News Nuggets

Newsletter of the Albuquerque Gem & Mineral Club

Volume 53 Number 06

When I first met Howell, I was a little in awe, or possibly slightly intimidated. His reputation had preceded him through mutual friends and relatives.

Here was a man who had flown B-17’s in combat before he was 20, and then - after completing his combat missions - had stuck around Europe to help out.

Howell had returned to the US in the post war period and had earned a degree in Engineering. He had started his own engineering company and became president of several others, all while raising a family and enjoying his hobbies.

He loved to travel and ultimately traveled much of the world, including Saudi Arabia, where he helped design and direct the installation of air conditioning in the mosque at Medina.

His love for family, hunting, camping, visiting archeological sites, collecting minerals, and lapidary work became the focus of his life after slowing down in his travels. It was about this time that I met Howell, and I soon learned that he was a lot of fun. He was also very educational to be around. Many of his archeological visits had been with the Archeological Society as well as with Sam "Rattlesnake" Jones from Bingham, NM. Needless to say, he abounded with stories of sites that most of us had never heard of or seen.

I was able to accompany Howell on quite a few of his mineral collecting forays and may have played a part in his addiction to turquoise. He visited Hachita with me on several occasions and, after several nice finds, he became an avid turquoise collector. But Howell went one step further and acquired the equipment to cut and polish his gemstones. I have no idea how many collecting trips Howell took to Orogrande and Hachita, but over the years I was amazed at the number of stones that he found, polished, and put into bolos and other pieces.

Many of you have probably noticed Howell at the meetings; a distinguished gray haired gentleman, sitting quietly, often wearing one of his bolo ties.

Most saw his demeanor and never realized that he had accomplished so much in his lifetime.

His memory and eyesight were failing him in recent years, but not his wit and desires. Some of you may even remember him standing in the large scoop of the electric crane at the Chino mine while the rest of us sat in the vehicles waiting. While we thought "Why doesn’t he come on?", Howell was pondering over the miracles of this giant machine. That club trip was at the end of a ten-day field trip with John Scully and me to the state’s desert southwest. John and I enjoyed his company so much on that trip, with the little bit of class that he lent to our travels. Over a glass of Merlot, and with a little prodding, he could liven the campfire atmosphere with many interesting and funny anecdotes.

I did not know, but I did suspect, that would be the last of Howell’s long collecting adventures. It was mostly day trips afterwards.

How I missed him on later camping trips. And now he’s gone. Our trip planned for the Northeast part of the state - the one he wanted badly to take for the past few months - will not happen.

No more chats at the dinner table or on our back porch.

I miss him very, very much.

- Rex Nelson

Howell Poe passed away last month. He was an accomplished pilot, engineer, lapidary and silversmith. I never asked, but always assumed that he had made those turquoise bolo ties he wore to our meetings. The club sent a flower arrangement to Gwen, who is one of our club’s core members.

Our deepest condolences, Gwen.

Memorial Services will be held on Sunday, July 2, 2006 at First Methodist Church at 3:00 PM, and Santa Fe internment on Monday, July 3, 11:30 AM.

We (the 2006 BoD) are searching for new board members for the 2007 board. You don’t need any special knowledge or expertise about minerals or gems or jewelry to be a member of the board. The board keeps club events happening. The club summer picnic is coming up in July.

Insurance issues, parking, grills or no grills, dogs ‘n buns or burgers ‘n buns, port-a-potty arrangements, newsletter articles. It doesn’t all just suddenly happen, but it takes people willing to go the extra mile to make an event happen. Call me (or any member of the board) if you’re willing to take on part of the load for that extra mile. OK?

The Four Corners Gem & Mineral Show will take place at the La Plata County fairgrounds in Durango, Colorado on July 7-9. I think they have about 25 dealers parking and admission is free. If you plan on going, make room reservations NOW!! This is a very busy weekend in Durango.

Ron and Jeff are doing great jobs as Field Trip VP’s and I think are planning a trip to Colorado coinciding with the Contintail Tailgating show in August at the rodeo grounds in Buena Vista (150 dealers). This is a great show!!!

