Volume 51 Number 10

Now is the time to register for the 25^th annual New Mexico Mineral Symposium. The symposium will be held November 13^th and 14^th at the Macey Center on the campus of New Mexico Tech in Socorro. It will feature a day and a half of talks, mostly related to New Mexico mineral occurrences and historical perspectives on mineral collecting in our great state.

A "tailgate" session of selling/swapping will be held at the Super-8 Motel on Friday evening before the symposium and Saturday evening after the dinner and live auction to benefit the symposium. A silent auction, sponsored by the AGMC, will be held on Sunday afternoon. The cost for each table is $20.

This is the premier event held in New Mexico each year for mineral collectors and anyone interested in New Mexico minerals (amateur and professional). It is widely recognized as one of the top mineral symposiums in the nation.

Great talks are planned this year, including "Minerals of the Questa Mine" by Virginia McLemore and "Big gold nuggets from New Mexico" by Robert Eveleth.

Registration forms can be obtained from Virgil Lueth at 505-835-5140 or register via New Mexico Mineral Symposium

See you at the Symposium!

Several board positions are still available for next year. The current officers slate is:

President: Grant Kuck

VP Programs:  Kimberly Richie and Mike Sanders as co-chairs

VP Field Trips:  Ron Boyd as co-chair (need another person to help out)

Editor: open

Secretary: open

Treasurer: Jake Jacobs

It is not too late to add your name to the list. Contact or call Scott Wilson at 792-0951, or Hank Miller at 255-7218.

The rewards of serving as an officer are tremendous, and you get to be a part of setting goals and planning activities for your club.

Show Chair - Paul Hlava; Home phone: 255-5478; E-mail: hpf1@qwest.net

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, Editor, 817 Sagebrush Trail SE, Albuquerque, NM 87123, or email to agmcnews@aol.com.

Would you ever go on a long trip without checking out your vehicle first?  You'd make sure the gas tank was full and there was enough air in the tires and so on.  Well the Albuquerque Gem and Mineral Club is about to begin another year and our tank and tires are not full, plus we could use a few more spark plugs.  At this point we are looking for people to serve on the board. With the election practically upon us we are still looking for most of the positions to be filled. The Club needs a secretary, a vice president of field trips, a vice president of programs, a coordinator for refreshments just to name some. In addition there are a couple ad hoc positions on the board that can be filled.  Not to belabor the car analogy, let's just say we can go a lot further with a full tank.  If you are interested contact Scott Wilson or Hank Miller.

Just a quick reminder, the 25th Annual New Mexico Mineral Symposium is coming to the Macey Center at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. The Symposium is being held on Saturday the 13th and Sunday the 14th of November. Plus there is an opportunity to meet speakers and buy some rocks and minerals at an informal tailgating party at the Super 8 Motel Friday evening.  For more information please pick up a brochure at the next meeting.

A big thanks to Tom Schmierer who picked up the brochures on the symposium so we could make them available at our next meeting, thank you Tom.  And another special thank you to Dave and Karen Moats for providing the refreshments at the last club meeting.  They were appreciated.

On a personal note I missed last meeting because I was in Michigan helping Mom to get ready for a move and doing some backpacking on South Manitou Island on the weekend.  Well I got word that her house has sold which means I'll be traveling back to Michigan to help Mom move to New Mexico. Consequently I will miss our next meeting so I'll have to catch up with you in November. Till then keep a good rock book in your pocket and keep looking down!

Start 7:30 P.M.

Ray DeMark, VP Programs presiding (Grant Kuck, President, is out of town) Thank you, Ray, for leading the meeting tonight!

State Fair: The exhibits were good, but sparse. Many people picked up club information and specimens. Thanks to all of the exhibitors and booth volunteers for making the state fair a success.

Elections: Scott Wilson encouraged interested people to get hold of him soon for open officers positions. Ray pointed out that to keep a vibrant club, we need to have new folks volunteer to lead the organization.

AGATE show: The AGATE gem and jewelry show is scheduled to occur on Nov 20-21, 2004 at the LeBaron Courtyard Hotel conference center (just east of University on Menaul). This is a good place to see a wide range of minerals that have been fabricated into jewelry - some very top grade custom work can be seen there. (AGATE is an acronym for Albuquerque Gem Artisans Trade Expo).

Red Cloud fluorescent minerals: Mike Potts showed some Red Cloud minerals that fluoresce under UV. Check them out in the UV light box at the break.

