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Strata Gem November 2003
Presidents Message
We sure had a great turn out for our show.
We all need a pat on our backs for all the hard work.
Thanks to all our members that came and worked so hard. We couldn’t put on our show without the help of every member in our club.
Thanks to Donna Chavez for bringing out treats Tuesday night.
Ardith and Larry are going to be our Christmas Chairman. The time and place will be in this paper.
I hope to see you all at our next meeting
Good Luck and Good Health to Everyone
Your President Ruth S. Smith
Christmas Party December 9th
Our Annual Christmas Party will be held on December 9th 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 1st!!!
Members News
Welcome New Member: Lamont Anglesey
Dues Are Due: If you have a red (02) number on your address label your dues are past due. I will be deleting those names in January.
Get Well Soon: Lida Chapman’s new cancer medication has quit working. This will mean a harsher treatment which will be harder on her heart.
Club Website: I don’t know how much the members use the club website www.utahrockhounds.com/tooelegem, but it has been down for a couple of weeks. I found out the server I use had gone out of business. I now have everything transfers over to a new server and it has a few bells & whistles that the old one didn’t have. If the club would like an email mailing list where you can ask questions or chat with other club members I can set one up. I am only interested in doing it for members only (I hate spammers & that happens a lot on public lists). If interested email me at ***********.
Would You Like An Emailed Newsletter: I have been exchanging newsletters with other editors via email. It wouldn’t be any problem to add the your email address to the list, if you are interested in a color copy of the newsletter. Right now it wouldn’t be cost effect to offer it in place of regular snail mail, I have to get at least 85 copy from my copy person to make it worth her time. If interested email me at *************.
DINOSAURS: FACTS AND FICTION
WHEN DID THE FIRST DINOSAURS APPEAR ON EARTH? The oldest dinosaur types are known from rocks in Argentina and Brazil and are about 230 million years old. The most primitive of these types, Eoraptor, was a small meat-eating dinosaur. Because Eoraptor’ s skeleton shows some advanced skeletal features, older dinosaurs may yet be found.
ARE ALL FOSSIL ANIMALS DINOSAURS? No. Dinosaurs are a group of ancient reptiles that had a set of particular skeletal features. The hips, hind legs, and ankles were specialized and allowed the legs to move directly under the body, rather than extending out from the side of the body as in modern lizards. This arrangement enabled dinosaurs to bring their knees and ankles directly below their hips and provided the necessary attachments for very strong leg muscles. Dinosaur skeletons were well designed for supporting a large body, for standing erect (upright), and for running. The front legs were adapted for grasping prey, for supporting weight, or for walking and running. The skulls of dinosaurs were designed for maximum strength, for minimum weight, and (in some cases) for grasping, holding, or tearing at prey. These skeletal features separated dinosaurs from other ancient reptiles such as Dimetrodon, the plesiosaurs, and pterosaurs. Fossil mammals, like mammoths and “saber-toothed tigers” (e.g., Smilodon), also are often incorrectly called dinosaurs.
DID PEOPLE AND DINOSAURS LIVE AT THE SAME TIME? No! After the dinosaurs died out, nearly 65 million years passed before people appeared on Earth. However, small mammals (including shrew-sized primates) were alive at the time of the dinosaurs. Many scientists who study dinosaurs (vertebrate paleontologists) now think that birds are direct descendants of one line of carnivorous dinosaurs, and some consider that they in fact represent modern living dinosaurs. This theory remains under discussion and shows that there is still much we don’t know about dinosaurs.
WHERE DID DINOSAURS LIVE? Paleontologists now have evidence that dinosaurs lived on all of the continents. At the beginning of the age of dinosaurs (during the Triassic Period, about 230 million years ago) the continents we now know were arranged together as a single supercontinent called Pangea. During the 165 million years of dinosaur existence this supercontinent slowly broke apart. Its pieces then spread across the globe into a nearly modern arrangement by a process called plate tectonics. Volcanoes, earthquakes, mountain building, and sea-floor spreading are all part of plate tectonics, and this process still is actively changing our modern Earth.
