Chippers’ hatterChippers’ hatter · 2019. 10. 23. · understand and appreciate the Earth’s geological heritage and mineralogical treasures.” In a nutshell, he’s quite a

Chippers’ ChatterChippers’ ChatterNewsletter of the Chesapeake Gem & Mineral Society

Baltimore, Maryland <chesapeakegemandmineral.org>

Volume 58, Number 8September 2014

Program Notesby Keith Kaneda

It’s a delight to be able to welcome back to our podium Dr. Wayne Sukow. Wayne retired as physics pro-fessor and department chair from the Univer-sity of Wisconsin - Riv-er Falls, then served as director of the Division of Elementary, Sec-ondary and Informal

Education at the National Science Foundation in Washington, DC. In addition, Wayne has been active in the Eastern Federa-tion serving as President in 2006 and later as Director of the EFMLS Wildacres Workshop.

Hi main hobby interests center around datolite and ag-ate from the Lake Superior region including the Upper Pen-insula of Michigan. He’s published numerous articles that have appeared in magazines such as Rock & Gem and Lapi-dary Journal and has produced several award winning slide programs that have won AFMS awards and can be found in the libraries of each of the AFMS Regional Federations.

In 2014 Wayne was awarded the Salotti Earth Science Education Award given by the A. E. Seamon Museum in Houghton, MI for “...his long service to earth science edu-cation and his activities to inspire and encourage people to understand and appreciate the Earth’s geological heritage and mineralogical treasures.”

In a nutshell, he’s quite a guy!

The talk for September 12 is entitled “Red-Gold and Polished Agates: Upper Michigan's Hidden Treasures”. The formal program won the 2011 AFMS Program Compe-tition for Wayne and has been viewed in it’s canned form by countless gem and mineral clubs across the U.S. We get the live version!

Finding copper included agates in the Upper Penin-sula of Michigan has been a long-time interest of Wayne’s. They are quite rare and the supply is nearing exhaustion as the various mine dumps in the U.P are quickly being crushed and used for road fill.

Wayne will take us on a treasure hunting field trip to Upper Michigan’s famed Copper Country via a sailing ves-sel that stops at Copper Harbor, MI just in time to see a red-gold sunset. The red-gold theme continues during the drive from Copper Harbor to the Wolverine 2 Mine. Then, viewing the treasure…copper replacement agates begins.

During the illustrated talk, Wayne will focus on what he calls “collector agates”; those showy agates that we all want in our collections. He’ll then talk about agates with copper inclu-sions and give us some information on how they formed, how they are cleaned to expose the copper in the agate and give us more fabulous photos of these unusual and rare agates.

So come join us on Friday, September 12th and help welcome Wayne back. If you have any copper included ag-ates, especially those from the Upper Peninsula of Michi-gan, bring them along for the showcase.

Page 2 Chippers’ Chatter –September, 2014

Members of the Eastern Federation of Mineralogical & Lapidary Societies

Affiliated with the American Federation of Mineralogical Societies.

The Chesapeake Gem & Mineral Society was established in order to al-low its members to gain knowledge and skills in various phases of the Earth Science field. Through field trips, ex-hibitions, and cooperation with other societies, we endeavor to further not only our own knowledge, but also that of the general public. Meetings are held on the 2nd Fri-day of each month except August at the Westchester Community Center, 2414 Westchester Ave; Oella, MD.. Meetings begin at 7:30 P.m. and visitors are al-ways welcome. Dues are $15 for individuals, $25 for family memberships.

Officers:President - Richard Hoff

<chesapeakegem at gmail.com>

Vice President - John Buchleitner<chesapeakegem at gmail.com>

Recording Secretary - Earle Pfetzing<chesapeakegem at gmail.com>

Corresponding Sec’y - Patty Lortie<chesapeakegem at gmail.com>

Treasurer - Steve Weinberger<chesapeakegem at gmail.com>

Directors: 2012 2013-14 Dawn Johnsson Russell Byers Cathy Purdum Steve Dyer

Editor:Carolyn Weinberger

<cscrystals2 at gmail.com>

Deadline is the 15th of each month.

