Friday, May 27, 2016

June 2016 Del Air Calendar of Events


May 2016 
01: Education Outreach: Patrick Henry Middle School (see article) 
02: General Meeting: 7:30 pm in our regular meeting room  
03: Education Outreach: Vintage Magnet School NASA Night (see article)
16: Board Meeting: 7:30 pm at The Dearborn’s home.  
19: Father’s Day: Make it a special day for a special Dad!
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General Meeting: Thursday June 02, 2016
The meeting begins at 7:30 pm in our regular meeting room at:
Northridge United Methodist Church - 9650 Reseda Blvd, Northridge, CA 91324
               Guests Are Always Welcome At Our Meetings & Events. 
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June 2016 Program: LEARN SOMETNING NEW!
TONIGHT OUR MEMBERS AND GUESTS WILL PARTICIPATE IN HANDS ON MICRO FOSSIL COLLECTING
                                      Presented by: The Board
 
Tonight we are going to Lusk WY, on the east side of the state.  Lusk is a small town, with 1 bank, 2 gas stations and 1 laundry. If you went east for about 25-30 miles you would be in Mt. Rushmore, SD. We will go north of Lusk for about 15 miles and then west into the prairie. This is all private, BLM or National Grassland, but we are going to be looking for fossils on private land, with permission, so it is OK to collect. Actually we will be on a Buffalo Ranch. The only place you might see some trees or water is around a ranch house or in some of the deep gullies. Everywhere else it is rolling country with sage and many kinds of bushes and grasses. But this is where we find the dinosaur specimens. Many of the famous dino finds have been found within a 75 mile radius of where we will be looking. The T Rex “Sue” was found near here. We will be searching for fossils of the dinosaur era in an area called a “Lag”. This is a place where an ancient river flowed and went through a slow moving pool or pond. As animals and vegetation floated down the river they sank into a slow moving pool or pond where dirt and mud covered them through the millennia turning some of them into fossils. Now this pool has eroded up to the surface and it is an area which is quite different than the land surrounding it. Our lag is about 100 feet in diameter; it is sandy & has course pebbles. Plants don’t seem to grow in this area as much as on the surrounding land. The lag is not necessarily a depressed or low area & can be on top of a hill or on the side of a bank.  It all depends on how the land has eroded due to wind & flash floods. The lag area contains a lot of fossil stuff such as plant parts, fish parts and animal parts There will not be any whole fossils, because they get broken coming down the river, but there is a lot of fossil pieces. For tonight, we have brought lag material that has not been looked at before and it has many fossil pieces in it. In the field we would all lie down on our stomachs and gaze along the surface to see fossil items. Tonight, everyone will work at the table where their chair is and we will all have to share the screens, colanders, lights and magnifying glasses. You should be able to identify fossils without the magnifying glass, but they can help. You will get a sample of the lag material. Then screen the fine dirt out, PLEASE KEEP IT ON THE TABLES. Then dump this material on to a white plate and spread out with your fingers. Now, look for the fossils. There will be a sample illustration of the most common type of fossils found on each table. As you find the fossils, put them in the plastic bag so you don’t lose them. There are a lot of types of fossils in this material so look at it all. You could find a piece of fossil Dino Egg, small animal bones, fish scales, insects and more.
What to bring to the meeting:  If you have a small desk lamp, and a pair of tweezers, this will help you see the fossils better and be able to pick them up easier. HAVE FUN!
Bob Dearborn, Secretary  
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          Saturday - May 21st - A Big Day for the Del Air Rockhounds

Today our club had 2 booths going at 2 different locations and if you were there helping out you know it was a big day for our club. We were cutting geodes, spinning the wheel, talking about our club and rocks, selling grab bags, necklaces and doing our free educational games. We talked to 100’s of people today and gave out information about our club to many. It was a good day for our club and we really appreciate our members and guests who participated in running these booths. It was a true joy to see so many members, friends and new members show up to help out at our Paramount Ranch Booth. We all had a blast and it was a great day spent promoting our wonderful hobby! Remember these booths can only work if our members come out to help. This means all our members when they can. We still have a few booth functions coming up in the next couple months and we can use your help. Please sign up when the time comes.