DID ALL DINOSAURS LIVE TOGETHER, AND AT THE SAME TIME? Dinosaur communities were separated by both time and geography. The “age of dinosaurs” (the Mesozoic Era) included three consecutive geologic time periods (the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous Periods). Different dinosaur species lived during each of these three periods. For example, the Jurassic dinosaur Stegosaurus already had been extinct for approximately 80 million years before the appearance of the Cretaceous dinosaur Tyrannosaurus. In fact, the time separating Stegosaurus and Tyrannosaurus is greater than the time separating Tyrannosaurus and you. At the beginning of dinosaur history (the Triassic Period), there was one supercontinent on Earth (Pangea). Many dinosaur types were widespread across it. However as Pangea broke apart, dinosaurs became scattered across the globe on separate continents, and new types of dinosaurs evolved separately in each geographic area.
HOW ARE DINOSAURS NAMED? Dinosaurs generally are named after a characteristic body feature, after the place where they were found, or after a person involved in the discovery. Usually the name consists of two Greek or Latin words (or combinations); in order, these are the genus (plural, genera) and the species name. For example, the Greek and Latin combination (binomen) Tyrannosaurus rex means “king of the tyrant lizards.” Biologists name modern animals exactly the same way. Some examples include humans (Homo sapiens), domestic dogs (Canis familiaris), golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos), box turtles (Terrapene carolina), and rattlesnakes (Crotalus horridus).
WERE DINOSAURS WARM-BLOODED? Scientists have conflicting opinions on this subject. Some paleontologists think that all dinosaurs were “warm-blooded” in the same sense that modern birds and mammals are; that is, they had rapid metabolic rates. Other scientists think it unlikely that any dinosaur could have had a rapid metabolic rate. Some scientists think that very big dinosaurs could have had warm bodies because of their large body size, just as some sea turtles do today. It may be that some small dinosaurs were warm-blooded. The problem is that it is hard to find evidence that unquestionably shows what dinosaur metabolisms were like.
HOW LONG COULD A DINOSAUR LIVE? Animal lifespan relate in part to their body size and in part to their type of metabolism. Dinosaur lifespan probably varied in length from tens of years to hundreds of years. Their possible maximum age can be estimated from the maximum lifespan of modern reptiles, such as the 66-year lifespan of the common (Alligator mississippiensis) and the impressive lifespan of a Black Seychelles Tortoise (Geochelone (Aldabrachelys) sumeirei). One specimen of this now extinct species, which was an adult when captured, lived a record 152 years in captivity (1766-1918) and had an accidental death. These estimates, based on lifespans of cold-blooded animals, would be too long if dinosaurs had metabolisms more similar to modern birds and mammals.
U.S.G.S publication of the same name. Authors: Ronald J. Litwin, Robert E. Weems, Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Via The Glacial Drifter Aug/Sep 2003
Your House Comes Out of a Mine
The majority of the raw materials used in building your house were furnished by the mining industry.
The foundation is probably concrete [clay, limestone, shale, gypsum and aggregate].
The exterior walls may be made of brick [clay] or stone [dimension stone].
The insulation in the walls may be glass wool [silica, feldspar, and trona] or expanded vermiculite [vermiculite].
The interior walls are usually wall board [gypsum].
The lumber in the structure will be fastened with nails and screws {iron ore and zinc].
The roof is covered with asphalt shingles; the filler in the shingles is from a variety of colored silicate minerals.
Your fireplace is probably of brick or stone, lined with a steel box [iron ore].
Your sewer piping is made of clay or iron pipe [clay or iron ore].
Your electrical wiring is of copper or aluminum [copper or bauxite].
Your sanitary facilities are made of porcelain [clay].
Your plumbing fixtures are made of brass [copper and zinc], or stainless steel [nickel and chrome].
Your gutters are made of galvanized steel [iron ore and zinc].
The paint is manufactured with the mineral fillers and pigments from mining.
Your windows are made of glass [trona, silica, sand, & feldspar].
Your doorknobs, locks, and hinges are of brass or steel [copper, zinc & iron ore].
