News Nuggets
Newsletter of the Albuquerque Gem & Mineral Club
Volume 50 Number 3
IT’S SHOW TIME!
Our show, Treasures of the Earth: Jewelry, Gem, and Mineral Expo – 2003, is basically here! This is, without a doubt, the biggest event in the Albuquerque Gem and Mineral Club’s year.
Come One! – Come All! to our major extravaganza. I know that essentially every club member will be involved in some way – setting up, taking admissions, handing out door prize coupons and door prizes, selling raffle tickets, handing out raffle prizes, helping people find their way around, keeping alert for sticky fingers, overnight security, tearing down, mineral identification, demos, keeping the coffee pots going and the donuts coming, etc.
Your efforts will be rewarded, for remember that proceeds from this show not only fund our scholarships and other gifts, but they also pick up the gap between club expenses and membership dues. You can now see an announcement on our own web page www.agmc.info
which has been initiated through the efforts of Tom Katonak and developed by our webmaster, John Scully. You can also read a blurb about our show on the Rocky Mountain Federation of Mineralogical Society’s webpage on shows. Go to www.rmfms.org and following the obvious links.
Don’t forget that you also help our show by browsing the tables and buying stuff from our dealers and at the silent auction.
I also want to remind you that apart from the main purpose of the show – education – we maintain that a big part of the show is to have FUN. So do it!
Paul Hlava
Shows, Shows, Shows!!!
SW Gem & Mineral Society’s Fiesta of Gems, San Antonio, TX, March 14-16
Ft. Collins Rockhounds, 42nd Annual ShowFt. Collins, CO Mar 21-23
Treasures of the Earth
Gem, Jewelry & Mineral Show, March 21-23
New Mexico State Fairgrounds
Albuquerque Gem & Mineral Club
Albuquerque, NM
Officers 2003
President/Editor- Orlando Garcia; Home phone: 345-0520; e-mail: jabog02@msn.com
VP-Programs - Grant Kuck; Home phone: 323-1520
VP-Field Trips- Kimberly Richie; Home phone: 296-8847
VP-Field Trips- Ray DeMark; Home phone: 822-8715; e-mail: RayDeMark@msn.com
Secretary/Historian- Dave Moats; Home phone: 892-8163; e-mail: beepbeep59@hotmail.com
Treasurer- Stephanie Bell; Home phone: 281-7192; e-mail: stephbell22@yahoo.com
Editor- Darlene Nelson; Home phone: 271-4694; e-mail: agmcnews@aol.com
VP-Special Events- Hank Miller; Home phone: 255-7218; e-mail: rgmhgm2@msn.com
Show Chair- Paul Hlava; Home phone: 255-5478 ; e-mail: pfhlave@sandia.gov
Membership- Donna Scott; Home phone: 934-6564; e-mail: dutchessofalb@aol.com
Jr. Club: Carl Johnson; Home phone: 344-3178
Please call the appropriate Board member for information regarding club functions
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: Darlene Nelson, 817 Sagebrush Trail, Albuquerque, NM 87123, or email to agmcnews@aol.com.
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. The general meeting is held on the 4th Monday of the month at 7:30 pm The Junior Club meets at 6:45 pm prior to the general meeting. The public is welcome to both meetings. Board of Directors meetings are held at 7:30 pm on the first Monday of each month. (Call for location).
All memberships are family memberships and can include all members of the household. Dues are $20. Send checks to the AGMC, P.O. Box 13718, Albuquerque, NM 87192 or pay Donna Scott ,Membership Chair, at the monthly meeting.
RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP NOW
President’s Message
Well, now, it’s March and what is on our agenda for this month? I’m hoping the first thing that pops into your mind is our own Treasures of the Earth 2003 show on March 21-23. If you haven’t volunteered for anything yet, please call one of the officers on page 2 to find out where you can help. Setup is on Thursday the 20th starting at 8:00 a.m. and ending with a potluck dinner at about 6:00 p.m.. The club will provide the dinner meat and dessert. The dealers are our guests at this function, so please bring enough to share with several others.
John Scully is hard at work at his position of Webmaster for the club’s new website, www.agmc.info . Check it out! You’re going to like what you see. John was at the BOD meeting on Monday night. He had several ideas regarding content on the site and asked the board for suggestions as the site develops this year. If you have any suggestions please contact John or any board member.
Whew! Tucson was a rush, to say the least. I have a couple of great pictures for the website next month which I know you’ll love. Dave Moats and I both purchased minerals from worldwide for door prizes at the general meetings. These purchases and donations by individual members (hint, hint) should provide enough door prizes till the end of the year.
