks (6), and drills (8) bore holes in the oyster shell and suck the juices out. Poor oyster!

 

Clams are good for food and grow in many parts of the world. Some grow quite large and can also jump out of boats. There are giant clams (9) four or five feet across that can trap a person by snapping their shell on a leg or arm so the person is caught and drowns.

 

(Below are some sketches of shells — next time you’re at the beach you can identify these and reminisce about some of these strange stories!)

 

Resource: Strange Sea Shells and Their Stories by A. Hyatt Verrill.

 

Via T-Town Rockhound 8/03