| SRGMS Newsletter | June 2010 |
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By John Kolsrud
After just returning from the one day whirl-wind Friday shopping trip to the Snyder Ranch Pow Wow, I was at the shop observing some of the items our proud club members purchased.
It took me back, way back, when I got first started in the club 15 years ago, when I got burned on a few deals. Personally, I was happy to spend a paltry $52 (getting 6 slabs for $10, some half dozen rare Bruneau pieces for $20, and a good 10 lbs of Graveyard Point agate for the same.)
Hearing and seeing club members whom spent a hundred or more, well, I want to share some really inexpensive ideas during this time of tightening the belts.
First, my wife wanted a trip to Ashland and I knew that the Crater Museum, prospecting north of Medford, and seeing my friend Ken would be an inexpensive rockhounding adventure.
So I would like to recommend the museum and it was interesting to find out their history.
*I also talk to lots of members when I go to museums. I ask about the clubs, prospecting in the area, and most knowledgeable persons involved. It never hurts to ask. (Once I was told that the gift shop actually made more than our shop rent in a month!!!) My friend Ken Oswald met me at the museum and after a tour, some lunch, he told me that he had the dendritic agate that really interested me in the displays. The best part was that the agate was at the bottom of his 20 foot long rock pile on the west side of his ranch house. It was a fun dig, we found 4 for me to work on. I also went out to the BLM land a few miles north and east of Eagle Point, but the gophers hadn't got active yet, so no 3 lb agates had been pushed up to the surface yet.
Santa Clara County Club show, San Jose, CA.
Snyder Ranch Pow Wow, Valley Springs, CA.
It took me until about 4pm when I ran into Erica and we both viewed the Fresno dealers wears. I had bought lots of rough from "Zippy" in previous visits and had
been quite happy with his $1 a lb Verde Antique, but none this year. Two pieces of orange mahogany obsidian for a whooping 50….cents was my buy.
*Check your Rock and Gem magazine for all the upcoming shows, if you need someone to restrain you from ill advised purchases just call me.
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We love to have more active members. Attend one or more of the SRMGS Meetings to get the most out of your membership! Meetings are held at the SRMGS Workshop.
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Years of Experience Shared... There is Coral - and then there is BLACK Coral via www.SFGMS.org 9/08 There are actually more than 500 species of coral (antipatharians) but only 150 species of black corals. Hawaii has only 14 species of black coral but the rarest black coral comes from the Western Caribbean off Grand Caymen Island, from depths of over 200 feet. Black corals are colonial animals, related to sea anemones, and are found in all oceans of the world, most commonly in deep water habitats of tropical and subtropical seas. Colonies of black coral require swift currents which feed them animal plankton, as they are carnivores. The black coral colonies thrive in dark waters, usually near drop-offs and ledges but they can be found in water as shallow as 3 feet (in shaded areas with limited light) and as deep as 300 feet. They have actually been found growing in depths of down to 20,000 feet! The growth rate of this rare black coral is 1/4 to 1/2 inch diameter every 100 years, which is why it's a protected species by international law. Divers are only permitted to retrive pieces which have broken off a reef naturally. It is the skeleton of the coral we see in the lapidary. It has a hardness of 4.0 to 5.5 and a density of 2.43 to 2.70. The living coral that produces the skeleton is just a thin veneer of animal tissue called the cenosac, which secrets the tightly-layered central skeleton of horn-like protien. The living tissue may be red, orange, yellow, white, green, brown - or black. The gelatinous polyps located in this living "bark" are short, cylindrical, and have six non-retractable tentacles armed with stinging cells. Black corals have a life cycle that includes both asexual and sexual reproduction. Asexual reproduction (budding) builds the colonyby adding more living tissue to secret more skeleton. Growth rings formed as the skeleton thickens can be used to age-date the colony. Sexual reproduction involves production of eggs and sperm to release and disperse to form new colonies. The tools used in cutting and carving black coral are similar to those used by dentists. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Astronomers Identify the Mystery Meteor That Inspired Walt Whitman www.discovermagazine.com
The investigators have determined that Whitman was waxing poetic about a rare event called an Earth-grazing meteor procession. An Earth-grazing meteor never hits our planet; as its name implies, it just visits, slicing through our atmosphere on its path. On this voyage, pieces of the meteor crumble off and head generally in the same direction (the "procession"), burning as they go and making a show to awe and inspire. Texas State physics professors Donald Olson and Russell Doescher, English professor Marilynn Olson, and student Ava Pope have discounted previous suspects for the poem's inspiration: an 1833 Leonid meteor storm, the 1858 Leonids, and a fireball in 1859. The dates are wrong for the first two and the fireball happened during the day whereas Whitman described a night event. Instead, they found the answer in another creative work, a Fredric Church painting "The Meteor of 1860" that looked like the scene Whitman's poem portrays. With some more sleuthing, they discovered that the painting described a meteor procession that occurred on July, 20, 1860, and found reports from newspapers describing an event sounding very similar to Whitman's poem and Church's painting.
As reported in a Texas State University press release:
This is not the first time Donald Olson has tracked down a piece art using astronomy. Using similar detective work he believes he has also tracked down astronomical underpinnings in the works of Ansel Adams and Edvard Munch.
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It's not often that an English professor co-authors an article in Sky and Telescope, but it's not everyday that astronomers set out to uncover a poet's muse. Researchers believe
they have found the astronomical inspiration for the "strange huge meteor procession" in the poem "Year of Meteors" (1859-60.) published in Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass.
| SRGMS Newsletter | Continued |
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Fees are based upon $10/hr instruction. 30% of all class fees are turned over to SRMGS. Coming Soon! Opal Cutting Class! Class size is limited.
1 (low) to 5 (high).
Next trip
Difficulty level:
For insurance reasons - you MUST have your dues current to attend. Santa Rosa, CA 95403 (707) 528-7610
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Shows located within a 3 hour drive For a complete list see our website under FUN
June 18-20 2010, Whittier, CA
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