rockhounding Archives - Page 17 of 18

September 7, 2018

Grand Junction Gem and Mineral Show

Grand Junctio Gem and Mineral Show

Gem and Mineral Show presented by Grand Junction Gem and Mineral Club is September 22-23, 2018.

New Location!
Mesa County Fairgrounds
Grand Junction, CO

Entry $3, Seniors and Military $2
Kids (under 12) are FREE!

http://www.grandjunctionrockclub.org/
The Grand Junction Gem and Mineral Club, Inc, is a nonprofit, taxexempt, educational organization. Our purpose shall be exclusively educational and social: (a) to increase and disseminate knowledge of the earth sciences pertaining to minerals, gems, rocks, artifacts, and fossils and similar subjects; (b) to promote and perpetuate knowledge of the lapidary arts;: (c) to encourage field trips; (d) to encourage greater public interest and education in gems fossils and minerals, cooperating with established institutions in such matters.

The Grand Junction Gem and Mineral Club meets on the second and fourth Thursday of each month at 6:30 pm in
our club building. November and December meetings will be on the second Thursday only. Our Annual Show is Mother’s
Day Weekend and is held at Two Rivers Convention Center at 159 Main St, Grand Junction, CO 81501. Classes and
workshops are offered throughout the year. There are sign-up sheets at the clubhouse to get on a waiting list and scheduled
classes are posted in the newsletter.

The Grand Junction Gem & Mineral Club, Inc. is affiliated with the Rocky Mountain Federation of Mineralogical Societies.
The club is located at 2328 Monument Road Grand Junction, CO, mailing address: P. O. Box 953, Grand Junction, CO
81502 The Club is a nonprofit, 501(c3) tax-exempt, educational organization.

March 24, 2018March 24, 2018

Treasures of the Earth, Pittston Gem and Mineral Show

DO YOU HAVE ROCKS IN YOUR HEAD? WE DO!

May 6 – 7, 2017 is our 13th Annual Gem & Mineral Show, at the Oblates of St. Joseph, 1880 Hwy 315, Yatesville, PA (just outside of Pittston, PA).

This is a must-do event! Great times for the whole family, many of whom make a point of returning year after year.

We have many fun activities for the children, including a Treasure Hunt with prizes! There are FREE Craft Classes for the teenagers & adults. Come out & try your hand at Wire-wrapping & other Craft Classes offered. Raffles & Door Prizes by the hour. Free parking! Come see what you are missing!

14th Annual Gem & Mineral Show

See Flyer & Map below

May 6 – 7, 2017

Saturday May 6, 2017 10 am-5pm

Sunday May 7, 2017 10am-4pm

Oblates of St. Joseph Seminary

1880 Hwy 315

Yatesville, PA 18640 (just outside of Pittston, PA)

Reproduce this Flyer & bring to Show for $1. OFF ADMISSION

Does your gem, mineral or fossil club or society need new members in your ranks? How about new guests to your gem, mineral and fossil shows? Would you like rockhounds and gem, mineral and fossil enthusiasts to travel across state lines to visit your show? Would you like exponentially more traffic to your club’s homepage or the show’s homepage?

American Geode can help. Between 3000 and 10000 rockhounds and gem, mineral and fossil enthusiasts visit our website each month. They also contact us for suggestions on clubs to join, and shows and events to attend.

Other mineral websites charge between $600 to $1000 per year for a banner ad on their site.

We charge a flat rate of $150 for 12 month basic partnership and offer much more than other mineral sites. Send us two banner ads, 728×90 and/or 150×150, that we will post on our website. As an add-on service, send your club announcements and show announcements for us to post over our famous American Geode Twitter with 10,000+ rockhound followers, fans and friends.

The benefits to you and your club are that you will raise higher in the Google ranks when someone searches for gem and mineral clubs, and gem and mineral shows. You will also view many more visitors to your site, soliciting information about how to join your club, download your member application form, and visit your shows.