Non-commercial reprint permission granted to non-profit organizations unless

otherwise noted.

ChesapeakeGem & Mineral

Society

Written in Stoneby Richard Hoff, President

Hello everybody,

I hope you enjoyed the fantastic weather this summer. I sure did.

The July picnic was huge success! Thanks a mil-lion to the Johnnson clan for generously opening up there home and lawn to the club. We enjoyed the best ugly rock contest yet and I hope you won some-thing cool at rock bingo with Barry acting as the call master. We all enjoyed the excellent food and out-standing company. Thank you all for making it a fun evening.

Most of you saw the local quartz I got an opportunity to collect recently. I’ll tell all at September meeting.

Before are regular night we have a special auction; the second half of the Fisher collection. It’s set for Saturday, September 6th at Westchester. There is some amazing cutting rough, equipment, and examples from several local and regional mines, all well documented. There are approximately 200 large lots all painstakingly organized by Bernie who put in another 100 hours or so of work.

Then, on our our regular meeting night, Dr. Wayne Sukow, an incredible speaker will be back again ,for what I am sure, will be a wonderful and infor-mative talk. Wayne probably knows more about copper included agates then anyone. Thanks Keith for setting this up. Do remember, I always ask the what you did this summer. So be ready to tell all or better yet write an article for the newsletter.

And of course it’s time for the Gem Cutters Guild of Baltimore’s 50th annual show at Howard County fair grounds on September 27 & 28th. We will need volunteers to man the information booth and talk up our club. The sign up sheet will circulated at the September meeting. On October 10-12 the Baltimore Min-eral Society will host the annual Paul Desautels Micromount Symposium. I hear that on Saturday at 3 pm they’re inducting Carolyn and Steve Weinberger and Dr. Carl Rilling into the Micromounters Hall of Fame. Congratulations!

How’s that for a month,plus of mineral madness? Keep the articles,show and tell, and mineral of the month examples going for more chances in the participation contest. Last month to “enter” is November. We will all better and smarter about hobby we all love so much.

I’m looking forward to seeing you soon at one or all of the various events. Richard

Chippers’ Chatter –September, 2014 Page 3

Personalsby Lynne Luger

Becky had another round of sur-gery on August 19th. We haven’t heard any news yet, but hope every-thing went well and that she’s back on her feet very, very soon!

I hope everyone else is well and has enjoyed this won-derful summer. We’re all looking forward to tales of in-teresting adventures!

The Gem Cutters’ Guild is generously giving us a table at their upcoming show (September 27-28) so we can talk about our club.

We will need lots of volunteers for the table and hope that you can come and sit a spell and share with the pub-lic how wonderful Chesapeake is. We’ll have copies of our bulletin for you to

give to the public, rocks to show off and any lapidary or mineral items that you wish to bring for the table while you’re there.

Hours on Saturday are 10 am - 6 pm and Sunday from 10 am to 5 pm. Those who volunteer for at least 2 hours gain free admission to the show (but you have to sign-up with me in advance!).

I will have a sign up sheet at the Sept. meeting, but anyone can e-mail or call me with a preferred time before. Thanks, Lynne

YOUR Help is Neededby Lynne Luger

Nibbles ‘N Noshesby Liz & Wendy Stanne

Our Picnic in July was great! Many thanks to the John-sson family, for welcoming us to their home! The weather was perfect, the food was delicious, and the “Rocks” game a lot of fun. Everyone had a won-derful evening, and it was a real treat for us all.

The members who have signed up to provide us with goodies at our meeting in September are:

Carol HighThe Kays Family

The Kaneda FamilyDianne Odland

Fisher Auction

Saturday, September 62:00 pm

Westchester Community Center

Visit our website <chesapeakegemandmineral.org>

for a complete listing of available auction lots.

