Hard Rock News

A Publication of the Kitsap Mineral and Gem Society Founded in October, 1939 January, 2020 Highlights:

A Message From Our President , Vangie’s Wirewrap Group will Garry Mahan meet on January 9th (see page Hello everyone! I hope all of you are set to have four for details...)

a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2020! For General Meeting: January 10th those who missed it, we recently had KMGS 7:00 PM officer elections (at our November meeting) and Board Meeting: January 16th installation of these officers (at our Christmas 6:30 PM Upstairs at the Chico potluck). “Thank you” to the outgoing officers and “Welcome” to Church the incoming officers. A special thanks to Shane Schackmann for all of his work as 2018 and 2019 KMGS president.

We have several challenges coming up in 2020 which I hope we can successfully maneuver our way through. Of primary concern are filling vacant chairperson positions in our club. This seems to be an ongoing challenge not only for our club but for many clubs around the nation. Many of you are qualified to fill these positions, so please step up and volunteer your help.

One of my main goals for this new year is to help people have fun while participating in our club. Even though I have been collecting rocks for many years, I still try to learn a new, exciting or fun aspect of the hobby every year. Many of you have never lost the thrill of finding that cool rock, whether it be a beach pebble or a big chunk of petrified wood. I hope to keep this spark alive for myself and help others “fan” that spark as well. If you have ideas about how to do this, please talk to me or send me an email.

In addition to our regular January meeting (the 10 th ), we will also have a board meeting the following Thursday (the 16 th ) at 6:30 PM, upstairs in the Chico Alliance Church. All members are welcome to attend these meetings.

So please come join us in 2020 and participate in as many of our club activities as you can. Active participants in our club are always appreciated. Here is one of my favorite quotes: “Make new friends. Keep the old. One is silver. The other is gold.”

I am looking forward to the opportunity of being your club president in 2020.

Dues are due now for 2020! Family Membership $20.00 Adult Membership $10.00 Junior Membership $3.00 Mail to: KMGS PO Box 3342 Silverdale, WA 98383-3342 Members who joined at the 2019 show are exempt from dues in 2020! January, 2020 “The Hard Rock News” Page 2

Refreshments Refreshment Refreshments for the monthly General Meetings are Schedule: provided by the members. We count on you to bring January —H, I and J snacks for the group—per the refreshment yearly February—K and L schedule. You should plan on helping in the kitchen March—M with set-up and clean-up for that meeting. The April —N thru R schedule is based on the first letter of your last name. May—S Feel free to exchange months with another member if June —T thru Z you know you will be out of town for that meeting. If September—A and B your last name begins with an “H”,“I” or a “J” you will be responsible for refreshments at the October—C and D January meeting. There will be a procedure list November—E , F and G available. We need a new chairperson ASAP.

Club Website: kmgs.org Important Contacts Elected Officers for 2020 Like Us On Facebook President: https://www.facebook.com/ Garry Mahan KitsapMineralandgemsociety/ [email protected] We are affiliated with (360) 871-2815 the Washington State Mineral Council

https://mineralcouncil.wordpress.com/ Vice President: Tony Schackmann [email protected] We need a Refreshment Chairperson! (360) 801-1914 As of right now, we do not have a Refreshment Chairperson. We could probably go a few months without one but Secretary: eventually we will need to have someone step forward and Melissa Tangen manage the supplies, at a bare minimum. If we cannot have [email protected] someone manage this—we may need to consider dropping (360) 689-2339 the possibility of offering refreshments at the meeting.

It is the charm of our meetings that I love. One thing that Treasurer: Marlaina Atkins adds to the charm is refreshments served. Kids of all ages [email protected] love it! I hope that someone will come forward and help us (360) 689-4424 maintain this very fun part of our meetings. Kathy Reimers

January, 2020 “The Hard Rock News” Page 3

January Display Table : We will have a display (show and tell) table at our January meeting. You can bring any rock, mineral, fossil, or lapidary-related item of your choice. Our theme for this month will be those items that begin with the letter “B”. I am sure you can think of quite a few of these. As usual, junior members are encouraged to participate in this part of the meeting.

January Program: Fossil Identification and Preservation by Jill Wetzel

Juniors: Hello KMGS Junior Rockhounds! We will not have a separate junior program in January so that we can enjoy the January meeting program.

Field Trips: If you have an interest in going on a club field trip— we need to know about you! We are always hopeful that a field trip can happen with enough folks attending to make it worthwhile. It is difficult to plan a trip and end up with no one attending. For now, Tony Schackmann is our contact person for field trips. (360) 801-1914 [email protected]

**NEW Meeting Set-Up Meeting Set-UP Plan Schedule** In an effort to include more folks in our club processes, and to insure that it is not always the same few September—H, I and J members responsible for meeting set-up, we are October—K and L implementing a new schedule for meeting set-up and November—M take-down. It will be based similar to our refreshment December—Potluck schedule. If your last name begins with “N-R” , you January—N thru R will be responsible for meeting set-up at our January February—S General Meeting. Be at the meeting place to set-up when the daycare closes around 6:00 PM. We will have March—T thru Z more experienced members standing by and there will April—A and B be a procedure list available for general set-up and AV. May—C and D You will also need to plan to stay to help get the chairs,

June—E, F and G tables etc. put away.

