A subtitle for this Blog might be "I wish to become a better mineralogist :) and to acquire a finer binocular scope with a nice powerful camera."
I always considered geologists, especially soft rockers and paleontologists, as historians---we just studied “older” items and events. Perhaps that is why I continue to study “history” and relate events in “modern’ (post 1943) history to events in my life. The year 1967 sticks out in my mind for several reasons, not the least of which was the completion of an MS Degree (Geology) from the University of South Dakota (USD). The number of U.S. troops in Southeast Asia increased to about half a million and even here in the Heartland there were negative rumblings about the prolonged conflict. USD had an ROTC program and the recruiting (among students) for commissioned officers seemed to be more intense in 1967 than in 1965 when I first arrived in Vermillion. I enjoyed my two years at USD and made many friends and acquaintances, mostly students from small communities in South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa holding similar values as mine. In fact, I decided to attend USD due to its small size---similar to my undergraduate institution in Kansas. I was just a small-town kid who liked to collect rocks!
I always considered geologists, especially soft rockers and paleontologists, as historians---we just studied “older” items and events. Perhaps that is why I continue to study “history” and relate events in “modern’ (post 1943) history to events in my life. The year 1967 sticks out in my mind for several reasons, not the least of which was the completion of an MS Degree (Geology) from the University of South Dakota (USD). The number of U.S. troops in Southeast Asia increased to about half a million and even here in the Heartland there were negative rumblings about the prolonged conflict. USD had an ROTC program and the recruiting (among students) for commissioned officers seemed to be more intense in 1967 than in 1965 when I first arrived in Vermillion. I enjoyed my two years at USD and made many friends and acquaintances, mostly students from small communities in South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa holding similar values as mine. In fact, I decided to attend USD due to its small size---similar to my undergraduate institution in Kansas. I was just a small-town kid who liked to collect rocks!
Vermillion, like most college towns, had a plethora
of watering holes with undergraduates frequenting such places as the Rathskeller
and the Varsity. Carey’s was a “locals”
hangout and the owner really did not appreciate a college crowd. The graduate students (older in age and
wiser) enjoyed the Charcoal Lounge (CharBar), a “21 bar.” For special events we visited the Black Steer
in Yankton (rarely, as it was expensive, or so it seemed to poor students).
Good geology was a little scarce around Vermillion—a
few outcrops of Cretaceous rocks sticking up through the glacial crude or
exposed along the Missouri River. But,
there was always an excuse to visit the Black Hills in “West River” thinking
nothing of driving 400+ miles, one-way, in a long weekend! It actually was closer to visit my home in
Kansas, 325 miles, than take a trip to the Hills. But hey, there were lots of interesting rocks
out west. I fell in love with the Hills
and still enjoy, immensely, my continued trips.
For my thesis I picked an area out in the badlands
south and west of the National Monument and examined some late Tertiary
gravels. I really did not do a very good and scientific job but certainly had a
great time collecting and camping and looking at rocks.
The other important event of 1967 (late summer) was
embarking on a long-term commitment (47 years and counting) with my
spouse. I had made up my mind in an
earlier year that current schooling was only hitting the fringe of geology and
that a more advanced graduate degree was in my future—I hoped! So, I begin to submit applications and was
somewhat hesitant since I certainly was not the University’s brightest student;
however, I loved classes and was persistent in applications. Turns out I received several offers from some
major institutions; however, I wanted to “go west.” I was ecstatic when the University of Utah
called with an appointment and I immediately accepted. My adviser was not pleased since there were
other accepting institutions with “major” reputations; however, I wanted
“mountains,” not reputations! So, in
about a 10 day period, I graduated from USD, got married, informed my draft
board, and headed to Utah. It was an
exciting, and frightening, time. We headed to Salt Lake City in a 1959 Pontiac,
~$250, and listening to the Rolling Stones, the Doors, and the Beach Boys (we
were not fans of the later Beatles nor Isaac Hayes). But with an AM radio one did not get much of
a choice in western Colorado and eastern Utah! (See Blog August 21, 2012: Utah
Petrified Wood and Flower Children).
A commitment that has reached 47+ years and counting. |
We located an apartment near campus where I could
walk to classes, a “cheap” apartment where the landlord agreed to split our
rent of ~$70 per month into two $35 payments.
I was excited about classes and promptly marched over on Monday morning
to my 7:00 class, a non-credit “hazing” offering called Ph.D. French (or
something close). In those days, in a
cherished (by the faculty?) rite of passage, science students needed to have
reading proficiency in two foreign languages.