March 12, 2018August 24, 2018

Herkimer Diamond History and Heritage

Now the source and formation of Herkimer Diamonds is of particular interest to us here at American Geode because the Herkimer Diamond was formed in “pockets” not unlike the pockets that formed geodes. Most quartz crystals grow, over the course of millions of years attached to a matrix, attached to the surrounding rock or stone. So in those formations only one end of the quartz crystal grows to its point. With Herkimer Diamonds forming inside pockets, freed from the surrounding matrix stone, they grow points on both ends.

The Herkimer Diamond began forming nearly 500 million years ago in pockets within a sedimentary rock called Dolostone (Dolomite and Limestone). Sedimentary rock, different from its two cousins Igneous rock and Metamorphic rock, is formed by layers of mineral and organic matter under hundreds of million years of pressure. As more layers of mineral and organic matter are deposited, this increases the pressure and weight on the lower and earlier layers of sedimentary rock below. The Dolostone covered Herkimer County during the Cambrian Age, when Herkimer County was also the bottom of the sea that spanned across North America.

Now this is the part of the Herkimer Diamond formation that is similar to the way geodes are formed: organic material, plants and sea life would die and be buried under new layers of sedimentary stone. When these plants and other sea life would decompose under the rock, they release gases, and this gas is what formed the “pocket.” Evidence of this organic, plant material succumbing to decomposition is clear when you see the black shiny flakes of Anthraxolite that surround or leak from these pockets. Anthraxolite is a carbon compound and by-product formed when organic material breaks down.

So as the organic material decayed and broke down it became a gas, trapped below layers of sedimentary stone. Air creates its own pressure inside a substance, so the air pressure was carving out its own cavity from the inside out. These air pockets became the pockets we rockhounds discover as we crumble, break, and peel away layers of the dolostone. Over the course of 200-250 million years the layers of sedimentary rock increased and grew, and this increased the pressure and heat on the buried dolostone. Also inside each of these air pockets were various quartz and carbon elements and other compounds “feeling the heat” from being buried below layers of sedimentary rock.

Under this pressure of the sedimentary layers of rock, and the ensuing heat, the quartz and other compounds inside these pockets began to transform themselves. Finally, over the course of 300 million years, the glaciers that sat atop Herkimer County began to melt, and washed away layers of the sedimentary rock, and allowed the compounds and elements inside these pockets to cool down and then crystallize.

An important question to answer right now is “why are the Herkimer Diamonds double-terminated?” The answer is that quartz does not adhere to the dolostone, therefore the quartz trapped inside these air pockets did not attach to the surrounding matrix host stone. The process left the quartz crystals free to fully crystallize unattached and allowed both of the ends to grow into fully terminated points. Many Herkimer Diamonds are found as clusters attached to one another. They adhered to one another during their crystal growth formation, but again did not adhere to the dolostone interior of the air pocket. The value of Herkimer Diamonds is determined by size and their opacity or translucence. The larger and more translucent Herkimer Diamonds are worth more to a collector or jeweler than the smaller opaque specimens. Knowing the history and background of the Herkimer Diamond however lends a premium in our opinion when you are considering adding Herkimer Diamonds to your collection. They are not commercially mined due to various New York state laws limiting mining in the state, and most of Herkimer County is being used today by happy grazing cows, sugary apple orchards, tart cherry trees, farms of squash, cabbages and onions, and wine grapes. We have recently gained access to heretofore unmined and barren acres in the Herkimer County area on the same geologic slope and ledge as the traditional Herkimer Diamond mines. We are in consultation right now with the owner about constructing a pole-barn over this new Herkimer mine so we can mine year-round.

March 17, 2015April 14, 2017

Gem and Mineral Shows – The Essential Guide

For the most up to date events, check out our Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Newswire.

