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Rhode Island Mineral Hunters’ 41st AnnualGem, Mineral, & Fossil Show & Sale

“HOT ROCKS”SHOW PROGRAM

October 27 & 28, 2012Saturday 10 AM to 6 PM, Sunday 10 AM to 4 PMRI Community College, Knight Campus, Warwick, RI

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The Rhode Island Mineral Hunters wish to say THANK YOU to all the people that make this show happen every year. Our thanks go to our great dealers, the advertisers, CCRI, our security personnel, and of course ALL the members of the RIMH that work so hard to make this show happen. Special Thanks go to outgoing president Tony Cesana, the RIMH club officers and executive board, and especially to our show chairman, Bob Sproule.

“HOT ROCKS”Sponsored by: RIMH - “Rhode Island Mineral Hunters”

2012 Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show & SaleRI Community College, Knight Campus, Warwick, RI

Show program, postcard, and posters were designed and produced by Bruce Luscombe, LuscombePark.com

All articles, images, and design are © 2012 RIMH

Table of Contents2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Club Field Trip Photos3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Table of Contents4 - 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . “From the President’s Desk”6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ads7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . article: “Minerals”8 - 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .article: “Green’s Garnet Farm”, ads10 - 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . Show Floor plan & List of Dealers12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .article: “Nothin’ Here”, ad13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . article: “Dinosaur Rain”14 - 15 . . . . . . . . . . . article: “A Day To Remember”, ads16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . article: “Magic Rocks”17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ads18 - 19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . article: “Everyone Loves Geodes”back cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Paul Masse ad

for his many years of help and Don Mello who has supported this club even through his health issues .

Finally I would like to thank the general membership for the increased enthusiasm that you’ve shown over the last couple of years . While many clubs are declining we are bucking the national trend and are growing . I know there are many others to thank but most of all I want to thank Sal Avella, a life member, and Marilyn Dodge who were instrumental in starting this club and getting it established . Without them we would not have this great club to enjoy this hobby .

I would like to end this message in my final year as president with a heart felt thank you to all of you for your support . Without you I could have done nothing and therefore cannot take any of the credit but give all the credit where it is due and that is to all of you . Thank you for allowing me to be your President .

Anthony Cesana, President - RIMHRhode Island Mineral Hunters

For the past 4 years I have been blessed to be the president of this rock club. When I took office we were a club in transition, facing many challenges and uncertain that the club would survive . Because of the hard work and dedication of the club officers and executive board this club has done an amazing turnaround .

We turned a rock show from ho hum to a vibrant event, due in no small part to Bob Sproule who took over as show chair and steadily improved the quality of the show . Last year we added a fluorescent display and invested in display quality UV lamps .

We thank Janalee Andrade for her 7 years of being club secretary, even though 3 years is the max . Then we had Jen Davis, a brand new member, step up and take over for Janalee thus insuring continuity to this very important position . The treasure’s position went to Claire Cooper who updated and modernized our accounting to the point that we always have a to-the-penny account of club finances. My wife Rachel has been my rock for keeping me on track . She also does a phenomenal job as the editor of our newsletter “Bowen-Lite” . Steve Emma has stepped up to run for president this year . Buck Leach, who took over as field trip coordinator, has provided us a fantastic field trip agenda - the best in many a year . His buddy Don Fail who assisted also gets great kudos . By the way Buck has stepped up to run for Vice President . Thank you to Bruce Hecker for our web site, turning it into, as far as I am concerned, one of the finest sites in the Federation . Tom and Louise Barbish who have been on the exec . board . Dave and Sue Lavoie stepped up to serve as VP and exec . board, being outstanding in their efforts to move this club forward . As you can see one person does not make a club but is a group effort by many people . I want to thank Bill Wilson

FROM THE PRESIDENT’S DESK . . .

The Rhode Island Mineral Hunters, Inc. (RIMH) is a group of amateurs and professionals dedicated to collecting,

preserving, and educating the public about the amazing world we live on and its natural, beautiful, interesting, and unusual minerals, crystals, gems and fossils. The RIMH is

available to provide display and educational support to area schools, groups, organizations, and businesses. Visit our

web site for more information: RIMH.US

Thank you Tony for 4 great years of leadership, direction, support and fun. YOU have been the driving force that

changed the RIMH into the vibrant, active club it is today.

