The Cochise County Rock

Monthly Newsletter of the Sunsites Gem & Mineral Club

www.cochisecountyrock.org

“Finding and Grinding Rocks in Cochise County, Arizona since 1967”

March 2009

This issue edited by Don Hammer

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The next General Meeting of the Sunsites Gem & Mineral Club is on Monday March 9 at 7 pm at the Sunsites Community Center. Henri Van den Bos will present his collection of Arkansas quartz crystals and explain their formation and collecting them.

February 9, 2009 General Meeting Minutes

President, Paul McKnight, called the meeting to order at 7:03 p.m.

Paul asked for a motion to approve the minutes as published of the last meeting. It was moved, seconded, and approved.

Walter gave the Treasurer’s Report. Motion to approve was made, seconded and approved.

This month’s field trip is January’s postponed trip to Round Mountain Fire Agate area northwest of Lordsburg, NM. Members are to meet at 10 a.m. on February 21st in Lordsburg. See Newsletter for details.

Unfinished business from last month was addressed. The Mile Long Yard Sale as presented by Robbyn was again discussed. A motion was made to participate in the sale as a means of raising funds for the Club. It was not seconded. End of discussion.

Paul welcomed new members: Larry Hamel, Sharon Moore, and Wallis Hozjan.

Henri shared quartz crystals from Arkansas. Local rock shows were announced and information about the shows was made available.

It was also announced that Dale Adams passed away recently and will be buried in the Amerind Cemetery.

Paul thanked everyone for coming and entertained a motion to adjourn the meeting. It was seconded and approved. Intermission followed with refreshments, provided by Karen Grassell and Nadine Wirshing, and the rock raffle.

Our program featured Jim Schilling, who spoke to us on Texas Canyon, having grown up in that area.

Respectfully submitted,

Jim Brower

February Field Trip

Fifteen members assembled in the parking lot of the Lordsburg rest area and headed out northwest on Highway 70 at 10:15 arriving at the second collecting site about 11:15. Henri and Don showed the group rough fire agate and some polished specimens. We quickly discovered that areas near the road had been picked over and the further that one got from the road the better the collecting. Everyone got lots of chalcedony pieces and some got nodules and geodes of chalcedony. Those that went further from the road also got lots of limonite with fire agate potential. In most cases the chalcedony needs to be ground off and then the limonite layer polished to show the actual fire. Everyone enjoyed the sunny warm day with just enough breeze to keep it from being hot. The last of our group left at 3 arriving back in Willcox at 5. Henri was brave enough to grind the chalcedony off a piece he collected and polish the limonite revealing real fire that he showed the Board during their meeting.

Contact Information

We have several club members that have not provided us with an email address or a phone number. When we have to change or cancel an event we notify the members by email or phone – there simply isn’t time to contact them by snail mail. On the morning of January 23 I canceled the January 24 field trip due to rain and notified all club members with email addresses and phoned those without email that were signed up. Fortunately two members that had not signed up and do not have email called me that morning to see if the field trip was on. It would not have been too swift if they had driven to Lordsburg and then discovered the trip was canceled. If you do not sign up for an event but plan to attend it please call Paul or Henri and let them know so you will be notified if any changes are necessary.

March Field Trip

We will go northwest of Thatcher where Dr. John Ware will show us the Indian rock gardens that he told us about during one of our meetings a couple of years ago. His bio is in the January 2009 newsletter or http://sites.google.com/site/cochisecountyrock/

Meet at 9:30 am on March 28 in the parking lot of the Manor House Restaurant and Rocking Horse Saloon at 415 E. Highway 70 in Safford. When you reach the intersection of Highways 191 and 70 turn right (east) about ¼ mile to the restaurant. Safford is 74 miles from Sunsites so plan accordingly. On our return we may tour the Dankworth Village archeological site (near Roper Lake State Park) with Dr. Ware explaining the history and significance of the site. There is a $5/car entry fee and no group rate. Plan to arrange car pooling during the March 9 meeting.

Lapidary and Silversmith Classes

Lapidary classes are in session on Thursday from 6:30 to 8:30 PM at the Lapidary Room behind the Fire Station. Show up or call Larry Strout at 826-3991. Larry is also teaching silver soldering, a prerequisite to silver smithing. Keith McRobert has resumed teaching silver smithing. Call Don Hammer at 384-3105. Come and join the fun of lapidary, silversmith, and wire wrap lessons. Interested, any questions? Wire Wrap - call Larry Strout 826-3991.

Dues

Dues are due. Bring your dues to the next meeting or mail your check to Sunsites Gem & Mineral Club, PO Box 87, Pearce, Arizona 85625. Unpaid members will be dropped from the Club roster on March 31.