Then guess what? State Fair 2006 in September. The club has a display area and tables, which are staffed by club volunteers on weekends during the Fair. Hank Miller will have sign-up sheets starting this month at the general meeting for weekend volunteers at the club table in the Creative Arts building.

I need volunteers to bag ‘n tag 2"x3" bagged giveaways for the Fair. We usually give away 1,200-1,500 labeled specimens with the club website (agmc.info ) and a brief description of the specimen.

I just love silver pickin’.

- Orlando

President – Orlando Garcia

Home phone: 345-0520

E-mail: jabog02@msn.com

VP-Membership & VP-Programs -

Kimberly Richie

Home phone: 296-8847

E-mail: cattrax55@wmconnect.com

Co-VP-Field Trips – Ron Boyd

Home phone: 262-0053

Email: rgb417@earthlink.net

Home phone: 265-0497

Secretary & Junior Club –

Suzanne Seymour

Home phone: 877-3621

Email: suzannerox5@aol.com

Treasurer – Amy Penn

Home phone: 883-4195

Email: el.chivo.viejo@earthlink.net

Historian - Dave Moats

Home phone: 892-8163

E-mail: beepbeep59@hotmail.com

Editor - Paul Napolitano

Home phone: 856-2157

E-mail: tcot@spinn.net

Show Chair - Paul Hlava

Home phone: 255-5478

E-mail: hpf5@qwest.net

VP – Programs – Mike Sanders

Home phone: 256-1797

E-mail: mrsande@sandia.gov

Special Events: Orlando Garcia

Home phone: 345-0520

E-mail: jabog02@msn.com

Past President – Grant Kuck

Home phone: 323-1520

E-mail: none at the moment.

The Club Newsletter; News Nuggets exists to assist the membership in communications and to provide information on club activities. Contributions from all members are welcome on any information that will promote club activities or that would be of interest to club members. News Nuggets is scheduled to be mailed approximately one week prior to the monthly meeting. Mail news, articles or comments to: Paul Napolitano, Editor, 7304 Yorktown, NE, Albuquerque, NM 87109, or email to tcot@spinn.net.

The Albuquerque Gem & Mineral Club was organized on January 22, 1944. The club is a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement and enjoyment of the Earth Sciences and associated subjects. Its primary purpose is the exchange of information and the furtherance of knowledge of Mineralogy, Fossils, Geology, Rock Cutting and Gem Faceting and to stimulate interest in the development of these studies.

All Meetings are held at the NM Museum of Natural History, Albuquerque, NM. The general meeting is held on the 4^th Monday of the month (unless otherwise announced) at 7:30 p.m. The Junior Club meets at 6:30 p.m. prior to the general meeting. Board of Directors meetings are held at 7:30 pm on the first Monday of each month. (Call for location). The public is welcome to both meetings.

Being a member of the Albuquerque Gem and Mineral Club does not make you an official of the AGMC. This makes it inappropriate for any member to take on any responsibility or authority for any club activity without explicit instruction from the AGMC Board of Directors.

July 22^nd

It's a picnic at the San Pedro Mine!

Frank and Sally Baca are graciously allowing us to rockhound and picnic on their property. Dr. Jerry Simmons will be our tour guide. We'll possibly collect garnets, pyrite, quartz, calcite, malachite, and many other different specimens.

Since the area is rather rugged:

• We are limited to 75 people.
• No one under the age of 10 is permitted.
• NO PETS.

Because of rising liability insurance costs, Jerry has asked that we help out with the cost. The cost will be announced at the June 26^th meeting.

MEMBERS ONLY can sign up at the June 26^th meeting, or call Amy Penn, 883-4195, AFTER the June 26^th meeting. Leave a message with your name and phone number. I'll call you back with further info. If I don't call you back, please try again.

If you sign up, and realize you won't be able to attend, please, please, please, call and let us know. There is always a waiting list of people who want to go on this trip.