RIMH Members

MINERALSBeautiful, Interesting, Useful

More than 4,000 minerals have been classified, most of which are rare; relatively few are common rock forming minerals . They are naturally occurring, inorganic combinations of one or more elements . Minerals are crystalline, which means they have an internal atomic structure organized in a regular, repeating pattern . The chemicals that a mineral is made of and how the molecules are arranged determine what shape it will grow to be, if they have they space without interference of other crystals . What crystal shape they grow is one property we use to tell the different minerals apart . In addition to crystal shape, other physical properties that can be identified include: color, luster, streak, fracture, hardness, specific gravity, magnetism, taste, reaction to acid, fluorescence, and other tests . For the most part it is not possible to use any one property to identify a mineral specimen; but each mineral has a unique set of physical properties that together will allow you to determine which mineral the specimen is . Some minerals have properties that give it characteristics desirable to the humans, such as color, clarity, and hardness . These can be considered to be “gem” quality . u Article written by Jennifer Davis, RIMH .

PLEASE VISIT OUR GREATMINERAL DISPLAYSLOCATED IN THE EXHIBIT AREA

I would recommend to anyone, especially to those who haven’t collected garnets, to go here . It’s an easy dig, kid friendly, exciting and above all fruitful . Very fruitful . I took home about 50 lbs . of garnet “infested” rock! Wow! I am delighted . Anybody going there please let me know . I know there is a soccer ball size garnet waiting for me there! u Article written by Steve Emma, RIMH .

GREEN’S GARNET FARMA Beginner’s Field trip To Roxbury, CT

“If you can’t find garnets here you better get out of mineral collecting!”

This is what I was told by the long time member leading the trip . “You can just pick them up off the ground.” Well, being a skeptic and never having collected any type of garnet before I was very curious and to say the least also a bit excited too . I really didn’t know what to expect!

After a ride of about 2 hours, including a ride through the winding back roads of Roxbury, Connecticut, we arrive . A little, nearly unnoticeable sign guided us through an open metal gate to a rather unimpressive location, a small ranch house . Hurrah!!! We were there . We parked on the side of a driveway, paid a nominal $5 donation (left under a statue on the doorstep), and gathered our hammers and tools .

I must say my spirits were a bit dampened as I was expecting some sort of large commercial rock quarry . However, a short (very short) walk into the woods got us to an area where the more experienced members began to dig . Within minutes (seconds!), people found large, single garnet crystals, and as my eyes became acquainted with the shape and color of what I was looking at, I too began to find garnets everywhere. Everywhere!

With a little more digging I a turned up a rather large rock, which upon splitting, was loaded with all sizes of well defined garnet crystals . I was in garnet heaven! Eureka! Needless to say this exceeded any of my expectations . As a novice to mineral hunting this was exciting .

LIST OF DEALERS 1 Diamonds & Dinosaurs 2 Gold N Gems / Amber America 3 Cardinal Minerals 4 Rock N Bone 5 Fowler’s Wirewrapping 6 Yankee Minerals 7 Rocks To Gems 8 Crystal Cache 9 Phoebe Designs 10 Let’s Talk Jewelry 11 Highland Rock 12 Green Mountain Minerals 13 Celinka Unlimited 14 Professor’s Closet / Don Fail 15 Eccentricities 16 Gaia’s Gifts 17 Land Of Crystals 18 TJ’s Rocks & Minerals 19 Ed & Joan Booker 20 Jessie’s Gems 21 U Ol’ Fossil 22 Middle Earth Lapidary

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Over 20 GREAT DEALERS crystals w minerals w fossils gemstones w jewelry w gifts equipment w and more . . .

