Mindat Mineralogy Messageboard - Scrapbook

Documentaries about geology, mineralogy etc. (4 replies)

Vik Vanrusselt — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:23:21 +0000

Hello all,

I was wondering if any of you know any documentaries about geology, mineralogy,... basically all earth & space science.

I'm just curious to find out 'what is out there'.

I have a few titles I will share with you, do you know of any others?

- BBC's Earth Story (1998): [www.imdb.com]

- BBC's Horizon: Tutankamun's Fireball (2006): [www.imdb.com]

- History Channel's How The Earth Was Made (2009-2010): [www.imdb.com]

- BBC's How Earth Made Us (2010): [www.imdb.com]

- BBC's Men Of Rock (2010): [www.imdb.com]

- National Geographic's Drain The Ocean (2010): [www.imdb.com]

- Earth: Making Of A Planet (2011): [www.imdb.com]

- Birth Of Europe (2012): [www.imdb.com]

- Faces Of Earth: [www.youtube.com]

Vik

Vik

Chrysoprase or something similar (5 replies)

Wesley — Wed, 08 May 2013 13:17:41 +0000

Ok, this piece after I done specific gravity was 2.64, had a streak show up as white. I have not done a hardness test because the only metal I have is a knife and I'd rather wait until I get appropriate testing equipment. I would greatly appreciate any feedback. This looks different than any chrysoprase I've had, and that is why it is baffling me. I'm just not confident enough without further opinion to label this as chrysoprase. Thank you for any input.

What is the Longest Mine in the World? (7 replies)

Rick Dalrymple — Tue, 07 May 2013 16:09:05 +0000

I was just out to Bonanza, Utah and photographed some of the gilsonite seams. Pictures to follow soon. It turns out some of these seams are 100 x 100 feet and go on for 3 miles.

So they aren't very wide or deep but they are very long. This got me to thinking, what is the longest mine in the world.

Any thoughts come to mind?

Voting help wanted (13 replies)

Eddy Vervloet — Sat, 04 May 2013 00:58:08 +0000

Hi guys,
a special request...:
Belgium is going to issue a new 2 euro coin, honoring the 100th anniversary of the meteorological institute.
The public can cast a vote for how one of the sides will look like.
The mineral community is trying to push a design that shows an ice crystal, but we are running behind...
If you want to give us a hand, please visit vote here,
and vote for number 3.

Thanks for your help!

(PS... if you delete your cookies, you can even vote more than once... hehe)

looking for pictures of antique hand blown glass vases (2 replies)

Dermot Walsh — Wed, 01 May 2013 21:23:54 +0000

...tan glass in colour stand about 8- 12 inch. .with blue flower stems hand painted ..please forgive lack of any photos..but if you can share photos or direct me..it would be appreciated
best
dermot

Fine Weekend at the Franklin, NJ, Spring Show (5 replies)

Chester S. Lemanski, Jr. — Wed, 01 May 2013 00:50:58 +0000

What a beautiful, sunny, and comfortably warm weekend for this annual event sponsored by the New Jersey Earth Science Association (NJESA), the Franklin-Ogdensburg Mineralogical Society (FOMS), and the Sterling Hill Mining Museum (SHMM). It was a pleasure to see some of our Mindat denizens including Joe Polityka, Vandall King, Dr. Steve Quitems, Dr. Earl Verbeek, Tony Albini and Harold Moritz. Sorry if I there was anyone else I missed.

The show management team and volunteers had a smooth setup. The exhibits were superior as always. Cases included Franklin District rhodonites, New Jersey stilbites, an entire case of esperites in the fluorescent display area, and a fine array of other quality daylight and fluorecent exhibit cases. The main show floor dealers (including the 3 fluorescent mineral dealers), came with a very attractive and diverse inventory of mineral and jewelry offerings for anyone's taste.

