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This is the Web version of the current issue of the Mountain
Mineral Monthly, S.A.M.S. newsletter. The newsletter may also be viewed
or downloaded as a pdf file.
The version sent to members, either by post or e-mail includes complete field
trip details. For selected articles which have been published in past issues,
see Geolore.
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Newsletter of the Southern Appalachian Mineral Society, Inc.
MOUNTAIN MINERAL MONTHLY
Volume 79 January-February 2010 Number 1+2
Meeting Monday, February 1, 2010 7:00 pm Murphy-Oakley Community Center Asheville, North Carolina
PROGRAM
“EXPLORING MAYAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL FINDS IN THE CAVES OF BELIZE”
Asheville hand surgeon and avid spelunking explorer Dr. Bruce I. Minkin, M.D. will give a talk featuring slides about his archaeological excursions to Belize in Central America at our next regular meeting at 7 p.m., Monday, Feb. 1, at the Murphy-Oakley Community Center in Asheville.
Dr. Minkin, who has been caving since he was 9 years old, has made a dozen trips to Belize where he has explored caves for archaeological relics from the ancient Mayan civilization.
Dr. Minkin has been a member of the National Speleological Society since 1960. When he was 16, the Mexican government of Campeche invited him to help excavate some Mayan burial caves in the jungles of the Yucatan.
Dr. Minkin received his medical degree from the University of Tennessee in Memphis, orthopaedic surgery training during his residency at Baroness-Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga, Tenn., and further training specific to hand surgery while undertaking a hand fellowship at Baylor University in Dallas. He also has had additional experience in surgery of the hand in England, Scotland and France.
Dr. Minkin is a diplomate of the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery and an overseas member of the British Hand Society. He received his Certificate of Added Qualifications in Surgery of the Hand in 1990 and is an active member of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand. Dr. Minkin joined the staff at Carolina Hand and Sports Medicine, P.A. in Asheville in May 1990.
Dr. Minkin also previously served on the board of directors of the Colburn Earth Science Museum.
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
He’s baaaaack.
I am not a fan of the current genre of horror films with all the blood and gore. My childhood experiences were with early editions of The Wolfman, Frankenstein, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. That opening line is more recent in origin and refers to a character that shouldn’t be back but is (don’t know which film remake started it). Let’s see…….I last held this office in 1981, I believe.
As I start this article, I can look out the window and see patches of snow still lying on the ground from the December 18 snowstorm of three weeks ago. Most unusual for Asheville. Ann and I moved away from the Chicago area to get away from those lingering snows. This extreme cold has interfered severely with outdoor activities and travel (think field trips). We have a very interesting speaker and program scheduled for the February meeting. Lets hope the weather cooperates.
Because of the weather, we will visit the Colburn Museum on February 27th. This will be of interest to all members and especially to newer members who may not have been there before. Let’s have a good turnout. The outdoor trip for February is the DMC trip to Georgia on the 6th. This is a fee site and might be a little expensive when you add in travel but I haven’t been there before.
Before closing, I want to thank Hal Mahan on behalf of all Club members for the superb performance he rendered the last two years as president. He went far beyond his duties as president, writing informative articles for the newsletter, arranging for most speakers, and even making presentations himself. His knowledge and organization cannot be duplicated. Thank you sincerely, Hal.
Joe Enderle
President
MINUTES OF DECEMBER CHRISTMAS
PARTY AND INSTALLATION
President Mahan called the meeting to order at 7.00 PM.
President Mahan thanked everyone for the support they gave him as President and noted that he will assist incoming President Joe Enderle in setting up speakers for 2010
The officers and Directors for 2010 were introduced and Bob O’Brien installed them for the year 2010. Incoming President Enderle thanked all for his election and promised to make 2010 another great year for the club. He asked that the members try to attend the regular meetings and to take part in the field trips he and Tim Barton will be setting up for next year.
Kathleen Davis and Tim Barton judged the mineral specimen contest and handed out $20 gift certificates for the Compleat Naturalist to the winners. Several members displayed specimens they had collected in 2009 and one. Ken Anderson gave out free quartz crytals geode halves from Morocco. Some are left over and will be used as door prizes next year.
Everyone then went through the buffet line and enjoyed the wonderful foods and deserts that club members had assembled for our refreshments. There were many delightful dishes to be tasted.
The meeting closed at 8.30 PM and the year 2009 ended in good order.
Robert O’Brien
Outgoing Secretary
DATES FOR CALENDAR
February 1 Meeting ......................................... 1
February 6 DMC Field Trip ............................. 5
February 27 Visit the Colburn ........................... 3
March 1 Meeting ...........................................