Happy Birthday!

We’re wishing those born in September a wonderful day with many more healthy ones to come. Sapphire and Lapis Lazuli are the birthstones for September.

3 - Patricia Smith 7 - Dave Fordyce 10 - Linda Watts 12 - Barbara Buchleitner Trinh Phan Barbara Senstadt 13 - Dave Mitchell 20 - Lynne Luger Sam Fields 22 - Jeff Cessna Lyle Peterson


Barite (Baryte): Master of Disguise, Mineral of a Thousand Faces, or at least several.

“A man walks into a bar – ite ………”

And that could be painful; those flatty, tabular edges can be sharp! Soon after I became afflicted with the mineral collecting ad-diction I discovered there were hundreds and then thousands of different spe-cies to know about and only some of them have the good behavior to rep-resent themselves in the same characteristic shape, color, crystal habit and so on. Many though hang out

in groups where they share a common chemical basis but a molecular shift a little this way or that way and you get very different appearing features. It makes trying to remember the names of the things just challenging enough to drive you nuts. (For me it was a short drive.) Barite is a prime example.

Another name for barite is barium sulfate and it is well distributed globally as an ore source of the element bari-um. It is mined extensively and has a marketable use as an industrial lubricant and used widely in the well drilling in-dustry. The name comes from the Greek ’barys’ or ‘heavy’. And it does have a relatively high specific gravity. Often ap-pearing as stubby, tabular, crystals, light brown or yellow, barite will also appear as beautiful, light blue prismatics looking much more like aquamarine or it’s cousin, celes-tite. A master of disguise, barite can also present as ‘the desert rose’ where it does a look-a-like trick with selenite-gypsum. One way to tell which is which, is by the weight. Barite is the heavier of the two.

Chemically it is classified as a sulfate. Diaphaneity or light passage can be trans-

Mineral of the Monthby Jim Hooper

parent to translucent to opaque. Mohs Hardness is 2.5 to 3.5 which makes it a challenge to cut well and facet but there are many examples of beautifully, finely cut barite gemstones on the internet. Specific Gravity is 4.5 and is a diagnostic property. Chemical signature is BaSO4. Crystal System is orthorhombic.

Besides being used in drilling; it’s also used as a high den-sity filler for paper, rubber, plastics, and a source of barium.

Included here are pictures of but a few of the many variations in appearance barite takes in its efforts to fool collectors. The good thing is most, if not all, are beauti-ful. In some way. Anyway, if you have some examples of this mineral master of disguise, please share with us at the next meeting on the Mineral of the Month table!

Baryte Cerro Huarihuyn,

Mirafneelores, Huamalíes, Huá-

Baryte “Rose”Lake Thunderbird area,

Norman, Oklahoma

BaryteJebel Ouichane, Beni Bou Ifrour, Nador, Nador Province, Oriental

Region, Morocco

Barite and Malachite Shangulowe Mine, Katanga Province,

Democratic Republic of Congo

Baryte with Siderite Frostburg, Allegany Co.,

Maryland

BaryteBasin District, Jefferson Co.Montana


Early Father’s Day at Herkimer, NYby Phyllis Dyer

June saw us once again off to New York State to cel-ebrate an early Father’s Day for Steve. It poured cats and dogs (or buckets) once we hit the I-86 to Highway 28 towards Herkimer. Of course, we kept on going as there was a mission at hand – find those beautiful gems in the pockets!!!!

Wednesday morning we hit the rock pile early and stayed until closing at 5:00 p.m. The day was beautiful with sun and a slight breeze. According to the owner, the rock pile was recently turned (in the last week) so everyone hit it running to find the quality material. There were shade trees and picnic tables within 25 feet of pile which made it nice for breaks.