And finally your mortgage is written on paper made of wood or cloth fibers, but filled with clay.
Source: SME Foundation for Public Information and Education, Littleton, CO
Via The Rock Bag 9/03
The Kaali Meteorite Castastrophe by Bill Cordua
We have evidence that past asteroid or comet impacts have caused mass extinction’s such as that of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. We have also seen movies and read articles about possible catastrophic effects to future civilization from such impacts.
These events are hard to grasp, perhaps because we have no record of great human suffering due to such impacts in our history. Some see passages in the Bible or in other traditions (such as the Scandinavian Ragnarok) as indications of past catastrophic events (Gribbin and Gribbin, 1996). One would expect, however, hard scientific evidence that those parts of ancient history were associated with a comet or asteroid impact. Recently, however, researchers in Estonia and Sweden have turned up evidence of a meteorite causing havoc in an Estonian island community (Veski, et, al., 2001).
Scientists studying the geology of an island of Saaremaa, off the coast of Estonia, found evidence that a large iron meteorite, perhaps weighing 1000 tons, fell on this island between 800 and 400 B.C.. Such an impact would unleash a force slightly greater than that of the Hiroshima A-bomb. Archeological records show that at that time the island was densely populated. Little is known of these people as they left no written record.
The evidence for meteorite impact at this time is certain. An impact crater, 350 feet across, called the Kaali Crater was found. It now forms a shallow lake. At least 8 satellite craters surround the main one. Crater morphology indicate the impact released the energy equivalent to 20 kilotons of TNT. Fragments of meteoritic nickel-iron are associated with the crater, as are beads of glass formed by shock melting of rocks upon impact. High iridium concentrations in the lake sediments are also evidence of meteorite impact. Carbon 14 dating of the peat deposited in the lake and nearby bogs pin-point the impact as occurring between 800 and 400 years BC.
Saaremaa was densely inhabited then, as it had been for thousands of years before the impact. Many Bronze Age artifacts are found there, as are the remains of towns, fields and
fortresses. Cattle and crops formed the basis for the economy. Pollen deposited in nearby fens and bogs allow a detailed re-creation of the vegetation before, during and after impact. Before impact, a number of pollen grains from a variety of cultivated cereals were present, along with tree and herb pollen. At the time of impact, a unique deposit formed. This was a layer of glass spherules, meteorite fragments, rock dust, charcoal and burned stumps. Sediment deposited for the 100 years following impact was quite different from what went before. There was no cereal pollen and little tree pollen found, only an increase of dwarf shrubs. Eventually pollen populations return to their pre-impact character. Veski et.al.’s interpretations of this data paint a stark picture. The people were hit suddenly with the force of a Hiroshima-size explosion. By comparison with Hiroshima, no living thing likely survived within a mile of the crater. Flash burning of vegetation would occur up to 2 miles away, setting the stage for still wider wild fires. All structures up to 6 miles away would have collapsed.
That the culture itself collapsed in indicated by the fact that there was no sign of crop cultivation for 100 years after the impact, although there are signs that survivors used the edge of the crater in a fortification soon after impact.
One wonders what the survivors must have thought had happened to them or how they would have described it to others. What influences might this have on stories and legends down to this day?
References: Gribbin, John and Mary Gribbin, 1996, Fire on Earth, St. Martin ‘s Press, 264 p. Veski, Sum, A. Heinsalu, K Kirsimae, A. Poska and L Saarce, 2001, “Ecological catastrophe in connection with the impact of the Kaali meteorite, about 800 -400 BC. On the island of Saaremaa Estonia “, Meteoritics and Planetary Science, vol. 36, p 1367-13 75.
Leaverite News, 01 via West Seattle Petroglyphs 2/03 Via Golden Spike News 5/03
The Bola Tie Revisited
The bola (not bolo) tie, though known in much of the world, is most prevalent in the Southwestern U.S. There are many stories as to the origin of the bola tie, but the one that is normally accepted started n 1949 with Victor E. Cedarstaff of Wickenburg, Arizona.