WELCOME NEW MEMBERS
Lawrence and Judy Buckner, Casnovia, MI Larry and Colleen Murray, Weaverville, NC James Honeycutt, Sr., Asheville, NC
REFRESHMENTS
It was very gratifying to see the response to the Christmas Party in the food category. We really have a bunch of great cooks in our Club. Thank you all so very much. I hope everyone had as nice an evening as I did.
Laura Greeley and Sara Peacock have agreed to supply the refreshments for the February meeting. We do hope the weather will accommodate us as there will be a very interesting program. Keep your eye on the weather and follow the Club policy for cancellation as outlined elsewhere in this newsletter.
Several remaining months of this year, including March, are still open. Remember the Club has a policy of limited reimbursement for those providing the ‘goodies’.
We still need some good folks to stay around and help to clean up after we eat.
Ann Enderle
(828) 670-1996
CONVERSATION AND COFFEE WITH THE COLBURN CURATOR Saturday, Feb. 27 at 10 a.m.
With temperatures below freezing, the idea of taking a field trip outside this February may leave you cold. So instead of looking for finds outside, check out mineral, gemstone and fossil treasures at the Colburn Earth Science Museum during the Southern Appalachian Mineral Society’s February “field trip.”
Come to the museum at 10 a.m., Saturday, Feb. 27 for a special tour with Colburn Curator/Educator/Geologist Phil Potter and the opportunity to talk with Phil about the museum’s collection. We’ll also bring out some world-class mineral and fossil specimens currently not on display for SAMS members to enjoy and learn about. There will be hot beverages and light snacks, too, and Executive Director Kathleen O. Davis and Weekend Visitor Services Assistant Judith Cheney will be on hand to visit and answer questions, as well, about the museum’s vast educational offerings and more.
S.A.M.S. founded the museum in 1960, and this July, the Colburn Earth Science Museum will begin a yearlong 50th birthday celebration. The Colburn is a nonprofit with the mission of fostering an appreciation for the Earth and its resources and environments through exhibits, educational programs and the care of its collection. It achieves this mission by creating experiences that educate and inspire our diverse community about the wonders of Earth science.
Admission to the museum will be waived for S.A.M.S. members attending this “field trip.”
The Colburn Earth Science Museum is located on the lower level of Pack Place in downtown Asheville. Parking is available at meters on the street, at a private garage adjoining Pack Place and at some city parking lots nearby. Regrettably, the museum cannot validate parking tickets or reimburse for visitors’ parking.
Learn more about the museum by visiting www.colburnmuseum.org or by calling the museum
WHO’S SPEAKING AT S.A.M.S. THIS SPRING?
Mark your calendars for the following upcoming presentations this spring, all of which will be at our regularly scheduled S.A.M.S. meetings at 7 p.m. on the first Monday of the month at the Murphy-Oakley Community Center:
March 1: Bruce Tippin will present “Exploring Overseas Mineral Sites.”
April 5: Bill Miller will present “Being a Professional
Geologist.”
May 3: Dora Nelson will present “Antartica
Adventure.”
Have a suggestion for an upcoming S.A.M.S.
program?
Contact S.A.M.S. Vice President Kathleen O. Davis at
kodavis@colburnmuseum.org or (828) 254-7162 to
share your thoughts.
Editor’s Comments
This is the last of ten articles that have appearred in our Newsletter. All of these articles have been researched and written by Dr. Hal Mahan, past president of the Southern Appalachian Mineral Society. He can be reached at halmahan@bellsouth.net and welcomes comments.
MINERALS IN OUR LIVES PART X: Mighty Mica
By Hal Mahan, Ph.D.
I’ve often felt that mineral clubs should encourage members to “adopt” a particular mineral group and share their research about it with other members.
A case in point is the S.A.M.S. presentation I attended a few years ago when one of our members shared her knowledge about collecting and learning about mica.
As most rockhounds know, the mica group contains many mineral species. The light, transparent form, muscovite, is the most common here in our mountains. Pick up any schist rock and it will sparkle with it. But, there are many other forms of mica.
The dark, usually black mica is called biotite; a green one related to biotite is called phlogopite. Other mica species include paragonite, margarite, prehnite, lepidolite, and glauconite.
One of the most beautiful mica forms is fuschite, a green form often associated with other chromium minerals such as chromite. Still other micas are known as the “clay micas.” Two examples are illife and phengite. Altogether, then, the micas show enough variety to be of interest to all rockhounds.