The classroom, and really the building, was rather empty at 7:00 am but
I promptly took my seat at 6:45 and waited, and waited, and waited, becoming
more frightened with each moment.
Finally it was nearing 8:00 am and I left and headed over the
Registrar’s office with my schedule. The
person behind the desk took a look, and promptly thought “what sort of a dofus
are we admitting these days?” Sir, she
announced, this class is at 7:00 pm! OK! At my previous institutions night classes
were essentially non-existent. Let the
kid out of the sticks and look what happens.
As noted in other Blogs, the University of Utah, was
following an “old school” model and had Departments of Geology, Mineralogy and
Geophysics. I had settled in with
Geology and rarely had contact with the other two areas—except on one
occasion. I was exploring dissertation
projects and my adviser sent me over to visit with the Chair of Mineralogy—Dr.
Bronson Stringham. Dr. Stringham had
spent his early years working in southern Utah with the famous Dr. Herbert
Gregory and my adviser though perhaps he could offer suggestions for a
project. I actually was quite frightened
since Dr. Stringham had the reputation, at least among the geology students, of
chewing up and spitting out non-mineralogy students. It turns out that he was a really nice guy,
very interested in field geology, and quite informative. Unfortunately, Professor Stringham died that
same year.
All of this banter leads to a copper mineral named
after the Professor, stringhamite. I had
never heard of this mineral until I ran on to callaghanite, a copper magnesium
calcium carbonate, named after Dr. Eugene Callaghan, the Chair of the newly
minted (1968) Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University. See Blog Callaghanite: a Rare Blue Carbonate (May 5, 2014).
The above two
photomicrographs are isolated crystals (non-striated) of stringhamite. Each is less than 1 mm in size. Collected
from Christmas Mine.
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Stringhamite, a hydrous calcium copper silicate
[CaCu(SiO4)-H2O], is a rare mineral being only found
(according to MinDat) at single localities in Japan and Chile, and in Arizona
(Christmas Mine and Twin Buttes Mine), California (Crestmore Quarries) and Utah
(Bawana Mine, the type locality).
Stringhamite crystals are a beautiful dark blue to blue-violet to azure
blue in color. They have a nice vitreous
luster and are transparent to translucent. Most crystals are very tiny, on the
order of less than one mm.
I find it extremely difficult to identify the
differences between stringhamite and kinoite, also a hydrous calcium copper
silicate [Ca2Cu2(H20)2(Si3O10],
when the two minerals are found together.
Kinoite is also a vitreous deep blue color and generally transparent. At the Christmas Mine south of Globe,
Arizona, the source of most kinoite on the current specimen market, the
crystals often occur as sprays and are striated. This latter point is about the only way that
I can differentiate the two minerals---assuming I can do such! In addition, stringhamite seems to occur as
isolated crystals as opposed to kinoite sprays (my opinion). Kinoite crystals seem larger than
stringhamite but are still mighty tiny. At
the Christmas Mine kinoite is also intimately associated, in many specimens,
with crystals of fluorapophyllite-(K) [KCa4(Si8O20)F,OH-8H2O].
In fact, most market specimens are
numerous blue kinoite crystals perched on colorless fluorapophyllite (or maybe
hydroxyapophyllite, I cannot tell the difference since there is a solid
solution series).
A spray of kinoite about 1.3 mm.
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I find it interesting that in the few western
localities (Christmas Mine, Bawana Mine, Santa Rita Mountains, AZ), kinoite and
stringhamite are contact metamorphic minerals (skarn) situated between
limestone and igneous intrusions. However, kinoite is also found in the copper
country of the Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan. Here the mineral is associated with the
basalt extruded during the rifting of the North American continent during the
late Precambrian (see Blog Denver Gem
Show: Copper 2012; April 7, 2013)
The Christmas Mine has produced some fascinating
mineral specimens and I wish that my mineralogical skills (and microscope) were
more advanced! I have four small samples
from the mine and they have a variety of minerals present. Unfortunately, the crystals are quite small
and difficult for me to identify. The
mineralization seems to be in a contact metamorphic zone between upper
Paleozoic limestones and a quartz diorite intrusion although there is some
mineralization between the limestones and the overlying Cretaceous volcanics. The mine is a former surface and underground
Cu-Au-Ag-Mo-Bi-Pb-Zn-Be-W mine operating from ~1900 until it closed in
1982. Copper seemed to have been the
main commodity although gold and silver were byproducts (above information from
www.MinDat.org).
