Index
2023
January Congratulations and a BBQ - Shark graveyard' deep in Indian Ocean - Goose-like dinosaur intrigues scientists - The Earthquakes North Otago - The complete head and body of an ancient marine reptile with "flippers like a turtle and long neck like a giraffe" has been uncovered in Queensland in what scientists say is a rare discover - ORMC Christmas Quiz
Feburary Akatore Field trip - Pivot Creek Sodalite – a sad tale - Early New Zealand geologists as artists - Garnet’s Industrial Uses
March Was intrigued by the image of John Buchanan's "Milford Sound",- Emeritus Prof Ewan Fordyce has had a new species of extinct giant penguin named after him.- Rose Quartz vs. Pink Quartz - A Warning! Rock thieves targeted in new West Coast Council Bylaw
April Those rock auction pieces with no labels - Obituary David Horne - Burnside Quarry Fieldtrip - The Amazing Dinosaur Discovery Tour - Crystals, minerals and David Bowie have been fused into a new stairwell exhibition at Otago Museum - Amateur Australian gold digger finds massive nugget
May Nimmos Swamp Field Trip - From the stairwell exhibition at Otago Museum - Chalcedony is a mineral that belongs to the quartz group - Mouse at play bore iconic West Coast track
June Tektites, obsidian, and Apache tears - How to distinguish between nephrite (pounamu) and serpentine /serpentinite - Field Trip to Wainakarua
July Peter Frankopan - The earth transformed an untold history - Snowflake Pounamu - Common Baby, Love my Sapphire - Smithsonite - So. . . Is it a Geode or a Thunderegg? - How To Identify A Geode
August
September
October
November
2022
Jan / Feb Photos from the end of year BBQ - 38th NZ Micromineral Symposium held at Camp Iona - Rose Quartz Myth - Dessert Roses - Rutland sea dragon: How remarkable ichthyosaur fossil was protected - Perfectly preserved dinosaur embryo found in China
March Birdlings Beach - a popular New Zealand collecting spot - by Natalie Fernandez - Azurite suns - Moss Agate - Meteorites and fossils across the Nullabor Ron and Sara Keen - Ichnofossils -
April Akatore Field Tri p - Agates at the museum - Rock Hounds New Zealand Geographic Magazine - Search on for ‘fossils of our solar system’ - Aromoanna Fossil Crabs - Rockhunting in the hall, Cabochon, A French word meaning 'Bold Head' - Kura Pounamu: Our Treasured Stone - Taranaki fossil finder hopes he has unearthed a mosasaur, a prehistoric predator that could grow as long as a bus - Chrysoprase
May Other New Zealand Rock Club Newsletters - Thompson Hill, Nelson - Barite and Fluorite - A trip to Whitecliff’s by Matthew Dwyer
June Burnside Quarry field trip - Nundle, NSW – A Town of Hidden Gems by Allan Mitchell - Stromatolite from Queensland
July Auction Time - Queen Birthday Field trip to Gawler Downs and High Peaks - Mercury: The Deadly Legacy of Gold Mining Continues - The “Biggest Bug Ever”! - An Ankylosaur of a different sort
August Auction Time (again) - Presidents Report 2022 - Oamaru Gemstone, Jewellery and Craft Fair - What meteorites are really like - Florida’s Agatised Coral
September Fossil coral from the US – how did they get here? - The Pounamu Trail -
October Slope Point Field Trip - Strange new sights at Hampden Beach - Tūhura Tuarangi – Aotearoa in space - If I Encounter One More Trade Name for a Gemstone or Other Attractive Mineral I Will Puke! - Microfossil evidence for a possible maar crater and tuff ring beneath Rangitoto Volcano, Auckland, New Zealand