The outdoor show was also great with a nice turnout of dealers for this flea market formatted event. The usual selections of local material from the Franklin area were there as always, plus other fine New Jersey minerals and fine material from around the world. A very attractive and large Congo malachite didn't last long on one dealer's tables. A large log cross-section of cut and polished Arizona petrified wood (about 0.3 meter diameter) also walked out the gate in the hands of a happy buyer. A wide variety of Moroccan fossils were to be had as well. The Franklin Mineral Museum was also selling at the outdoor event and featured a nice selection of quality Franklin specimens as well as Robert Hauck's collection of native coppers and related minerals from the Bound Brook quarry in New Jersey.

The Franklin museum also had its usual show special sales display in the museum's Kraissl hall room. More great Franklin stuff here! Rumor has it that someone lucked out and purchased a nice manganaxinite (Axinite-Mn) specimen and discovered numerous cahnite crystals hiding in the crevices! I hope its true!

The weekend's activities also included the Sterling Hill "Big Dig" event sponsored by the Delaware Valley club. There were over 300 participants registered for the daytime and night time digs. The daytime event is rumored to have produced a boulder of the uncommon azurite from the Sterling Mine open pits. Great stuff to be had on the collecting piles of material from the underground mine when it was accessible. The pile was freshened up with material that had been stored in the museum's gift shop basement for the past 20 years!! That pile had a tarp over it until the magic moment that the dig opened.

The SHMM also conducted its usual "garage sale" outdoors. This time around they featured a large selection of old geoscience publications and mining history books, which included some very unusual ephemera from the holdings of the Dr Eugene Sensel and Dr. Robert E. Jenkins libraries, plus other nice "stuff." The usual selection of all sorts of specimens from old collections were there. The event was opened exactly on the stroke of 10 A.M. with a 10 second countdown and then the surge forward by the hoards with beer flats in their hands to accomodate the anticipated treasures to be grabbed off the tables. This time the museum also presented a nice selection of Chinese calcite specimens which mostly fluoresced lilac, some with blue-fluorescing fluorite and a few luminescent mysteries. These went very fast. I walked away with a type locality (Rouma Island, Guinea) villiaumite for $10.00, as well as 2 other species from type localities, and about 20 other neat little specimens from old collections, with pedigree labels or nice crystals. This is an event you are well advised to not miss!

Main show attendance was up somewhat over last year for Saturday (I don't have a read on Sunday's attendance). An observation of the main show management was that many visitors were first time visitors or had not been to the show for years and came this time around. Perhaps the New Jersey-New York show at Edison a few weeks ago spurred some of this interest. The Franklin, NJ, spring and fall shows are still very worthy of everyone's attention. There is always a lot to see and do and always sleepers to be found.

Chet Lemanski

What minerals are PRIMARILY displayed as cut and polished slabs? (14 replies)

BOB HARMAN — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 03:57:13 +0000

I Today I was casually perusing Gail Spann's wonderful photos of the Houston Fine Mineral Show and came upon her photos of displayed polished slabs of VARISCITE. This brought back memories of about 20 years ago when I was a novice and sadly passed on a great specimen offered for less than $100 in a little tourist shop. But I got to thinking; are there any other collector display quality minerals that are ordinarily displayed as cut and polished slabs?

I thought about DATOLITE.......the nodules from the UP of Michigan, but most datolite is, in fact, displayed as crystalline specimens from its various worldwide locations. I also thought of agate, but of course, agate is almost always just quartz and most displayed quartz specimens are the crystals. Sooooo, assuming variscite is mostly displayed as the polished slabs, are there any other minerals that are mostly displayed that way rather than crystal specimens? Any help here with my question? CHEERS...........BOB

Houston Fine Mineral show report, Gail Spann style. (6 replies)

Gail Spann — Wed, 01 May 2013 03:12:41 +0000

[www.mineral-forum.com]

new (7 replies)

sheldon ward — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 01:05:48 +0000

new things

could you identify this (15 replies)

leann smith — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 12:23:09 +0000

found this rock on a beach in maine

Dirtlow Rake, Derbyshire, England (no replies)

Andy Lawton — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 12:18:43 +0000

Hi all,

Does anyone have a pdf copy of this article I could scrounge so as to save myself a bit of time:

Exploration and extraction of structurally and lithostratigraphically controlled fluorite deposits in Castleton- Bradwell area of Southern Pennine orefield, England. N. J. D. Butcher & J. D. Hedges, Transactions of the Institution of Mining & Metallurgy (Section B: Applied Earth Science), 96(August), 1987, pp 149-155.