Humans have been acquainted with mica for centuries. Even the ancient Greeks and Egyptians used it thousands of years ago as a paint additive. Cave wall paintings in France and in New World Aztec art indicate that mica chips were mixed with other colorful minerals to create a “shine” in their artworks.
Sheets of mica (called isinglass) were often used as window coverings and as high temperature coverings for furnace doors. I remember as a child that our basement oil furnace had isinglass windows.
Mica is often used as a substrate for extremely thin film surfaces, especially in the electronics field. As an aggregate it is often finely powdered and re-cemented to form new products, such as mica insulators called micanites.
It’s interesting that mica is also used in toothpaste, makeup, paint for automobiles, and even in colored inks.
Altogether, mica is one of our most interesting and, here in Western North Carolina, so common that is known by everyone.
References
Sorrell, C.A. 1973. (with later editions). A Field Guide and Introduction to the Geology and Chemistry of Rocks and Minerals. Golden Press, New York, NY.
Deer, W., R. Howie and J. Zussman. 1966. An Introduction to the Rock Forming Minerals. Longman, New York, NY.
Pough, F. 1996. A Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals (Peterson Field Guide Series). Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, MA.
HAPPENINGS AT THE COLBURN
www.colburnmuseum.org
COLBURN EARTH SCIENCE MUSEUM 2 S. PACK SQUARE AT PACK PLACE ASHEVILLE , NC 28801
Save the dates for three informative and entertaining talks at the Colburn on the hot topic subject of climate change. The free community talks will be held in the Diana Wortham Theater at Pack Place and followed by a reception at the Colburn Earth Science Museum.
Each talk will begin with Anne Waple, Ph.D., of NOAA’s NCDC and president of the Asheville chapter of the American Meteorological Society, giving a briefing on the latest scientific data about climate change. All three talks will take place at
7:00 pm on the following Tuesdays:
(1) “Climate Change and Local Food andAgriculture”: Tuesday, February 16
(2) “Climate Change and Local Health”:Tuesday, March 16
(3) “Climate Change and Local Wildlife and Native Plants”: Tuesday, April 13
Speakers will be announced at a later date; keep an eye on our website at www.colburnmuseum.org for details and make sure that you’re on our email list for breaking news. Sponsorship opportunities are still available for these talks.
DMC Program of the SFMS Field Trip Committee An Official Field Trip of The Mid-Ga. Gem & Mineral Society, Macon, GA (HOST) An Official Field Trip of the Southern Appalachian Mineral Society, Inc. 10:00 AM EST Saturday, February 6, 2010 Hogg Mine, Troup County, Georgia
FEE SITE
The Hogg Mine was in operation between 1942-1960 mining beryl to produce beryllium. It has been open to collectors off and on since the 1960’s.
WHERE: The Famous Hogg Mine outside LaGrange, in Troup County, GA WHEN: Sat., Feb. 6, 2010 TIME: 10:00 am EST COLLECTING: Rose quartz, tourmaline, beryl, mica books, & quartz crystal. The Rose Quartz will star if cut correctly, and some or the beryl can be gemmy Aquamarine.
Also see this for pictures, http:// www.dixieeuhedrals.net/content/hogg_mine.pdf
FEE: Adults-$17.00 & children under 18 are free. Upon arrival you will be required to sign a waiver of liability.
WHAT TO BRING: A pick, shovel, rock hammer, chisels, scratching tools, screen, buckets, and of course plenty of water and food. There is a PORT-a-Potty on site. Being February, dress in layers could be cold!
We have been lucky and had beautiful, clear and even warm weather in Feb. but extra clothes and boots might be useful if it’s muddy or the weather turns.
There are roads and paths. Cliffs, ditches and new pits have been dug. There is loose material under the leaves that take little effort to recover. Using a rake to push back the leaves might be useful and a crack hammer will help to find tourmaline imbedded in quartz.
Contact numbers: Jay Batcha phone: 478-784-1965 e-mail address: rocky1s@cox.net address: 4220 Cyndy Jo Circle, Macon, Ga. 31216
MINERALS, METALS AND MANKIND
The roles minerals and metals derived from them played in our civilization
By Kempton Roll , rockhound archeo-metallurgist
Part Five – The Space Age
*****
Iron’s late start and far greater role in mankind’s progress stems from the higher level of experience and skills required to extract it from its ores. Early metallurgists need not have been geniuses to realize that, unlike copper smelting, this metal required much higher heat But its far superior properties when used for tools and weapons made their efforts to generate more heat worthwhile. Even cave men and women must have discovered that simply blowing on a glowing piece of wood would cause it to burst into flames. So making a bellows out of animal hide to do this was an obvious advantage over having a gaggle of slaves blowing on a fire. The fact that blowing more air on the fire raised its temperature high enough to melt metals even iron - could not have escaped even the dumbest metallurgist of those times.
