News Nuggets

Newsletter of the Albuquerque Gem & Mineral Club

Volume 52 Number 5

Just a quick note before I begin my monthly chat. You have to check out Ron Boyd's article on the upcoming field trip to the very historic, Harding Mine. The collecting is good, the site is scenic (bring a camera) and Paul Hlava will be on hand to provide a lecture. What more could you possibly want out of a field trip? (Well maybe a good lunch!) For more information just read Ron's article.

Of course before you can go to any field trip you must be a member in good standing. In other words, your membership must be current. If you hear from some of your friends this month who say, "Hey! I didn't get my May News Nuggets!" you might want to ask them if their membership is paid up. This is the month that the editor and staff stop sending the club's monthly newsletter to those who haven't renewed their membership.

If you have already renewed, thank you. If you haven't, nothing is easier. Just bring a check or cash to the next club meeting and see Kimberly Richie. Remember dues are $20 and all memberships are family memberships, which include all members of the household. If it is more convenient, you can also send checks to the AGMC, P.O. Box 13718, Albuquerque, NM 87192.

The AGMC Board is in the process of finding people who would be interested in working with children in the Junior Club. We want to find club members who like kids and could perhaps be counted on for leading just one session during the year. Ok, if you really had fun doing it maybe two. We have enough talent in our club to make this happen without putting everything on the shoulders of one individual for all the activities for all the year. A number of people have already expressed an interest but there's still plenty of room. If that sounds like something you'd like to do or if you have any questions please talk to Paul Napolitano or myself.

A special thanks and tip of the hat to Kathy Lawicki who takes care of coordinating our refreshments every month. She does an outstanding job and is very much appreciated. By the way if you would ever like to provide the refreshments for one of our meetings, the club will reimburse you for your purchases. If you have any questions you can always talk to Kathy at our next club meeting. And speaking of our next meeting I hope to see you there. Till then, keep looking down!

Grant

24-26 — SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH: Show; The Bead Renaissance Shows; Utah State Fairpark, 155 North 1000 West; Fri. 10-6, Sat. 10-6, Sun. 10-5; free admission; retail and wholesale, ancient, vintage, contemporary, and designer beads, buttons, jewelry, tools, books. www.beadshow.com.

8-10 — DURANGO, COLORADO: 51st annual show; 4 Corners Gem & Mineral Club; La Plata County Fairgrounds, 2500 Main Ave.; Fri. 11-6, Sat. 10-6, Sun. 10-5; free admission; 35 indoor and outdoor dealers, mineral specimens, lapidary materials, equipment, fossils, prospecting, jewelry, beading, demonstrations, door prizes, raffle; contact Bill Birza, (970) 247-0187; e-mail: wcbirzzz@durangolive.net; Web site: www.durangorocks.org.

8-10 — SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH: Show; Gem Faire; Utah State Fair Park, 155 N 1000 W; Fri. 12-7, Sat. 10-7, Sun. 10-5; $5 weekend pass; gem show; contact Gem Faire, (503) 252-8300; e-mail: info@gemfaire.com; Web site: www.gemfaire.com.

President - Grant Kuck; Home phone: 323-1520; E-mail: gkuck@flc.org

VP-Membership - Kimberly Richie; Home phone: 296-8847; E-mail: cattrax55@wmconnect.com

VP-Field Trips - Ron Boyd; Home phone: 262-0053; Email: RGB417@aol.com

Secretary - Suzanne Seymour; Home phone: 877-3621; Email: suzannerox5@aol.com

Treasurer - OPEN; Howard (Jake) Jacobs; Home phone: 869-1565; E-mail: goldpanjake@msn.com

Historian - Dave Moats; Home phone: 892-8163; E-mail: beepbeep59@hotmail.com

VP-Programs - Kimberly Richie; Home phone: 296-8847; E-mail: cattrax55@wmconnect.com

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

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 6:45 p.m. prior to the general meeting. Board of Directors meetings is 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.

May, 2005

At a recent AGMC board meeting it was brought to my attention that some people have troubles with many terms I use in my Mystery Mineral column. This means to me that it is time for me to redefine these terms because a lot of folks in the club weren’t in AGMC the last time I did so. In order to alleviate this problem I wrote a column about the terms ending in -hedron or -hedral for the February News Nuggets and I tackled crystallographic morphs in the April issue. I WAS going to continue on the pseudomorphs but was asked by Ron Boyd to do PEGMATITE this month because we are going to the Harding (Pegmatite) mine on May 21.

