Strata Gem

March 2005

 

President's Message

 

Our dear friend and club member Lillie Olsen recently passed away. She will be missed by all. Our hearts go out to her sister Dorothy and Dorothy's husband Vernon Petersen as this sad time.

At our last meeting we discussed future field trips. We decided that a trip to the Museum of Natural History at the University of Utah would be a good field trip for March. Duane Gren, our field trip chairman suggested that we have that field trip on March 5th because then it will not conflict with Ogden Gem and Mineral show on the 12th and 13th, or a gold show that will be held on March 19th and 20th. So our field trip to the museum will be on Saturday, March 5th at 10:00 a.m. The field trip will be before our next meeting, so I'd like to take this opportunity to encourage everyone to attend both our field trip and to support the Ogden show.

At our next meeting, Sarah Clark, a graduate geologist who has recently joined or club, will give a talk. We will also have a silent auction at the meeting.

I talked to Phil and Dixie Salm recently, and it sounds like dry washing for gold in Quartzsite is nigh on to impossible due to rain and more rain.

 

Hope to see you at our next meeting!

 

Your President,

Bob Titus

 

Tooele Gem & Mineral

Tooele Senior Citizens Center

February 8, 2005

 

The meeting was called to order by President Bob Titus every one was welcomed. The minutes of the last meeting was read and approved, the treasurers report was read and approved.

Leona Adams great grandson, Paul Long has passed away the club sends our sympathy to her and her family.

We received our new club phone books, and they were handed out to the members. We welcomed three new members to the club, all our contracts for our show have been sent out, we have not received any back yet, the show dates are set for September 23, 24, and 25 2005. We decided to have a silent auction at our next meeting, everyone bring some of your favorite rocks and or slabs, and lots of money. The club discussed field trips and the different places we might go, some places mentioned were Topaz Mountain, Black Rock Canyon and Honey Onyx. It was decided to schedule a trip to the University of Utah Museum on Saturday March 5^that 10 AM. Duane Gren our field trip chairman will work on setting up some more trips to collect rock. Mary Helen West will bring the treats next month.

The door prize was won by Melva Scott. The meeting was adjourned.

 

Minutes submitted by

Larry Wilson, Secretary

 

In Memory Of Lillie S. Olsen

A Loved & Cherished Member

 

Lillie & Lida, lost their husbands about the same time. She was a great strength for my mother. They were going through the same problems at the same time. Mother always looked forward to the Logan Gem Show, so she could go out & visit with Lillie. Now they are both with their loved ones. Lillie will be missed, but will always be our hearts.

 

Members News

 

Field Trip

Mar 5th  at 10 AM at the Museum of Natural History

University of Utah

1390 E. Presidents Circle

Salt Lake City, Utah 84112

 

Silent Auction

Mar. 8th. We decided to have a silent auction at our next meeting, everyone bring some of your favorite rocks and or slabs, and lots of money.

 

‘America the Beautiful’

 

That beguiling phrase is not the title of a song or a statement of faith, it is a phrase which may become a serious threat to all our rockhounding and collecting activities in the USA in the coming year.

The rump of the last Congress, in the days after the voting and before the holidays, late one night passed an appropriations bill 3,000 pages long. Apart from the necessary budgets for departments, in it were thousands of ‘pork barrel’ projects by which our Senators and Representative get Federal funds for projects in their districts, and then go home and trumpet what great representatives they are. Most of the bill is never read or discussed in either the Senate or the House. The bill was signed into law by President Bush a few days later, and in that bill, never read in Congress, never discussed, was the America the Beautiful bombshell.

In summary this is what the legislation does. Sometime in the next year or so it cancels the legislation which covers the Golden Age and Golden Access passes, once in a lifetime payments to allow Seniors into National Parks, US Forests and BLM land. In their place will be an ‘America the Beautiful’ card, whose estimated cost will be $100 per year, every year! Adults would need to buy such a card. This would allow the user access to all USFS and BLM lands for the purposes of recreation, and entry to National Parks which are not ‘improved’ and have no facilities. Failure to produce such a card on demand could result in a fine of up to $5,000 and 30 days in jail. As the USFS and BLM do not have enough staff for enforcement and collection, they are allowed in the legislation to outsource these activities.

The threat to Gem and Mineral and Rockhounding clubs is clear, but we are not the only ones effected. Consider the impact on a church picnic into a USFS forest, and the need to ensure everyone has their pass. Perhaps the commercial collecting agents will turn their primary focus on rockhounds and the Godly, and leave hunters alone; who will demand a pass from someone with a loaded rifle.

