Strata Gem

Tooele Gem & Mineral

 

The President’s Message

 

We had a great turn out for our Christmas Party. There were about 45 people there.

 

Larry and Ardith did a great job getting all the door prizes and planning the party. Thank you both for always being there and doing a great job for the club.

 

Happy New Year to you all.

Good Luck and Good Health to everyone.

 

Your President

Ruth Smith

 

IN REMEMBRANCE OF OUR FRIEND

MICKEY TITUS

3/6/1931 - 12/14/03

 

Our sympathy goes out to Bob and his family. What a great friend and rockhound person we have lost. She was always thinking of other people. Don and I went on a couple long field trips with Bob and Mickey, we got to know them pretty well.  We went to Oregon and Washington when our children and grandchildren were little. What a great time we had. What memories we have to share.

 

Our Sincere Sympathy and love to the family.

 

Don and Ruth Smith

 

Fossil Preparation

By Marc Behrendt

 

You have been collecting really great fossils all day; you get home, set the box on a chair and spread your treasure onto the kitchen table to look at it closer. It’s pretty neat stuff, but wouldn’t it look better if all that mud and rock still stuck to it were gone?

 

Fossil preparation or cleaning can be done in the home or in a fancy lab. Sometimes all it takes is a toothbrush and water. If the fossil is sturdy, like coral and many brachiopods, this method will remove all the mud and loose matrix. However, if your fossil has any cracks in it, if it is fragile, or if it sits on soft shale, do not try to brush it off with water. Fossils like trilobites, bones and fragile brachiopods will dissolve or fragment and leave you with an empty rock and memories. To make something fragile look better, you need a different method to clean your specimen.

 

If you have access to the right equipment, you are in good shape. Or you could send your specimen to a fossil preparation lab. Let’s assume you have a complete trilobite and would like it cleaned. Part of it is buried in the rock and part is exposed but covered with a thin layer of shale.

 

The first step is to stabilize the specimen. When the rock dried after it was dug up, all the water evaporated, leaving countless microscopic cracks both in the rock and in the fossil. Apply super-thin super glue under a microscope by dipping the tip of a pin into a drop, and then touch the pinpoint to a crack, which sucks up the glue instantly. The glue hardens, filling in the crack and holding everything together. If too much glue is used, such as with a single regular drop, then the glue will have to be cleaned away before the matrix can be cleaned from the trilobite.

 

Now the fun begins! To expose the buried portion of the trilobite, pneumatic hammers will be used. These are just like the loud jackhammers road workers use to dig holes through the roads; except fossil preparing hammers are so small they must be used under a microscope. Ever so carefully the hammer’s pounding chips away tiny fragments of the matrix hiding the trilobite. Usually the matrix touching the trilobite shell pops right off after most of the upper matrix is removed. Great care is taken not to touch the trilobite with the hammer, because a hole in the fossil is not pretty.

 

Before micro-air hammers were used, fossils were exposed using small steel picks like dentists use (this process is still used in many labs today). The method works very well, as you can see in any older museum collection, but it takes a long, long time to accomplish what an air hammer can do in a short time!

 

OK, the trilobite has been totally exposed, but is still covered by a thin layer of shale. It is time to pull out the micro sandblaster. Also known as air abrasive machines, these instruments, using high air pressure, shoot a tiny regulated amount of powder through a hose and nozzle onto the fossil, eroding the soft rock away while leaving the harder trilobite’s shell intact.

 

Depending on the type of rock and the hardness of the fossil, theair pressure, the amount and type of powder and the size of the nozzle can be changed to meet the situation. Imagine this - you have big rock and you want to break it in half. You first choose your hammer. Will it be small and delicate or big and heavy? Should it be made of rubber or metal? Then, do you swing it really hard, or gently tap the rock? Too much hammer or too much swing and your rock is dust. Too little hammer or tiny taps may crack the rock in a day or two. The right hammer with the right swing will cause the right impact to break the rock in a controlled manner in a short time.

 

The same concept is used with the air abrasive machine. With experience or careful experimentation, the air pressure and powder flow are adjusted to remove the matrix from the fossil without ‘burning” the trilobites shell away with the rock. All the work is done under a microscope under the watchful eye of the preparatory, who is alert for new or previously unnoticed cracks in the shell that will need to be stabilized.