-Orlando
Treasures of the Earth
Pot Luck Dinner
EVERYONE is invited to attend the Treasures of the Earth Pot Luck Dinner Thursday, March 20, to meet and welcome our participating dealers, visit with old and new friends, officially open this year’s show, and enjoy the first day of spring. The location is the same as the show – the School Arts and Flower Building at the New Mexico Fair Grounds.
The event will begin at 6:00 p.m., and dinner will be served at 6:30. The club will provide Bar-b-que, bread, cupcakes, and drinks, and dinnerware. Members are asked to bring casseroles, salads, and side dishes. Please be generous – we have approximately forty (40) dealers as our guests.
The Potluck will also feature a White Elephant Silent Auction (Earth Science related). Everyone is invited to bring a "white elephant" and leave with a "treasure". Bidding will begin at 5:00 p.m. and will end at 8:00 p.m.
Gwen Poe
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
Hello Friendly AGMC Members:
The Admissions table is not yet fully staffed, and I know that schedules don’t always allow for in-advance commitments. Below are the time slots still available:
Friday – 10:00 a.m. – noon
4:00 – 5:30 p.m.
Sunday – 12:00 – 2:00 p.m.
2:00 – 4:00 p.m.
I have back-up folks, but not enough for all of these times. Please call me at 296-8847 to hold a spot for you. Just leave a message, but please indicate if you want me to call you back.
If you are asking, "why would I want to do this?"
You will meet new people.
You will have fun taking money.
You will get free parking.
You will get in for free.
FINAL NOTE: If the time you would have volunteered for is taken, please contact Hank Miller to help with the Raffle/Door Prize Table, or Dave Moats to take $$$$ at the Silent Auction.
Thank you,
Kimberly Richie
HELP WITH SET-UP
Thursday – March 20 – 8:00 a.m.
All help welcome!!!!!
Coffee/donuts/lunch provided!!!!!
Come on down…..! or over…..! or up…..! (depending on where you live).
Gwen Poe
You might be a rockhound if…
You care more about what happened to the diamond in the
movie "Titanic" than the people.
First on your Christmas List is to attend the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show.
You’ve spent more than $20 for a book about rocks.
The local university’s geology department requests permission to hold field trips in your back yard.
You named your children Opal and Beryl.
Do you have your own "You might be a rockhound if"? E-mail them to agmcnews@aol.com, or give them to Darlene Nelson at the meeting.
RHODOCHROSITE
ON DISPLAY AT TotE
AGMC GENERAL MEETING
Monday, 24 Feb 03
V.P. Grant Kuck was our acting President at tonight’s meeting, attended by 68 souls, as Orlando was a little "under the weather." Running through all the Board of Directors and Show committee heads we had updates concerning some of the following items:
Ray briefed that 27 showed up at the Tucumcari Mesa Lands Museum for the Saturday field trip. The weather cooperated and collecting was successful. Although only a few ammonites were found, we located - in the nearby road-cut - an oyster bed of Texigryphaea (pronounced texi-gri-fee-a) or Tucumcari Oyster. The Museum Director told us that he had only found two ammonites of this particular type during the entire time he had lived here - and one of our lucky members found two on one day!
Ray noted that our next trip will be on March 15th to the Royal Flush mine. He will post the details.
Donna will be putting in a new order for name-tags and they will be here before our show.
Paul Hlava gave us a run-down on where we stand in preparations for the Show that is less than a month away now. He’s expecting 39 to 40 dealers. The club will purchase $480 worth of parking passes (160) for all dealers and club members who help with the Thursday set-up. We expect all able members to help with the show and want and expect everyone to have a good time. Many hands make light work and at the same time enable everyone to make a whole new set of friends. Being a part of the show brings individuals together and camaraderie is rampant.
Gwen Poe and Judy DeMark are working together in the Hospitality department and are planning a Pot Luck dinner for Thursday at 6:30 p.m. with the Club providing a beef BBQ, cake, and various drinks. Members should bring a dish of their choice and enough to serve 10 to 14 people as all the dealers and their entourage will be our guests.
March is your last New Nugget if you haven’t paid your membership dues for this year.
Leon Cooper briefed us that he and Pat Weatherman will take up Jim Winchell’s cause of offering to lead trips into Mexico with 4, 5 or 7 day tours to the various destinations Jim used to take members to. Their contacts can get 5 or 6 people into the famous Cave of Giant Crystals.