Once I had instructions on what I was to look for to discover gems, off we went in separate directions to find our riches. Unfortunately, during the morning my boots failed and the soles went in one direction and me another. So needless to say, I spent the remainder of my time in sneakers on lower ground checking rocks and sifting. Steve was at the top of the pile and around perimeter checking out various rocks and dirt.

A gentleman stopped by to show everyone his prize – he had paid $1500 to have them open a vein and it went into three pockets. The crystals were amazing in size and it would have been nice to ogle once they were cleaned and shining.

Day two found us back at the same mine and find-ing not only in rock but little ones on the ground. We met some collectors from Oregon, Ohio and Massachu-setts. Steve continued on with his time on the pile and a new friend and I spent the better part of the day sifting through buckets of sand in the shade.

Our Massachusetts collectors were happy after being in a mud pit at a Fonda pit. They belong to the Boston Mineral Club and shared all about their club and collect-ing trips. (Steve and I are now members!) A lovely re-tired couple that truly enjoy the hobby and traveling to find new gems. There club is looking at a collecting trip to Cornwall, England next year so we are giving it seri-

ous consideration as they are also looking at touring tin mines, etc. in the area.

Our Oregon collectors were new at the hobby as they have a business sell-ing antique beads. They have been to Tucson the past several years but liked this new aspect of collecting. Camp-ing out at the campground gave them an advantage as they were able to walk around pile and check things out before opening in the morning – spotting those beautiful, shiny gems. Their cat has trav-elled with them in their van from Oregon along the southern route (although they did detour from Florida and drove back to Tucson returning to Florida after the show). After Herkimer they plan to head to Maine then return to Oregon along the northern route.

Now, may I share with you the AMAZING DON’TS that we experienced while collecting at the Ace of Diamond: #1 The young couple from Ohio found beautiful large specimens of Herkimer diamonds, but they were not properly dressed. She had on a tank top rolled up and large holed jeans and was a constant smoker. He was shirtless while banging with a heavy mallet to break up rock and pieces flying everywhere within fifteen feet. #2 There were mothers and children that stopped in for a couple of hours and were wearing shorts and open toed sandals while hitting the rock with hammer – never thinking the pile could slide down and hit them. #3 Nor everyone felt the need to have on safety shoes or safety glasses.

So the moral of the story is to take precautions, en-joy and be SAFE!!!!

One last note of interest, we discovered this great bakery on the way to Ace of Diamonds call Heidelberg Bakery. They served breakfast and lunch. The most im-portant note was they made their bread fresh every day for local stores. You could purchase it along with a mul-titude of pastries (the prices were amazing). The sand-wiches and soup were wonderful as was breakfast. Our best meals in Herkimer.

Quartz var. Herkimer “Diamond”Ace of Diamonds MineNewport, Herkimer Co.

New York


[Ed. Note: This article was originally published in the July 2014 issue of Gems & Jewellery, a publication of Gem-A in London. Helen graciously offered to share it with us.] Astorite is a rare rock composed mostly of pink rhodo-nite along with various amounts of quartz, rhodochrosite, gold, silver and other minerals. It is mined only at the his-toric Toltec gold mine in the San Juan Mountains of South-western Colorado, about 10 miles from Silverton, an area that became famous for its silver and gold mining at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century.

Silverton & the San Juan Mountains The San Juan mountain range is part of Southern Colo-rado’s Rocky Mountains. Surrounded by great natural beau-ty, the town of Silverton is today a National Historic Land-mark where many of its original buildings are still standing. Gold was discovered there in 1860 and after negotiations with the Ute Indians the town was created in 1874, dou-bling in population within a year. Silverton is located in San Juan County at 9,318 feet elevation, and the mine is situ-ated at a very remote area above 10,000 feet. Driving on the Million Dollar Highway that connects the historic mining areas of Silverton and Ouray, the traveler is rewarded with breath-taking scenery of deep gorges, mountain lakes and landscapes packed with evergreen trees.