November National Show 2022 in Pictures - The Curio Bay Scientific Reserve -Days of widespread rain unearthed a massive 834-carat sapphire in Queensland, Australia
December Delving pounamu’s depths - 100 years ago from our ODT archives The Dart River at the head of lake Wakatipu, a source of the grey-green inanga or ‘‘whitebait’’ variety of pounamu - High Peak and Whitecliffs field Trip - Pinolith
2021
Jan /Feb Rock with bizarre detail could sel -l for NZ$14k - Fossickers destroying historic North Otago site - Awaruite, a controversial and almost extraterrestrial mineral - Ten Fascinating facts about Opal - Olympic Australis – The World’s Most Famous Opal - The Earthquakes Duntroon, North Otago
March It took scientists 375 years to discover the eighth continent of the world, which has been hiding in plain sight all along. But mysteries still remain - Thieves Alley Market Day 2021 - Presentation of trophys - Fossil hunter discovers new petrel species - There is history in limestone - Dogtooth Calcite - Rock from the depths of the earth - There is always some sun shining
April Akatore Field Trip for Rhodonite - Junior Fossil Hunter Adam Parker.- Some roses are growing in the desert - A visit to Jack Geerlings - Petrified wood from NZ and around the world - Cerussite - Galena’s gift of a stunning secondary mineral - Gold: By the Numbers
May Haldane field trip - Waitaki Valley - Brewery Hole Cave - Maerewhenua - Otago Witness May 1890
June The Buster Diggings - Hampden Field Trip - Earth Caught in Stone Art + Science Exhibition - Labradorite - Zoisite
July All of you have seen cave art, right? - A Mid-Winters Barbeque and Auction - Scientists say new dinosaur species is largest found in Australia - Mapping quest edges past 20% of global ocean floor -An Educational Field Trip with the Canterbury Club - Barite-fluorite mineralisation at Thomson Hill, Wangapeka Valley Nelson
August Columnar jointing forms - Professor proud of Waitaki fossil trail Prof Ewan Fordyce- Investigating genetic processes and evolution of the youngest phreatomagmatic cone on Earth - Alpine Fault's earliest activity revealed - Mile (two kilometre)-High Tsunami Caused by Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Left Behind Towering ‘Megaripples’ - North Otago Gem Jewellery and Craft Fair - Rainforest Jasper is a rare type of rhyolitic lava - Moa Skeleton fails to sell in auction.
September Covid lock down no meeting - Soapstone - 'Fool's Gold' Actually Contains a Newly Discovered Type of Real Gold, Scientists Find - Drs Point hyalite opal -New study helps explain 'silent earthquakes' along New Zealand's North Island - The garnet family - Rainbow Lattice Sunstone
October Covid lockdown no meeting - In 1948, a 14-year-old Nelson schoolboy discovered the oldest fossils ever found in New Zealand. - “What I did over lockdown” Jason Hampton Jack Geerlings Dave Randle Les Gibson Ron Keen Mick and Sue Mckenzie Frank van Betuw Allan Mitchell
November Obsidian 101 - Obituary Dave Cattermole - The Rare Ammolite with a spectacular flash of iridescent colours! -When Fossils arren't - Just how many tyrant lizard kings populated earth? - Fossils about 3.5 million years old found in Auckland tunnel dig
December Dog Pound Quarry Oamaru - Nimmos Swamp Field Trip - Sea Monsters are coming to the Otago Museum - The Earliest Animal on Earth?
