March 2018 Del Air Calendar of Events

Del Air’s March 2018 Calendar

01: General Meeting: 7:30 pm in our regular meeting room.

11: Daylight Savings Time Begins: Remember to set those clocks ahead one hour.

15: Board Meeting: Shellie VanWinkle’s home.

17: St. Patrick’s Day: Celebrate the Luck o’ the Irish.

31: First Day of Passover: Set a table for Seder & celebrate the Jews exodus from slavery!

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General Meeting: Thursday Mar 01, 2018

The meeting begins at 7:30 pm in our regular meeting room at:

Northridge United Methodist Church - 9650 Reseda Blvd, Northridge, CA       Guests are always welcome at our meetings and events however our annual Holiday Party in December requires a prepaid reservation in advance.

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March 2018 Program:

“Natural Radiation in Rocks and Our Surroundings”

Presented By: Duane Doty

Professor Doty is a relic of the California Land Grand system attending Ventura JC in 1957 and then earning a doctoral degree from UCLA in 1966.  There at the Cyclotron he studied several new isotopes of Palladium and Silver which you will probably never hear of again. Using the Engineering Nuclear Reactor for neutron scattering was a special privilege. Then in 1966 he started teaching at the San Fernando State College which was surrounded by orange trees.  He became tenured and was granted the outstanding teaching award. 

Teaching was his first love, always 40+ hours a week at school with the students.  However, he did some part time research for the government at the Naval Civil Engineering Laboratory in Hueneme during the summers.  They were using the dD and dP reactions in an electrostatic accelerator to mimic the radiation from a hydrogen bomb.  Later at Atomic International at the Santa Susannah Field Laboratory, he was a consultant measuring fast neutron spectra from an experimental fast reactor.

Professor Doty will demonstrate several alpha, beta and gamma detectors used at the CSUN Nuclear Physics laboratory. Duane hopes to also show samples of naturally radioactive rocks from his ollection. 

Professor Doty has graciously agreed to test 1 item from each member/guest for radioactive content so please bring in just one (1) item only, be it rock, mineral, Vaseline glass or any other item and we can see if it is radioactive. 

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Support Our Hobby.....Attend A Local Show...

March 2 - 4: NEWARK, CA Mineral & Gem Society of Castro Valley Newark Pavilion 6430 Thornton Avenue Hours: Fri & Sat 10 - 6; Sun 10 - 5 Contact: Cathy Miller, 510-887-9007 Email: showchair@mgscv.org Website: www.mgscv.org	March 2 - 11, IMPERIAL, CA Imperial Valley Gem & Mineral Society California Mid-Winter Fair & Fiesta 200 East Second Street Hours: Weekends noon - 10 pm; Weekdays 4 pm - 10 pm Contact: John Pyle, Jr.   (760) 562-3453 Website: www.ivgms.org
March 3 - 4: ARCADIA, CA Monrovia Rockhounds L. A. County Arboretum & Botanical Garden 301 North Baldwin Avenue Hours: 9:00 - 4:30 daily Contact: Jo Anna Ritchey, (626) 359-1624, Email: joannaritchey@gmail.com Website: www.moroks.com	March 3 - 4: TORRANCE, CA South Bay Lapidary & Mineral Society Ken Miller Recreation Center 3341 Torrance Blvd (entrance on Madrona) Hours: Sat. 10 - 5; Sun. 10 - 4 Contact: Nancy Pekarek, (310) 257-8152 Email: pekareks@hotmail.com Website: southbaylapidaryandmineralsociety.com
March 3 - 4: VENTURA, CA Ventura Gem & Mineral Society Ventura County Fairgrounds 10 West Harbor Blvd. Hours: Sat 10 - 5; Sun 10 - 4 Contact: Diane Cook, (805) 312-8467 Email: info@vgms.org Website: www.vgms.org	March 9 - 11: VICTORVILLE, CA Victorville Valley Gem & Mineral Society Hwy 15 / Stoddard Wells Road Hours: 9 - 5 daily Contact: Brett Ward or Sandy Skidmore, (760) 617-6001 Email: san2744@aol.com Website: www.vvgmc.org
March 10 - 11: SAN MARINO, CA Pasadena Lapidary Society San Marino Masonic Center 3130 Huntington Drive Hours: Sat 10 - 6, Sun 10 - 5 Contact: Ellen Ferrell, (727) 512-0381 Email: pasadenalapidary@aol.com Website: www.pasadenalapidarysociety.org	March 10 - 11: SPRECKELS, CA Salinas Valley Rock and Gem Club Spreckel's Veteran's Memorial Hall 5th & Llano Streets Hours: 10 - 5 daily Contact: Gary Beck, (831) 679-2896 Email: garybeckpca@yahoo.com Website: http://salinasrockandgem.pagecloud.com

 

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California’s Own Dinosaur 

The fossilized skull of a duck-billed dinosaur named Augustynolophus was revealed in a 1943 paleontological excavation in the Panoche Hills of western Fresno County. It consisted of the majority of the skull (including the dentary and predentary), vertebrae, and bones of the limb and hand. A second specimen, discovered in 1939, was made up of elements of the skull and limbs.

These are currently the only two known specimens of Augustynolophus. All known specimens of Augustynolophus have been found only in California. In September 2017, Augustynolophus was declared the official State Dinosaur of California, alongside the saber-toothed cat as the official State Fossil and the California red-legged frog as the official State Amphibian, and Denim, the official State Fabric.

It should be noted that it is one of three known dinosaurs from the western coast of the United States, the other two being the Campanian Aletopelta coombsi and an undescribed species of tyrannosaur from Washington state. However, indeterminate hadrosaur remains have been found throughout California.

Augustynolophus is an extinct genus of herbivorous saurolophine hadrosaur dinosaur, discovered in the Moreno Formation in Fresno, California. Like all species of hadrosaur, Augustynolophus morrisi was an herbivorous dinosaur which had a diet consisting of the plant life in the area. It was specialized to chew its food since hadrosaurs were one of the few known species of dinosaur that chewed its food.

Augustynolophus morrisi, a contemporary of the better-known tyrannosaurus and triceratops, was named for two notable Californians: Gretchen Augustyn and paleontologist Dr. William J. Morris. Just eight states have declared a state dinosaur to pay homage to the long-extinct creatures. Every state has a state bird, and birds are extant dinosaurs. Also, most states and the District of Columbia have state fossils, and nine of those designations are incidentally dinosaurs. However, there are only 11 states plus D.C. that have officially declared state dinosaurs.

(Reprinted from the February 2018 Petrograph) 

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