Cedarstaff was riding horseback when the wind blew his hat off; the band had come loose. Instead of putting it back on the hat, he put the band around his neck. A friend saw this and remarked, “Nice tie you’re wearing!”
That gave Vic an idea. He was a silversmith and had taught leather craft, so he made a tie from leather lacings and attached silver balls at the end. Then he made a silver slide with a piece of turquoise on it and slipped in on the lacings. This attracted attention, and he began to get orders to make them. He was unable to get a patent on the tie because such a slide arrangement was already in existence.
One problem was to make the slide so it would slip but not damage the leather. Eventually, he de-signed a yoke which held the leather properly and eliminated the necessity of having to slip the tie over the head. Now he had something new, and on this modification he was issued a patent.
He needed a name for the tie which would help popularize it, and first called it a Piggin Necklet after the piggin string that cowboys used. Sometime later, a friend who had been to Argentina showed Vic a device he had brought back called a bola. This was used in Argentina for catching cattle and it reminded Vic of what he had made. The initial name never caught on, and Vic decided to call his tie a bola. It is now the official neckwear of Arizona.
Original Source Unknown (RM Newsletter) Via Breccia 6/98 & Napa Gem 12/01 Via Beehive Buzzer 1/02
THE BOLA TIE
There is some distinction that should be made in the pronunciation, and a general slur of the word is not the answer. Bola is a noun. It is essentially a weapon consisting of two or three stones or iron balls attached to the ends of a cord or woven strands of leather for hurling at and entangling an animal. Bolo is a noun and is a two-handed single-edged knife about 18 inches long used by the natives in the Philippines to cut sugar cane. The bola tie is an item of wearing apparel consisting of an ornamental sliding clasp attached to braided three or four stranded leather and worn around the neck. The bola tie can be simplistic or made of elaborate silver or gold castings. Regardless of design you have a unique piece, and never see another one like it...A bola tie can be worn with a shirt, buttoned or unbuttoned, regardless of temperature. One word for the bola is practical.
From Golden Spike News 11/84 Via Beehive Buzzer 1/02 & others
Rockhounds Are Funny
The price of a steak may dismay them, and they may often pass it by, then turn around and spend more per pound on a rock. Goodness knows they can’t eat the rock, but display it, dust it, brag about it, or wear it out.
They have been known to move dirty dishes out of the sink so they could wash their rocks. They seem to find a therapeutic effect in rocks. Rockhounds can be droopy and moping around the house with the “blahs”, but they will go rock hunting with you is you ask them or urge them. Sometime later they will find that the sinus condition, backache, sore muscles, or whatever, has miraculously gotten much better and they feel just fine. Rockhounds will walk for miles in search of a good specimen, climb mountains and go down into gullies. They get hot, tired, dirty and bug-bitten. Then when they return to their vehicles, they usually find that one of the very best specimens of all is lying right by the car.
They are amateur geologists, mineralogists and paleontologists. They are interested in everything and are themselves interesting. They are a curious, humorous, talented, skillful, lovely people who wear split britches, old shoes and amazing hats.
Rock Chip Repoiter 2/98 via Clackamette Gem 6/02 Via Golden Spike News 7/02
Green Fever
Legends proclaim that a jilted Indian princess cried so many tears within the lush mountains of Columbia that emeralds were born from those tears.
Treasure seekers still dream nightly of finding their riches on the waking.
Emerald production has dropped in Columbia, yet miners continue to hope for that one big, pure stone that will produce an answer to all their needs. So much so, locals say they have "green fever."
Forty percent of the world’s emeralds are produced in Columbia. In 1995, exports netted $475 million. However, the emerald trade has been declining. Last year (2001) exports only brought $100 million. An uncertainty of the quality of stones caused the decline. For some years poor quality stones were bathed in a resin to fill small fractures and enhance the color, only to change color with time, eroding the stones value.
The Muzo mine, owned by a company called Coexminas, has been the largest source of emeralds in Colombia, but miners have begun to give up and leave because the stones are becoming harder to find. As an incentive to keep miners on, the company offers each a place to stay, meals and a small percentage of all finds. They are also allowed to remove small piles of dirt from the mine to search through for small stones they can keep.