Field Trips: There is no field trip scheduled during September. At the elections for 2004 AGMC officers, there were no volunteers for the position of VP/Field Trips! All of the trips this year have been led by individuals! No one was available to coordinate a trip for this month, in the absence of a VP/Field Trips. The club relies on a volunteer to chair (or volunteers to co-chair) this position (and all of the others as well), so if you want to see the trips continue, please consider volunteering for the VP/Field Trips position for 2005!

October 16th is scheduled as a field geology trip led by Paul Hlava along the Turquoise Trail. The group will stop for guided study of a number of special geological areas. Start at 9AM, leaving from the Einsteins Bagels at the Four Hills shopping center. This is not intended as a collecting trip (although a few metamorphic fossils may be collected), but you will learn a great deal about the widely varying geology of our local area. This trip has been a sellout in the past! Dress for cool weather conditions. The trip will finish up around 3PM near the La Cienega exit to I-25 south of Santa Fe. Many folks go on into Santa Fe to prowl some of the shops there and have a nice dinner before returning.  Plan to carpool in groups of four if possible; this will greatly ease parking issues at some of the sites. October 23rd is a backup date in case bad weather shows up to put a damper on the trip.

NM Mineral Symposium: The NM Mineral Symposium is coming up November 13-14. Flyers are available at the front of the room showing the fine list of speakers and events. This is a truly top notch symposium and all are encouraged to attend! The NM Mineral Symposium is widely recognized as one of the top mineral symposiums in the nation. It's in our own backyard - don't miss it!

Program: Craig Corell from the Mesalands Dinosaur Museum in Tucumcari presented a talk on the educational aspects of the museum's programs.  This museum is an integral part of the Mesalands Community College. The college is in a community of less than 6000 people. It survives on the basis of innovative programs that are unavailable at any other schools (for example, corrective horse-shoeing) and paleontology. The geology of the area is especially well suited for a paleontology program.

In 1855 geologists were coming from Paris to the Tucumcari area to collect fossils for their museums and professional study. Some of the very best fossil specimens in the world have come from this area. It made sense to establish a museum in Tucumcari to keep those fossils local instead of letting them escape to far away places. Dr. Adrian Hunt (now at the NMMNH) led the development of the museum as a top notch, high quality museum and his legacy continues today. The museum is privately funded by direct monetary donations and by donated labor and materials.

Many of the best fossils and track specimens come from within 8 miles of the city of Tucumcari - a remarkable occurrence!

The bronze foundry arts program in the fine arts department at the college has developed the worlds largest collection of full scale bronze dinosaurs. These bronze castings are made directly from actual specimens. These very exact replicas are available for visitors to touch and inspect at close range. Specimens include dinosaur eggs, trilobites, mammoth specimens, and many others.

Active research is being done at the museum by a team of local and international experts. A number of colleges use the museum facilities to train their students, including both local and state groups and a yearly visit by top students and educators from Japan.

The museum provides a significant economic input to the community of Tucumcari. The college is being built up to serve the educational needs of a broad base of clients and the Dinosaur Museum is but one of the areas being developed.

The summer dig program is a college credit program that brings students into the field at Tucumcari to advance their paleontological skills and contribute to the science of paleontology. This is a very popular program is quite inexpensive and is a unique program. Many excellent and rare specimens have been found by students of the dig program. Jurassic and Triassic digs have been highly productive at local ranches, which support the program heavily.

A number of spectacular bronze castings of dinosaur specimens were shown by Craig and all were invited to come check them out during the break.

All are invited to come to Tucumcari and visit the museum! Open Tues-Sat. Hours are 10AM to 6PM between March 1 and Labor Day, 12 Noon to 5PM between Labor Day and March.  It's the best kept secret in the state!

Q: Does the museum do digs in other areas? A: Yes! Digs are planned for Green River, Wyoming. and other places as well.

A big round of applause to Craig! Thank you!

Attendance: Attendance for tonight was 61.

Refreshments: Karen Moats provided the refreshments for tonight. Many thanks Karen!

The element sulfur is such a poor conductor of heat, that if a crystal is heated

gently by being held in the hand, the surface will expand and spall off.

"Dana’s Minerals & How to Study Them", Dana, 1966.

In addition to halite, gypsum is one of the most common

and economically important evaporite minerals.

"Minerals an Illustrated Exploration of the Dynamic World of Minerals and Their Properties", Robinson, 1994, p67.

Mimetite was named from the Greek word for imitator because it closely resembles pyromorphite.

"Dana’s Textbook of Mineralogy", 4^th Ed., by W.W. Ford, 1958, p708.