Thus far I have been able to identify (I think)
apophyllite, kinoite, stringhamite, gilalite, grossular, black tenorite
(probably), calcite, ruizite (questionable), native silver (questionable), cuprite (maybe) and unknowns (definitely).
The best known specimens of kinoite are the blue
crystals on apophyllite. Width ~1.9 cm.
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Besides the kinoite and stringhamite, the most
interesting is gilalite, a rare copper silicate [Cu5Si6O17-7(H2O)]. Like the other Christmas Mine minerals,
gilalite is a sulfide skarn deposit (near junction of limestone and an igneous
intrusion). The type locality for the
mineral is at the Christmas Mine where the specimens are green spherules. When broken the spherules are bundles of radiating
fibers. According to MinDat, gilalite is only found at the Christmas Mine, and
single localities in Nevada, Greece and Brazil.
In my Christmas Mine specimens these green spherules are numerous.
The second location of kinoite in my collection is
from the copper country of Michigan, the Keweenaw Peninsula of the UP (home
of the Yoopers---see below). The Laurium Mine is near the old company town of
Laurium (named for the famous mining town in Greece). The mine later became part of the Calumet
& Hecla Mine. According to MinDat,
the prospect was discovered in 1904 and a shaft was sunk in 1907. Mining reached about 1000 feet but the mine
was closed in 1920 due to flooding. My
quite small specimen has kinoite, epidote, calcite, quartz, and a very red
copper mineral (maybe cuprite Cu2O).
Crystals of green epidote (left). FOV width ~6 mm. |
Cu2O |
Crystals of kinoite as well as kinoite included in calcite. The red mineral is a copper mineral and may be cuprite. FOV width ~6 mm. |
One of the great mineral museums in the country is
located at Michigan Tech University (Houghton)---the A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum. If you are ever in the UP make certain to visit
the displays (www.museum.mtu.edu).
One of the everlasting questions in the snow/mosquito
belt (Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan) is: What Da Heck Is A Yooper? The
people that live in the Upper Peninsula or the U.P. are called
"Yoopers" and are proud of it. The people that live under the bridge [Lower Michigan]
are called "trolls." The song "I'm a Troll Man" was written
about them. Lots of trolls from down below dream about moving to da U.P., but
there's no work here. So we let them come up to relax, enjoy and spend their
cash, but they gotta go home afterwards (www.dayoopers.com)
So, in the spirit of the
holidays, I present Da Yoopers (a group—see site above) most famous song (sung
to the tune Jingle Bells):
C'mon, cmon!
C'mon, you can do it!
(car starts)
All right!
Dashing through the snow
in my Rusty Chevrolet
Down the road I go
Sliding all the way
I need new piston rings
I need some new snow tires
My car is held together
By a piece of chicken wire
CHORUS
Oh, rust and smoke, the heater's broke
The door just blew away
I light a match to see the dash
And then I start to pray
The frame is bent, the muffler went
The radio, it's okay
Oh what fun it is to drive
This Rusty Chevrolet
I went to the IGA
To get some Christmas cheer
I just passed up my left front tire
And it's getting hard to steer
Speeding down the highway
Right past the Neguanee cops
I have to drag my swampers
Just to get the car to stop
(chorus)
(instrumental)
Bouncing through the snowdrifts
In a big blue cloud of smoke
People laugh as I drive by
And I wonder what's the joke
Got to get to Shop-Ko
To pick up the lay-away
'Cause Santa Claus is coming soon
In his big old rusty sleigh
(chorus)
C'mon, you can do it!
(car starts)
All right!
Dashing through the snow
in my Rusty Chevrolet
Down the road I go
Sliding all the way
I need new piston rings
I need some new snow tires
My car is held together
By a piece of chicken wire
CHORUS
Oh, rust and smoke, the heater's broke
The door just blew away
I light a match to see the dash
And then I start to pray
The frame is bent, the muffler went
The radio, it's okay
Oh what fun it is to drive
This Rusty Chevrolet
I went to the IGA
To get some Christmas cheer
I just passed up my left front tire
And it's getting hard to steer
Speeding down the highway
Right past the Neguanee cops
I have to drag my swampers
Just to get the car to stop
(chorus)
(instrumental)
Bouncing through the snowdrifts
In a big blue cloud of smoke
People laugh as I drive by
And I wonder what's the joke
Got to get to Shop-Ko
To pick up the lay-away
'Cause Santa Claus is coming soon
In his big old rusty sleigh
(chorus)
Check it out at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=50IgzksUqpQ
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