April 2015
02: General Meeting: 7:30 pm in our regular meeting room.
05: Easter Sunday: Chocolate Bunnies & Marshmallow Peeps!
16: Board Meeting: 7:30 pm at the Dick Flaharty’s home
18: Lorne Elementary Spring Festival: We need your help…volunteer.
25: Paramount Ranch Science Fair: We need your help here, too volunteer.
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Del Air General Meeting: Thursday Apr 02, 2015
The meeting begins at 7:30 pm in our regular meeting room at:
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Apr 2015 Program: “Rainforest Jasper of Queensland, Australia" presented by Dick & Mary Pat Weber
The Del Rockhounds are extremely proud to welcome back guest speakers Dick & Mary Pat Weber who will be presenting “The Rainforest Jasper of Queensland, Australia”. This beautiful green rhyolite has a distinctive look making it a favorite of mineral collectors and lapidary enthusiasts for the past 50 years.While spending a year in Australia, Dick & Mary Pat formed a close friendship with the owners of the Rainforest Jasper mine and were given access to areas of the deposit not available to the general public. Specimens from the Weber’s personal collection will be on display for all to see. This is the presentation not to be missed. Come and spend an evening with Dick & Mary Pat as well as all the Del Air members and learn all about this beautiful mineral.
Emmy Silverman-Program Chairwoman
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2015 MULTI-CLUB FIELD TRIP SCHEDULE
Distributed to the representatives of the Delvers – Long Beach – North Orange County – Pasadena – Whittier – Searchers & Del Air Gem, Mineral and Lapidary Clubs
PLEASE NOTE: ANYONE INTERESTED IN ATTENDING ANY FIELD TRIP MUST CONTACT EITHER JEFF DENGROVE OR JOE GOETZ TO REGISTER AND WILL BE REQUIRED TO SIGN A WAIVER OF LIABILITY. ANY PERSON WHO JUST "SHOWS UP" WITHOUT PRIOR REGISTRATION WILL BE TURNED AWAY.
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Support our Hobby....Attend a Local Show
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April 4 - 5: CHICO, CA
Paradise
Gem & Mineral Society
Silver
Dollar Fairgrounds
2337
Fair Street
Hours:
10 - 4 daily
Contact:
Manuel Garcia, (530) 877-7324
Website:
www.paradisegem.org
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April 11 - 12: MARIPOSA,
CA
Mariposa
Gem & Mineral Society
Mariposa
County Fairgrounds
5005
Fairgrounds Road
Hours:
Sat 10 - 5; Sun 10 - 4
Contact:
Randy Bolt, (209) 742-7625
Email:
rockmuseum@sti.net
Website:
www.camineralmuseum.com
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April 18 - 19: SAN JOSE,
CA
Santa
Clara Valley Gem & Mineral Society
Santa
Clara County Fairgrounds
334
Tully Road
Hours:
10 - 5 daily
Contact:
Frank Mullaney, (408) 265-1422
Email:
info@scvgms.org
Website:
www.scvgms.org
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April 18 - 19: THOUSAND
OAKS, CA
Conejo
Gem & Mineral Club
Borchard
Park Community Center
190
Reino Road at Borchard Road
Hours:
10 - 5 daily
Contact:
Robert Sankovich, (805) 494-7734
Email:
rmsorca@roadrunner.com
Website:
www.cgamc.org
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April 25 - 26: SANTA
CRUZ, CA
Santa
Cruz Mineral & Gem Society
Santa
Cruz Civic Auditorium
Church
Street & Center Street
Hours:
10 - 5 daily
Contact:
Dean Welder (408) 353-2675
Website:
www.scmgs.org
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April 10 - 12: VISTA, CA
Vista
Gem & Mineral Society
Antique
Gas & Steam Engine Museum
2040
North Santa Fe Avenue
Hours:
9 - 5 daily
Contact:
Ray Pearce (760) 535-5524 & Simon King (619) 991-2226
Email:
vistarocksgms@gmail.com
Website:
www.vistarocks.org
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April 25 - 26:
LANCASTER, CA
Antelope
Valley Gem & Mineral Society
Lancaster
High School
44701
- 32nd Street West
Hours:
10 - 5 daily
Contact:
CJ Quitoriano,(661) 209-9092
Website:
www.avgem.weebly.com
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May 1 - 3: LA HABRA, CA
North
Orange County Gem & Mineral Society
La
Habra Community Center
101
W. La Habra Blvd.
Hours:
Fri 4 - 8; Sat & Sun 10 - 5
Contact:
Don Warthen, (562) 330-8974
Email:
odwarthen@verizon.net
Website:
www.nocgms.com
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Go to www.cfmsinc.org for more show information.
