The Mineral Newsletter Meeting: April 24 Time: 7:45 p.m. Long Branch Nature Center, 625 S. Carlin Springs Rd., Arlington, VA Volume 58, No. 4 April 2017 Explore our Website! April Meeting Program: Studying Paleoclimatology In this issue … Mineral of the month: Titanite .....................p. 2 April program details ...................................p. 3 The Prez Sez ................................................p. 3 Name tag contest ........................................p. 4 March meeting minutes...............................p. 4 George Reimherr: Sad news .........................p. 6 Montgomery County show report.................p. 7 Flag Ponds field trip coming up .....................p. 8 More field trip opportunities........................p. 9 Editor’s corner: List of club officers...............p. 9 Jet: Gemstone made from coal .....................p. 10 AFMS: Be safe, be well.................................p. 11 EFMLS: How healthy is your club?.................p. 11 Hooded topaz ..............................................p. 12 Website review: Virginia Places ....................p. 13 Purple fluorite .............................................p. 14 Bench tips: Templates..................................p. 14 Photo: Bob Cooke. The mystery of Lake Drummond ...................p. 15 Upcoming events.........................................p. 19 Mineral of the Month Titanite by Sue Marcus Happy Easter! Titanite was named for a principal component, tita- nium. Although recognized in 1787 as a new—or at Northern Virginia Mineral Club least unknown—mineral, it was not formally described and named until 1795. members, Most minerals have a type locality, a place where the Please join our April speaker, Hunter Hughes, for material that was initially described (the “type”) was dinner at the Olive Garden on April 24 at 6 p.m. first found. Mindat lists three co-type localities for ti- tanite: Hauzenberg, Bavaria, Germany; Philipstown Olive Garden, Baileys Cross Roads (across from Township, Putnam County, New York; and Rossie, St. Skyline Towers), 3548 South Jefferson St. (intersecting Lawrence County, New York. The Putnam County lo- Leesburg Pike), Falls Church, VA cality is the source of a red-brown variety of titanite Phone: 703-671-7507 known as lederite. Reservations are under Ti Meredith, Vice-President, I grew up with specimens of sphene in my mineral col- lection. This mineral name was introduced by the fa- NVMC. Please RSVP to me at [email protected]. mous mineralogist and crystallographer René Just Haüy in 1809. Sphene is now a discredited name for axes. Some titanite contains traces titanite, a decision made by the International Miner- of thorium in the crystal structure. alogical Association in 1982, so those of us of a certain The thorium makes the titanite age may date our labels by the names they show for slightly radioactive, and it can also our specimens. Similar changes have occurred for the make it degrade or become meta- names of countries, so cataloguing and labeling miner- mict, with the crystal faces grow- als can be an ongoing exercise. ing slightly rounded. Titanite is an unusual mineral in that it commonly Titanite occurs in all rock types— forms twinned crystals. I like the galleries.com/sphene sedimentary, igneous, and meta- description of the twins as “shaped like a deflated, morphic—but it is most commonly caved-in football, only with flatter surfaces.” found in metamorphic rocks. Peg- Brazil is noted for light green twinned crystals up to matites probably host the most several centimeters in size, with broad flat sides and a atheistic specimens because they allow the slow growth that leads to sharp V along the twinned plane along the center. Aus- Titanite twin. tria and Switzerland also produce olive green to yel- the formation of euhedral crystals Photo: Bob Cooke. low-green crystals. Gem-quality green titanite from (showing all crystal faces). the pegmatites of Pakistan has come on the market The main ores of titanium, used as a metal for alloys more recently. Emerald green crystals are reported or as titanium oxide for whiteners, are rutile and ilmen- from the Ural Mountains of Russia, along with more ite. Titanite itself is not a useful ore mineral. mundane brown specimens. Italy produces titanite in unusual colors, like yellow-orange and blue. Morocco Technical details: and Madagascar are sources of green and brown crys- Chemical formula ......CaTiSiO5 tals. Ontario is a primary producer of red-brown spec- Crystal form ..............Monoclinic imens, sometimes with large crystals. Hardness...................5–5.5 (Mindat) Chromium can give titanite its green color, whereas Density .....................3.48–3.6 g/cm3 (measured) traces of manganese create pink or red specimens. Ac- cording to Gemdat.org, titanite is trichroic, meaning Color.........................Green, yellow, red, mauve, that its color may change in each of the three crystal brown, black The Mineral Newsletter April 2017 2 Streak: ...................... White to slightly reddish of math and science courses, with the goal of being ad- Cleavage .................. Perfect in one direction mitted into a Master’s program for geological ocean- ography. Fracture.................... Subconchoidal Luster....................... Adamantine, resinous Since then, I spent a year working as a research tech- nician at the Central Caribbean Marine Institute on Lit- Fluorescence............. May have weak brown tle Cayman, where I studied the biological and geolog- shortwave fluorescence ical nature of coral reefs. At the 2016 Benthic Ecology Sources Meeting, I gave a presentation on the surprising recov- ery rate of the Little Cayman coral community in the Amethyst Galleries. 