Like so many acronyms invented nowadays ‘America the Beautiful’ is meant to mislead, ‘America the Overtaxed’ would be a better fit.

So what can we do about it? All may not be lost. Other interested groups have been protesting and it is having some effect. A spokesman for the Parks Service has been rapidly backtracking stating that the initial fee for Seniors will only be $10 and few of the provisions will be implemented, so protest can make a difference. The States which will be hit hardest, because they have the most USFS and BLM land, are those same ‘red’ states which voted Republican last November, and in these partisan days, something may yet be done. In November the late night deal was stitched together between a Representative from Alaska and one from Ohio who has no public lands in his district. It has created anger among numerous of their colleagues and there is talk of reversing this legislation. Politicians listen to their voters, so the SCRIBE plan is to send as many letters as we can to complain and ask whether they agree with legislation, and if not, what do they intend to do about it. To help we will draft a sample letter and ask you to ask all club members to send four letters, one to each of your Senators, one to your Representative and one to President Bush, and more to anyone you might think it worth influencing. Where possible add a yellow rockhound sticker to your letter, that will help our Representatives recognize our concern.

        

If you want to read more about this matter check some of these web sites;

http://www.sespewild.org/HR3283analysis.html

http://www.planetjh.com/klobnak_2004_12_01_pay.html

 

 

Sample letter

Send to both your Senators, your Representative and to the President

 

Yellow rockhound logo here

                                                                        Your Address

                                                                        Date

 

 

Dear xxxxxx,

 

          In the Appropriations Bill which was passed into law at the end of the last Congress in November, a section was inserted at the last moment as a late night deal between two Representatives. This section has a fundamental effect on access to Public Lands throughout the USA. This section was never introduced nor discussed on the floor of the House or the Senate.

            The legislation is HR3283 which cancels Golden Age and Golden Access passes and introduces a new pass; ‘America the Beautiful’. It opens the doors for the National Parks, the USFS, and the BLM to introduce fees for many activities not previously charged, in many places where no fees had formerly applied. It mandates draconian punishments for fee evasion. Although Agencies have since commented that they do not intend to instigate all the fees allowed, we are all aware that if it is allowed, in future it is likely to happen. The new law does not stop any of the activities which are at present permitted, including rockhounding, in which I am particularly interested, but it does permit stiff fees for doing so in many places where such activity has always been free of charge.

            I strongly object to this legislation and to the corrupt manner in which it became law.

            I ask you to act to reverse the legislation in full and to guard against its reintroduction.

I would like your opinion as to whether passing far reaching legislation in the above manner fits your understanding of democracy in the United States at a time when we are lauding the ideas of freedom and democracy throughout the world.

 

                                    Yours,

 

 

Ant Hills And Animal Burrows

 

One of the least known methods of finding mineral specimens is also one of the easiest, and many times one of the most productive. It consists of inspecting and testing the materials that ants and other animal life bring to the surface of the earth. Ants, gophers, prairie dogs moles, etc. are very busy miners, and they move a tremendous amount of dirt and rock to the surface. Some ants, for example, tunnel to the depth of fifteen feet, and a single ant nest can consist of a labyrinth of tunnels and passages and rooms going to a depth of fifteen feet and spread over more than an acre. Some excellent gemstones have been found in anthills, especially red gemstones.

 

Gem City Rock News 11/99 via Quarry Quips 303

Via Golden Spike News 6/03

Hints & Tips

 

Clean gold chains this way: in a stainless steel pan or an enameled pan, mix half a cup of Tide with one cup of water. Drop your gold chains into this solution and after they reach a boil, lower the heat and simmer for five minutes. Set aside to cool. Scrub with a soft toothbrush, rinse under running water, and dry and buff. DO NOT do this with gold jewelry that includes stones.

Author unknown, source Breccia, Santa Clara Valley G&M Society, March 2003

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Clean pyrite by soaking.your specimen overnight in a solution of oxalic acid, using two ounces of the acid to a quart of water. You can also soak them for an hour in hydrochloric acid. Be sure to read the safety notes regarding the acids.

Author unknown, source Breccia, Santa Clara Valley G&M Society, March 2003

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How to Find The Fire in Fire Agate

Fire agate is a quartz-based rock with layers of iron oxide in chalcedony, which results in iridescence. It occurs in nodules of milky or grayish translucent chalcedony. Sometimes it is found in botryoidal growths in geodes and in chalcedony roses.

Fire agate appears as a dull, reddish brown layer, but when the surface layers are removed the rainbow colors or iridescence are exposed. The fire is brought out by tumbling, trimming, and grinding off the outer layers to expose the iridescence. Polishing magnifies the fire.