Bring the usual tools; pick, bucket, newspaper to wrap specimens, small spade/shovel, safety glasses, WATER, sunscreen, hat, gloves. In July the rattlers are slithering and mountain lions have been seen in the area in the last several years. Just be alert!! We suggest boots and long pants. You may want to bring shade or your camera. We will also be carpooling with 4WD vehicles.

Take 1-40 east, exit 175 @ Tijeras Canyon, take Rt. 14 towards Golden. It's a 30 - 45 min. drive. We'll meet in a large open area at the SE corner of Rt. 14 and Rt. 344 at 8:00 - 8:30.

Sign up sheets will be checked with waiver sheets at this point.

Around 1:00 we'll head back down for our Potluck picnic. Bring your potluck dish or item, your place settings, drinks, chairs. If anyone has portable tables, those will be appreciated. There is a building we can use to get out of the sun. There will also be a porta-potty at the picnic area.

To Add To The Fun during the picnic, bring your rocks, minerals, gems, tools, and money to sell/trade/buy/show. It's a members Tailgating Sale.

Let's have a grand time!

- Amy Penn

Jefferson County 57th Gem & Mineral Show, Jun 28 - July 2, 2006, in Madras, Oregon

253-476-9450, 350-458-7162

Swap tables, door prizes, rock toss, auction, nightly entertainment, country kitchen, capming on fiarground, ample parking, field trips daily 5.00/person.

They have jewelry, faceted gemstones, minerals, fossils, crystals, carvings, clocks & motors, intarsia, rough rock.

1-3--FARMINGTON, NEW MEXICO: 20th annual show; San Juan County Gem & Mineral Society; Civic Center, 200 W. Arrington; Sat. 10-6, Sun. 10-6, Mon. 10-5; free admission; hourly door prizes, silent auction Sat., prize wheel, dealers from all over the U.S., gemstones, minerals, jewelry, specimens, cabs, rough, tools, books; contact SJCG&MS, P.O. Box 1482, Farmington, NM 87499-1482, or David Stewart, (505) 325-3800.

7-9--SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH: Show; Gem Faire; Utah State Fairpark, 155 N 1000 W; Fri. 12-7, Sat. 10-7, Sun. 10-5; $5 weekend pass; contact Yooy Nelson, (503) 252-8300; e-mail: info@gemfaire.com; Web site: www.gemfaire.com.

18-20--LAKE GEORGE, COLORADO: Show; Lake George Gem & Mineral Club; Hwy. 24, 38 miles west of Colorado Springs; Fri. 9-5, Sat. 9-5, Sun. 9-5; free admission; contact Richard Parsons, (303) 838-8859; e-mail: tazaminerals@att.net.

26-27--CRESTONE, COLORADO: Show, "Crest-Stone Gem & Mineral Holistic Show"; High Country Trader; White Eagle Lodge, Road "T"; Sat. 9-5, Sun. 9-5; free admission; gem and mineral dealers, crystal healers and readers, indoor and outdoor booths, seminars, keynote speakers; contact Sandy Cleveland, P.O. Box 5172, Buena Vista, CO 81211, (719) 385-3884 or (800) 707-3707; e-mail: hctrader@chaffee.net.

This month’s trip is going to take us up to the Harding Mine in Taos Co. The trip is going to be on the 1^st of July. We are planning of meeting at the intersection of the dirt road to the mine and State road 75. The dirt road is on your right heading east. We'll meet there at 9 AM.

To get there head north from Albuquerque on I-25. Take the Santa Fe bypass SR599. This will take you to US285 and stay on it until you are in Espanola at which point take SR 68 (the Taos hi-way). Stay on 68 until you come to SR 75, on your right. Take this road through Dixon and drive about 5+ miles to the meeting point.

What's is the Harding Mine? This is part of the UNM Geology Department, and is used as an outdoor schoolroom now. It used to be a very important mine during WWII, when it was being mined for a number of strategic elements. This deposit is known as a pegmatite, which is a very coarsely crystallized igneous body. A pegmatite can be any where from what is known as a simple pegmatite (quartz, feldspar, and mica) to this one where there are at least 66 valid minerals found there!