Club Calendar:

March

9 General Meeting

28 Field Trip

April

2 Board Meeting

13 General Meeting

18 Field Trip

30 Board Meeting

May

11 General Meeting

16 Field Trip

28 Board Meeting

June

6 Club Picnic

Upcoming Regional Events

March

12-15 The Deming Show. Jerry Abbey 575.546.4338

13-15 Verde Valley Gem and Mineral Show. Verde Valley Fairgrounds, Cottonwood, AZ. Minerals, fossils, jewelry, displays, children’s activities. Doug Evenson 928.634.0459.

20-22 Albuquerque 40^th Annual Gem & Mineral Show. Minerals, fossils, jewelry, beads. Hours 10 am to 6 pm. For information call Paul Hlava 505.255.5478.

Jasper or Agate: A simple Distinction

by Dave Olson

(From Blue Agate News 11/2008 via Petrified Digest 03/2008 via Gneiss Times 04/2006)

Jasper and agate are the rocks we hobbyists deal with most often in pursuit of our goals as lapidaries and collectors. Do we really understand the difference between the two? Often, confusion arises when attempting to describe a specimen as either jasper or agate.

Both jasper and agate are composed of extremely fine interlocking quartz crystals called cryptocrystalline quartz. As such they are both members of the fine-grained quartz family referred to as chalcedony. Chalcedony occurs throughout the world in beds, bands, nodules, geodes, botryoidal masses, as a replacement of fossils, wood tissue, or other minerals, and as a cementing material. It is deposited from silica-rich waters, often carrying other mineral impurities.

It is the presence of these mineral impurities which stains the micro quartz grains to produce the wide variety of colored patterns, banding effects, and inclusions that differentiate the basic "gem" forms of cryptocrystalline quartz - jasper and agate - from ordinary drab chalcedony.

So what is the difference? In general, agate is a transparent to translucent form of chalcedony in which coloration takes the form of regular bands, rings, clouds, wispy inclusions, or distinct groups. Agate containing straight or concentric bands is referred to as fortification agate. Moss agate contains delicate wispy or lacy inclusions of coloring minerals, often green mineral chlorite that penetrated cracks in the silica gel matrix prior to hardening. Now they remain as fine picture-like images. Agates are usually named by employing the geographical area where they are found with a descriptive adjective, such as "Priday Ranch Plume Agate".

Jasper, on the other hand, can be somewhat translucent but it is most often opaque. The coloration of jasper is usually darker than that of agate and is totally random with respect to pattern of distribution. Finely divided hematite gives the color to reddish jaspers and another iron mineral, goethite, is responsible for yellows and browns. Chlorite and nickel minerals contribute to green coloration. As with agate, jasper comes in many colors and displays an almost infinite variety of patterns. Because of these properties, it is an extremely versatile material for cabs, scenic "pictures" to be framed, and other functional and decorative purposes. It is truly the bread and butter "gem" of our hobby.

Creating the Diamond Market

(from The Elks Magazine, May 2008)

Since it was created in 1888, De Beers Ltd., with headquarters in Johansburg, South Africa, has dominated the diamond market. De Beers accounts for about 45 percent of world diamond production, and it controls approximately 60 percent of the total world diamond trade. But from the beginning, the company faced several problems: diamonds were not rare, and few people other than aristocrats thought of them as precious items. In fact, before the 1930s, diamond rings were rarely given as engagement rings. Opals, rubies, sapphires, and turquoise were considered the appropriate gifts to show love for a lady. Some rare opals, large rubies, and pure Colombian emeralds are worth considerably more than diamonds.

What has made diamonds so expensive is a clever advertising and marketing campaign that has led con­sumers to believe that a diamond above all other gems represents true love. In the 1930s, De Beers hired a US ad agency to increase sales. The agency initially decided to target young American men-who bought 90 percent of engagement rings-in order to create in their minds an association between romance and diamonds. Movie idols were given diamonds to exchange as symbols of their undying love. Well-placed stories in society pages stressed the size of diamonds that celebrities gave to one another. Company-hired lecturers visited high schools to sell the desirability of a diamond ring to teenage girls. The agency even planned to persuade the British royal family to wear diamonds rather than other gems.

This campaign culminated in 1947 with the creation of the slogan "A Diamond Is Forever," printed over a photograph of a couple on their honeymoon. By the end of the 1950s, sales of diamonds in the United States increased by more than 50 percent, and a whole genera­tion of young people had grown up believing that a

diamond engagement ring was a necessity of life. And by subsequently modifying the campaign-for example, by convincing consumers that their family's diamond jewelry should be cherished as heirlooms ("A Diamond Is Forever") and passed on to loved ones-De Beers managed to ensure that prices and demand for dia­monds stayed high.

Club Officers for 2009

President: Paul McKnight 520-824-4054

V.President:Henri Van den Bos 520 384-0288

Secretary: Jim Brower 520 826-4672

Treasurer: Walter Sigel 520-826-1009

Delegate at Large: Larry Strout520-826-3991

Hospitality Coord: Zoe Schnabel 520-826-0100

Past President: Don Hammer 520 384-3105