CHASIN' THE BLUES WITH JAKE, ELWOOD, KEVIN, BILL, AND BOB

 THIS POST WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 3-4 YEARS AGO AND HAS BEEN IN DRAFT FORM FOR AN UNKNOWN TIME. IN SCROLLING THROUGH MY POSTS I DISCOVERED IT AND THOUGHT IT NEEDED TO SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY.

Sprays of blue brochanite on quartz terminations (photomicrograph). Width FOV ~1 cm. Photo: Mike Nelson

 

And the idea of just wandering off to a cafe with a notebook and writing and seeing where that takes me for a while is just bliss. J. K. Rowling

Movie Poster, Public Domain, photographer unknown.

In this time of the Covid-19 pandemic and self-isolation my mind wanders, as do the minds of several rockhound friends. That wandering activity is not a “bad thing” as most of us have some degree of ”pandemic depression.  Listen to the advice of newscaster Diane Sawyer,  I've always found a cure for the blues is wandering into something unknown, and resting there, before coming back to whatever weight you were carrying. Between wandering I try to keep busy with other chores (I am tired of raking leaves) and activities.  I read a new book about every three days or so, play with the minerals, devour the newspaper, write letters to the editor (few are published), write/read several hours a day, watch a little TV (mostly older “happy” movies with such phrases as: Jake: That Night Train's a mean wine) , exercise a little, and listen to the oldies music channel : Elwood: What sort of music do you usually have here?  Claire: Oh we got both kinds, We got country, AND western. As you can probably surmise, I have a weird sense of humor and enjoy watching the Blues Brothers: I have four fried chickens and a coke. OK you need the see the two movies to understand the humor of Jake and Elwood!

 

Kyanite, a metamorphic aluminum silicate from Brazil. Photo: Kevin Witte.

Blue halite from the Delaware Basin, New Mexico.  Cube ~2.5 cm. X 2,5 cm. Photo: Mike Nelson.

 

Photomicrograph banded chalcedony left grading into blue chalcedony or silica infused chrysocolla surrounding black tenorite.  Notice green ?chalcedony encased in the blue.  Width of photo ~1.2 cm. Photo: Mike Nelson.

 

My days are not strenuous but are not too exciting either; however, we have food and shelter and family wellness and for this I am happy.  And, as you might suppose I am “retired” with Social Security and do not hold an actual working position and that certainly skews my activities and thinking.  One of the good things about my life is that I am learning much, not only about minerals, but about the world in general, how a virus operates, a new word every day, how bars form a significant part of our social wellbeing, about economics as the price of groceries heads upwards while gasoline trends down, and how scientists are taking a bum rap with this pandemic.  Personally, I am waiting for scientists to conquer the Covid-19 pandemic.

 

Blue-green microcline var. amazonite collected Lake George area Colorado (top), Galway, Ireland (bottom). Photo: Bob Landgraft, bottom; Kevin Witte, top.

 

Lapis Lazuli, metamorphic rock composed of sulfur-rich hauyne (in the Sodalite Group) with lesser amounts of calcite and pyrite.  Photo: Kevin Witte.

 

 

Lazulite a magnesium, iron, aluminum phosphate from Rapid Creek, Yukon, Canada. Width of crystal ~3 mm. Often confused with Lapis. Photo: Mike Nelson

But as I said, my mind tends to wander and this week, for some strange reason, my thoughts moseyed over to the color blue and all sorts of items popped into my mind, like: what is your favorite color?  For me it is blue.  As John Lennon once sang, “The sun is up, the sky is blue” or Judy Garland’s “Somewhere over the rainbow. Skies are blue.” Thinking about blue: 1) there are more songs with blue is the lyrics than any other color; 2) blue is the only color to have a genre of music named after it, The Blues; 3) if one of our 50 states primarily votes for the Democrat presidential candidate, it is a “blue state” 4) and so it goes. As for music:

Blue

Oh, so lonesome for you

Why can’t you be blue over me

Blue

Bill Mack but a big hit by LeAnn Rimes

 