(Adamite is found) in small orthorhombic crystals, often grouped in crusts and granular aggregations.

"Dana’s Textbook of Mineralogy", 4^th Ed., by W.W. Ford, 1958, p714.

Paleontologists believe 99% of all organisms that ever existed have become extinct.

"The Complete Encyclopedia of Fossils", Ivanov, Hrdlickova, Gregorova, 2001, p10.

It (hemimorphite) is a secondary mineral found in the oxidized portion of zinc deposits, having altered from sphalerite. It is orthorhombic but rarely found in isolated crystals.

"Dana’s Minerals and How T o Study Them", 3^rd. ed., 1962, p269.

The cephalopods are the most active of all the invertebrates and demonstrate a remarkable intelligence for such lowly creatures. All are marine, and…history stretching back…to the Ordovician period. They have a cartilaginous brain case and a well-developed nervous system that permits great speed, strength and agility. The eyes of the squid reach a size and perfection found nowhere else among the invertebrates.

"Kingdom of the Seashell", R. Tucker Abbott, Ph.D., 1993, p18.

Molybdenite can only be mistaken for graphite but distinguished by its bluish hue, much finer luster and SP of 4.6 – 4.7.

"Mineralogy for Amateurs", Sinkankas, 1964, p312.

The subclass of silicates – nesosilicates (one of 6) – contains tetrahedra that are independent SiO4^4- anionic units, not linked to any other SiO4^4- unit.

"Nature of Earth Materials", Tennisson, 1983, p79.

By far the largest production of an economic mineral in terms of quantities is iron, followed by halite, phosphate rock, bauxite, gypsum, sulfur, potash, copper, chromium, lead, zinc, asbestos, fluorspar, titanium.

"The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Mineral Kingdom", Wooley, 1978, p205.

Stilbite

These compound crystals are often grouped in nearly parallel position, forming sheaf-like aggregates with the side face (b), showing its characteristic pearly luster, often deeply depressed.

"Dana’s Textbook of Mineralogy, 4^th ed., by W.E. Ford, 1958, p 648.

The organization of atoms in the mineral or atomic structure is responsible for the gross form of a crystal and also accounts for other physical properties such as hardness, cleavage and fracture.

"National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Rock and Minerals", Knopf, 1995, p32.

A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.

A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

A crocodile cannot stick out its tongue.

A dragonfly has a life span of 24 hours.

A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.

A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for 1/100^th of a second.

A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.

A snail can sleep for three years.

Al Capone’s business card said he was a used furniture dealer.

All fifty states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5 bill.

Almonds are a member of the peach family.

An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.

Babies are born without kneecaps. They don’t appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age.

Butterflies taste with their feet.

Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds. Dogs only have about 10.

February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.

"Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".

In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.

If the population of China walked past you, in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.

Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.

If you are an average American, in your whole life, you will spend an average of 6 months waiting at red lights.

It’s impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.

No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple.

On a Canadian two-dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament building is an American flag.

Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.

Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.

Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

"Stewardesses" is the longest word typed with only the left hand, and "lollipop" with the right hand.

The average person’s left hand does 56% of the typing.

The cruise liner, QE2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.

The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

The sentence: "The quick brown fox lumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter of the alphabet.

The winter of 1939 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze completely solid.

The words "racecar", "kayak", and "level" are the same whether they are read right to left or left to right (palindromes).

There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.

There are only four words in the English language which end in "dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.

There are more chickens than people in the world.

There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: "abstemious" and "facetious."

There is no Betty Rubble in the Flintstones Chewables Vitamins.

Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.

TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters on one row of the keyboard.

Winston Churchill was born in a ladies’ room during a dance.

Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks; otherwise it will digest itself.

From rlcranston@bresnan.net

John Scully

General Geology Field Trip

We will meet at the Einstein’s Bagels/Starbucks area of Four Hills Shopping Center and plan to leave there at 9:00 AM. Take it easy on the coffee as there are few, if any, potty stops. It would be nice to car pool as some of the stops have limited parking. Besides, you can visit more. Bring reasonable clothing for the weather: we won’t be doing any clambering over rocks so casual street clothes are OK. You can even wear normal shoes. Water and light snacks will get you through the day. The trip will end about 2 to 3 PM. If the weather is bad, we will try on Oct. 23.

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

Accomplished silversmith Elizabeth (Liz) Huffman will describe step by step the procedures to build a ring suitable for mounting a cut stone. The presentation will be enhanced by use of a power point program.