John Jacob Astor IV The Toltec mine was originally owned by Colonel John Jacob Astor IV, one of the wealthiest men in early 20th cen-tury America, who owned several gold and silver mines in the Silverton mining district. Astorite is the trade name given to this material to honor its original mine owner.

John Jacob Astor IV, born in 1864, was an American business man, inventor and writer. He was a member of the

Astorite – A Rare Pink Gem With Historic Mining Rootsby ©Helen Serras-Herman, MFA, FGA. Used with permission of the author

prominent Astor family. He served as lieutenant colonel during the Spanish- American War of 1898. His 1894 science fiction “A Jour-ney in Other Worlds: A Romance of the Future” was a success. As-tor was a real-estate magnate, and became famous for building in New York City in1897 the luxurious 17-story Astoria Hotel adjoining the 13-story Waldorf Hotel, which was owned by his cousin William Waldorf Astor. The combined his-toric landmark properties known as the Waldorf-Astoria became a

prestigious destination for traveling visitors.

After his first marriage ended in divorce in 1909, as scandalous as it was considered back then, at the age of 47 he married 18-year old Madeleine Talmage Force. The couple went on a long honeymoon in Europe and Egypt, and because Madeleine became pregnant, they were returning home aboard the RMS Titanic on that fateful maiden voyage in 1912. Astor and his new bride were the wealthiest people on board. Just before the ship sunk, Astor helped his wife, her maid and her nurse get into a lifeboat, but he was not al-lowed to embark. He died tragically when the ship sank. This heartbreaking story of love and tragedy has added another layer of history, lore and mystique to Astorite.

After Astor’s death, the portal of the mine was sealed by dynamiting the entrance, not to be reopened until 2001, when the first new owner Will Benham- an enthusiastic rock-hound- acquired the patented mining claims through a bid into the United Bank of Denver. According to another specu-lation, the entrance to the mine was shut by Astor himself,

wanting to save it for future exploration.

The mine claim later changed hands and is owned since 2003 by Keith and Connie McFarland of K&C Traders in Silverton, CO (Brendan Laurs, Gems & Gemology Sum-mer 2007).

Large slabs of astorite that display a good combination of soft pink color, black veins, striking lacy patterns of white chalcedony and 'wires' or tendrils of gold and silver.

continued on page 7

John Jacob Astor IV with his wife, Madeleine Talmage Force, on the RMS Titanic.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons


Many mineral skeptics still argue that the material is simply rhodonite, but Raman spectroscopy performed on two cabochons at the GIA lab in Carlsbad, California, proved that the rock is composed of rhodonite, quartz, rhodochro-site and other minerals. It also showed that the black spots match chalcocite, galena, pyrite and sphalerite (Brendan Laurs, Gems & Gemology Summer 2007), unlike black man-ganese veins that run through rhodonite (J.R. Yakabowski, “Astorite- A distinctive new gem material”, Wire Artist Jew-eller, Vol. 6, No 6, 2003). There are also some rare miner-al inclusions of helvite, rose red crystals of friedelite, and transparent colorless fluorite and calcite. The amount of these minor minerals varies in each piece of rough and con-sequently in the cut slabs. The rock is not considered gold or silver ore, although it does assay at about 0.1 oz of gold and 7.75 ounces of silver per ton. The material is highly fluores-cent under both SW and LW UV light.

All these additional mineral inclusions make Astorite a unique lapidary material with an attractive color combina-tion of soft pink, grey, black veins and tan spots, with beau-tiful translucent lacey and fortification patterns, or plumes of white chalcedony. Pink gemstones have a love-hate au-dience, and sometimes it is difficult to sell pink gemstone jewelry, then again, the delicate, pastel pink color with gold and silver flecks, makes Astorite gemstones beautiful, dis-tinctive, eye-catching, and desired treasures for collectors.