Some ancient ancestors doubtless also realized that Nature had more to offer than a hot fire when metals were involved. Copper, for example, had first been noticed by some curious human attracted by its unusual color and properties so much better than brittle stone. He experimented and discovered it could be fashioned into a weapon for self-defense or conquering others or enable him to hunt down larger animals to provide food and clothing. Finding colored stones in the same vicinity and using them to form a fire pit for roasting their food or just to provide warmth could easily arouse the curiosity of someone tending the fire when some lumps of that pretty colored metal were discovered in the bottom of the pit when it was cleaned out. When others expressed interest in bartering for some of it, logic would dictate repeating the process to the point where they found it easier to devote themselves to making copper metal instead of pursuing an arduous hunting/gathering lifestyle.
Entrepreneurism, a natural instinct possessed by mankind, had an early start and accounts for much of the progress being made by mankind today
Intellectual curiosity and learning how to solve problems by using trial-and-error processes, if only to satisfy one’s curiosity, are driving forces only homo sapiens seems to possess. Rockhounds are good examples of this ancient reasoning process. They can rise to the challenge of freeing a gemstone crystal from its ancient host rock so fellow man – and woman - can enjoy the beauty of Nature’s creations. Maybe the first effort resulted in a shattered crystal but sooner or later they learn. Rockhounds are naturally curious, problem-solving homo sapiens.
It took a long time, about 6000 years, but each new discovery of Nature’s gifts of ore bodies coupled with the evolution of skills required to convert them into metals ultimately brought all civilizations inhabiting Planet Earth beyond the Iron Age and into the Strategic Minerals Age. And now it appears to be on the doorstep of the Space Age.
Impact of globalization
However, that door’s not quite open yet. In the last millennium the unforgettable “one giant step for mankind” was taken on the Moon but for Planet Earth this mankind is going through some trying times right now.
While it may be struggling with the challenges of global warming, Earth’s business world - including the mining and mineral worlds - is struggling with the challenges of globalization; the one-word name for what seems to be happening to all industrialized civilizations since the turn of the new century. Companies have been expanding all over the globe by buying each other up and stretching their markets to engulf all nations and civilizations occupying this Planet. It is an unusual situation exacerbated by many factors: the shift of countries all over the world from agricultural to industrial, the rapidly increasing populations in these countries and their need for more efficient, less labor-intensive tools, the advantages of modern appliances and electrical devices, not least of which involves the Internet. Man’s greatly increased ability to travel worldwide and conduct business anywhere on the Planet from a lap top computer and a cell phone is shrinking mankind’s globe. Like it or not, this is globalization.
Walt Disney once observed, “It’s a small, small world”. He was right. And it’s getting smaller. Even for rockhounds.
Sadly, global industrialization coupled with the disparity in costs of doing business between rich and poor nations is not only changing the metals world, it’s also having a negative impact on rockhounds and their hobby. A stunning example involves a very rich zinc mineral ore deposit in New Jersey that most rockhounds are familiar with. It was a unique deposit of zinc minerals: willemite, zincite, sphalerite and franklinite. The willemite was both fluorescent [green] and phosphorescent [green] and when associated with calcite, the matrix fluoresced brilliant red. Every rockhound, certainly those interested in fluorescent minerals, had to have in their collection specimens from this unique deposit that glowed both brilliant green and fiery red.
When first operated by the New Jersey Zinc Co. in the early 1900s, both mining and smelting were done on site. The small town that grew around it was known as ‘Franklin Furnace’. Soon after the end of the Second World War, the smelter was relocated to Palmerton, PA and the town’s name shortened to ‘Franklin’. For years it was a favorite site for rockhounds from all over the USA, especially those interested in collecting fluorescent minerals.
After the Franklin ore body was mined out during WWII, a new body, the Sterling Hill Mine bearing identical mineralization, was located and mined in nearby Ogdensburg. Geologists determined it to be a superb example of the awesome power of tectonic plate movement that took place during an early orogeny of the ancient Appalachian Mountain chain. Careful geological survey studies proved that the two ore bodies had once been one large intrusion of zinc-based mineralization much like the pegmatite dikes in Mitchell County, NC. But this one had split vertically and separated into two distinct yet identical ore bodies about twenty miles apart.
