August 2012 Page Rocky Mountain Federation News—August 2012 Page
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Rocky Mountain Federation News—August 2012 Page Rocky Mountain Federation News—August 2012 Page The official publication of the Rocky Mountain Federation of Mineralogical Societies, Inc. The RMFMS is a regional member of the American Fed- eration of Mineralogical Societies, Inc. and is issued monthly (except June and July). It is a privilege of membership of the RMFMS and cannot be exchanged by the editor for individual club newsletters from other regional federations. www.rmfms.org Inside this Issue: NOTES FROM THE PRESIDENT BY DELANE COX Treasurer’s Report 2 ’m back from the American Federation Meeting in Minneapolis. It was not much cooler Agates and Agates 2 Ithere than it is here, either. The meeting facility was at the Hopkins City High School, An Ode to a Rock 4 which is in Minnetonka (don’t ask; I have not figured it out either). Time to Make the Donuts! 4 There was not a great deal of business this year, so the meeting went smoothly and Redstone: Ruby of the Rockies 5 quickly. No By-Laws changes, no change in dues. We do get to change officers: Don Fossil Finds from Morrison Form. 6 Monroe of the Southeastern Federation will become president, and Richard Jaeger of Ashfall Fossil Beds State Park 7 the Rocky Mountain Federation is president-elect. Next year the meeting will be in Jacksonville, Flor- ida, if you want to start planning now. Stinging Insects 8 Taking Your Kitchen Camping 8 I had a chance to visit with some friends from other federations, and made a couple of new . And, Bench Tips by Brad Smith 9 the Agate Show was very nice. The Lake Superior Agates were in abundance but are really pricy. (We did some hunting but came up with no agates.) There were several other varieties of ag- Synthetic or Natural Gemstones 9 ates there also but most were on display and not for sale; there were many dealers selling “Lakers” Vehicle Safety Walk Around 10 agates. Driving Safety Tips 10 The six AFMS competition cases (ONLY SIX !!!) were remarkable. Scoring a 99.6 was Lawrence G. Shows & More 11 Havens of the Littleton Gem & Mineral Club, with an absolutely beautiful display of “Minerals of Rus- 2012 Wildacres Workshops 12 sia.” Congratulations to Mr. Havens, and we hope to see that case at our convention and show next Officers & Committees 13 year. There was also a wonderful case from Dottie Smith of the Oklahoma Mineral & Gem Society. Our Rocky Mountain Federation was nicely represented in the competition cases. The RMFMS was also well-represented at the meeting and show. In addition to Wayne and me, there was Vice President Debbie Leschner and her husband Ernie (and two granddaughters); Dr. Bob Carlson; Richard and Linda Jaeger, who is the AFMS news- letter competition chair; Jay Bowman, who serves on the AFMS Uniform Rules committee; Ray Oliger, State Director of N. Dakota, who was with his brother; Kay Waterman, our Directory Chair; and Tom Burchard, our Utah State Director. I hear that Mike Nelson, our CO & KS PLAC advisor, was also at the show. Sorry if I missed others, but I’m glad everyone made it to the show. As of this writing, we still do not have a club hosting the 2013 RMF show and convention. If any club is interested, please call me so we can get organized and not be rushed. We need to get started for next year soon to allow plenty of planning time, and time to get contests done and meetings planned. Please have your club consider hosting. It really is not a great deal of work, and there is help from the RMF to assist in the planning. If you have any questions about volunteering, planning, or any aspect of the RMFMS conven- tion, don’t hesitate to call me at 479-254-0894. Hope you are keeping cool, literally, and having a great summer. KLICKS & KLACKS FROM THE EDITOR ... BY BETTY CAIN ave you selected at least one of your best newsletters for the Publications Contest? How many club author arti- Hcles have you printed this year that could be winners in the contest? This contest is not only bragging rights for the club editors but celebrates the wonderful club members who take the time to write for their newsletters. RMFMS has always had very good participation from our clubs and would like to continue that honor. Our RMFMS winners become our entries in the AFMS Publications Contest that is chaired by Linda Jaeger of the Tulsa Rock & Mineral Club. She’s not biased about RMFMS but does belong to the greatest regional society of AFMS!! I’m truly convinced that our RMFMS editors set a very high standard for the AFMS Contest. I’ll pass along the winners from the Minneapolis show when I receive the notice. Until then, start rounding up your entries for