January, 2020 “The Hard Rock News” Page 4

Definition of “Lapidary” adjective: relating to stones and gems and the work involved in engraving, cutting, or polishing.

noun: a person who cuts, polishes, or engraves stones and gems

Black Opal (OK, I had a hard time coming up with a rock or mineral that starts with the letter “B”) In honor of the display table theme of the month—I went searching online for something beautiful in the “B” department. This was my choice— since it is VERY beautiful! If you own one, please bring it to the meeting!

Opal is a mineral composed of silica (and some water) and is a species of quartz. The rainbow-like iridescence is caused by tiny crystals of cristobalite. Many opals have a high water content - they can dry out and crack if they are not cared for well (opals should be stored in damp cotton wool). Opals have a hardness of 5.5 to 6.5 and a specific gravity of 1.98-2.50. Black opals are found in Australia.

Upcoming Club Events: The Board met on December 19th and amongst other business, created a schedule of events for 2020.

Annual Member Sale: February 14th—during the meeting

Annual Auction: April 10th—during the meeting

Club Picnic: July 11th

Wirewrapping By Vangie Vangie Mayton hosts a popular wirewrapping class on the second Thursday of most months. The date of the meeting this month is January 9th. The class is held at Vangie’s home: 3904 NW 18th St Bremerton, WA. It is off of Rocky Point Road. The class starts at 10:00AM and ends around 3:00PM. If you have any questions, call Vangie at (360) 373-3370.

Vangie would like to let the brand-new members know (those that joined at the show) that they are welcome to come to this class. “The Hard Rock News” January, 2020 Page 5

DENDRITES VS. MOSS AGATES: ORBICULAR JASPER VS. POLKA DOT AGATE We are usually delighted, but not surprised, to find inclusions in crystals, e.g., quartz of one color or another, rutile, sagenite, and “stars.” The appearance of inclusions in microcrystalline varieties of quartz, however, have a mysterious ambiance that brings out the name-making propensities of collectors. When our vision of inclusions is obscured, our imagination takes hold. Chalcedony (clear to cloudy), agates (clear but usually banded), and jasper (opaque) are all variations of silica oxides, with hardness between 6 and 7, which makes them very suitable for polishing. They may all have included material, and the nature of the inclusion is dictated by the composition of the host rock material and the manner of rock formation. Dendritic chalcedony and moss agate are terms or names frequently applied to the same material. They are basically similar, but dendrites can form not only in chalcedony and agate, but also on limestone and soapstone and some sandstones. The dendrites, so called from the Greek dendron, or tree, are branching structures of mainly manganese and iron oxides, in or on the host material. Dendrites occur in many places in the Dendrite world, basically whenever water rich in oxides flows across rocks. The dendrites form on a surface and are two-dimensional, like snowflakes or frost crystals on a windowpane. If the rock is chalcedony, the dendrite forms on the surface, but more chalcedony may entomb it. The dendrites are usually earthy, black, brown, or reddish, but near Four Corners, in the eastern Mojave, near the junction of Hwy 58/Hwy 395, rockhounds reputedly find blue. The “mosses” of moss agate –not organic material at all but chlorite or celadonite, are visible impurities in the agate. Scientists attempt to distinguish between the two by determining, if possible, whether the dendrite/moss or the mineral rock formed first. The moss forms while the chalcedony is still gel-like and can then form three-dimensional shapes within

Moss Agate the stone. Moss agate, also widely distributed, can be a variety of colors: green, black, white, yellow, red, orange, and tan. It is widely used in jewelry, and polishes beautifully, if care is taken not to cut into and pluck the moss.

Multi-colored balls can appear in rhyolite flows. Rhyolite is a fine grained igneous rock, it may contain sufficient silica to take a brilliant polish, and is sometimes called jasper. Orbicular material usually appears as a mass of rhyolite that has silicated. As the rhyolite cools, sometimes excess silica starts to precipitate out of the magma, forming spherical balls. The ball shape is the form that any extremely concentrated silica (cristobalite) takes, Orbicular Jasper as opposed to the crystal form in dilute concentrations. However, any material that by composition or consistency is immiscible (not mixable) with the host magma will also form balls. Regional metamorphism can also form orbicular jaspers. We hear names like Rainforest Jasper from Australia, Leopard Skin Jasper from Mexico, Poppy Jasper from California, and Ocean Jasper from Madagascar. We may find one color surrounding another, or bands of balls, and veils of lighter colors staining the background.