OK. So what is a pegmatite? The simplest answer is an igneous rock of EXTREMELY coarse texture. Most coarse-grained igneous rocks, like granite, gabbro, and diorite have mineral grains that are a few millimeters across. Pegmatites can have crystals that are INCHES to METERS across or long. In fact, many pegmatites have a lot of different textures. More on that later. Before I get too far I should note that most (but not all) pegmatites are granitic in chemistry.

When geologists examine large igneous bodies that cooled slowly underground (these are termed plutons), especially granites, they usually find small dikes, veins or lenses of pegmatite within or very close to the body. These coarse-grained lenses may only be a few inches across (only one or two crystals!) and a few feet long. Or they may be several feet wide and 10’s of feet long but they are still small compared to most rock bodies. Being granitic they contain quartz, microcline feldspar, maybe some albite, and a bit of mica. Some have muscovite and others have biotite and a few have both. Rarely they will contain some less common mineral like fluorite, garnet, beryl, etc. This kind of pegmatite is termed a SIMPLE PEGMATITE.

The obvious question is – "What is a COMPLEX PEGMATITE like?" It is usually larger, it has a number of zones with different textures and mineral assemblages, and it often contains a plethora of unusual minerals containing exotic elements. BTW – Another name for a complex pegmatite is a ZONED PEGMATITE. Some of the zones may only contain common granite silicate minerals – quartz, quartz + microcline, quartz + albite, just one feldspar, etc. And some of the zones, especially the ones contacting the surrounding rocks, may be just as fine or finer than normal granite. But some of the inner zones have giant crystals. I have a photo of my wife next to a rose quartz pegmatite in South Dakota. There is the top half of a microcline crystal exposed next to her that is 5 feet high and about that across. So the entire crystal may be close to 10 feet across. In another photo, she is standing in the Etta mine above some log shaped cavities in the pegmatite that are 20 + feet long. These were spodumene crystals that were mined out long ago.

Complex pegmatites concentrate many exotic elements. These include lithium, beryllium, boron, fluorine, phosphorus, scandium, rubidium, yttrium, zirconium, niobium, tin, cesium, the rare earths, hafnium, tantalum, tungsten, bismuth, thorium, and uranium. Not so rare elements like titanium, vanadium, and lead also form unusual minerals in these rocks and common elements like iron and manganese are responsible for coloring some of these rare species. There are over 550 minerals that have been found in pegmatites.

How did this happen? The simple view is that pegmatites occur late in the history of a pluton. A bit of tectonic movement creates a crack in the not-completely-crystallized granite mush. Into the crack seeps all the left over materials. A major component is water. The water (and other volatiles – fluorine, sulfur, boron, etc.) creates a solution with a very low viscosity. This allows for silicate crystals to grow much faster that in the "dry" part of the pluton. Think simple pegmatites. If the cracks occur very, very late the final fluids may be enriched in all the "oddball" elements that don’t fit into "normal" minerals well. These will crystallize out as minerals rich in the exotic elements. Lithium will come out as spodumene, lepidolite, elbaite, etc. Beryllium may come out as beryl. Niobium and tantalum may come out as columbite-tantalite or microlite or both. And on and on…

The Harding is a famous complex or zoned pegmatite that has been mined for minerals rich in lithium, beryllium, and tantalum. It contains a number of unusual minerals, which we will try to find and collect on our trip May 21.

Complex pegmatites are complex in a lot of ways including the WAYS they may form. This article gives one very simple explanation to a very complex situation. Always keep an open mind about pegmatite genesis.

Next time I may try to tackle the pseudomorphs.

Paul Hlava 050507

The AGMC club meeting of April 25^th was called to order by President Grant Kuck at 7:45 pm. Six visitors stood to introduce themselves including one who found us by our website. Grant then asked Dan Sisneros to give a rundown of the recent field trip and show off his "lunker", which he did to the oohs and aahs of many. Later during the refreshment break, Nancy Gerlach produced a contender for the largest specimen collected. I think it was too close to call.

Paul passed out post cards for the Pikes Peak Gem and Mineral Show and Symposium where he will be giving a talk on microprobing minerals. A meeting of show committee members was called for the coming Wednesday at 7:30.

Ron Boyd announced the next field trip scheduled for May 21^st to the Harding Mine. This site is known for many rare pegmatite minerals and world class spodumene as well as calcite of excellent clarity. Some apatite was passed around that fluoresces orange. Potential attendees were asked to complete a signup sheet required by the owner (UNM) of the mine. If you want to attend and weren’t there, call Ron ASAP to be included. We will be limited to surface collecting only, with a 5-lb limit per person. We’ll meet at the Dixon Post Office at 10:00 am for possibly necessary carpooling. Paul Hlava will be available for and plans to make stops on the route to the mine for briefings and mini talks on the area geology. See the section later in the ‘Nuggets for more info about the trip.