Air has to be pumped down to miners through plastic hoses, as they work in the deep tunnels. The work is hard and dangerous.
The lush area around the mine is very fertile and could grow many kinds of crops, making a stable income for many people. But there are no farms. Everyone seems to have the fever and would rather look for wealth in the mine rather than considering the riches to be made in agriculture. The average per capita income is about $2000 a year. A farmer would make even less. One spectacular emerald can sell for as high as $11,000. The small share of the miner from one such sell could be a lot.
The piles outside the mine are inspected daily by dozens of women and children who sift the soil hoping to find over looked emeralds.
Source: Summarized from CAPPER'S Nov. 26 page 15 “Colombia Is Worlds Best Emerald Source.”
From Ozark Earth Science News. 1/03. Via The RockCollector 2/03
Wise Old Farmer
A wise old farmer went to town to buy a pickup truck that he saw advertised in the paper for a certain price. After telling the salesman which truck he wanted, they sat down to do the paperwork. The salesman handed the farmer the bill, and the farmer declared, This isn’t the price I saw!”
The salesman went on to tell the wise old farmer how he was getting extras such as power brakes, power windows, special tires etc. and that was what took the price up. The farmer needed the truck badly, paid the price and went home.
A few months later, the salesman called up the farmer and said. My son is in 4-H and he needs a cow for a project. Do you have any for sale?” The farmer said, Yes, I have a few cows, and I would sell for $500.00 apiece. Come took at them and take your pick.”
The salesman said he and his son would be right out. After spending a few hours in the field checking out all the farmer’s cows, the two decided on one and the salesman proceeded to write out a check for $500.00. The farmer said----”Now, wait a minute, that’s not the final price of the cow. You’re getting extras with it and you have to pay for that too.”
“What extras?” asked the salesman.
Below is the list the farmer gave the salesman for the final price of the cow.
BASIC
COW............ $500.00
Dual horns........
$45.00
GRAND TOTAL........
$1,233.00 Author unknown, source unknown
Via Quarry Quips 8/03
Gold Is Gold, Whatever The Price
A home shopping channel sells a 14-karat gold necklace for $400. Tiffany’s sells an 18-karat gold chocker for nearly $40,000. Is Tiffany’s gold better than the kind you can buy from QVC, or Home Shopping Network, or Service Merchandise? Is that’s why it’s so expensive? No, gold is gold, whether it comes in a limited edition piece sold by a top-of-the-line retailer or in necklaces sold by the thousands by a mass marketer, according to gold industry executives.
The difference in price comes from metallurgic, economic and design factors. How many karats of gold a piece of jewelry has, how much the piece weighs, how well it’s constructed, and how much gold a particular retailer buys abd sekks, Another factor is snob appeal - does the jewelry carry a label that drives up the cost?
"Gold jewelry can be bought at any price depending on quality and what you want to spend,” said Julie. Livingston, a spokeswoman for the World Gold Council, a New York based trade group. One of the biggest factors in pricing gold is karatage - how much fine gold is in a piece. Fine gold, also known as pure gold, is 24 karats. Jewelry that is 18 karat is 75 percent fine gold, while 14 karat is 58.3 percent and 10 karat, the minimum karatage legally sold in the United States, is 41.6 percent.
Manufacturers are not required to place karatage imprints (the little 18K or 14K discernible on most gold jewelry) on their jewelry. But if they do, the law requires them to include a registered trademark as well, said Joel Windham, executive vice president of the Jewelers Vigilance Committee, a trade group also based in New York. Jewelry that doesn’t have that trademark should raise a question in a shopper’s mind about whether it’s real gold, Windham said.
Consumers can be sure the gold jewelry they purchase is the real thing by buying from a retailer whose reputation they are sure of, Ms. Livingston said. Reputable retailers, whether they are local jewelers, department stores, home Shopping channels, discount stores or catalogs, will sell only real gold because their future business depends on it. “They are dealing with so many millions of customers. They can’t afford to goof," Ms. Livingston said.