Gem and Mineral Shows – The Essential Guide

From attending, hosting, volunteering, and selling at gem and mineral shows in New York, Texas, Arizona, and Indiana, we consider ourselves gem and mineral show aficionados. So whether you are attending a gem and mineral show for the first time that perhaps you found on our Events page, or you are a veteran of gem and minerals shows, this primer on shows will prove to be a valuable resource of tips to make your experience more efficient and more fun.
Continue reading “Gem and Mineral Shows – The Essential Guide”

March 17, 2015September 21, 2016

Gem and Mineral Clubs – The Essential Guide

From attending, volunteering for, and being members of gem and mineral clubs in New York, Texas, Pennsylvania, and attending camps, seminars and intra-club retreats with people from all over the United States, we consider ourselves gem, mineral, and fossil club aficionados. So whether you are considering joining a gem and mineral show for the first time that perhaps you found on our Events page, or you are a veteran of gem and mineral clubs, this primer on clubs will prove to be a valuable resource on what to expect from a gem and mineral club and how to have more fun.
First, consider what you are seeking from a club. Is it the academics and education of gemology, geology, paleontology, or archaeology? Are you seeking rockhound partners and buddies? Are you seeking to use a work-shop for cabochon or lapidary arts? Are you seeking fellowship with a group that meets outside of their monthly meetings? These are questions to ask as you search for the club that is right for you.
The answer may be to join more than one club.
Each club does have a different style, and you can tell what that is from their homepage, or if they do not maintain a homepage, then ask someone from the club. We belong for instance to one club in Long Island who meet every Saturday in the basement of a natural history museum and they have a complete workshop! Saws to cut giant geodes in half, cabochon machines, polishing wheels, lapidary tools, faceting machines, and kilns to heat your wire-wrapping or jewelry projects are for your use each Saturday! In Texas, another club where I belonged had all that equipment in their own private clubhouse! Is a workshop something you seek to pursue and hone your hobby? If so, then find the club that offers that equipment.
Now the clubs like this may not always have a special monthly speaker, but the clubs who meet in a rental space, hotel banquet hall or college facility very likely provide different speakers each month. The clubs in big cities, where a workshop or clubhouse would be impractical, or impossible to acquire and maintain rely on other facilities for our monthly meetings and shows, so to keep our membership growing, those kinds of clubs keep a lively roster of speakers on their calendars.
Is your goal to get out and rockhound? Do you seek to explore old abandoned mines? A question to ask a club is do they throw and organize field trips? You can often times find out the answer on their homepage. There is often a “field trip” section, much like our Rockhound page. If you can’t tell, then ask the club. Sometime being in a big city can make field trips a challenge. Most people in New York City or Chicago do not have cars for instance. A field trip would require permission and arrangement to visit a site, a bus or fleet of vans, and if it rains, the field trip is canceled. Another very important benefit of rockhounding with a gem and mineral club is that they are often insured to visit locales closed to the public. The organized gem and mineral clubs arrange the trips in advance with the property owners, and insurance for the group is a requirement to step foot on the property or site.
Now not all big city clubs offer field trips and rockhounding. The age range of the club can also set the tone for interest in rockhounding and field trips. For a club whose members’ days of getting out and rockhounding are retired, you may not find rockhounding opportunities.
So what is the best approach to becoming involved with gem, mineral, and fossil clubs? The answer is to join more than one. The dues are annual and range from $15 per year to about $50 per year on the very high side. There is a club in Houston to which I still belong, I am in New York City mind you, but this club’s newsletter is chock full each month of so many good tips about polishing gems and minerals, cleaning rocks from the field, and other anecdotes, that like “Playboy” magazine, I subscribe to it strictly for the articles!
So join more than one club, like we have, as we have access to a workshop when we need it, field trips in the spring and fall, the chance to hear academic and scholarly discussions in geology and paleontology, and we are making new friends, and you will too, during the whole gem and mineral club experience!
If you have other ideas or feedback about gem, mineral, and fossil clubs, please click the “Contact Us” button on the left of the screen and tell us. Be sure to continue checking our Events page for the most up to date gem, mineral, and fossil club announcements along with breaking news in geology, paleontology, and natural history. #GetOutandRockhound