Arkansas Rockhound News - the Central Arkansas Gem, Mineral

“How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is quite clearly Ocean.”
~ Arthur C. Clarke
Arkansas Rockhound News
Arkansas Rockhound News
Official Newsletter of the
Central Arkansas Gem,
Mineral and Geology
Society (CAGMAGS)
March 2014
Upcoming Club Events
March 15
March fieldtrip
RazorRock Quarry
near Paragould, AR
9:00 a.m.
March 25
Next club meeting
Program: Spring Auction!
Terry Library
6:30 p.m.
April 12
CAGMAGS Swap Meet
Burns Park
9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
(see page 4 for details)
Wire Wrapping Rewind!
Nearby mineral shows
April 12-13
Siloam Springs, AR
http://www.nwarockhounds.org/
April 19
Stillwater, OK
http://omgs-minerals.org/
April 26-27
This image did not make it into our February newsletter, but
our field trip coordinator, David Hodge, did such a great job
that we wanted to show off his work! Pretty amazing results
from his first wire wrap class!
Memphis, TN
http://theearthwideopen.com
Nice job, David!
Gem Trees 101!
Check out some great pictures from the gem tree class held at Dave and
Lenora’s place last month!
page 3
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Arkansas Rockhound News
March 2014
Aquamarine!
President’s Message
Mike Austen, CAGMAGS President
The February meeting was a very
interesting one. It was the first meeting
in the new improved Terry library
meeting room. The lighting is much
improved, new tables and very comfortable chairs, and a new video projection system. Come check it out for
yourself at our next meeting on March
25th.
The next meeting will be a club
auction, always a big hit and a lot of
fun. Bring up to five items for sale, and
your allowance money to spend. This
is your chance to collect all those items
from places you have never been to, or
clean out all your extra rocks that are
just taking up space in your garage.
The committee that is working on
ways to bring our club and the UALR
geology department closer, gave its first
report. I was excited by all the possible
projects that were brought up. In the future, this will be a great partnership and a
wonderful thing for all of us.
- Mike
Can you guess this month’s Mystery Rock?
Hint #1 – This rock is made of nearly 100% plagioclase feldspar
Hint #2 – The first two numbers, 1 & 5, refer to the mission number
Hint #3 – Not actually made of cheese afterall!
Answer on page 7
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Arkansas Rockhound News
March 2014
GEM TREES 101!
HELLO CAGMAGS PEOPLE! IF YOU MISSED THE GEM TREE CLASS I’M SO SORRY FOR YOU! WE HAD A BLAST! THE GEM TREES
ARE SO MUCH FUN TO MAKE & WE LEARNED A LOT OF DIFFERENT TECHNICS & STYLES. WE WERE BLESSED WITH WONDERFUL TEACHERS (DAVE & LENORA MURRAY) & THE HOSPITALITY WAS FABULOUS! THEY EVEN FED US AFTER ALL OUR
HARD WORK IN CLASS! IF ANYONE WANTS TO LEARN HOW TO MAKE GEM TREES WE CAN SCHEDULE ANOTHER CLASS.
JUST LET THE MURRAY’S KNOW. THANKS BUNCHES YA’LL!
STEPHANIE
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Arkansas Rockhound News
March 2014
BUY – SELL
TRADE
LIKE TO SWAP?
To Be or Not a Bee
How can a bumblebee be jasper? Well, if you said it
couldn’t be, you are right! “Bumblebee Jasper” or “Bumble
Bee Jasper” is still considered a baby in the rock world, because it has only been known about since the late 1990s. It
gets its name from the alternating yellow, orange,
and black layers that remind you of a bumblebee
and has a wide variation
in colors and patterns. Actually, it isn’t true jasper
because it does not consist
primarily of microcrystalline quartz. It is actually a
indoagate.com/bumblebee.html
sedimentary rock that contains sulfur (yellow), manganese oxides (black), realgar and
orpiment (arsenic-sulfide minerals; orange), and calcite and
aragonite (calcium carbonate minerals; what holds it all together!).
“Bumblebee Jasper” is a porous, layered, multi-colored
rock found only in the volcanic environment of the Indonesian island of Java. It has a Mohs Hardness Scale value of
about 4.0, making it
about the same hardness as fluorite. It is
used as a gemstone,
and is usually coated
with clear epoxy resins to enhance stability, colors, hardness,
and to eliminate porosity.
Most
importantly, the coating
protects the wearer from arsenic poisoning! “Bumblebee Jasper” is highly collectable because of its unusual formations,
colors, patterns, and availability.
Stephanie
Please join us at the annual
CAGMAGS Swap Meet!