2020
Jan/Feb Christmas Party - Where history happened: Georgian fossil hunting. - Prospecting for gold in North East Valley - Conflict Amber -Miocene Fossil Amber and Brachiopods - Karitane
March Covid Strikes - Cosy Dell Field Trip - Palaeobotany - Goodletite - Thieves AlleyApril Covid no meeting - Book Review Blood Diamonds - Jasper vs Agate - Petrified Woodwork - Gabrielle’s Gully Field Trip
May Covid no meeting - Birdlings Beach - My favourite Rock
June Covid no meeting - Agates – Rich in fibre - Apophyllite - My Tumbling polish secret - The Little Rock Shop - 1600-year-old skeleton
July Bobs Cove - Awarua Bay - The Great Haast Plain - Mt Somers Field Trip June 1979 - Farewell Bob Hutchinson and Charlie Powell
August Papatowai Moa Hunter Middens - New Zealand's Livingstone Fault - A Milford Sound Cruise - Milford Sound Trip Report June 1984 - Presidents Report 2019-20
September Paterson Inlet, Stewart Island - Beryl - Mummified' plants give glimpse of Earth's future -The use of paraloid b72 for various fossil and rock related things - 6oo Year Old Jade Hand Axe - A 99-million-year-old ammonite trapped in amber
October Ancient Forrest and Daunting dentitions - Measley Beach Field Trip 2020
Aqua Aura - Deadly mineral erionite - Tanzanian mine owner celebrates discovery of $3.3m gemstones
November The Great Uranium Adventure - North Otago Gem and Jewellery Fair
October Field trip to North Otago for Dunboyne Jasper
December Fossil Christmas Trees - The Gathering Micromount symposium - Oamaru Gemstone Jewellery and Craft Fair - Earthquakes Make Gold Veins in an Instant
2019
Jan / Feb Bumble Bee Jasper - Sugilite - Impact Crater Greenland- Warning against 'volcano tourism' risks The Obsidian Island
March Pseudomorphs from Pudding Island - Akatore Rhodonite Field Trip - Gem Fossicking: Recreational Mining in Australia - Mexican Opal - Thieves Alley
First study of Hyde Fault under way - Christmas Party Pics
April Agates, Chalcedony … you would think we would have some around Dunedin! - Farewell Trevor Gray - Petrified Wood Hunt – Southland
May Crocite - Polychrome Jasper - Nimmos Swamp Field Trip - Phantastic Phantoms
June Ancient Footprints of a Giant Flightless Bird found - Milburn Limeworks Fieldtrip - Diatomite must never be destroyed. - Miners Scientists unlikely Allies
July Akatore Fault 'bigger threat to Dunedin' than Alpine Fault - Ninety-nine-million-year-old ammonite trapped in amber discovered for first time - Foulden Maar is a site of immense significance - Taupō 'super eruption' would bury most of the North Island in 1m of ash
August Quartz Firestones - 2019 Oamaru Gemstone Jewellery and Craft Fair - Gold fossicking dream choked by red tape - Meaningful rocks
September Zebra Stones - Rock Collections Field Trip - A weird sea creature - Flint is a type of chalcedony
October NZ National Show 2019 Dunedin Kaikorai Valley High School Hall - Jade and and Gemstones from Southern New Zealand
November NZ National Show 2019 Dunedin - Ever heard of thrombolites? - National Show field trips -Scientists have discovered a new mineral
December Christmas Party - Elmside Rock Museum - Sodalite - Dinosaurs – Restoring Mongolia’s Fossil Heritage - World’s largest caldera is in the Philippines - Kyeburn moa footprints drying out.
2018
Jan / Feb Mica - Other interesting Ores - Fossiled remaims of a giant burrowing bat NZ - ORMC Christmas Party -Were there dinosaurs in New Zealand’s Jurassic Fossil Forest at Curio Bay?
Mar Extinction Event - Field Trip to Dipton - Bits and Pieces of news - Amber fossils reveal diversity of early life. - Scientists chase down dinosaur movements by watching turkeys sprint
April Young volcanic rocks & NZ Quartz Crystals - Hyalite opal expedition and Picture Stone - Hubble Telescope - Bloodstone and the micro-mineral Leesite
May The Origin of the Thunder egg - Noel Gorton Remembered - Field Trip Report to Central Otago - Importance of fossils for geology
June Basalt - Fossil shows pigeon was related to dodo - Field Trip Report Aramoana - Know your chrysoprase - Study sheds new light on formation of boulders - What makes rose quartz pink?
July Geotrips - Willunga Gemboree 2018 - Crystals—a short history - Agate hunting adventure – Mt Somers Queens Birthday Weekend
August The element and mineral silver - Obituary Merv Richards - Did you know this about amethyst - Silicosis - Presidents Report
September University of Otago Geology Department Field Trip - Birdlings Flat: A haven for fossickers and those seeking escape - North Otago show - Australasian Natural History conference - Waitaki Geological Park
October Moa - Milburn Field Trip - Rockhounds are gamblers
November Earths mega mountains - A Summary of Sophie Briggs talk - Where NZ’s next earthquake is going to strike. - Kryptonite
December The 2018 National Rock and Mineral Show Tauranga The 36th Micromineral Symposium Lake Wakamaru - Resolution and Adventure medal