 

Although it is important to clean the entire trilobite carefully, the eyes need special attention. Many kinds of trilobites have the lenses still in the eyes, and these are very fragile. With delicate and precise micro sandblasting, the entire eye is cleaned so each lens is perfectly exposed without being damaged!

 

Finally, the rock itself is spruced up. All the chisel marks from the hammers are ground away using either a combination of air hammer and air abrasive, or with a grinder like a dremel tool. The matrix is shaped into the way it best displays the trilobite. Occasionally, new fossils are discovered under the matrix during this step. These are cleaned up and make nice surprise additions for the piece.

 

When it’s all done, sit back and admire your trilobite. It’s no longer gray and covered with rock - it is a beautiful black or brown color, looking like it will crawl off the rock any moment.

 

There are many other techniques available for preparing fossils. Several books are available which describe different methods. Three of the many are:

·         Paleotechniques, edited by Rodney M. Feldmann, Ralph E. Chapman and Joseph Hannibal. Published by the Paleontological Society at the Department of Geological Sciences. The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996

·  Handbook of Paleo-preparation Techniques by Howard H. Converse Jr. Published by Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville FL 32611

·  Fossil Preparation Manual by Tom Whiteley and Gerry KIoc. Published by the authors, 1995

·  Mr. Behrendt specializes in Trilobites, Gastropods, Echnioderms, Brachiopods and his services include: fossil cleaning and preparation, fossil collecting, writing fossil related articles, speaking on fossil related topics. He can be reached at 421 S Columbus St., Somerset OH 43783 (740)743-2818 or e-mail FossilPrep@aol.com

 

Source Rock Pickings, Eastern Indiana Gem & Geological Society, Richmond IN, July 2003

Via Quarry Quips 12/03

Rocks Have Something For Everyone

 

The anteater has no teeth so it swallows ants whole. Imbedded in the thick muscular walls of its stomach are tiny pebbles it has collected, which serve to grind up the hard bodies of the insects.

 

Diamonds and gold nuggets have been found in the gizzards of chickens, used for the same purpose.

 

The alligator swallows rocks for a different reason: to provide ballast to keep him on an even keel in the water.

 

The sea otter uses rocks to crush shellfish on his chest while he floats serenely on his back.

 

From Rock Rollers 2 02

via GOLDEN SPIKE NEWS 10/03

Via T-Town Rockhound 12/ 03

 

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.

 

Jan 8-9 Grand Junction Gem & Mineral Club’s 57th Annual Show, Two Rivers Convention Ctr. 1st & Main Grand Junction, CO.

 

Jan 9-11 Denver Gem & Mineral Guild, Lakeside Center, I-70 at Harlan, Denver, CO

 

Jan 16-18 Gila County Gem & Mineral Show, Gila County Fairgrounds, 3 Miles North of Junction U.S. 60-70

 

Jan 24-25 East Texas Gem & Mineral Society Annual Show, Rose Garden Building, East Texas Fairgrounds, Hwy 31 (Front St.), Tyler, TX Sat 10-6, Sun 10-5

 

Jan 24-25 5th Annual Cripple Creek School of Prospecting, Cripple Creek Parks and Recreation

719.689.3514

 

Mar 12-14 Golden Spike Gem & Mineral Club, Union Station 25th & Wall Ave. Ogden, Utah

 

Mar 13-14 Magic Valley Gem Club Show, National Guard Armory, Frontier Rd. just E. of C.S.I. Twin Falls, ID

 

Mar 26-28 Fort Collins Rockhounds, Colorado

 

May1-2 Mohave County Gemstoner's Rock, Gem & Craft show, Saturday 9 to 5, Sunday 9 to 4, Senior Center; 1776 Airway; Kingman, AZ 86401

 

May 8-9 57th Annual Show Grand Junction Gem & Mineral Club’s, Two Rivers Convention Ctr. 1st & Main Grand Junction, CO

 

June 3-6 Mile High Rock & Mineral Society, Westminster Mall, 88th & Sheridan, Westminster, CO

 