The hardness of Astorite is around 6.5-7 on the Mohs scale, depending on the amount of chalcedony quartz pres-ent. It is easy to cut into cabs and free-forms and takes an exceptional polish. The addition of chalcedony veins brings the hardness of this lapidary material up, facilitating a better

Astorite composition & properties My husband and I first purchased some rough mate-rial in 2002 from Will Benham, and I am thankful that he provided us with the mineral data.

Based on its composition Astorite is a somewhat famil-iar and somewhat mystical gem material. What makes the rhodonite-rich Astorite an exceptional material is the addition of three more major components- rhodochrosite, quartz in the form of pseudomorphs and chalcedony, and ore gangue, which is highly silicified, complex sulfide with native metallic elements of gold, silver, copper, lead, chalcopyrite and mag-netite, as well as galena, tenninite and tetrahedrite. The term “ore gangue” refers to material that surrounds or is mixed to-gether with a main mineral or ore deposit.

Astoritecontinued from page 6

The difference between astorite (bottom left and center), gem rhodonite from Australia (bottom right), and 'gemmy' rhodochrosite

from Argentina (top) is evident.

The black inclusions in astorite match calcocite, galena, pyrite and sphalerite. Beautiful stone images of two 'love birds' appeared

when we consecutively cut these slabs continued on page 8

Easily cut into cabs and free-forms, astorite takes an exceptional polish


and higher polish. Thin slabs retain good sectional integrity.

One-of-a-kind cabs and jewelry My husband and I, first visited the historic towns of Ouray and Silverton in 1994, but at the time we were not familiar with Astorite. However, we recognized the beauty of the material and that the layers of history and lore be-hind it would make Astorite a desirable gemstone. Since then we have cut most of our rough and sold slabs and one-of-a-kind cabs. Astorite lends itself beautifully to carv-ing, and I have created some lovely pieces incorporating them into my jewelry artwork.

Astorite necklace designed by HSH

At present, rough material and slabs of Astorite are seldom sold, and are considered very rare. Large slabs of Astorite that display a good balance combination of soft pink color, black veins, striking lacey patterns of white chal-cedony, and ‘wires’ or tendrils of gold and silver, are con-sidered extremely rare in the market today. A unique gem, astorite is certainly one worth adding to your collection.

Additional References

Mindat.org website at <mindat.org/min-32145.html >

‘Astorite’, very short article by this author, The Dop-stick, GLMS-DC, June 2003

Rare Gemstones, by Renée Newman, International Jewelry Publications, Los Angeles, 2012 (with information provided by this author)

Astoritecontinued from page 7

Astorite inclusionsThe rare mineral inclusions and the layers of history and lore behind

Astorite make it a unique lapidary material and a desirable gemstone.

It is not wood that makes petrified wood colorful, but the chemistry of the petrifying groundwater. Minerals such as manganese, iron, and copper were in the water/mud during the petrifaction process. These minerals give pet-rified wood a variety of color ranges. Quartz crystals are color-less, but when iron is added to the process the crys-tals become stained with a yellow or red tint.

Following is a list of minerals and related color hues: Copper-green/blue Cobalt-green/blue Chromiumgreen/blue Manganese-pink Carbon- black; Iron Oxides- red, brown, yellow Manganese Oxidesblack Silica white, grey.

What Makes Petrified Wood Colorful?author unknown via The RockCollector, 10/11


Fossils automatically attract attention. Perhaps it is the marvel that one is seeing the physical representation of a living plant or animal from millennia in the past. As the con-tinents broke off from the original Supercontinent, life forms were carried to all parts of the world. Seabeds are now far above the ocean level. Lush forests are now over a mile high in places like Colorado where mastodon fossils are found today—felled so long ago by climate changes or predators. With our attraction to fossils comes the modern predator—the fossil forger! Morocco is an abundant source for fossil trilobites, ammonites, orthoceras, starfish, and other ex-tinct species—and there are great fossils from Morocco to be had at shows such as Quartzsite and Tucson!