The mined ore was being crushed and concentrated at the new site and shipped by rail to the NJZ Palmerton, PA smelter until the axe of globalization struck in the late1980s. The company’s management had little choice but to shut down the pumps, close the mine and let it flood. The decision was prompted not because the ore body was depleted but because the company was no longer able to compete with zinc ore being mined in India and shipped directly to the smelter in Pennsylvania. Incredible as it may seem, it cost the company less to smelt ore shipped from half way around the world than from its own mine in New Jersey!* That’s globalization at its worst.
The end or just the beginning?
The closer one examines the rise of mankind’s present civilization and its connections with metals and minerals, the more one realizes how vital these resources were. And still are. To be where our civilization is today, planning voyages to the Moon and Mars and exploring the outer reaches of our galaxy, would clearly have been impossible were it not for our knowledge of metals and our ability to recover them from Earth’s mineral resources. Those minerals rockhounds seek play a greater role in their lives nowadays than they may realize.
Granted, there is an inherent thrill in the realization that one’s eyes are the first to see the crystalline beauty revealed inside a hollow geode or that the rough corundum crystal when polished became a beautiful star ruby. Rockhounds collect minerals because they are subconsciously motivated by a human instinct that has always been at the heart of mankind’s evolution: his natural curiosity about the world that surrounds him and how to utilize its resources to advance his appreciation and understanding of the planet on which he and his fellow man - and woman - resides.
Historians will look back at these times and conclude that it took at least six millennia for the Copper, Bronze and Iron Ages to merge. Today’s civilizations still depend upon all those early metals and their mineral sources but now there are so many and dependence has become so vital to survival that all mankind is indeed living in the Strategic Minerals Age. And probably will continue to do so for centuries to come – providing humans don’t fail to realize the perils of ignoring what could happen to all inhabitants on this Planet, not just homo sapiens. The dinosaurs who roamed and ruled at one time could do nothing to prevent their total destruction by a huge meteorite. Mankind now can see and perhaps even avoid a meteorite collision yet is dangerously close to a cataclysmic nuclear disaster that must be avoided. Until then all living creatures can enjoy the privilege of spending their remaining years in this new, complex, exciting age spawned by metals and minerals. And as collectors of colorful rocks and minerals or precious gemstones or valuable gold or beautiful crystal clusters all rockhounds can enjoy their lives on this Planet far more than most ordinary humans who don’t know one gift of Nature from another.
The skills man possesses today, epitomized by his ignorant they really are; how much more there is to know. Yet it is consoling to know, at the very least, that the readers of this series now have a better understanding of how important minerals and metals have been in the rise hopefully not the decline and fall - of mankind.
Space Age, here we come!
The End
*Much credit should be given to some frustrated rockhounds in the New Jersey area who managed to rescue the Ogdensburg Sterling Hill mine from becoming just an unforgettable experience for all those lucky rockhounds, like this writer, fortunate enough to witness first-hand its unique grandeur before closure. Now collectors can get down into at least part of the mine itself and, besides collecting specimens, experience the breathtaking sensation of first seeing a large vaulted “room” down in the mine that fluoresced like a huge red and green Christmas tree when UV lighting was turned on, only to be even more amazed when it was turned off and the willemite continued to glow green [phosphoresce] in the dark. It is now privately owned and operated as a fee mine open to the general public.
References:
History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
Edward Gibbons
Lead in Modern Industry, Lead Industries Association,
Kempton H. Roll
De Re Metallica, Agricola [translation by Herbert C.
Hoover]
Rocks & Minerals, 5th edit, Frederick H. Pough
Mineral History of Georgia, MATRIX (2003-4), Jay.L.
Lininger
Newsletter Deadline
The deadline for the March issue of the Mountain Mineral Monthly is:
FEBRUARY 11, 2010 NO LATE SUBMISSION WILL BE ACCEPTED
Please submit articles to Sylvia Forward at syforward@aol.com
ability to orbit the Earth, put a man on the Moon and explore the surfaces of Mars are the accumulated results of the thousands of years he has been expanding his depth and breadth of knowledge. And recording his findings so others can understand and benefit from his discoveries. And for those getting themselves educated, discovering that the more they learn, the more they will realize how
THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN MINERAL SOCIETY, INC
http://www.main.nc.us/sams/
S.A.M.S. was organized in 1931. Its objectives are: To promote popular interest and education in the various earth sciences, in particular, mineralogy; to foster exchange of knowledge of lapi-dary techniques; and to promote good fellowship. S.A.M.S.’ regular monthly meetings are held the first Monday of each month, ten months of the year. There is no January meeting. September is the Annual meeting and is normally held on a weekend.
Illustration with text from LIVING FOSSILS by Anne L. Parker.
Used by permission of Dr. James P. Parker.
Malachite image Copyright 