Micromineral Society of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History Meeting Minutes, February 23, 2013 In attendance: Anne Cook, Paul and Janet Clifford, Pete Richards, Steve President Veverka Paul Clifford [email protected] 5-Minute Talk: Anne gave the five-minute talk on sylvite, KCl, an isometric mineral. It occurs as cubes sometimes modified by the octahedron, or more much often as polycrystalline massive material. It has perfect cleavage on {100}, a hardness of 2, is usually colorless, and has a diagnostic bitter taste. Vice President It occurs in many locations, primarily as one of a suite of evaporite minerals, or sometimes in fumarolic deposits. Dick Green [email protected] Main Talk: Pete gave the main talk, an update on a talk given at the 2011 Symposium about his research on minerals from a shale fire near Milan, OH. He is working with Tony Kampf, a distinguished mineralogist with the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. Tony has confirmed Treasurer pyracmonite, determined that presumed metavoltine is in fact clairite, and determined or finalized the determination of structures of three new minerals, Janet Clifford as yet not formally described or named. More to come. [email protected] Business Meeting: was called to order at 2:02 The minutes were approved with a change to the date submitted, which should have been February 22, 2013, not November 22, 2012. The treasurer reported that the discrepancy in Secretary our books as compared to the museums was due to a charge authorized by us Pete Richards to purchase new drawers for cabinets in the mineral curator’s workspace. Our current balance is $1204.05. [email protected] Old Business: Pete had a letter-article in the most recent Rocks & Minerals issue commenting on John White’s mystery about quartz shadows around Museum Liaison pyrite crystals in metamorphic rocks. Janet provided the Connoisseur’s Choice column in the November/December Rocks & Minerals issue, on rose David Saja quartz, from Lavra da Pitorra, Minas Gerais, Brazil. [email protected]! Pete returned some blue microcrystals from the collection, which he borrowed to assess whether they might be lavendulan. SEM-EDS Brochantite examination revealed that they were a phosphate, whereas lavendulan is an Mex-Tex Mine Bingham, New Mexico Future meetings Date 5-min. talk Main speaker Comments Mar. 23 Paul Cliffords, Cooks Tucson report Apr. 27 Pete Janet DVD: Dal ‘Negorsk May 25 Will Dick DVD: Pegmatites and Large Crystals CMMS web site www.cmnh.org/site/GetInvolved/ClubsandSocieties/MicromineralSociety.aspx! Micromineral Society of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History Meeting Minutes, February 23, 2013 arsenate. They are most likely serpierite. We decided in November to ask Woodie Thompson of the Maine Geological Survey (not Society as previously reported) to be our next symposium speaker, but deferred contacting him until after the Tucson show, in case he would be there and attending members could contact him in person. Contact was not made in Tucson, so Janet will contact him. We decided to bring the 3-D digital image viewer to the next meeting so we could evaluate how it might work with the plans for a base drawn up by Phil Pisczak. The list of up-coming meetings indicates two main programs from DVD from the Dallas Mineral Collecting Symposium. We decided that Janet would “present” the lecture by Rock Currier on Dal ‘Negorsk, Siberia, and Dick would “present” the lecture by David London on pegmatites and large crystals. The business meeting was adjourned at 2:46. Note: the museum will close at 3:00 on March 23, so a timely start to our meeting will help insure that we get finished before we get kicked out. We will probably be meeting in the Rare Book Room again. Respectfully submitted, R. Peter Richards March 14, 2013 .