Jake has asked to be replaced as Treasurer. Is there anyone interested in helping us out?

Mike Sanders passed around abstracts from the recent Arizona Mineral Symposium that he attended. Though it pales in comparison to our own NM Symposium, there is great potential here and it’s important to support the efforts of regional organizations. He then presented Karen Bryzs, who’s personal provenance was fully presented in the April News Nuggets, to conduct the evening program. She opened her Power Point presentation with a definition of agate and the history of its cultural existence. Agate is a variety of macrocrystalline quartz, specifically the chalcedony group of fibrous structure formed under high temperature and low pressure. It is accretionary by nature and by definition. This attributes to the banded structure that is common to all agates. Agates are represented in artifacts dating from the Stone Age some 20,000 years ago, up through Egyptian, Sumerian, Mongolian, and Native American cultures. The name derives from Latin and means faithful companion or friend, and it’s thought to be associated with the Achates River in Sicily.

Agate forms from silica gel that collects in gas formed vesicles and cracks in cooling lava. There are a couple of theories about formation, neither of which has been demonstrated in a laboratory setting. One theory is the Inflow theory by which means the alternate color banding is due to varying compositional impurities in successive inflows of silica saturated waters. The Silica Gel Theory holds that incompatibilities between silica molecules separate into layers by sorting ion impurities. As closely associated as it seems to be with lava and volcanic activity, it’s no surprise that it is common in rift zones.

Karen had quite a number of tips on what to look for when collecting agate. It’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with the predominant colors of the agate in the area where you intend to collect. Look for evidence of a structure filled in by crystalline quartz or evident banding and patterns that show the self-organizing theory of agates. Sometimes backlighting will show banding and/or translucence that are hallmarks of the species. Irregular shape and a pit marked or botryoidal crust are also clues. And remember that agate has a conchoidal fracture.

The Power Point presentation included about 21 identification slides of various kinds of material, some known by the location where they’re commonly found, some by characteristic patterns or colors. I learned more about agate than I thought there was to know! For those who missed out Monday night, all this and more can be found on her website, www.agatelady.com, or in her book, "Understanding and Finding Agates". As busy as she is, it’s hard to see how she has time for collecting, but she generously donated from her keepers to the door prize offerings for the evening. Thanks Karen!!!

One could have, and some did, construct a light healthy meal from the refreshment table selections provided by Tom and Lynda Katonak. Way to go you two! Appreciative and favorable comments abounded.

Fifteen door prizes were available for the winning, which resulted in a good-sized crowd that lingered until they were all gone.

Suzanne Seymour

Saturday May 21^st

Harding Mine

Taos, NM

This month we're off to the famous Harding mine, Taos County, New Mexico this mine was a significant source of Lepidolite, Microlite, and beryl. During the 1920's the focus was on the Lepidolite. From 1942-1947 the mine became a source for Microlite, a tantalum mineral, which was in critical need. Then in 1950 the mine began to produce beryl. The amount of beryl that was produced there was large enough to make NM the nation's largest beryl producing state! Near by the Harding mine is the Iceberg deposit and it was a source for optical grade calcite. Two of the calcite crystals found there, were the worlds 2^nd and 3^rd largest crystals!

The plan for the trip is to meet at the Dixon post office at 10 am, on the 21^st of May. To get there, head up NM 68, which is the road to Taos, until you come to the NM 75 intersection at Embudo. Turn there, and drive approximately 3 miles to the town of Dixon.

We will then head out as a group and will make a couple of short stops on the way to the mine to check out some of metamorphic rocks and formations along the road to the mine site. Paul Hlava will be guiding us through these Precambrian rocks and the mine.

Credits go to Ray DeMark for historical info on the mine.

See you on the 21th!

Ron

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 always found as euhedral crystals, often transparent and gemmy, in granitic pegmatites. It is almost any color (pinks, blue, purple, yellow, orange, colorless) but is commonly some shade of green and can be color zoned along its length or from inside to outside or both! It is hard 7-7.5 and lacks cleavage. It is a hydrous boro-silicate of sodium, lithium, and aluminum but minor amounts of Fe, Mn, etc. give rise to the colors usually seen.

What is the name of the mineral?

What was the mineral named for?

What minerals are associated with this one?

What group of minerals does it belong in?

What is it mined/used for?

Which month can it be a birthstone for?

What unusual optical property does this mineral display?