June 19-20 Pikes Peak Gem & Mineral Show, Phil Long Expo Center1515 Auto Mall Loop I-25 & N Academy Exit Colorado Springs, CO

 

Aug 12-15 21st Annual Contin-tail, Colorado Federation of Gem & Mineral Societies, Rodeo Grounds, Buena Vista, CO

 

Sept 24-26 Tooele Gem & Mineral Show, Tooele County Fair Complex, 400 West 200 North, Tooele, Utah

 

Sand Siftings

by Sam Maselli

 

Rockhounds tend to ignore sand, but it is worth a second look for a lot of reasons. Much of the earth’s surface has sand on it; the Sahara Desert covers 3.5 million square miles, occupying part or all often countries. All sand is not the same, although sand usually consists of grains of quartz, feldspar, mica, and a little magnetite as well as other minerals that resist weathering. Peter Farb in his book The Face of North America (1963) Harper & Row, said several interesting things about sand. He points out that the Atlantic beaches at North Carolina have a greater percentage of pulverized shell, as much as ten percent, than those north of New Jersey. The beaches south of there are derived from the weathering of the Appalachians, but there are some beaches in Florida where ocean currents toss up almost pure quartz sand. These beaches are known for their sparkle and their hard surface. Further south in Florida shell and coral fragments become a larger percentage and the beaches change again. The beaches of the Gulf Coast are different because of the inclusion of mud and decaying organic matter.

 

Sand may be yellow, white, black, pink or many other colors as the definition of sand is a loose, incoherent mass of minerals in a fine granular condition. Grain size ranges from two thousandths of an inch to eighty thousandths in diameter. It is angular when young, but the grains get rounded by action of wind and water. Decaying organic materials are always at work when possible trying to change sand to soil. Water is constantly trying to dissolve its minerals and gravity is always trying to compact it. One of the little noticed features of sand is the huge amount of surface it has as compared to the same weight of solid rock. Another is its mobility as both water and wind move it with ease and dunes average a height of 40 ft. on the east coast and out west the White Sands National Monument, New Mexico, has 500 square miles of 50 foot high dunes of almost pure gypsum. The Great Dunes National Monument, Colorado, has dunes that are 700 feet high.

 

Illinois has large sand beaches where there is little or no water because the glacier left beaches at the margins of lakes that retreated after long stays. Running water often sorted the [sand] till the glaciers left in ways that would be difficult to explain if you did not know of the tunnels under the ice and other glacial oddities. In fact sand is of economic importance in Illinois and Indiana as a construction material, existing near the site where it is to be used. Another use of the kind of sand, almost pure quartz, that is found near Ottawa, Illinois, is in glassmaking. Sand can be an abrasive, used in molding and casting, becoming part of ceramics, a filter and as fire barrier. Many uses have been left out, but sand’s utility is clear.

 

Sand over time may become, with the aid of water, a rock. Sandstone, until it is filled with mineral, has spaces filled with water, gas, or even oil. Really old sandstone under the proper conditions becomes quartzite like the Baraboo Mountains of Wisconsin. One of the economic benefits of sand is as a tourist attraction forming dunes and beaches. Dunes and beaches are hostile environments as they dry out quickly at their surfaces and the temperature may hit 150 degrees, but life has had a long [time] to adjust, and moving vertically is easy with lower temperatures and higher moisture levels often just inches away. There are many forms of wildlife that have evolved around a sand based environment, and when the sand is gone, so are they.

 

The sand in the hourglass has run out and there is no more time or space for more in this article. If you use this article, credit The Tully.

 

From The Tully 2/03

via GEM CITY ROCK NEWS 7/03

Via T-Town Rockhound 12/ 03

 

Interesting Tidbits

 

How do Opals Show Rainbow Colors?

Opal is one of the few gemstones that is not a crystal. Although it’s made of silica (silica dioxide) the same compound as quartz and agate, the molecules are not arranged in crystalline order.

 

Opal is made of millions of extremely tiny spheres of silica molecules, loosely packed together with water molecules between them. The water content can be as high as 10% or more.

 

The colors come from the interaction between light and the silica spheres. If the spheres are almost the same size, they tend to pack into semi-regular patterns that diffract light the same way a peacock’s feather does. Each opal shows its own unique colored display.