The fossils are in hard rock, uplifted from the ancient sea floor into mountains in the Moroccan desert. In this uplifting, and in the process of extracting the fossils from the rock, they are often broken. To extract an intact fossil takes about 100 hours of labor, while to create a fossil from fragments takes only about five hours.

The most abundant fossils in this area are trilobites from the Calymenidae family. Fragments are so plentiful that they are not always worth faking the entire fossil. Onemethod of creating a trilobite fossil is to take fragments of various body parts and assemble them to recreate a whole image. In this case, the seams are evident or the glue is made to seem like rock matrix, as in the photo above left. If you are knowledgeable, you can tell that some body parts are out of proportion to the others.

Large trilobite fossils in matrix are sometimes made by taking real rock matrix, hollowing out a cavity, and placing a resin trilobite cast into the cavity. In some of these fakes, the outline of the cavity is still present on the matrix (pho-to above right). In others, lines imitating the carving marks on the rock matrix are scratched through the perimeter of the resin cast.

One attractive fossil plate (rock slab on next page) that I’ve seen at shows is an assembly of various species of ex-

Fossils – Real or Fake?by Mark Nelson, from Rockhound Ramblings, March 2014

tinct sea creatures on the same plate. These are usually fake, as it’s nearly unheard of to have different species liv-ing together in such close proximity as to be fossilized to-gether after death.

The generally expressed opinion of those experienced in Moroccan fossils is that most of the fabrication involves the trilobite. Fossils of orthoceras and ammonite, typically sold polished, are real.

Sources: http://fakefossils.webs.com/fakemoroccanfossils.htm http://www.paleodirect.com/faketrilobites1.htm http://www.fossilmuseum.net/collect/fake-trilobites.htm

This amazing Calcite (2' or so tall) was on display at the Kristalle booth at the Springfield show.


We think of rocks as hard, strong and boring. Then, all of a sudden, we are faced with something unearthly, al-most unnatural. How could anything like this exist in the harsh, natural world? Unfortunately, many of these crystal oddities are extremely delicate. They are seldom displayed because of the great possibility of destroying their frag-ile beauty. So, I have taken the idea of introducing you to some wonderful hairy gems.

Natrolite is a com-mon and popular zeolite mineral. Its radiating sprays of ice clear acicu-lar crystals are a hall-mark of this mineral and makes a fine specimen.

Cyanotrichite is a wonderfully colored mineral. Its bright azure to sky blue color is very impressive. Cya-notrichite typically forms acicular or hair like crystals ag-gregated into radial clusters, tufts and sprays. The color

is very impressive for such tiny crystals. It is an aptly named mineral since cyano and trich are derived from the Greek for blue and hair, respectively. It is formed from the oxidation of copper ore minerals along with other oxidation zone minerals.

Millerite is one of a few sulfide minerals that form fine acicular crystals that appear as hair-like fibers ag-gregated into sprays. It is a real bonus to quartz geode collectors from Indiana to Kansas to open up a geode and find a spray of brassy mil-erite crystals tucked inside. Millerite is also called “Capillary Pyrite” since it has a brassy yellow col-or that is close to the color of py-rite. When found as brassy sprays inside of spar-kling clear quartz geodes, millerite can make a won-

Hairy GemsVia Port Moody Rock & Gem Newsletter 11/06

derfully attractive and interesting mineral.

Tremolite is a relatively common mineral in some metamorphic rocks. One variety is composed of micro-scopically fibrous crys-tals called asbestos. Other minerals also form asbestos such as serpentine. Another variety of tremolite is called “mountain leath-er” or “mountain cork” and is an oddity in the mineral world. The tremolite fibers form a felted mass that has all the appearances and feel of a piece of cloth.