El Oro Way School Festival Booth: Jim & Shellie VanWinkle, Michael Tschacher & Bob & Maxine Dearborn

Paramount Ranch Booth: Chris Ward, Bob Knox, Marilyn Murata, Julie Marin, her granddaughters Mina Swintek, Zoe Swintek and their mother whose name I forget but is Julie Marin’s daughter, future members Chris & Levere whose last name I don’t know, Joel Rousch & Linda Barroza and a special guest appearance by new member Pat Tuttle.
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Support our Hobby.......Attend a Local Show
 
June 3 - 5:  LA HABRA, CA
North Orange County Gem & Mineral Society
La Habra Community Center
101 W. La Habra Blvd.
Hours: Fri 5 - 8; Sat 10 - 6; Sun 10 - 5
Contact: Don Warthen, 626-330-8974
Website: www.nocgms.com

June 4 - 5: GLENDORA, CA
Glendora Gems & Mineral Society
Goddard Middle School
859 E. Sierra Madre Avenue
Hours: Sat. 10 - 5; Sun 10 - 4
Contact: Bonnie Bidwell, (626) 963-4638

June 25 - 26: CULVER CITY, CA
Culver City Rock & Mineral Club
Veterans Memorial Auditorium
4117 Overland Blvd (@Culver Blvd, Near the 405 & 10 Freeways)
Hours: Sat 10 - 6; Sun 10 - 5
Contact: Janice Metz, (310) 850-4398

August 13 - 14: SAN FRANCISCO, CA
San Francisco Gem & Mineral Society
San Francisco County Fair Building
9th Avenue & Lincoln Way
Hours: Sat. 10 - 6; Sun. 10 - 5
Contact: Ellen Nott, (415) 564-4230
September 16 - 18: PLACERVILLE, CA
77th Annual CFMS Show & Convention
Hosted by El Dorado County Mineral & Gem Society
El Dorado County Fairgrounds
100 Placerville Drive
Hours:      Fri - Sun 10 - 5 daily
Contact:   Barbara Terrill,  530 676-2375     Websitewww.cfms2016show.com

September 17 - 18: CHICO, CA
Feather River Lapidary & Mineral Society, Oroville
Silver Dollar Fairgrounds
2357 Fair Street
Hours: Sat 9:30 - 5; Sun 9:30 - 4
John Scott, (530) 321-6331

September 24 - 25: LODI, CA
Stockton Lapidary & Mineral Club
Lodi Grape & Harvest Festival Grounds
413 East Lockford Street
Hours: 10 - 5 daily
Contact: Jerold Kyle, (209) 368-9411

September 24 - 25: MONTEREY, CA
Carmel Valley Gem & Mineral Society
Monterey Fairgrounds
2004 Fairgrounds Road
Hours: Sat 10 - 6; Sun 10 - 5
Contact: Janis Rovetti, (831) 372-1311
Website: www.cvgms.org


  Visit www.cfmsinc.org for more show info
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June 2016 Something of the Month: Lagerstatten
Lagerstätten, meaning “fossil deposit places” in German or “Lag” for short, are geological fossil deposits that are rich with varied, well-preserved fossils, representing a wide variety of life from a particular era. These spectacular fossil deposits represent an amazing "snapshot" in time. Actually, two types of Lagerstätte are distinguished:

Konzentrat-Lagerstätten (translates to concentration Lagerstätten) These fossil sites provide a concentration of fossils accumulated over a period of time that represent a community of organisms within an ecosystem. Bone beds fall into this category.

Konservat-Lagerstätten (translates to conservation Lagerstätten) These fossil sites exhibit exceptional preservation of fossilized organisms or ichnofossils. The extraordinary preservation is most often attributable to rapid burial in an oxygen devoid environment lacking sediment. These sites are the most important to science, especially in the study of evolution, and are the ones most sought by fossil collectors.    

The “Lag” we will be exploring in tonight's program is located within the famous Green River Formation in Wyoming.
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                            Welcome to our New Members

The Del Air Rockhounds Club is extremely pleased to welcome four new members to our organization.

Pat Tuttle – Voted in unanimously at our April meeting.

The Koch Family – Dad Steven, Mom Lourdes & Son Coriolis (Cori)
Voted in unanimously at our May meeting.

A very special welcome goes out to Coriolis who is our first Pebble Pup in more than a decade and has already been enrolled in the official AFMS Future Rockhounds of America Badge Program. At our June meeting, Cori will be earning his first badge for Fossil Hunting by participating in our Micro Fossil collecting program.
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