our 2013 contest. Speaking of winners, do you have nominees in your club for the ACROY and Jr. ACROY awards? We can’t publish ‘em if you don’t write ‘em. Rocky Mountain Federation News—August 2012 Page 2 Rocky Mountain Federation News—August 2012 Page 2 from western Kansas, the class visited many interesting geo- Publications TREASURER’S REPORT BY GENE MAGGARD logical localities including some of the iron mines and taconite concentrators in northern Minnesota. The “high point” of the Editor: class was probably the week we spent taking a close look at he end of the fiscal year rapidly approaches. The club annual report, dues and the old Precambrian rocks exposed in the Boundary Waters Betty Cain Canoe Area. And did I mention sunsets, bears, campfires, and 2702 E. Pikes Peak Ave. Toptional liability insurance form will be going out in October. The most difficult and time consuming part of getting the forms back is running down new treasurers smallmouth bass? At any rate, on the way back to Kansas we Colo. Springs, CO 80909 that came to office after their clubs current report came in. If you are getting this newsletter, are stopped and searched for agates along the north shore of 719-634-8205 you still a current officer? I am especially interested in treasurers, because it is the treasurer Lake Superior. And, we usually had some success (Fig. 4). [email protected] mailing list that I use for sending out the form. If you are reading this and are no longer a current The original source of the ag- treasurer for you club, could you or the new treasurer please send me the new treasurer’s name, ates is from the basalts (several Circulation Manager: address, email and telephone number? different layers) located in the Midcontinent Rift System (MRS). Fig. 2 Bill Cain I hope that you are having a great summer and finding lots of nice rocks. For some of us, catch- This geological rift (think about ing lots of nice fish is also a great pastime. Peggy and I have been to the Black Hills in South (see above) the great East African Rift Zone) Dakota twice this year for rock hunting and fishing. The fishing was great, but we did not find any begin to form in the Precambrian (Proterozoic Era) perhaps 1.1 Ga splitting the stable part of the North 719-322-6089 of the elusive Fairburns. Perhaps sometime we will meet at a choice fishing or rock hunting American “continent” or plate (referred to by geologists as the craton). The Rift is nearly 1400 miles [email protected] “honey hole.” long extending from northeast Kansas to Lake Superior with an eastern arm curving around and head- ing toward Ohio (Fig. 5). Hugh amounts of lava erupted along faults while adjacent rivers from the up- Subscriptions: Happy Hunting, lands dumped thousands of feet of sediments (later sedimentary sandstones and conglomerates) into Gene Maggard, Treasurer the low lands of the Rift. For some reason, the rift “stopped splitting” (a failed rift in geological jargon), Gene Maggard and the continent healed. Most of the rocks in the rift are buried below the surface of the earth and are 8318 SE Highway 77 only known from geophysical studies and drill holes. Leon, KS 67076 For example, the Midcontinent Geophysical Anomaly Fig. 3 (MGA) in Kansas delineates the rift since the con- 316-742-3746 AGATES AND AGATES: centration of magnetite in the Rift rocks creates a magnetic “high” that is picked up by geophysical [email protected] HOW DR. MIKE NELSON 2012 AFMS S instrumentation. However, rocks of the Rift become gates, agates and agates; more agates than I have seen in my entire life---all exposed around Lake Superior, and the amygda- Rates—$3.50 a year for A spread out on tables and cases at the American Federation of Minera- loidal agates erode from the basalts. Since the Rift the Rocky Mountain Federa- logical Societies annual show and meeting (Fig. 1). This gala event was [email protected], rocks include substantial amounts of iron, the agates hosted by the Minnesota Mineral Club (Twin Cities area) and held in Minne- www.csmsgeologypost.b have some sort of a red or orange color---oxidized iron. Most likely the agates tion News only. $7.75 a Fig 4 year for both the Rocky tonka, Minnesota. The club sponsored a number of formal seminars on logspot.com formed post-deposition of the basalt and are the result of percolating silica-rich agates (paid admission) plus several free presentations concerning the hon- groundwater filling the many vugs or vesicles in the basalt. Mountain Federation News ored gemstone. Because of previous scheduling conflicts, I was only able to attend the Saturday The second most popular agates at the show were the Fairburn Agates from neighboring South Dakota--spectacular specimens in all and the RMFMS Directory.