Free Door Prize Drawings(with paid admission)

Free Exhibits, Lectures, and Demonstrations

Silent Auction

Kids Corner

Fluorescent Mineral Display

“HOT ROCKS”Sponsored by: Rhode Island Mineral Hunters

Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show and SaleRI Community College,CCRI, Knight Campus, Warwick, RI

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DINOSAUR RAIN300 million year old weather report

I collected a few samples of fossilized raindrops as a novelty, then I came across an article on what they might tell us . Low and behold they say a lot and are quite pertinent to own era .

It seems that the size of raindrops can tell us how thick the atmosphere was at a given time . Raindrops fall more slowly through thick air than through thin air . So the thicker the air, the more gently they will fall to earth, and the smaller the craters will be . Scientists have found 2 .7 billion year old fossilized raindrops in South Africa which upon examination were found to be similar to those you get on dusty lava today . The conclusion they got (after doing some experimentation) was that the atmosphere 2 .7 billion years ago was a lot like it is today, maybe a bit thinner, but surely no more than twice as dense as ours today!

I found this mighty fascinating and if you’d like to read the article either google “fossilized raindrops” or visit this URL: http://www .npr.org/2012/03/28/149527582/raindrops-in-rock-clues-to-a-perplexing-paradox

Above is a photograph of my fossilized raindrops collected from North Attleboro, MA . The fossilized rain drops are the little round indentations above my thumb . These fossilized rain drops are only 300 million years old! u Article written by Steve Emma, RIMH .

NOTHIN’ HERE!A friend of mine and I drove almost 5 hours to Paris Hill, Maine just to be told by a jealous new owner that “no, we absolutely could not pick rocks” in his newly acquired, though long abandoned, pegmatite mine . He was hoping for a lucky strike of gem tourmaline, and didn’t want any outsiders snooping around his partially bulldozed digs . Seeing that we were very disappointed, however, he grudgingly allowed us to collect in a poison ivy fringed, 45’ x 30’ auto turnaround across from the mine entrance, where he had dumped some freshly excavated, century-old mine rubble . He’d probably already looked it over, found a few specimens for himself, and hoped we’d find nothing and soon go away.

But the afternoon sun was low and it had rained the night before . Glittering mica dust on the rocks and crystals had been thoroughly washed away, and ruddy lighting coaxed a soft pink glow from much of the limpid quartz . My buddy and I quickly loaded the back of our car with good examples of rose quartz, along with some sizable garnets and a specimen or two of lilac lepidolite . Just after we closed the trunk, our stash now safely out of sight, the curious mine owner happened by in his pickup truck . My friend and I shrugged our shoulders, then waved as he passed and shook our heads as if to say “Nope, nothin’ here” . We all drove away happy! u Article written by Bob Sproule, RIMH .

Visit our club website to join or for more information:RIMH.US

mine owner’s door, knocked softly, and sheepishly handed back to me each and every one of my lost minerals . I didn’t have to say a thing . It was obvious his father already had, and was probably not finished – not by a long shot.

A day to remember – finding prized minerals on a hot quarry dump that were almost worth stealing! uArticle written by Bob Sproule, RIMH .

A DAY TO REMEMBERBeautiful Minerals, Lost Then Found

I found it on my hands and knees 20 years ago in the access road to a quarry in Georgetown, Maine, where it had been walked upon and driven over for years . As I excitedly dug into the gravel, a dime-sized patch of aqua color quickly grew into a six inch cube of light blue, sea green, and frosty white . It was the largest bundle of six-sided beryl crystals that I had ever found! Not bothering to slap at the early morning mosquitoes buzzing all around, I ran with it in both hands across popcorn dumps to a small, salty beach overlooking Casco Bay . Washing off the glittery mica dust, my prize revealed its mid-sky color and lustrous, geometric form .

Spurred on by my early success and additional finds of beryl, rose quartz, green and black tourmaline, and lilac lepidolite, I hardly noticed the cool morning’s transition to a sultry afternoon . Lunch consisted of a sandwich and warm bottled water beside a shaded boulder that doubled as a table of sorts for my mineral stash . I was alone, except for a few brief moments later in the day when a young man on a sputtering, bright yellow ATV rode by while I surveyed a distant corner of the dump . Imagine my surprise upon my return to the boulder a half an hour later, the beautiful blue beryl, along with all the other specimens was gone!