A low price may reflect the fact a retailer has a big sales volume of gold. Retailers like QVC or Service Merchandise are able to sell gold at reduced prices in much the same way that Wal Mart gives big discounts on household goods and Toys “R” Us marks down toys - they buy so much inventory that they’re able to command a better price from suppliers.
The fact also is that gold bullion, which is currently hovering around $370 a troy ounce on world markets, is in plentiful supply, which brings prices down at the retail level.
Workmanship also affects price. Almost all jewelry is machine-made to some extent, but higher priced pieces often have more handwork. The quality of the construction is also a factor. “If you’re buying a herringbone chain, run your fingers along it, if a lot of edges are rough,” the quality of the work may be poor, Ms. Livingston said. “If you want to spend only $19.99 on a bracelet, what can you expect,” She said. “It’s real (gold) but not the greatest quality (of construction) in the world.” The holiday season is the biggest selling period for gold jewelry. “Most retailers do upwards of 65 percent or more (of their business) this time of year,” Ms. Livingston said.
But most of the gold jewelry that is bought in this country isn’t meant to be a gift for someone else - about 70 percent is bought by women for themselves, Ms. Livingston said. Jewelry, like clothes, can be inexpensive or not depending on how upscale or not the retailer is. A piece bought at Tiffany, Gump in San Francisco or a Rodeo
Drive boutique is likely to be more expensive than one with, a similar amount of gold bought in a department store. A designer label, like Elsa Peretti, Jean Schlumberger or Paloma Picasso, will send the price tag into what seems like the stratosphere to many consumers. For others, it’s another affordable luxury.
adapted from an AP article and printed in GEM CUTTERS NEWS 5/2000 via The Glacial Drifter 8/03
Datolite -One Reason to Visit Michigan State By Debbie Leschner, WGMS Datolite is a gem found in the tailings of old copper mines in the Michigan Keweenaw and Houghton counties. They are found as irregularly shaped nodules. The coloration is a grayish white on the outside with colors ranging from pinks, yellows, reds, greens to violet due to the copper and iron minerals. Some of the nodules have inclusions of fine copper and/or silver. The name Datolite is Greek meaning “to divide” because the granular aggregates crumble. It is more common to see Datolite as a display piece. The smaller pieces are used in jewelry and the less colorful pieces are carved. Besides Michigan, Datolite can be found in Massachusetts, New Jersey and the countries of Austria, Germany, Italy, Norway and Russia.
Datolite Chemical: CaB SiO4(HO) calcium borosilicate Calcite 35%, Silicon 37%, Boron 22%, Water 6% · Monoclinic · Density of 2.8 - 3 · Hardness of 5.5 ·Transparent to Translucent · Luster is Glassy · Fracture is Uneven · A secondary mineral in basic igneous rock · Slightly soluble in Hydrochloric acid · Is Not heat sensitive · Polish with cerium oxide on felt Data Information came from website www.webmineral.com Via GNEISS TIMES 10/2003
Polishing Talc by Richard Chappell, Jr. Houston Gem & Mineral Society
The natives of Brazil have used the talc found there to make common utensils such as cooking appliances. Professional talc carvers from Anapolis-Goles, Brazil, showed me this quick method when they visited Houston, Texas, in a nation-wide tour. 1. CUT the talc into size desired with a hand saw (even the pros didn’t use any electric equipment except a lathe for hollowing out bowls and pots). Sometimes this step may be skipped if the piece is the correct size. 2. CARVE the talc into approximate shape with a knife. 3. SAND with 220 or 400 grit sandpaper. 4. SMOOTH with quadruple zero (0000) steel wool, the finest available. 5. HEAT in strong sunlight or warm oven until slightly warm to the touch. 6. RUB with clear paste wax while the talc is still hot, and you have got yourself a finished carving.
Reasonably pure talc is required, but impurities give it a delightful marking or pattern. This method may be used for cabs, statues, or anything else. The finished product may surprise you, as you can t tell how it will turn out until the paste wax is on.
Source: The Pegmatite Jan 2003, original source unknown
Via Quarry Quips 8/03
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