NVMC Newsletter 2016-06.Pdf
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The Mineral Newsletter Meeting: June 27 Time: 7:45 p.m. Long Branch Nature Center, 625 S. Carlin Springs Rd., Arlington, VA 22204 Volume 57, No. 6 June 2016 Explore our Website! June Program: The Estes Quarry in Maine In this issue … Mineral of the month: Scorodite ............................... p. 2 June program details .................................................. p. 2 The Prez Sez ............................................................... p. 3 May meeting minutes ................................................ p. 3 May meeting program ............................................... p. 4 Purple gemstones ....................................................... p. 6 Pseudomorphism ....................................................... p. 8 A night of highlights! .................................................. p. 9 Editor’s corner: Simplicity .......................................... p. 10 AFMS: Safety matters ................................................. p. 11 EFMLS: Where do rocks come from? ......................... p. 12 Maryland’s Calvert Cliffs ............................................ p. 13 Upcoming events........................................................ p. 17 Scorodite Smithsonian National Mineral Collection. Photo: Chip Clark. from Mexico, Crater of Papacatepetl Mineral of the Month: Scorodite by Sue Marcus and Hutch Brown Summer break ahead! Scorodite is a collector’s dream—and some- times as hard to find in nice crystals. Johann Northern Virginia Mineral Club Friedrich August Breithaupt first described this new mineral from material found in members, Saxony, Germany, where he was a professor Please join our June speaker, Doug Rambo, for dinner at at the Freiberg Mining Academy. In 1818, the Olive Garden on June 27 at 6 p.m. he named it after the Greek word skorodon, which alludes to the garlicky smell of arse- Olive Garden, Baileys Cross Roads (across from Skyline nic when the mineral is heated. Towers), 3548 South Jefferson St. (intersecting Leesburg Pike), Falls Church, VA Phone: 703-671-7507 Scorodite is a hydrated iron arsenate with the chemical formula FeAsO4·2H2O. The Reservations are under Ti Meredith, Vice-President, mineral arsenopyrite, FeAsS, can alter to NVMC. Please RSVP to me at [email protected]. scorodite through oxidation; this secondary (second to the original mineral) occurrence is the most common geologic setting for scorodite. More rarely, scorodite also occurs as a primary mineral in hydrothermal depos- Douglas E. Rambo, P.G. its, sometimes as a crust precipitated on the The Estes Quarry, West Baldwin, outer rims of hot springs. It weathers into Cumberland County, ME: A Relatively limonite (an iron ore). New Pegmatite Phosphate Mineral Scorodite is in the orthorhombic mineral Locality in Southwestern Maine system. Its crystals can form dipyramids that June 27 Program look like octahedrons and resemble the much harder gem mineral zircon. The color The Estes Quarry in West Baldwin, ME, is a recent of scorodite is variable; it can be deep blue find among collectors—especially collectors of mi- or brown (like the sample on the cover) but crominerals. It is located just off the edge of the Se- is best known for bright green or blue colors. bago Pluton, which is the principal source of the ma- Scorodite has an adamantine or vitreous lus- jor Maine pegmatites (such as Newry, Paris, Green- ter. Its streak is greenish-white, and its hard- wood, Auburn, and Topsham). ness on the Mohs scale is 3.5 to 4. It has The site was adopted by Gene Bearss, an accom- poor cleavage, a conchoidal fracture, and a plished local collector and member of the Micro- specific gravity of 3.27. mounters’ Hall of Fame. The quarry has been studied by the Mineralogy, Pegmatology, and Petrology In the United States, scorodite has been workgroup at the University of New Orleans. The found at Gold Hill, Tooele County, UT, and locality is relatively young, but collectors have al- in the Tintic district, Juab County, UT. It ready identified over 50 minerals there, with the po- also occurs in the Majuba Hill mine, Ante- tential for many more. Sylvanite lope district, Pershing County, NV. Doug will give an overview of the local geology and from Romania explain how the minerals formed. He will show many Sources: Mindat, Webmineral, Wikipedia. of the minerals that can be found at the location. Silver‒gold telluride (Ag,Au)Te2 The Mineral Newsletter June 2016 2 The November/December 2000 issue of Rocks and clubs that have invited NVMC members to join them. Minerals magazine has a writeup of the quarry and its Unfortunately, these announcements invariably come minerals. at short notice, leaving no time to coordinate with the publishing schedule for this newsletter. Consequent- Doug Rambo is the senior hydrologist in the Source ly, I have started an e-mail list for NVMC members Water Assessment and Protection Program at the who want to receive these announcements. If you Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Envi- want to be added to the list just send an email to ronmental Control (DNREC). He has a B.S. in geolo- [email protected]. gy from the University of Delaware and worked for 5 years as a well technician and staff geologist for Ar- After the June meeting, we have 2 months of summer tesian Water Company in Newark, DE, prior to join- break before meeting again in September. Then it’s ing DNREC in 1999. Doug has been a Delaware li- time to start preparing for the November mineral censed professional geologist since 2001 and current- show. This year’s show is going to be a challenge ly serves as the President of the Delaware Board of without the help of Jim Kostka. One of Jim’s unique Professional Geologists, a position he was appointed talents was coordinating the online volunteer sign-up to by Governor Markell in 2011. on Volunteer Spot. If anyone out there has used this product, I would certainly appreciate it if you could In his professional life, Doug works with both ground take over this task from Jim. Please call or e-mail me water and surface public drinking water systems, as- (contact info is on last page of the newsletter). sessing the quality of the water delivered to custom- ers and determining their sources’ vulnerabilities and Bob susceptibility to contamination. Currently, Doug is looking at chloride loading in Red Clay Creek (in the Christina watershed) related to road deicing practices upstream from a public drinking water intake. May Meeting Minutes May 23, 2016 An avid micromineralogist, Doug specializes in iden- tifying and collecting minerals that require the use of by David MacLean, Secretary a microscope to fully view and appreciate them. His favorite localities are the Palermo and Fletcher Mines President Bob Cooke called the meeting to in New Hampshire and the Emmons and Estes Quar- order at 7:30 p.m. at the Long Branch Nature ries in Maine. He and his father George (1931–2016) Center in Arlington, VA. amassed a collection of nearly 10,000 micromounts primarily centered on phosphate minerals. He has The minutes of the May 25 meeting were approved as collected extensively throughout the states of Maine, published in The Mineral Newsletter. Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire. The president recognized past presidents in attend- Doug lives in Harrington, DE, with his wife Michele ance: Sue Marcus, Rick Reiber, and Barry Remer. He and their daughters Beth (7), Sabrina (3), and Noelle also recognized guests Clarisse Flores, Braden Heller, (1). Joe and Laurie O’Bryan, Patrice Roberts, and Roi Starkey. The President’s Award went to Hutch Brown, editor of The The Prez Sez Mineral Newsletter. Hutch also by Bob Cooke, President received award materials from a past Bulletin Editors Contest (4th place for New Editor in Is it June already? I’m sure 2014), as did Sue Marcus for it must be. When else would her article “Opportunities for my air conditioner break? Self-Collecting: Where Can Is anyone up for a mineral You Go?” collecting field trip? I receive several announcements of field trips by local The Mineral Newsletter June 2016 3 By motion duly made and seconded, the members approved the board nomination of Marissa Dudek for a $250 award from the NVMC’s Fred C. Schaefer- meyer Scholarship Fund. Marissa is a geology major on the Annandale campus of Northern Virginia Community College. She worked with Professor Cal- lan Bentley on the MAJIC Gigapan project and is now an intern at USGS on Ar/Ar radiometric dating of rocks. She will transfer to James Madison Univer- sity in fall 2016. Club dues for 2016 are past due! See the last page of this newsletter for details. In the door prize drawing, the winners were Walker Crews, David MacLean, Joe O’Bryan, Lisa Smyth, and Thomas Smyth. Sheryl Sims doing a Vanna White impression of modeling one of her min- Some people brought giveaway minerals from a vari- eral samples following her slide show presentation. Photos: Pat Flavin. ety of places, including Manassas quarry and Was- son’s Bluff in Nova Scotia. NVMC meeting, I was put in charge of the door prize closet and given my own key!” Three presentations followed the business meeting: Sheryl Sims, “Reflections of a Rockhound”; “Club meetings are great fun and learning experienc- Sue Marcus, “My Summer Vacation Adven- es,” Sheryl continued. “There is always a place for tures”; everyone, no matter what one’s interest. I love intro- Kathy Hrechka, “Geology Within My Airline ducing friends at their first mineral show or meeting. Career: Adventures 1984–2016.” It makes me smile to share the joy! Teaching Scouts and junior rockhounds is delightful! I’m happy to pass on what I know, remembering how patient and helpful NVMC members were and are to me as they May 23 Club Meeting Program explain and identify minerals. Members are never too busy to take an interest in what others are doing in by David MacLean, Secretary our wonderful hobby.” “Being a rockhound led me to all kinds of places,” t the NVMC’s May meeting, three club members A Sheryl explained.