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April 2015: State Rock of the Month
“South Dakota Rose Quartz”
Rose Quartz was adopted in 1966 as South Dakota’s official state mineral stone. In South Dakota, the color of rose quartz ranges from pale shades of pink to rose-pink to rose-red. Occasionally it has a faint purplish or lavender cast. Rose quartz from certain localities in South Dakota exhibits distinct asterism. Asterism refers to a rayed or star-shaped figure of light on the surface of a mineral sample. If a rose quartz sample exhibits asterism, it is called star rose quartz. Usually star rose quartz can only be seen on cut and polished pieces of rose quartz. It is virtually impossible to recognize asterism in an unpolished specimen. Small amounts of the element titanium probably give rose quartz its pink color. Usually rose quartz is coarsely crystalline meaning the crystals are quite large. In South Dakota, rose quartz is found in pegmatites in the Southern Black Hills area. These pegmatites are associated with the Harney Peak granite mass which is now exposed at the surface of the earth because of erosion. It has been estimated that there are about 24,000 pegmatite intrusions in the Black Hills region. These pegmatites formed during the Precambrian era and are about 700 million years old.
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FISHING IN WYOMING by Bob & Maxine Dearborn
You may or may not know, but Bob likes to fish whenever he has the chance. It has been said, “Put Bob in a chair with a fishing pole and a bucket of water in front of him and he is happy.” Maxine likes to hit and break rocks and if there happens to be a fossil in it, so much the better! So on our travels last year through Wyoming, we saw on the map the town of Kemmerer and knowing that this is the famous area for fossil fish, we headed there. Kemmerer is in the southwest corner of Wyoming and when we arrived we found a nice RV Park with a nest of baby ospreys to watch. This is in town too! The first thing to do in Kemmerer is to get out of town and head west on highway 30 for about 20 miles. Here you will find the Fossil Butte Nat’l Monument. They have a fantastic visitor’s center and you can see why the fossils are here because you’re standing in the middle of a huge ancient lake. Fossil Lake is in the Green River Formation and is 56 to 34 million years old. The mountains all around you for many miles are the shoreline of the lake. So all the fish and critters that died for thousands of years in this lake have now become fossils. The visitor center contains all types of fossils from the area. They have many types of fish, plants, even a full size alligator. You can easily spend a couple of hours here. You can also get information on private digging sites that are open to the public. But it is better to go back into town and visit the one large rock shop and 2 or 3 fossil stores to find out about the options on digging your own fossils. The area is all private land but there are a few quarries open to the public for a fee. Most ask for reservations and 2 are open to dig any time of the day. Just show up. We picked one of these, the Fossil Safari Quarry, and drove the 15-20 miles out to the site. Now we are on a field trip! We had about 5 miles of pavement and 15 miles of a real field trip dirt road! There are pot holes, washboard areas and because it rained the day before it was slippery here and there. But a regular car can get there OK. Arriving at the quarry you go to a shed type building, meet the quarry manager, sign in and get the rules for collecting. They have hammers and rock splitting tools or you can use your own. They have 1 hour, 4 hour and 8 hour rates. We took the 4 hour at $75.00 each. You can collect from the face of the quarry; about 200 yards wide or you can collect from a huge rock pile brought out by a backhoe each day. We chose the rock pile because Maxine saw a slab that was 12 inches thick and huge. Probably about a ton of rock! Right away she started splitting this rock and found a whole fish. But, it is a huge rock! Now what? Well…the quarry manager is ready to help and brought over a sledge hammer and broke up this huge slab into many 50 lb. pieces. Through the hours we set our chair in front a rock pile and made them into bigger rock piles of small rock. And yes, we did collect quite a few fossil fish. Maxine found many slabs with more than one fish in it. I found a nice whole fish in a large slab and tried to break the slab like we were shown and of course I broke it right through the fish! By the end of the 4 hours we had probably about 200-250 pounds of slabs with fossil fish. A lot were whole fish, but many more are partial fish. We had to pack them into the Jeep and keep them from rubbing against each other and causing damage. Since we were on the first part of our 8,000mile, 3 month trip we had to protect these critters. This is the fun part of rockhounding; breaking open rock and seeing what is inside. We never get tired of this and know you will have a great time too if you are in Wyoming. Oh, another neat thing about Kemmerer, Wyoming is this is where J. C. Penney opened his second store and it is still open for business. The Penney family home is just down the street and is open for tours.
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