John Scully has our Club web page under construction and can be accessed at www.agmc.info.
Grant introduced tonight’s speaker, Mike Spilde, a Research Scientist at the University of New Mexico in the Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences and the Institute of Meteoritics, where he manages the scanning electron microscope and electron microprobe labs. He has a Masters Degree in Geology from South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. Mike grew up in South Dakota and Wyoming where his father worked in pegmatite mining and later in uranium mining. Not surprisingly, Mike has had a life-long interest in minerals. He has also been a "caver" for over 30 years and has now been able to combine these interests in the study of cave geomicrobiology. He is particularly interested in how microorganisms form minerals. His current research uses caves as an analog for the study of life on other planets.
Mike entitled tonight’s talk "Microbes and Minerals." He stated that "the origin of some minerals may surprise us and that microbes are nature’s little engineers." Microbes are divided into four types: bacteria, algae, fungi and archaea. For the most part, we know very little about what they do even though they are ubiquitous on and in our planet. Even the scientific community has had a very limited understanding of these organisms outside of the laboratory. Until about fifteen years ago the branch on the Tree of Life termed archaea had not evenbeen identified. No one knew they existed until the tool of DNA analysis was invented. It is now thought that archaea may comprise over 95% of the biomass in the world’s oceans! The number of pathogen microbes (like anthrax) are relatively small compared to the others. We owe a lot to the good microbes. For instance they make the fermentation process possible (think bread and beer!) and also break down all that dead stuff.
Biomineralization is the process by which organisms form minerals. All of life’s five kingdoms contain organisms capable of biomineralization. It is becoming increasingly clear that many of the mineral-forming processes are influenced, to some extent, by microbial action. A diverse group of minerals are produced by a diverse group of organisms that do these things in order to provide themselves with energy and nutrients or to sequester toxic elements such as heavy metals out of harms way. There are micro organisms that can precipitate uranium and nearly every other element in the periodic table. Some micros consume arsenic as an energy source. There are many minerals that are suggestive of microbiogenic origin and the scientific community is looking into these. Some are the manganese dendrites. Many sulfide minerals such as pyrite or zinc sulfides may be of microbiogenic origin. Gold, particularly some placer deposits, or agate (like Montana moss agate), or opal, some fossils, cave speleothems, manganese nodules, and banded iron formations may be due to microbe activity.
There are two major life forms: Heterotrophs and Autotrophs. Humans are cataloged under Heterotrophs and use carbon as an energy source (the only source) in the form of glucose via an oxidation/reduction reaction. Microbes have many different elements available for energy including several that would be toxic to humans. Microbes may develop resistance to toxic elements. Autotrophs use carbon from inorganic sources like carbon dioxide but also obtain energy from things like molecular hydrogen, hydrogen sulfide, sulfur, ammonia, Fe2+, Mn2+, NO3 and others via aerobic (utilizing oxygen) and anaerobic (not utilizing oxygen) respiration processes.
Bacterial layers and mineral precipitation were discussed concerning the internal precipitation of "packets" of minerals in a cell’s interior; inside the plasma membrane as a common site for actively controlled mineral precipitation and the S-layer that is usually the controlling layer.
Why do microbes precipitate minerals? - For support via skeletons, tests or other body parts and to get rid of metabolic waste. For example goethite, FeOOH, is a result of microbiotic iron respiration. A spectacular example of iron oxide deposition by bacteria are the rusticles on the bow of the Titanic. The dark layers in the Belen Travertine are the result of sheathes of iron oxidized by bacteria. To produce natural compasses magnetotactic bacteria deposit magnetic minerals within their cells (magnetite or greigite). Microbes accumulate compounds from the surrounding environments. Even dead microbes can precipitate minerals from their latent magnetic component. The Australian Stromatolites that are layered with silica and biogenic material are another example of minerals formed by biogenic activity.
Biotic or Abiotic: How can we tell? What do we look for? From the least informative to most informative, we look at shape and forms; comparison to living counterparts; unusual or non-equilibrium minerals; isotopic and chemical data; culturable organisms; DNA and biochemical evidence.
Experiments with culturable organisms have crystallized the minerals switzerite - (Mn,Fe)3(PO4)2.7H20, and Vivianite -Fe3(PO4)2.H2O. Mike is not 100% sure
of the origin of the dendrites from Spider Cave at Carlsbad Caverns and is working on this now. Suggestive of microbiogenic activity are the cave pool fingers that grow below the water line in fine-grained layers and the manganese oxide minerals from Lechuguilla Cave which form stringy filaments with globules strung along them. In these caves have been found novel micro-subsurface archaea and others closely related to high temperature (thermophilic) organisms whose DNA shows their closest relatives are deep.