2014. The mineral sphene. wake of the 2016 El Niño event. Gemdat.org. 2017. Titanite (sphene). Mindat.org. 2017. Titanite. I subsequently moved to this area to work at NOVA Minerals.net. 2017. The mineral titanite. and complete my prerequisite courses in science for Webmineral.com. N.d. Titanite. graduate school. I have worked with NOVA Professor Wikipedia. 2017. Titanite. Ken Rasmussen, who nominated me for a grant from Wikipedia. 2017. Titanium. the NVMC’s Fred Schaefermeyer Scholarship Fund. Recently, I was admitted into a Master’s program with the University of Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay Biolog- Hunter Hughes ical Laboratory working with coral skeletons as paleo- Studying Paleoclimatology: climate proxies. I am due to begin as a research assis- tant in fall 2017. A Personal Journey April 24 Program My talk will summarize my journey The Prez Sez from an English and Journalism ma- by Bob Cooke, President jor in college to a graduate program in paleoclimatology. I will describe my experiences as After last month’s club auction, I am now a young scuba diver and, after college, in teaching and cognizant of one more thing I don’t want to sales before going back to school (and remote islands) do for the rest of my life: be an auction to study marine science—and finally to be admitted recordkeeper. In past auctions, Barry into a graduate program in paleoclimatology. Remer always made that function look so I will include elements of personal growth and devel- easy. I don’t know how he did it! I was a nervous opment in the course of my studies at Northern Vir- wreck and definitely less than coherent by the time the ginia Community College, including my extensive auction ended. work with the marine and geological environment of I now have, however, a couple ideas for changes to the the Little Cayman microatoll in the Caribbean Sea. I September auction. Those of you in the audience, both will end by talking about my upcoming research at the buyers and sellers, had a different perspective and will University of Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay Biological have different ideas of how to improve the operation. Laboratory and how the support I’ve had throughout Please send me those ideas. We can make the auction this transitional period has kept me focused on my pas- better, but only if we work together at it. sion. Our club has revitalized the Fred Schaefermeyer I am a student and teaching assistant at NOVA’s An- Scholarship Fund with an expanded list of recipients nandale campus. After receiving a B.A. in English and and increased monetary awards. This year, the club has Journalism from Emerson College in Boston, MA, I awarded six scholarships, totaling $2,300. We encour- went on to work in the sales industry for 2 years. In age each recipient to be a program speaker at one of spring 2014, I returned to school to complete a variety our meetings or to submit an article for the newsletter. The Mineral Newsletter April 2017 3 That effort is paying dividends. In February, Carlin The banners we display at our annual mineral show Green (a student at George Mason University) spoke feature the old motif. We can tweak the design and to us about his work in characterizing the threat of as- continue to use the banners or we can create a whole bestos in amphiboles found in Michigan’s banded iron new design for name tags and retain the old design for formations. This month, Hunter Hughes (a student at the Website, newsletter, and banners. We have op- the Annandale campus of Northern Virginia Commu- tions! nity College) will speak to us about his personal jour- Final selection will be by popular vote at the NVMC ney on the course to studying paleoclimatology. And April meeting. If you can’t be there, have a friend bring in June, our own Alec Brenner will give a presentation your design. Or you can email your proposal to me at on determining the history of the Earth using zircons from the Jack Hills of Australia. I am looking forward [email protected]. to all these presentations! But what interests you? What would you like to hear, see, and do at our monthly meetings? Do you have a Meeting Minutes guest speaker in mind on a topic of interest to you? March 27, 2017 Any information you can provide to Ti Meredith or me by David MacLean, Secretary will help us steer the club in the direction you want.