nlDec2011

The Cochise County Rock

Monthly Newsletter of the Sunsites Gem & Mineral Club

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"Finding and Grinding Rocks in Cochise County, Arizona since 1965"
December 2011
This issue edited by Don Hammer
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Christmas Party
The Club Christmas Party will be at 6 pm on Monday December 12. The Club will furnish the turkey and members are asked to bring a side dish. If you did not sign up at the November meeting but plan to attend call Zoe Schnabel at 520-826-0100 by December 8 and she will coordinate the side dishes. Plan to bring a gender neutral, preferably rock-related, less than $10 gift for the gift exchange. Let's all come out and kick off the holiday season in style.
General Meeting Minutes
14 November 2011
Because our speaker, Glenn Minuth, had a long drive back to Sierra Vista, our meeting started with his lecture. Glenn Minuth is no stranger to our Club members, remembering his fascinating lecture
last year on the paleontology of the San Pedro River Valley. His lecture this time concentrated on the Bowen Reaction Series, formulated by N.L. Bowen a century ago to explain the evolutionary
sequence in the formation of igneous rocks.
After Glenn Minuth's lecture followed by intermission and the rock raffle, Diane Dunn brought the meeting to order for the monthly
Business Meeting by welcoming visitors and new members. Cherie Robb and Diane Brower were thanked for bringing treats for the
intermission/social time.
The Minutes from the last Meeting were approved as printed in the November News Letter.
Walter Sigel gave the Treasurer's Report which was approved.
The most important item on the agenda was the election of officers for next year. Don Hammer who had been appointed to form a Board approved slate named the nominees as follows: Diane Dunn, President; Jack Light, Vice President; Zoe Schnabel, Secretary; Walter Sigel,
Treasurer; Carl Schnabel, Delegate-at-Large. Further nominations were then opened to the floor and as none were forthcoming, a motion was
entertained and seconded to accept the slate as presented. By voice vote the slate was accepted.
The Field Trip scheduled for November 19th will be to the Rock Hound State Park in New Mexico.
Sign-up sheets were made available for the following:
Volunteers to man the Gem and Mineral Club display at the annual Pearce Heritage Days.
Annual Club Christmas Dinner. If you didn't sign up and plan to attend, please call Zoe Schnable at 826-0100 who is organizing the evening including what dish to bring.
Respectfully submitted, Jim Brower, Secretary
November Field Trip
Eight members met in the Willcox Safeway parking lot and rolled at 8:05 for Rockhound State Park near Deming, NM for geodes, agate and jasper. We arrived at 10:30 am and met three other members on site. After a short orientation everyone headed up the mountain albeit very slowly since the climb was steep with lots of loose rock. Only Henri, Paul and Brilla and Zoe made it all the way up to the good diggings. The remainder mostly found jasper lower down although Gayle Smullins dug out a geode about half way up the mountain. And we were back down to the parking lot comparing finds by 1 pm or so. The members that went to the good site brought down geodes and nodules for everyone so that all of us had good specimens and close to the 15 lb limit before we left. Many members stopped at the Spanish Stirrup Rock Shop along the way and enjoyed the wonderful collection as well as perusing the piles of rough rock all over the yard.
We thank Henri van den Bos for organizing a productive trip to a scenic area.
Old Pearce Heritage Days
The Club set up and manned a display of rocks, minerals and mining during the Old Pearce Heritage Days on November 25 and 26 in the Captain's Store just south of the Old Pearce Mercantile. The Club has an extensive rock collection to display. Members that worked the show enjoyed it, we had lots of interest and we handed out 11 membership applications. We thank Carl and Zoe Schnabel, Walter and Hanni Sigel, Ron and Gayle Smullins, Elliot Hendricks, Glenn Wirshing, Diane Dunn, Henri van den Bos, Wally Hozjan and Joan and Don Hammer for helping to setup, take down and man the displays.
The Club Library
The Club has an impressive collection of rock and mineral books including field identification guides, guides to collecting areas, lapidary manuals and related topics. If you are interested in checking out any of the books please call Larry Strout (826.3991) or Diane Dunn (826.0278)
Club Website
The address of the Club Website is on the masthead of this newsletter. The Website has past newsletters, photos from almost all of our field trips and other Club information.
Lapidary and Silversmith Classes
Our lapidary class meets at 9 am on Tuesday and silver soldering class meets at 6 pm on Tuesday; both in the lapidary lab behind the fire station. If you're interested call Larry Strout at 826-3991.