Mike concluded saying that "scientists are only beginning to understand the versatility and diversity of the microbial world. It is likely that we will continue in the future to discover microbes doing fantastic things in the most unusual places. After tonight’s entertaining and informative talk we took a refreshment break and then reconvened to draw tickets for the door prizes after which the meeting was officially ended.
Dave Moats, Secretary
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Mystery Mineral
For March, 2003
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.
This Month’s Mystery Mineral is—
A sulfate of a heavy metal which often occurs as well developed orthorhombic crystals in limestones or sandstones. Also found in some lead veins. Associated with calcite, dolomite, gypsum, halite, sulfur, and fluorite. Hardness-3 to 3.5, Sp. Gr.-3.95-3.97, Cleavage – one perfect and 2 other good ones perpendicular to first and almost perpendicular to each other, Luster – vitreous to pearly, Color-colorless, white, faintly blue or red, Transparent to translucent.
Questions -
What is the name of the mineral?
What is the chemistry of the mineral?
What is the origin of the name?
What is the mineral used for?
What minerals might it associated with?
Localities – (Just list the famous ones)
--NM –
--USA –
--World –
Answers to Last Month’s Questions
What is the name of the mineral? Cinnabar
What is the chemistry of the mineral? Mercury Sulfide
What is the origin of the name? Complicated – from Latin cinnabaris; with a long history which can be traced to Persian zinjifrah, apparently meaning dragon’s blood in allusion to its red color.
What is the mineral used for? The only significant ore of mercury which is used in electrical apparatus, scientific instruments, is preparation of chlorine and caustic soda, etc.
What minerals might it associated with? Pyrite, stibnite, marcasite, Cu sulfides, opal, chalcedony quartz, barite, fluorite, and calcite. Cinnabar is sometimes associated with gold deposits
Localities – (Just list the famous ones)
--NM – none
--USA – California, Nevada, Oregon, Texas
--World – Spain
Paul Hlava 030305
Dinosaur Museum
Field Trip Report
The trip to the Mesalands College Dinosaur Museum on the 22nd of February was attended by 27 club members. We met at the museum parking lot and departed at 9:30 a.m. for some fossil collecting at the Caprock Amphitheater about 23 miles east of Tucumcari.
Finding fossil bearing strata in the Cretaceous rocks was proving difficult, but several club members were able to locate some productive beds, and before leaving members were loading up with specimens of the "Tucumcari oyster", more properly known as Texigraphaea pitcheri. Melissa Origlio hit the jackpot by finding a complete ammonite (Mortoriceras sp.) and one partial specimen. These ammonites have a ribbed shell and are very rare in the area, according to Craig Currell, the dinosaur museum director. He has collected in the area his entire life and found only two of these ammonites.
At noon we returned to the dinosaur museum for a tour and browsing. The exhibits and displays at the museum are outstanding. Particularly noteworthy are bronze casts of complete dinosaur skeletons.
These remarkable casts are made at Mesaland College and take up to fourteen months to complete. They are noteworthy for their detail and the fact that visitors can put "hands on". The castings are made from the original bones and teeth. I highly recommend this museum to anyone who has even a mild interest in fossils and/or dinosaurs.
At 2:30 p.m. we left for a stop at the Puerta de Luna aragonite pseudomorph location. A stop to look for these pseudomorphs at a nearby location was unsuccessful, so we proceeded to the familiar site and everyone was able to "load up" on these interesting specimens.
It was a beautiful day in eastern New Mexico and a great day to visit a first class museum and enjoy the Llano Estacada.
Ray Demark
RENEW YOUR CLUB MEMBERSHIP NOW
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FIELD TRIP
ROYAL FLUSH MINE
March 15, 2003
Our March field trip will be to the Royal Flush mine near Bingham, New Mexico. Our host will be Tom Massis (AGMC member and mine owner). The Royal Flush mine is part of the Hansonburg mining district and is well known for excellent specimens of fluorite, galena and barite.
Some underground collecting may be possible, so lights, hard hats and hard rock mining tools will be necessary.
We will meet at the Bingham Rock Shop at 9:00 a.m.
There are no "facilities" at the mine, so be prepared.
The mine should be accessible by passenger car (unless it rains).