To find the fire, remove the matrix, then tumble polish the stones. Tumbling removes the excess chalcedony. When polished, remove excess stone around the edges, then polish and set. Allow the stone to retain its irregular shape and polish slowly, so you don't go through the fire layers. The graceful natural shapes are superior to those cut to calibrated sizes, as the best fire doesn't always fit a mold. To set it off, mount the fire agate in a custom-made gold or silver setting. Fire agates are most often found in Arizona, California, Idaho, and Mexico, among other locales.

Author unknown, Source The Tumbler Jan 2003

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Interesting Tidbits

BONES

Forensic science can now use bone testing to determine a victim's origin. In a bizarre case, remains of a young unidentified boy recovered from the Thames River in England and thought to be Nigerian, were tested and compared to soil samples and rock in Africa. The Seattle Times (AP, Feb 1, 2003) reports that the bones contained traces of rock specifically identified as Precambrian. After a 12,000-acre search, scientists narrowed the area of birth to Yoruba, a rural sector some 50 miles by 100 miles in the south of Nigeria. Further tests are being carried out.

Not wanting to sound "wise" about such a sad event, but it seems that our mothers were right: We are what we eat, literally.

Author unknown, source: T-Town Rockhound, Tulsa R&M Society, April 2003

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BUCKETITE

This is a type of rock that forms in buckets, milk crates, boxes, and other containers in the backyards and garages of long-time rockhounds. Its properties vary widely; any color, texture, or hardness may be found in these deposits.

Often the best material is found in small pieces at the bottom of the container; great patience is needed to sift through a typical deposit. These deposits are typically pretty filthy, though the stones are easily removed and cleaned. Beware of spiders and other vermin, especially in larger deposits and in hotter climates.

On the other hand, the material is quite often pre-slabbed, and the slabs will occasionally already have cabochon outlines marked on them.

How can you tell if a piece of rock is bucketite? If you can't tell what it is and someone asks you, just tell them it's bucketite. If you got it out of a bucket, even if you can identify it, it's still pure bucketite. For more information or to see some bucketite, contact a long-time rockhound. (Also known as "backyardite".)

Author unknown, source The Pegmatite Feb 2003

 

Via Quarry Quips 5/03

 

Cultured Pearls…

Mystery Shrouds Methods Used in Culturing And the Quality of Pearls

By Charlotte Higgins, Topeka Gem and Mineral Society

 

For centuries, pearls were the world's most popular "gem", but in the last century diamonds overtook them in popularity. This change is due in part to the many ways in which diamonds could be used. Diamonds are durable and impervious to scratching and chipping and the everyday rough and tumble of constant wear. Thus they can be used in various kinds of jewelry....necklaces, earrings, bracelets, pins and probably the most common way, in rings. Pearls on the other hand are not a good choice for rings for other than dress occasions. They do not take kindly to bumps and knocks, don't fare well in detergents, household cleaning items, many cosmetic items such as nail polish remover and indeed most chemicals. Pearls need to be treated as the treasures they are.

Probably the most important factor influencing the change is the outstanding marketing system and promotion by the diamond consortium. Young women the world over, do not consider their engagement "official" without a diamond engagement ring. But perhaps just as importantly, the diamond market is tightly controlled by this consortium that allows only a certain quantity of diamonds in the world market place at any one time. Tons of "surplus" diamonds are warehoused in vaults to keep both the popularity (demand) and price high.

On the other hand, the pearl industry has been almost entirely unregulated and each pearl farmer is free to produce as many pearls as he can. Several attempts are being made to control the quality of cultured pearls, notable among them is the Tahitian black pearl industry. The Japan Pearl Exporters' Association operates a privatized voluntary Cultured Pearl Quality Inspection and Tag System, in place since January 1999. Its standard uses the same criteria as the former mandatory program operated by the Japanese government. I believe that controls are being attempted by the Chinese pearl industry. However, there are conflicting reports on efforts to monitor quality and not all production is regulated by governments or industry associations to control the quality or quantity of the cultured pearl industry worldwide.

A recent downturn in the world economy has further damaged the market already suffering from self-inflicted over production and in some cases a decline in quality.

I have found that my research has perhaps produced as much confusion as enlightenment. There are discussions and disagreements between the pearl producers and those professing to be experts on pearl production and quality. There is confusion in the pearl industry, among marketers and perhaps most importantly the consumer about the quality and value of the pearls being offered. In this article I have tried to present as accurate a summary of the available information as possible.

We will not discuss in great detail the variety of methods used in culturing pearls, but we will take a somewhat cursory look at several of them.