Lapidary Equipment For Sale
6" trim saw - $125, 2- 8" grinders $125 ea, 1 lb vibrator/tumbler - $15, 10 lb tumbler - $170, combination unit with 6" trim saw and 3-4 6" wheels - $350, electric kiln 2' X 2' X 1' - $75, 1 lb vibrator/tumbler - $15, 6" flat lap - $175, faceting machine and supplies - $300. Call Wally Hozjan at 520-384-4582.
Dues are due.
Dues are $15 for individuals and $25 for a family. Bring your dues to the next meeting or mail your check to Sunsites Gem & Mineral Club, PO Box 87, Pearce, Arizona 85625. Unpaid members were dropped on March 31.
Club Calendar:
December
12 Christmas Party
22 Board Meeting
January
9 General Meeting
21 Field Trip
February
2 Board Meeting
13 General Meeting
18 Field Trip
March
1 Board Meeting
12 General Meeting
17 Field Trip
29 Board Meeting
April
9 General Meeting
14 Field Trip
May
3 Board Meeting
14 General Meeting
19 Field Trip
June
2 Picnic
Upcoming Regional Events
January
18-22 46^th Annual Quartzsite Pow Wow, Free Admission, Free parking. Daily field trips & Demostrations. 235 E. Ironwood St., Quartzsite. 928.927.6325. powwow@qiaaz.org or www.qiaaz.org.
26- February 12. The Tucson Show. This is actually many shows - most of the Tucson motels have a show. The Tucson Gem and Mineral Show runs from February 9-12 in the Tucson Convention Center. http://tucsongemandmineralshows.net/2012-tucson-gem-show.htm lists all of the shows with dates, locations and contact information. The Electric Park Show (renamed the Rock Show), January 28- February 12, has something for everyone from tools and equipment to rough and finished gems, rocks, fossils, jewelry, beads, clothing and arts and crafts. A Morroco vendor brings many kinds of fossils including complete crocodiles and turtles and one from Brazil has many huge amethyst cathedrals. Access is easy: exit I-10 at 263, turn right on E. Ajo Way, turn right just before the hospital, turn right just before the parking lot, turn left at the stop sign and follow that street around behind all the booths and park back where the vendors park. You can also park in the main parking lot but it gets busy. There is another adjacent RV show where vendors sell alongside their RVs but I've usually played out before I got to that show. Wear comfortable walking shoes and sun protection.
Officers for 2012
President: Diane Dunn
V-President: Jack Light
Secretary: Zoe Schnable
Treasurer: Walter Sigel
Deleg-at-Large: Carl Schnabel
Hospit Coord: Cherie Robb
Field Trip Crd: Henri van den Bos
Past Pres: Paul McKnight
SUNSTRUCK
How Norsemen found their way around in cloudy weather
Centuries before Columbus, Viking adventurers ruled the North Atlantic. They sailed as far as America without the aid of magnetic compasses, which was no mean feat. They were, however, assisted in their travels by another sort of magical device. According to the sagas they had stones which could point to the sun, even when the sky was cloudy.
No such sunstone has survived. But Guy Ropars of the University of Rennes, in France, thinks he knows what they were. He and his colleagues have been experimenting with a mineral called Iceland spar. Their results, just published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, suggest they are on to something.
The passage of sunlight though the air polarizes it. That means light from the sky itself points towards the sun, if you have the necessary equipment to detect the polarization. Dr. Ropars has shown that a piece of Iceland spar is sufficient.
Iceland spar is a form of calcite that splits light into two beams. If the light is polarized, there is only one way to orient the crystal to produce beams of equal intensity. Find this orientation by looking through the crystal at the sky at a time when you can see the sun, mark the sun's direction on the crystal, and your mark will always point towards the sun when you match the beams from even a tiny patch of blue in an otherwise overcast sky. Dr. Ropar's experiments suggest the method is accurate to within 5 degrees. That is good enough for navigation of the sort the Vikings managed.
Though no sunstones have survived from Viking days, despite the frequency of ship burials of Viking chiefs, there is one tantalizing find from a more recent shipwreck. This is a large calcite crystal recovered from a vessel that went down off the coast of Alderney, in the Channel Islands, in Elizabethan times. Several centuries underwater have rendered the Alderney crystal opaque, but Dr. Ropars and his team are now examining it, and believe it may be Iceland spar. Dr. Ropars suspects it was being used as a sunstone because the magnetic compasses of the day were thrown out of kilter by the iron cannons.
The true nature of the sunstone will probably not be settled until and unless one turns up in either a sunken Viking vessel or a ship burial. Perhaps, though, they not only permitted the Vikings to reach America, but also helped save England from the Spanish Armada.