 

Author unknown, source The Petrified Digest, Ginkgo Mineral Society Wenatchee WA, Aug 2003

 

Lapis Lazuli

Few gems display a color as rich as the deep royal blue of fine apis. Lapis was one of the most precious commodities of the ancient world, and was even valued on an equal level with gold. Lapis was used in medicines, cosmetics and paintings. The tomb of Tutankhamen, Pharaoh of Egypt, contained a wealth of gold and lapis jewels. Lapis has been mined continuously though sporadically for more than 6000 years in the Badakshan region of Afghanistan. Lapis is actually a rock, composed chiefly of the minerals lazurite, pyrite and calcite. Lazurite is blue, pyrite yellow and calcite is white. The brassy-gold spots and flecks of pyrite in genuine lapis are very distinctive.

 

Author unknown, source Golden Spike News, Golden Spike G&M Society Ogden UT, Sept 2003.

 

Purple Glass!

If you wish to know if a clear glass bottle will turn purple without exposing it to desert sunlight, place it under a Black Light. If it fluoresces green, it will turn purple when it is exposed long to sunlight. This is due to small amounts of manganese. Manufacturers stopped using manganese some time before the twenties, so you know that this glass mostly likely was before WWI.

 

Author unknown, source T-Town Rockhound May 2000

 

Via Quarry Quips 12/03

 

Cornbreadr²

Spheres Are Round

 

THE BACKGROUND – EDNA

Hello, we are the Houses, Wil and Edna. We love and collect spheres! Our collection doesn’t span many years of collecting, so it is still on going. When I look at spheres I consider the color, clarity, smoothness and over all quality. Of course I love getting a good price!

 

In order to display the spheres, I spend as much time shopping for stands as I do shopping for spheres. In order to get the height that I like I buy brass candleholders. Also, I use wooden circles for the larger lower ones. Recently I was given some wooden hand made holders. I treasure these because of the years of friendship involved. About two years ago we decided to purchase a sphere making machine and make our own spheres. What fun that would be to demonstrate how a sphere is made! I had a picture in my mind of a sleek smooth running, and quiet sphere making machine just turning out beautiful smooth polished spheres. What I got was a monstrous, jerky, noisy one. Somehow we (I can’t remember this part) decided to make our own sphere making machine! Ladies, can you relate to this?

 

THE MACHINE - WIL

After looking at the prices of a sphere making machine and inspecting a working model I determined that it would not be any big deal to make our own machine. We decided that we might want to make a sphere as large as 12" in diameter so I designed the machine on that basis. In retrospect I would probably have made it smaller had I known the problems of transportation, weight, etc., but I went for BIG!

 

First, I located three low output speed motors. They had to have sufficient torque to handle the larger sphere so the weight of the motors went up. With the motors in hand an old aluminum highway sign was cut up to make the motor mounting brackets. The brackets were ‘face’ mounted to the motors with the bottom of the bracket bolted to a heavy duty door hinge. Two pieces of structural mounting channel for each motor were bolted to a wooden base and the loose end of the hinge was bolted to the channels. They were positioned so that the bolts could be loosened and the hinge (with the motor attached) could be moved forward or backward to allow for smaller or larger spheres. Since I was making a three head machine the three motors were positioned 120 degrees apart. All of the wiring connections were made below the mounting bas, with only the necessary controls exposed.

 

The next task was to come up with some sort of automatic “grit applying” device. This was perhaps the most challenging part. I used an old rectangular Tupperware plastic storage container to hold the grit. A section of plastic pipe was installed, using a hot glue gun. A one R.P.M. display motor was attached to the side of the container and a 3/16" copper tubing shaft was attached to the motor shaft. A piece of copper sheeting was soldered to the shaft and each end was “rolled” to about the size of a .22 caliber shell. (A word of caution, if you elect to use a real .22 shell, make sure that it has been fired. Soldering on one with the primer still intact can be most unnerving.) One end was filled with hot glue and when the motor is turned on a small charge of grit is dropped into the plastic tubing and onto the sphere every 30 seconds.