Polka Dot Agate, from Oregon, has iron-rich spheres floating in a snowy, extremely fine-grained jasper, along with veils of golden brown. The material is so fine-grained Polka Dot Agate it is almost chert and resembles porcelain. The rock distinction of jasper and chert is: if it is attractive, it is jasper; if it is dull, it is chert. Some jasper represents replaced limestone or dolomite, some occurs as nodules, and sometimes it is part of the gangue of mineral deposits by hydrothermal or meta-somatic processes. Agates are translucent and usually banded, with subvitreous luster; jasper is opaque with a dull to pearly luster; to a rockhound, jaspagate is a fine mixture of the beautiful oxides. From Calumet Gem; via BEMS Tumbler, 3/09; Rocky Trails 11/09; Golden Spike News 11/19

January, 2020 “The Hard Rock News” Page 6

Another Article On Dendrites: Caltech News Release via California Geology (10/79)

Dendrites--crystalline, black, fern-like patterns that resemble forest scenes--have captured the fancy of collectors for centuries. Dendrites, normally deposited on fracture surfaces in rocks, are formed from manganese that has been leached from surrounding rocks and soil by water.

For many years, scientists presumed that dendrites were composed of pyrolusite, a manganese oxide common in ore deposits. However, this mineral identification could not be confirmed because dendrites are formed from crystals so small that they cannot be characterized by X-ray diffraction, the standard diagnostic tool for analyzing minerals.

Recently, California Institute of Technology geochemists George R. Rossman and Russell M. Potter applied infrared spectroscopy, an analytical technique that illuminates mineral samples with infrared radiation, to identify the mineralogy of dendrites. Because specific minerals absorb specific patterns of infrared wavelengths, infrared spectroscopy has become a valuable tool for analysis of very fine-grained minerals.

Results of infrared spectroscopy analyses demonstrate that dendrites are formed by any one of several manganese oxides -- none of them pyrolusite. Manganese oxides are differentiated on the basis of the internal arrangement of their atoms and the content of some minor elements. For example, the manganese oxide romanechite forms dendrites in pegmatites of the Black Hills region of South Dakota; hollandite dendrites are from Afton Canyon, California; todorokite is found in the gem mines of Pala, California; and cryptomelane is from the southwestern United States. Each dendrite is formed from a specific manganese oxide. No mixing of manganese oxides within the dendrite was observed in the samples tested.

Infrared spectroscopy has also been applied to the analysis of desert varnish [see Origin of Desert Varnish]. It was found that desert varnish is about 70% fine clay and 30% manganese and iron oxides. The manganese mineral in desert varnish is the oxide birnessite. In comparison, dendrites contain virtually no clay, and none of those analyzed thus far has contained birnessite.

The preceding article was published in the May 1993 issue of Lithosphere, the official bulletin of the Fallbrook [California] Gem and Mineral Society, Inc; Richard Busch (Editor). The material is in may be republished freely.

“The Hard Rock News” Page 7 January, 2020

Mentor of the Quarter: Bobbie Sack I am happy to announce that the Mentor of the Quarter is Bobbie Sack! Bobbie is counted on (by me) to come up with some great crafts for our Juniors group. She is usually very involved in creating those case favors that we get in our case at every show. Bobbie is a wonderful instructor in making Ming Trees and wire wrapping. Bobbie has been the Junior Leader for many years—in the past and present—and is very knowledgeable in rock and mineral identification. For several years now, we have enjoyed wire wrap instruction by Bobbie at our annual picnic. It proves to be very popular every year. She has also participated with “Rock Club Crafters”and Vangie’s Wirewrap Class. She is a very “crafty” lady! - Kathy Reimers

Member of the Month: Wilma Eads When you walk in the door for a KMGS meeting, you meet Wilma Eads. She is our Welcome Lady. Wilma always greets our guests warmly with a great smile.

Wilma also heads the Scholarship Committee. She and her husband, Jack are responsible for getting the information out about our scholarship to the local schools, calling the committee together to judge the applications and presents the winners to the board for approval, and then the club. Wilma is always willing to lend a helping hand. She is the perfect picture of loving kindness! - Kathy Reimers

Quick Quiz: (Answer somewhere in the newsletter.) What does a dendrite look like?

Kitsap Mineral and Gem Society PO Box 3342 Silverdale, WA 98383-3342

“The Hard Rock News” January, 2020

TO:

“The Hard Rock News” is the Official Publication of the Kitsap Mineral and Gem Society. Meetings are held at 7:00 PM on the second Friday of most months at Chico Alliance Church Daycare (entrance in the back). Address: 3670 Chico Way NW, Bremerton, Washington.

The object of the Society is to provide a general dissemination of knowledge pertaining to the earth sciences; to sponsor regular meetings and field trips for the benefit of the membership and to be helpful along these general lines to one another. The Society is social and educational in character.

Important Dates Coming UP! (Please mark these dates on your calendar!)

Club Dues are due January 1st! Please mail dues to the club: Kitsap Mineral and Gem Society PO Box 3342 Silverdale, WA 98383-3342. You may also pay at the meeting. If you joined at the 2019 show, you are exempt from dues until next year, although you must come to a meeting and sign in with our membership chairperson to activate your membership. Thank you so much!

Deadline for the February Newsletter: January 23, 2020 Editor Contact Information: Kathy Reimers [email protected] (360) 731 5963