Jesse Kline will be giving us a geological/mineralogical talk on the area. He is very familiar with the area. This will be worth the trip alone.

Two things that UNM requires us to do is sign their release form (we'll have them along with ours at the meeting point) and we are also can only collect around 5 pounds of minerals. So choose carefully.

Hopefully it won't be terribly hot up there, so dress with that in mind. Bring a lot of water, some hand tools, your camera etc.

Hope to see you there!

- Ron Boyd and Jeff Nekola

PS: Hey, it is getting near San Pedro mine picnic time! There will be more on this at the next meeting and else where in the Nuggets.

May, 2006

From the devious mind of Paul Hlava

The Game Plan – I will describe a mineral and you have to guess/decipher/research the name of the mineral and the answers to the other questions asked about uses, history, notable facts, etc. I expect the Top Guns in the club to be able to guess the name off the top of their heads. The learners will need a reference book or two. You will benefit most if you do not ask others for the answers but work it out for yourselves. When you have decided on the name you can compare notes with others or wait for the answers to be announced at the meetings or published in the News Nuggets. Good luck and have fun.

Last year I discussed minerals that are named for geographic localities. This year I thought I’d concentrate on minerals named for their chemistry. And this one is maybe even easier than last month’s.

This month’s MM is a well-known, secondary mineral in altered ore deposits containing lead. It usually occurs as euhedral, prismatic, hexagonal crystals which are often small. It has no cleavages, conchoidal fracture, adamantine luster, hardness of 3.5 to 4, and specific gravity of 6.8-7.1. Transparent to translucent and rarely opaque, colors include red, reddish brown, brown, orange, yellow, gray, and colorless.

Questions

What is the name of the mineral?

What is the origin of the name?

What is it used for?

What two minerals are isomorphous with this one?

Name a NM locality.

Name some other US localities.

Name some world-wide, world-class specimen localities.

What is the name of the mineral? Titanite

What is the origin of the name? Its titanium content, the formula is CaTiSiO₅

What is an alternate name? Sphene

What is the origin of this name? An allusion to the ax-head like shape of the crystals.

What is it used for? Nothing except mineral specimens and sometimes gems.

MINDAT.com list over 1700 localities – it is all over the place.

Name a NM locality — Jones district, Organ Mountains.

Name some worldwide, world-class specimen localities -- Pakistan, Brazil, Russia, lots more

This month’s Junior Club meeting will feather Lynda Katonak. Lynda will talk about the geologic timeline.

A large measure of the enjoyment of our hobby consists of collecting in the field. For that reason, the members are proud to endorse the Code of Ethics below. It is suggested that field trip Chairs present a copy of this code to landowners when asking permission to enter private property.

I will respect both private and public property and will do no collecting on privately owned land without the owner's permission.

I will keep informed on all laws, regulations, or rules governing collecting on public lands and will observe them.

I will, to the best of my ability, ascertain the boundary lines of property on which I plan to collect.

I will use no firearms or blasting material in collecting areas.

I will cause no willful damage to property of any kind -- fences, signs, buildings, etc.

I will leave all gates as found.

I will build fires in designated or safe places only and will be certain they are completely extinguished before leaving the area.

I will discard no burning material -- matches, cigarettes, etc.

I will fill all excavation holes, which may be dangerous to livestock.

I will not contaminate wells, creeks, or other water supplies.

I will cause no willful damage to collecting material and will take home only what I can reasonably use.

I will support the rockhound project H.E.L.P. (Help Eliminate Litter Please) and will leave all collecting areas devoid of litter, regardless of how found.

I will practice conservation and undertake to utilize fully and well the materials I have collected and will recycle my surplus for the pleasure and benefit of others.

I will cooperate with field-trip leaders and those in designated authority in all collecting areas.

I will report to my club or federation officers, Bureau of Land Management or other authorities, any deposit of petrified wood or other materials on public lands which should be protected for the enjoyment of future generations for public educational and scientific purposes.