When? Saturday, April 12th
9 am – 4 pm
Where? Elder Johnson Pavilion
Burns Park
North Little Rock
What? Swap rocks, gems,
minerals, fossils and
MORE!
How?
Take exit 150 (Military
Drive) from I-40 and go
¼ mile north, take the
first road to the west
and go to the end of this
road.
Why? Because it will be lots
of fun!
Hope to see you there!
For more information, contact Mike Austen
at [email protected] or 501-868-4553
YOUR
AD
HERE!
If you have something that
you would like to buy, sell or
trade, just send me an email
before the first of the month
and I will make sure it gets in
the next newsletter!
Mike DeAngelis
[email protected]
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Arkansas Rockhound News
March 2014
CAGMAGS Meeting Minutes for February 2014
The CAGMAGS meeting was called to order at 6:30 pm on February 25, 2014 by President
Mike Austen. We are now back in our regular meeting place after the renovations. The
floors are refinished, there are new chairs and tables, and a new overhead video
projector. We welcomed visitors Andrea Smith and her daughter Aaliyah. Aaliyah is a
very interested young rockhound, so we hope they will join the club.
Mike A announced several events coming in
Our swap
April
Siloam Springs
April
Stillwater, OK
April
Memphis, TN
April
April:
12
12 & 13
19
26-27
Mike D reminded us of the Earth Talk lecture series at UALR. (more elsewhere in the
bulletin) There is one on March 5th and another on March 19. They are free and we’re
welcome to attend.
Old Business:
Dues are past due now. If you can’t make it to the meetings, mail your dues to P.O.
Box 241188, Little Rock, 72223. Individual is $15 and family is $25.
The Scholarship Committee met at UALR. Mike DeAngelis gave a summary of the discussion, which centered on developing and strengthening the relationship between the
club and the UALR faculty and students. One of the many things we have in common is
field trips, and they discussed possibly coordinating some.
Also UALR could do
workshops for our club in their lab facility, and we could show the students about
lapidary work on their equipment. Mike noted that people over 60 can take UALR classes tuition free. He also said interested people could just sit in on some geology
classes. Their students have been helping at our show, and now UALR people produce
both our newsletter and our website. It was suggested that we try to meet out there
in their lab on a Saturday each month.
Volunteers that will be helping with the Boy Scout Merit Badge program May 10th are
Stephanie, Barbara, and David Hodges. They’re taking over from Pat and Lenora, who
couldn’t do it this year.
Volunteers are needed for the rock swap. There was some question on the hours of the
swap. Mike A will consult with NLR Parks and put out the info.
Reports:
Sec/Treas—treasurers report on the club table, approved.
Library—several new magazines are in
Field trip—there was no trip, due to weather. David Hodge is working on one for
March 15, to be announced.
Next program—March will be a club auction. Each member can bring up to 5 items to
auction. The club keeps 10%. Bring money, preferably smaller bills and quarters.
Good bargains usually happen. (Advice to newbies—high reserve items usually don’t
sell well)
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 6)
EARTHtalk! Lecture Series Every other Wednesday at 4:00 pm in the EIT Auditorium the UALR Campus UALR Campus
March 19
Conevery Valencius “Earthquake Science in the Early U.S.: The New Madrid Earthquakes”
April 2
J. Michael Howard “50+ Years of Rockhounding in Arkansas and How It Led Me To a Profession”
FREE! Public Welcome! For more information: http://ualr.edu/earthsciences/index.php/home/lecture-­‐series/
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Arkansas Rockhound News
March 2014
(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5)
Show and Tell:
Bill Alcott brought silver items he recently made. (nice work!) and Lenora Murray
brought photos of their recent gem tree workshop at their house.
Program:
February’s program was a video of Gene Meieran, well known collector, at the 2013
Dallas Mineral Symposium talking about another well known collector, Wayne Thompson,
author of the book IKONS, and showing photos of some of those iconic mineral specimens. Those are a bit pricy for ordinary mortals, but its nice to see what the top
quality minerals look like.
Addition to January minutes:
Sarah Dodson suggested the club make a donation to Pulaski Humane Society in memory
of member Ron Wilhelm, as it was a favorite charity of his and Virginia’s. The club
approved $50 to be donated.
Submitted by
Sarah Dodson, Sec/Treas
WHICH CAME FIRST?
The dinochicken (trex henus) or the rock egg (hardest doneus)
To get to the bottom of this important issue, we must first ask some tough questions. What is a
rock egg? Where do they come from? What are they good for? Why would anyone want one?
A rock egg is an egg made from stone. It has long been thought that they first came from the attempts of some poor clueless rock hound who was trying to create a sphere or some marbles, and
just could not get it right. It is widely known that those who play with rocks are a few marbles short.