Thanks

Andy

Nice Baryte crystal surprised me when geode cracked (no replies)

Charles Snider — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 18:19:09 +0000

I have many large geodes in my patio. I live in New York City too. I bought a used soil pipe cutter to start cracking them open.

This is my favorite thus far, but I still have a beach-ball of a geode to crack.

[attachment 45006 DSC_0415.JPG]

Massive Slide At The Bingham Pit (10 replies)

Rick Dalrymple — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 15:56:00 +0000

Slide

Here is a link to the local channel's info.

Anybody have more info to add?

Rhodonite? Please help me identify (14 replies)

Wesley Hall — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 20:49:01 +0000

Specific gravity is around 3.20 to 3.24 with a hardness of 5 on the MOHs scale. Been searching all day and night and can't seem to get to the right information to identify this. Any and all help will be gladly appreciated.

Any ideas on this curious Augite? from France (5 replies)

Walter Kellogg — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 15:00:54 +0000

Hello:

Found this in a flat from the Steve Pullman collection. Other than black, it sure doesn't look like Augite to me. There is a volcano in the Ardeche Dept. of France named Chenevari but there is next to no information online regarding the location other than a reference of Obsidian being found there. The host rock does look like Rhyolite. Does anyone know more about the location or have any suggestions for the species?

Note on photos: have a few more which to upload, but there is a max of three, so will do so later. Also, there is some foreign matter attached to some of the hairlike crystals which could not be blown off.

Thanks,
Walter

Adding a photograph (8 replies)

James Jones — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 09:50:24 +0000

Hi,

I have a question. How do you have a photograph show up and be visible with your comment without a user having to click on "Attachments: download / open"?

Thank you.

For the Love of ...box work? (16 replies)

Rick Dalrymple — Tue, 07 May 2013 00:02:04 +0000

For the love of…box work structure?

Following the “love of dendrites” thread as an example, I thought I would start one on box work structures. I know they are not as common or exciting as dendrites but they are unusual and fun.

There are two I collected yesterday at the Gold Hill Mine, Tooele County, Utah.


© Rockpick Legend Co.


© Rockpick Legend Co.

wallpaper - the old fashioned kind - for your study, perhaps? (3 replies)

Maggie Wilson — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 23:05:05 +0000

A designer friend sent me this link

[www.anthropologie.com]

pseudomorph after helvite new find today (1 reply)

li bin — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 16:50:15 +0000

001-41.jpg

005-39.jpg

003-41.jpg

004-37.jpg

007-34.jpg

the crystal size : 2.3*2.4CM

From Inner mongolia

Agate Photos (1 reply)

Kelly Colberg — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 05:02:13 +0000

I was just browsing the agate photos here and came across several that were taken by Vítězslav Snášel and I just want to compliment him on the beautiful photos...here is one of my favorites. [www.mindat.org]
This particular one reminds me of a pool, like the hot spring pools at Yellowstone, just breathtaking!

10 deadliest Minerals? (39 replies)

Reiner Mielke — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 14:27:57 +0000

See this link. [www.mining.com]

Serpentine Pseudomorphs (5 replies)

Bradley Plotkin — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 12:55:54 +0000

Based on some old references such as "Genesis of Antigorite and Talc" by Alexis A. Julien, Annals of NY Academy of Science, vol.XXIV pp.23-38 - Julien describes Serpentine var. Marmolite as a pseudomorph after Brucite, and Chrysotile as a pseudomorph after fibrous Brucite (Nemalite.) - This seems to make sense from specimens I have observed from Hoboken NJ. Is this still currently accepted and how much if any of the fibrous Serpentine (Chrysotile) is really pseudomorphous?

How do you tell natural citrine from iron staining? (17 replies)

Michael Simpson — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 21:02:28 +0000

Is there an easy way to distinguish natural citrine from iron staining? I have some beautiful quartz with vibrant color. I broke one piece off to see an isolated crystal.