Rutile is an interesting, varied and important min-eral. Rutile is a major ore of titanium, a metal used for high tech alloys because of its light weight, high strength and resistance to corrosion. Rutile is also unwittingly of major im-portance to the gemstone markets. It forms its own interesting and beautiful mineral specimens. Micro-

scopic inclusions of rutile in quartz, tourmaline, ruby, sapphire and other gemstones, produces light effects such as cat’s eye and asterisms (stars). A beautiful stone produced by large inclusions of golden rutile needles in clear quartz is called rutilated quartz.

Fragile, ethereal crystals, nature always surprises us with something new and delightful. Keep your eyes open, you never know what nature will show you next.

[Ed. Note: There are of course others including this 1 mm crystal of Mullite.


Auctions - Lynne Luger and Bernie Emery

Directory (address changes) Patty Lortie Field Trips - Russell Byers

Greeters - Barbara Buchleitner

Hospitality - Liz & Wendy Stanne

Committee Chairpersons

Mineral of the Month - Jim Hooper

Personals/Announcements/ Sunshine - Lynne Luger and Patricia Smith

Programs - Richard Hoff, Keith Kaneda & Tony Wilner

Safety - Johnny Johnsson

Show - Bernie Emery & Lynne Luger

Showcase - Steve Dyer

Telephone Chain Lynne Luger Phylllis Dyer Dawn Johnsson Mary Chandler Liz Stanne Wendy Stanne

Federation NewsInfo from the EFMLS and AFMS Newsletters

The AFMS Newsletter for September recaps the events of the 2014 convention and show in Tul-sa, Oklahoma this past July. The results of the various competitions are listed.

Conservation & Legislation Chair Mike Nelson continues to make all aware of

regulations for collecting on public lands.

In the EFMLS News for September, EFMLS Wildacres Director Fran Sick thanks everyone who helped publicize (and fill) the Septem-ber Wildacres Workshop session.

President Hazel Remaley notes that one of the benefits of attending

various EFMLS and AFMS conventions is meeting so many wonderful people.

Larry Huffman highlights the events that will occur during the EFMLS Convention in Hickory, NC at the end of March. Included in the article is information about the host hotel!

Ellery Borow encourages clubs to submit the name of one adult (or a couple) for recognition in the AFMS Club Rockhound of the Year program. (Perhaps it’s time for the Guild to do this again!). Our Eastern Federation once again led the AFMS in En-dowment Fund ticket sales. One of our Chesapeake mem-bers won a prize - to be presented at the September meet-ing while overall members of EFMLS clubs won 11 of the 40 prizes awarded.

In Safety Matters, Ellery Borow shares precautions to be taken in using and disposing of Oxalic Acid.

You can download the full AFMS Newsletter by going to <www.amfed.org> and clicking on the Newsletter tab.

You can download the EFMLS Newsletter by going to <www.amfed.org/efmls> and clicking on the Newsletter tab there as well.


Carolyn Weinberger PO Box 302 Glyndon, MD 21071-0302

Upcoming Events

September: 6: Dale Fisher Auction, part 2. Westchester Commu-nity Center at 2 pm. Full list of available lots is on our web-site <chesapeakegemandmineral.org>.

12: Chesapeake meeting featuring Dr. Wayne Sukow talking on copper included agates. 7:30 pm at Westchester.

24: Baltimore Mineral Society meeting at the Natural HIs-tory Society of Maryland, 6908 Belair Rd, Baltimore. Meeting will feature Jim Schoonmaker talking about collecting garnets at Gore Mountain, NY. Meeting starts at 7:30 pm.

25: Rosh Hashanah - Happy New Year everyone!

27-28: Gem Cutters Guild Show at the Howard Co. Fair-grounds. Sign up to help at the club table!

October: 6: Gem Cutters Guild meeting. 10: Chesapeake Auction.

Documents

Chippers’ hatterChippers’ hatter · 2019. 10. 23. · understand and appreciate the Earth’s geological heritage and mineralogical treasures.” In a nutshell, he’s quite a