They make great Easter eggs, some are even dyed pretty colors, for those kitchen divas that cannot
boil water. They can also be placed in a nest if you want to drive some poor bird crazy trying to
hatch one. Some of us like to collect them just because. Because rock hounds will collect just about
anything rock related, and all have there own personal tastes, even if rock eggs are not very tasty.
So as to which came first just remember you can turn a dinochicken fossil into a rock egg, but you
cannot hatch a dinochicken from a rock egg. If you are still confused, here are the famous words of
the great rock collector William Shakestone:
“To be egged or not to be egged, that is the question. Whether it is nobler for the rock to
suffer the outrageous grinding and polishing of some lapidary craftsman, or just remain a
natural specimen. To rock, to egg, to rock no more.“
Submitted by Mike Austen
CAGMAGS membership dues are now due!
2014 Membership Rates
If you would like to continue to receive the benefits of CAGMAGS membership
(including this newsletter), please send your check made payable to CAGMAGS at:
Individual membership = $15
Family membership = $25
CAGMAGS, P.O. Box 241188, Little Rock, 72223
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Arkansas Rockhound News
March 2014
The Central Arkansas Gem, Mineral and Geology Society (CAGMAGS) meets on the fourth
Tuesday at the Terry Library, 2015 Napa Valley Drive, in Little Rock at 6:30 PM. Visitors
and pebble pups are always welcome.
BenchTips
by Brad Smith
SECRET INGREDIENT
Those of us who use paste solders sometimes find an old tube
has dried out. There should be
some way to recondition it, but
what to use? Calling tech support
at the suppliers didn’t work for
me. Either they don’t know what
the ingredient is or won’t tell you
the secret.
None of us likes to waste and
expensive material - $16 – 20 a
tube, so I’ve often experimented
with ways to rejuvenate it. Mixing in a liquid flux doesn’t work.
When the liquid starts to boil off,
it spatters the solder in all directions.
But after several failed experiments I finally found a way that
does work. My secret ingredient
is petroleum jelly. Mix in just
enough to restore the consistency
to something that’s usable. If you
use too much, the lump of solder
will flow over a wide area as
soon as the torch starts heating
it.
If your solder is in a syringe, it
can be a little difficult to get the
plunger out. I find the easiest
way is to poke a hole through the
solder from the tip to the rubber
plunger (a bur shaft was the right
size for my tube). The hole allows air to enter between the
solder and the plunger, allowing
the plunger to be slowly withdrawn. Once the solder is out of
tube, you can easily add the Vaseline, mix it up, and spoon it
back into the syringe.
For more great BenchTips, visit the
BenchTips page at:
C
A
G
M
A
G
S
President
Mike Austen
(501) 868-4553
[email protected]
Vice-President
Stephanie Blandin
(501) 590-5760
Secretary/Treasurer
Sarah Dodson
(501) 223-8372
[email protected]
Field Trip Coordinator
David Hodge
(501) 837-6713
Webmaster
Chris Butterworth
(501) 920-9249
[email protected]
Newsletter Editor
Michael DeAngelis
(501) 569-3542
[email protected]
Show Chairman
Tom Sharp
(501) 379-8653
[email protected]
Librarian
Ann Austen
(501) 868-4553
[email protected]
Program Chairman
David Dodson
(501) 223-8372
[email protected]
Sunshine Chairman
Angelee Peeler
(501) 758-1352
Mystery Rock for March
Lunar Anorthosite
(“Genesis Rock”)
The “Genesis Rock” is a sample of Moon rock retrieved by Apollo 15 astronauts James Irwin and David Scott in 1971 during the second lunar EVA. It
was originally thought they had found a piece of the Moon’s primordial crust,
but later analysis initially showed that the rock was only 4.1 ± 0.1 billion
years old, which is younger than the Moon itself.
To learn more about Apollo 15 and the “Genesis Rock”, visit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_Rock
www.facebook.com/BenchTips
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Arkansas Rockhound News
March 2014
Arkansas Rockhound News
is the Official Newsletter of the
Central Arkansas Gem, Mineral and Geology Society
(CAGMAGS)
The Central Arkansas Gem, Mineral and
Geology Society is dedicated to promoting interest in mineralogy and the related sciences, interest in lapidary and the
related arts; to encourage field trips and
the enjoyment of collecting and preserving minerals as
they occur in nature, and the study of geological formations, especially those of our Natural State of Arkansas. We are a small group of people that enjoy getting
together to share our common interests.
“Old rockhounds never die, they just slowly petrify!”
Arkansas Rockhound News
Official Newsletter of the Central Arkansas Gem, Mineral, and Geology Society (CAGMAGS)
P.O. Box 241188
Little Rock, AR 72223
www.centralarrockhound.org