I will appreciate and protect our heritage of natural resources.

I will observe the "Golden Rule," will use "Good Outdoor Manners," and will at all times conduct myself in a manner which will add to the stature and public "image" of rockhounds everywhere.

From www.rmfms.org

Physicsweb.org

26 May 2006

Forget Harry Potter and his "invisibility cloak" -- theoretical physicists in the UK and US have proposed a clever way of making objects invisible. It would involve surrounding the object by a "metamaterial" -- a type of composite material that has unusual electromagnetic properties. According to the researchers, light rays incident on the material would be bent around the object, only to emerge on the other side in exactly the same direction as they began. Although the work is only theoretical, the researchers reckon that materials invisible to radio waves could be produced within five years.

Composed of tiny rods, ensembles of metal rings and the like, metamaterials are artificially structured composite materials that were first made by David Smith, now at Duke University, and colleagues in 2000. What makes them unusual is that they have a negative refractive index – that is, they bend light in the "opposite" direction to ordinary materials. Their electromagnetic properties can also be "tuned" by manipulating their precise structure.

John Pendry of Imperial College London -- working with Smith and his Duke colleague David Schurig -- has now shown how metamaterials could guide light around a hole within it. Any object placed inside this hole would then be "hidden" because light cannot reach it and you would be able to see behind the object as if it was not there. All light rays that come from one direction would propagate around the hole and then be recombined as if nothing were there, a bit like water flowing round a rock. Working independently, Ulf Leonhardt of the University of St Andrews in the UK has also come to the same conclusion.

The new calculations involved placing a hole in a material and then calculating, using Maxwell's equations, what properties the material would need to have to divert light around it. For this to happen, the material would have to be designed so that the light travels relatively slowly far from the hole and faster as it travels near the hole. (In fact, the light would have to travel infinitely fast when it brushes along the surface of the hole itself, although this would not violate relativity provided the radiation is within a certain frequency band.) Metamaterials would allow this vision to become reality because they can be designed such that the refractive index -- and hence the speed of light -- varies from point to point.

Although the new results are only calculations, the researchers hope that it will be possible for others to make the metamaterials that can produce the required variations in light speed. This may not be as difficult as it sounds because physicists already know how to design metamaterials that have such properties for radio waves. Indeed, "cloaking" devices for this part of the electromagnetic spectrum could appear in as little as five years, the team says. Such devices could have all sorts of applications in defence and wireless communication.

"This research shows how much electromagnetic or optical instruments can do if there are no limits on the electromagnetic or optical properties of materials," says Leonhardt. "In practice, there are of course limitations. This research is likely to inspire a new wave of research in metamaterials."

Interestingly, the new calculations are inspired by the geometry of curved space -- a discipline that is normally in the firm hands of researchers in general relativity. "Here we have examples where ideas of general relativity are put to practical use in electrical or optical engineering and nanotechnology," says Leonhardt. "Isn't that surprising?"

Schurig is equally excited by the new work. "We have a new paradigm for designing devices that interact with electromagnetic waves," he says. "It is impossible to imagine all the applications that will stem from this."

We are making a list of club property and inventory. If anyone has any club property in their possession, please let us know so we can complete our list.

Thanks.

- Amy Penn, 883-4195

Sweet Home Mine Video

The presentation this month will be an excellent video presentation about the rhodochrosite (manganese carbonate) specimen recovery project at the Sweet Home Mine, located high in the Colorado mountains near the small town of Alma, Colorado. Collectors Edge Minerals, Inc produced this video. They are the company that has been engaged in a commercial specimen recovery operation at the mine for approximately 10 years and was shut down last year. The video describes the history and geology of this mine, and explains the exploration techniques used to determine the potential location of crystal pockets, and includes the use of high-quality computer graphics. The discovery of, and innovative procedures used to extract the very valuable rhodochrosite specimens are also illustrated and discussed. This is an 80-minute video presentation, so our plan is to show the first 40 minutes of it at the June 22^nd meeting, and the final 40 minutes will be shown at the July 26^th meeting.