www.cochisecountyrock.org
“Finding and Grinding Rocks in Cochise County, Arizona since 1962”
September 2008
This issue edited by Paul McKnight
September 8th is our First Fall Meeting
Our September meeting will be held at the Sunsites Community Center on Monday, September 8, 2008 at 7 pm.
The after-meeting program will consist of a video on the Geology of a selected region of North America.
September 20th is our Field Trip
We will go to the Three Sisters for Garnets. These three hills are on private ranch land. Henri has obtained permission for the trip. People also usually encounter various flakes chipped off of stones as tools were being made in times past.
Meet at 8 am in the small parking lot at the corner of Birch Road and Kansas Settlement. We will depart at 8:15 am.
October Preview
Don Hammer has a field trip lined up to the Monk Ranch on the Sunday the 18th and we are in the process of confirming Janie Schwartz as our October speaker on Petroglyphs and Pictographs.
Alabaster
Alabaster is a variety of Gypsum. It resembles Marble in general appearance, but is softer. It can be pure white, or delicately tinted, elegantly veined, striped, or spotted. "Oriental Alabaster" is a mineral substance different from ordinary Alabaster, and harder. It is found in Egypt, where it was worked in ancient times for urns, jars, etc.
Alabaster is a fine-grained, soft form of Gypsum. It occurs in various shades as red, yellow, and grey; but remember the traditional Alabaster is snowy white. When first quarried, it is so soft that it may be cut with a knife, or shaped on a lathe. On exposure to the air it hardens, until it is like Marble.
It has long been used for artistic purposes. Priceless Alabaster vases, statues, ornament boxes, and even columns, which are Roman Grandeur remnants, are still found in art museums.
Alabaster cement was used by artists to close the joints in Marble and for making casts. It is a translucent stone. Paris, France has lots of Alabaster fields and uses it for plaster; hence the name "Plaster of Paris
From News and Views 5/05 via StrataGem 6/08.