 

While it is not the prettiest part of the device, water is applied through a piece of tubing which is an integral part of a saline IV drip. Our shop is near the local fire/emergency medical facility and the old IV’s have to be replaced from time to time. While there are much better ways to accomplish this, an old out of date unit fit our needs very well. An extension to the piece of pipe used to support the grit applying device serves as the attachment point of the IV

 

Determining the proper angle for the grinding cups, the amount of pressure to be applied to hold everything together was a matter of trial and error. After using the heaviest rubber bands that I had on hand I could not get the pressure correct. Off the wife went to Office Depot for a bag of heavy-duty rubber bands. Even these had to be double and tripled up in order to furnish the correct pressure.

 

The important thing, though, is that after a brief trial and error period, everything works. The exciting part is for an investment of about $125.00 we have as good a sphere making machine (though not necessarily as esthetically pleasing) as a much more expensive factory made unit. I am in the process of redesigning the machine to make it more portable though it will still be able to handle fairly large spheres. A “make it prettier” champaign has been waged and will be incorporated into the redesign as well.

 

THE MATERIALS - EDNA

There are many materials and colors to choose from when purchasing finished spheres or making your own. Some of there are inexpensive such as calcite, Picasso marble, Pakistani marble, onyx, fluoride and rose quartz and rainbow or sheen obsidian. One can also start out collecting the miniatures which are 1.25 in. in diameter. I also like the petrified woods. These can be purchased in Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, and Wyoming. And let us not forget the Louisiana petrified palm.

 

LOCATING SPECIMENS - EDNA

In addition to making your own, check area rock shows, local gift shops, and rock shop in your area. You also can check for spheres in rock shops you might visit while traveling. Once your family and friends know that you are collecting them, they will be more apt to get you one for a birthday, Christmas, etc.. There are several places on the internet that have spheres for sale. This is perhaps the best source for “exotic” materials. I recently searched for “stone spheres” on Google, and got over 100,000 sites to check out. After looking at about 50, over half of them were shops selling spheres. Estate sales and garage sales are also good places to look, especially if you are looking for bargains. It is not uncommon for people that have received spheres as gifts to greatly undervalue them. Often, you can pick them up at very good prices. As an example, Wil once purchased a small sphere, about 1-1/4” in diameter, made of Louisiana petrified palm for five cents. Occasionally you may find a sphere at a flea maret but I have only been to one flea market in Richmond, Virginia, that had spheres.

 

INTERESTING INFORMATION - WIL

There is a ton of information about spheres on the internet. A most interesting site discusses spheres in Costa Rica. The site is www.infocostarica.com . It discusses the finding of small and large spheres, some as large as several tons. The site has pictures and information about how these giant spheres were formed. Another really good site is www.ku.edu/~hoopes/balls/links.html. It has links to several interesting sites such as “floating granite spheres”, “Atlantis in America”, photos of the Costa Rica spheres in place and many others. We hope that you have enjoyed our article. Remember spheres keep you “well rounded.”

 

Wil and Edna House Ark-La- Tex Gem Mineral Society

Via The Rock Rattler 1/04

 

Fossil Sharks Tooth Addiction

By Rick Smith

(1st Place 2003 AFMS Adult Poetry, From In the Rostrum, Winter 2002 via THE ROCKPILE 10/03)

 

My face betrays a yawn,

Been searching since the dawn.

The tides now high,

Let’s quit, I sigh,

Go home and mow the lawn.

 

Although it’s time to go,

Perhaps I’ll walk real slow.

Just one more tooth

And that’s the truth,

Or trouble looms I know.

 

The time to leave is past,

Next tooth must be the last.

I can’t be late,

I’m tempting fate,

One tooth, then exit fast.

 

But now it’s getting weird,

The teeth have disappeared.

I’m feeling blue,

It’s fossil flu,

Exactly what I feared.

 

My vow I must ignore,

And continue to explore.

I can’t stop now,

No way, no how,

I found not one, but four!

 

Back searching on my knees.

Help stop me someone please!

I know for sure, I need a cure,

For fossil tooth disease.

 

Via T-Town Rockhound 12/03

A waiter brings the customer the steak he ordered with his thumb over the meat.

 

Customer: "Are you crazy? With your hand on my steak?!!!"

 

Waiter: "What, you want it to fall on the floor again?!"

 

Via The Rock Rattler 12/03