Dejected and very tired, I got in my car and drove up the mine road, bouncing a bit over the empty pothole from which I had extracted that missing aqua . At the quarry owner’s house, I stopped to check out . “How’d you do?” he asked . I told him of the specimens I found, and of their subsequent mysterious disappearance . He looked back at me with genuine concern . Almost as an afterthought I mentioned seeing a young person on a noisy, yellow ATV . “Bright yellow, eh? I have a friend whose son owns the only ATV that color around here! He’ll be very interested to get my call” he said with a knowing twinkle in his eye .

In small-town Maine everyone knows everyone, and the label of thief sticks to a family like gummy pitch to a tall white pine’s bark . Soon a young man, sans yellow ATV, slowly walked up to the

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MAGIC ROCKSMinerals That Glow In The Dark!

Fluorescence is a phenomenon that causes a mineral (or other object) to “glow” when exposed to ultraviolet light (UV) . This is best seen when the “fluorescent” mineral is in a darkened area.

There are two ultraviolet wavelengths: longwave and shortwave . Many minerals don’t fluoresce, some fluoresce the same color in both wavelengths, others fluoresce in only one wavelength, and yet others fluoresce different colors in different wavelengths. Most minerals fluoresce best in shortwave UV. The visible light emitted after being activated by UV light is sometimes very colorful and can often be very different from the normal color of the mineral .

Fluorescence is not always a reliable for mineral identification, since minerals of the same species may fluoresce different colors from different localities, but it can be an indicator . A mineral’s fluorescent color is sometimes used to identify its place of origin. If an unidentified mineral from a certain locality glows a specific color, it can often be identified by the color it fluoresces. At night or in dark mines or caves, fluorescence can be used to find certain mineral deposits and is a viable prospecting technique . Because UV lights produced a loud “buzz” old prospectors nick-named them “Bug Lights” . u Article written by Jennifer Davis, RIMH .

SEE THIS EXCITING AND COLORFUL AFFECT IN THE DISPLAY TENTFLUORESCENT MINERAL DISPLAY

Sometimes the environment around the hole changes . The weather changes, mountains and valleys rise and fall, rivers change course - any of these conditions can affect what minerals are being dissolved and travel through the rocks . Different minerals may now form inside the hole under these new conditions . Tiny crystals are now able to grow inside the geode . Over millions of years crystals gradually grow inside . Crystals can be big or small, all the same or several different kinds .

What will a geode look like inside? What color will it be? Will it have beautiful crystals? What kind of crystals can you expect? Nobody knows . . . each geode is unique . That’s the fun and exciting part of opening a geode . You are discovering a natural treasure that nobody has ever seen before .

How big can a geode get? We don’t know, but in 2000 geologists in Spain found a huge geode in an old silver mine filled with very large gypsum crystals . The hole inside of the geode measured 1 .8 × 1 .7 meters and was 8 meters in length, making it the largest geode ever found . Here is a photo of the geologists sitting inside that huge geode . u Article written by Bruce Luscombe, RIMH .

EVERYONE LOVES GEODESHollow Rocks Full Of Sparkling Crystals

Geodes are beautiful, amazing, unusual, and unique . Each one starts as an empty hole in a rock . The holes are often round but can be many other shapes too . Holes could be formed by trapped air bubbles when the rock was molten magma (lava) or it could be created by the fossil remains of some plant or animal .

These kids are standing in front of a large geode full of beautiful purple amethyst crystals . The original “hole” is believed to be from a fossilized tree trunk . So now we have a hole in a rock . . . how did the crystals get inside?

Over thousands, maybe millions of years water soaks through the “solid” rock slowly dissolving some of the minerals they contain, much like dissolving salt in water . This mineral-rich water travels through the rocks and through the hole . A coating of minerals slowly forms around the inside of the hole, creating bands of varying colors, shades, and thicknesses . Millions of years may pass and the hole slowly fills with different bands and colors, depending on what’s in the mineral-rich water flowing through the rocks . Sometimes the hole will be completely full of the agate bands . But sometimes something different happens .