Directions: Take I-25 South to U. S. 380 (Exit 139/San Antonio). Drive east towards Carrizozo. The Bingham Rock Shop is on the right hand side of U. S. 380 approximately 29 miles east of San Antonio. Driving time to Bingham from Albuquerque is about two hours.
See you in Bingham.
Ray Demark
FIELD TRIP
CARLSBAD AREA
April 26-27, 2003
Our two-day field trip for April will be to the Carlsbad area on the 26th and 27th.
We will be visiting an area west of Carlsbad to look for pyrite crystals replaced by goethite. Then we will travel to a location south of Carlsbad for gypsum roses.
Sunday we will travel to Bosque Draw and Cottonwood Draw to collect pyrite crystals and aragonite "sixlings".
Details of this trip will be published in the April News Nuggets.
Kimberly Richie
TotE SHOW MINERAL
RHODOCHROSITE
Chemistry: MnCO3, Manganese Carbonate
Class: Carbonates
Group: calcite Group
Color: red to pink, sometimes almost white, yellow and brown
Cleavage: perfect in three directions forming rhombohedrons
Fracture: uneven
Hardness: 3.5 – 4
Specific Gravity: approximately 3.5
Associated Minerals: calcite, ankerite, alabandite, rhodonite,
bementite, spessartine, fluorite, manganite, quartz, and many metal sulfides.
Uses: As a minor ore of manganese, an ornamental and semi-precious gemstone and as mineral specimens.
Rhodochrosite (whose name means rose-colored) is a very attractive mineral with a one-of-a-kind, beautiful color. Although it can be an ore of manganese, it is its ornamental and display specimen qualities that make it a very popular mineral. The color of a single crystal can astound the observer with its vivid pink-rose color that seems to be transmitted out of the crystal as if lit from within.
Individual crystals are found in well shaped rhombohedrons and more rarely scalahedrons. In a massive form its pink and white bands are extremely attractive and are often used in semi-precious jewelry. It is often carved into figurines and tubular stalactitic forms are sliced into circles with concentric bands that are unique in the mineral kingdom. Fine crystals are sometimes cut into gemstones, but rhodochrosite’s softness and brittleness limit it as a gemstone for everyday use.
Identification of rhodochrosite is fairly easy despite a few similarly colored minerals. Its best distinguishing factor is its lack of reaction to acids. Rhodochrosite will easily show some reaction to cold acids which demonstrates its carbonate chemistry. Basically, any rose-pink carbonate is considered rhodochrosite; however, some calcites with a small amount of manganese impurities can be pink in color. The manganese replaces some of the calciums in calcite, but a complete series between calcite and rhodochrosite is not established. Differentiating pink calcite from rhodochrosite may require a fluorescence test as rhodochrosite is distinctly non-fluorescent and manganese is a fluorescent activator in calcite.
There are many localities for rhodochrosite that are of great reknown. Beyond a doubt, the best locality is the Sweet Home Mine in Colorado. It is unmatched for its superb rhodochrosite crystals that exhibit the best features of the species; a fine bright rose color and sharp well formed crystals. Some specimens from here are quite large and of world class distinction.
Other notable areas include Alma, Park County and American Tunnel, Silverton, Colorado; Butte, Montana; the mines of Franklin, New Jersey; Humboldt Mine, Cochise County, Arizona, and many sites in California. It is also found in Catamarca, Argentine; Huaron Mine and several mines in Ancash Department, Peru; Kara oba, Kazakhatan; Sacrimb, Transylvania, Romania; Cornwall, England; Harz Mountains, Germany; Tsumeb, Otavi, Namibia; Santa Eulalia and Magdalena, Mexico; N’Chwanging Mine, Hotazel, South Africa; and Mont Saint-Hilaire, Quebec, Canada.
Grand Canyon
March 24 presentation
We are proud to present Dr. Laura Crossey and Dr. Karl Karlstrom as our March speakers. Both are professors from the University of New Mexico in the Earth and Planetary Sciences Department.
Their presentation will explore their vast geoscience research and educational activities in the Grand Canyon.
The Albuquerque Gem & Mineral Club meets on the 4th Monday of every month (except December). All meetings are held at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Sciences, 1801 Mountain Road NW in Old Town (the entrance is on 18th Street), Albuquerque, NM. The meeting begins at 7:30 PM. There will be a short business meeting prior to the evening’s talk, which begins at approximately 8 PM.
Refreshments and door prizes will follow immediately after the talk.
Albuquerque Gem & Mineral Club
Darlene Nelson, Editor
PO Box 13718
Albuquerque, NM 87192-3718