First of all we need to understand that any mollusk that produces a shell can produce a pearl, but of the 100,000 of kinds, it is generally the bivalves (or those with two shells) that produce pearls. There are different kinds of cultured pearls depending upon the type of oyster or mollusk used in the culturing process. But regardless of the type of oyster, the nacre coating the nucleus is composed of layers of calcium carbonate According to a web site of the American Gem Society "Three things determine the size of a cultured pearl: the size of the mother-of-pearl nucleus, the size of the oyster, and the thickness of the nacre." Well, that's pretty basic common sense, now isn't it? The thickness of the nacre...Ah, there's the rub!

The Pearl Science Laboratory of Japan established the following pearl thickness guidelines: .8mm of nacre for a pearl of outstanding quality... or about 8 pages of paper of the same thickness this bulletin is printed on. A pearl of quality should have nacre of .4 to .6mm, or about 4 to 6 sheets of the thickness of paper this bulletin is printed on, or

19 months of continuous growth. Some possessing an expertise in pearls contend that the nucleus in some pearls makes up as much as 90% of a pearl's size... Thus an 8mm pearl would have a nucleus of approximately 7.2 mm and nacre thickness of 0.4mm.

Ayoka cultured pearls are produced when a nucleus is implanted with a small piece of mantle tissue into a pinctada fucata martensil oyster. The Akoyas cultured in Japan are generally white, silver, rose pink and pink, and cream, gold, green and blue. They range in size from 2 to 10mm.

The Tahitian pearls or black pearls are cultured in black lipped oysters known as Pinctada Margaritifera that are older and larger when the nucleus is implanted. Because they are larger, they can accept a larger nucleus, perhaps produce greater quantities of nacre and thus produce a larger pearl. A website devoted to Tahitian pearls claims that these oysters can secrete three or four layers of aragonite each day, which they say that over a two-year life cycle, about 2,000 layers, each 0.001 mm each for a total of 2mm. or slightly over 1/16 inch.

South Sea pearls are cultured in Pinctada maxima and are produced mainly in Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines. South Sea pearls may be white, cream, yellow or gold.

Great care must be taken during the implanting process. An incision is made and then the piece of mantle or a nucleus is implanted. There is a relatively high mortality rate among the oysters from the implanting process itself. Further deaths occur during the time the pearl is developing in the oysters. The longer the oysters are allowed to grow the pearl, the greater the death rate, and the production of "off round" pearls, so it is little wonder that pearl farmers want to harvest the pearls as early as possible, resulting in pearls with a thinner coating of nacre.

The Chinese claim to be producing all nacre beads with no nucleation saying they were the result of leaving them in the water seven to nine years.

Fred Ward, a journalist, photographer, and GIA gemologist writing in Lapidary Journal, believes that Chinese pearls are " nucleated with shell beads or old round tissue-nucleated pearls. Fred Ward writes, "I doubt the Chinese story because two things make cultured peals round. First, you begin with a large round bead nucleus. Then you leave the oyster in the water only long enough to get a decent nacre coating, but not long enough to let the pearl start growing off-round. " He goes on to say, "Therefore, I conclude that the Chines must be doing multiple nucleations with their own pearls and the repetitive cycles in several different mussels may total the seven to nine years the Chinese are claiming." He supports this idea with photographs showing tree ring growth in samples that have been cut open to reveal the interior of the pearl. There is little way to determine the method used in culturing the pearls you are looking at. It is virtually impossible to tell by the naked eye and even x-ray cannot reliably doso.

Many pearls on the market have been enhanced by bleaching and then dying in a wide array of color, but there are many natural colored pearls on the market.

As alluded to in the preceding article, cultured pearls have flooded the market worldwide. Where once fine pearls were available only from quality jewelers, today pearls are sold in department stores, discount stores and unbelievably on home shopping networks on TV. Earrings, necklaces, rings, and bracelets are hawked by sweet-talking pretty faces that show and describe the product in those most seductive terms....and the viewer is assured that there is only a limited number available at this "low, low" price.

Bottom line: Buyer beware! It is easier to tell a fake pearl or "faux pearl" as they are sometimes described, from either a natural or cultured pearl than to determine the quality of the cultured pearl you're buying. The legion of "Mash" fans out there (still available on cable and satellite), may remember that Hotlips said they were the real thing if they

felt slightly rough when you rubbed them against your teeth. Were that it were so easy to determine the quality of cultured pearls.

 

Our THANKS to Charlotte for this interesting three-part series of articles about PEARLS. They have been both interesting and informative.

your Editor, Louellen Montgomery

 

via Glacial Drifter 5/03