New find natural gold specimen with quartz (2 replies)

li bin — Sat, 11 May 2013 14:13:42 +0000

natural gold specimen with quartz
Location:Hunan province China

0614181001362581226.jpg

0855493001362581108.jpg

0148394001362580853.jpg

0107241001362580511.jpg

Kutemajärvi mine (5 replies)

Ilkka Mikkola — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 20:58:11 +0000

Could somebody add minerals to Kutemajärvi mine, Finland?
Altaite
antimony
claushalite
Gold
Joseite
Melonite
Montbrayite
Pyrite
Rucklidgeite
Telluroantimony
Tetradymite
Tetrahedrite
Volynskite

Ref: Kinnunen, Aulis 2008. A paleoproterozoic high-sulfidation epithermal deposit at Orivesi, Southern Finland.
Acta Universitatis Ouluensis, Series A.
Scientiae Rerum Naturalium 507.
Ilkka

Sedimentary Geode Geology (11 replies)

Dave Crosby — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 22:52:23 +0000

What geological process formed the millions of voids that allowed the formation of sedimentary geodes?

The "Thundereggs" found in all provinces where rhyolite and obsidian flowed began as cristobalite puff-balls that were ripped open as the mass around them contracted enough to allow trapped water to expand into steam, the voids later filled with whatever (surely a scientific term?).


©

The "Geodes" found in basalts and andesites were gas bubbles that were later filled with whatever.


©

Impact agate bubbles are described by Dr. Bill Cordua of the U. Wisconsin in River Falls in a PDF:
Agate Hunters Point Way to an Impact Crater
minds.wisconsin.edu/bitstream/handle/1793/11585/AgateHunters.pdf?sequence=1

Quote
Dr. Bill Cordua
A Finnish geologist, H Papunen, noted that the agates were found with chunks of other rocks that were typical of those found in craters formed by asteroid impact with the earth. Rocks melted by such a powerful event would form gas bubbles just like those in conventionally formed lava flows. These gas bubbles could then easily be filled later on by agate-forming solutions

Questions:
1. Could impact generated bubbles be the source of the voids in carbonate soils?
2. What geologic layers are they found in?
3. What are the ages of the layers?
4. What other processes have been put forward to explain the voids - dissolved minerals, dissolved fossils, . . . ?

Update Kutemajärvi, Finland? (4 replies)

Pekka Ruoho — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 20:15:54 +0000

I would like to add some photos to [www.mindat.org].
I visited local club in Tampere (talking about Mindat) and got some specimens from Outokumpus mine in Kutemajärvi.
Before I add these with additional information about TB (Tampere Belt), I would like to have second opinion!

kutema.jpg

This is typical stone from mine dumps: lazurite?

unknown1.jpg

..and on surface you can see these lots of these ? Sericite (muscovite?) size 8-10mm

tellurobis.jpg

Is this tellurobismouthite (small piece 25x15mm)?

tellurobis2.jpg

same mineral but some bigger specimen

I am sorry about the pic quality (it is still very gray winter weather in Finland), but I will try to get better.
They had 3 big plastic bags filled with these specimens. So nothing rare, but first ones for me!
Small report of TB (Tampere Belt) with gold mines in Haveri och Orivesi.

Regards from Finland
PekkaR
ps I think this should be on Talk pages for localities, but I am not allowed to start new threads there.

Spam from mindat members (4 replies)

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Clinotyrolite or Tyrolite from Clara Mine (1 reply)

Vik Vanrusselt — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 15:24:54 +0000

Hello all,

Today I received (among many other specimens), a specimen of Clinotyrolite from the Clara Mine (http://www.mindat.org/locentry-68737.html).

This entry says: might be Tyrolite (shown in 2005 to be monoclinic).

Has any work been done since on this species?

Both species are "believed valid" at Clara, but Clinotyrolite has been "published without approval".

Can anyone sort this out for me?

Thanks,

Vik

Theory of crystal formation complete again (no replies)

Vik Vanrusselt — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 00:00:40 +0000

Hello all,

found an article online which may or may not be of interest to some of you:

[www.sciencedaily.com]

Vik