What unusual physical property does it show?

Localities – (Just list the famous/important ones)

--NM –

--USA –

--World –

What is the name of the mineral? Coloradoite.

What was the mineral named for? Well, Duh – how about the state of Colorado.

What minerals are associated with this one? Pyrite, quartz, tellurite, native tellurium, secondary Te minerals.

What is the mineral used for? Can be an ore of tellurium and mercury.

Localities – (Just list the famous/important ones)

--NM – none

--USA – CO, NV, CA

--World – Canada, France, Australia, Austria, Finland, Hungary, etc.

Paul Hlava 050410

Despite my best intentions and several days of gear gathering I wasn’t able to get out of town until 4:15 Friday afternoon. Fortunately, it’s an easy 4-hour drive and the last leg of a few dirt miles to the Pueblo Creek campground was easily negotiable in fast fading light. Tom Massis and three other small groups were assembling around Jeff and Nancy Gerlach’s sumptuous campsite for the campfire social hour. Tom’s guide skills had already been put to a test. A young fellow camping there with his family tagged along with him when he went on the reconnaissance hike. Unbeknownst to Tom, the kid had some health issues that resulted in him getting pretty sick. Thanks to Tom’s experience and patience he was able to bring him back alive without serious long-term damage. We called it an early night, off to dream of tomorrows treasure.

Saturday dawned clear and warming. We were joined by a club member from Reserve about the time we were ready to hit the trail, for a total of nine folks. The trail follows Pueblo Creek southeast from the campground for a mostly level half mile or so to a couple of stepping stone fords and then climbs sharply to the top where the goodies are. Curiously Tom recounted that after many futile attempts to find material at equivalent elevation on the west side of the drainage he has determined it absent. As we (I) labored up the hill we were chastised roundly by a pair of Black hawks for our intrusion into their nesting area. At the top Tom flagged the trailhead as from there we kind of fanned out heading SE again to search. On the knees seemed to be the most productive method although Dan Sisneros found a BIG ole chunk while on the fly to better grounds that Tom had scouted. Though the day was warm plenty of shade was available. After a few hours collecting we headed back down to camp. Personally I was more than a little pleased that bringing home a unique, and new to me, New Mexico mineral was not straining every seam in my daypack.

The promised "weather" consisting of a light drizzle was setting in as we gathered for the campfire debriefing at Casa Gerlach. Thomas had gone home to Reserve and we expected a repeat of last night’s campfire crew when who should materialize out of the rainy dusk but Mr. Intrepid. Our President had just enough time to set up his tent before dark. Grant joined us at the fire and met new members Anita Willard and Gills Marchal who were sharing their cookie stash with everyone. Though spirited for a time, increasing rain shortened the Saturday night revelry.

Plenty of thunder, lightning, and rain guaranteed a soggy Sunday morning. Grant was trying to drum up interest in another assault on the collecting grounds when I headed home as Tom had agreed to show him the way. Thanks Tom! It was a fun trip and all made good finds.

Nancy Gerlach showed up at the Monday meeting with a rival for Dan’s BIG ole chunk that was clear enough and large enough to excite Ron Boyd who agreed to facet it. I can’t wait to see it.

Suzanne Seymour

The following is the tentative schedule for field trips this year. Changes may be made, so check the News Nuggets for actual dates and destinations.

June:  Questa Mine. Tentative at this point. Molybdenite and other minerals can be collected here.

July:  San Pedro mine. Annual picnic and some great collecting!

August:  Tentatively Crystal Peak, Contin-Tail show, and Ruby Mt. all in central Colorado. More later!

September:  Royal Flush Mine, Bingham, NM.

October:  A geologic trip along the Turquoise Trail.

November:  Blanchard Claims. Fluorite etc.!

Sid Ash

"On the Trail of the Wily Cycad in the Jungles of the Mesozoic"

Sid Ash was born some years ago on his grandfather's ranch on the west mesa. After serving in the Navy in Cuba and North Africa during the Korean conflict, he received a Masters degree from UNM in 1961, with studies focused on water resources. Sid developed an interest in paleobotany while working for US Geological Survey, and in 1964 moved to England to study for his doctorate at Reading University. The title of his dissertation was "The Upper Triassic Chinle Formation of the Southwestern United States." After receiving his PhD in 1966, he began teaching in higher education and eventually ended up at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. He retired from the University in 1996 and moved back to Albuquerque the next year. Sid was appointed as an Adjunct Professor in the Earth and Planetary Sciences Department at UNM, where he continues his research on Mesozoic floras, particularly those in the Chinle Formation, and has just published his 125^th article.