Well it's one for the money, well it's two for the show

Well it's three to get ready, now go, cat go

But don't you step on my blue suede shoes

Well you can do anything but lay off of my blue suede shoes

Carl Perkins or Elvis Pressley

 

Devil with the blue dress, blue dress, blue dress,

Devil with the blue dress on

Mitch Ryder

 

Blues stay away from me

Uh-uh-uh, blues why don't you let me be

I don't know why you keep a-hauntin' me. and I guess that's why

Delmore Brothers

 

Got the blues, got the blues

Got the blues, got the St. Louis blues

Louis Prima

 

 

A poster, source unknown, advertising the Delmore Brothers.

 

Namibia

Namibia.

Lake George area, Colorado.

Fluorite, calcium fluoride. Italy. Photos above: Kevin Witte

Fluorite, calcium fluoride. Photo: Bob Landgraft.

What about your favorite Blues genre or blue in the lyrics song?  Do rockhounds have a favorite?  Well, as an ole rock and roller like me (my age is certainly showing) Carl Perkins and Mitch Ryder are tough to beat.  But my all-time favorite is the Delmore Brothers, “Blues stay away from me.”  The music is very haunting (probably because of the tenor four string guitar and the harmonica of Wayne Raney, but it brings back memories of my youth when Saturday night dances were scattered across the rural areas of Kansas. Those dances usually presented a “big band” sound, or “hillbilly” music; rock and roll generally was confined to high school dances.  In the days before cable TV high school or “town team” sporting events, and local dances were the major sources of entertainment in rural parts of our country. Yea, I know very few readers have heard a recording by the Delmore Brothers!  But consider they were stars of the Grand Ole Opry in the 1930s and wrote more than 1000 songs. Perhaps Bob Dylan summed it up best: “The Delmore Brothers, God I really loved them! I think they’ve influenced every harmony I’ve tried to sing.”  So, there you know some of my strange secrets! Take a peek at this youtube recording:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUk9UDoVyKk

 

Aquamarine, Pakistan. Photo: Kevin Witte.

Aquamarine, Namibia.  Photo: Kevin Witte

Maybe you have a favorite "blue" movie?  Who could forget The Blues Brothers--It's 106 miles to Chicago, we've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark and we're wearing sunglasses. Hit it.  Perhaps Blue Velvet, The Blue Lagoon, Blue Hawaii, or the IMAX film the Blue Planet? But again, I am showing my age.

 

Plumbogummite with pyromorphite, China.  Photo: Kevin Witte.

Barite, Hartsel, Colorado.  Photo: Kevin Witte.

So, what about your favorite blue mineral?  I presume a large segment of the rockhound population would immediately state azurite, the copper carbonate. Others might spout turquoise or zoisite (tanzanite), opal, aquamarine, or numerous others. So, it popped into my head, since we do not have club meetings, ask members of the CSMS to send me photos of their favorite blue minerals.  I was expecting about 50 bored rockhounds to flood the emails! But it appears that most members must be occupied with other important activities and I sincerely thank Kevin Rockhounding the Rockies Witte, the guy who knows about fluorite Bob Landgraft, and Mr. Lapidary Tool Man Bill Kern.  But most of all I thank John Emery, the fantastic Pick & Pack Editor for allowing me to add rather frivolous material to a mostly serious newsletter.  However, the activity perked up my mind and perhaps readers might find a little humor to help put a damper on “pandemic fatigue”.  So, thanks John.

   

Azurite with malachite collected Arizona 1980s.  Photo: Bill Kern.

Quartz, enhanced (radiation?) to form "blue Quartz."  Photo: Bill Kern.

Azurite with Malachite, Cuba, New Mexico.  Photo: Kevin Witte.

I have espoused my views on blue minerals with numerous Blog postings and today have a couple of new, blue, copper arsenates: guanacoite and arhbarite.  You aren’t familiar with them? Neither was I until I found them in a dusty drawer of a small rock and mineral store and started reading.

Arhbarite, a hydrated copper magnesium arsenate [Cu₂Mg(AsO₄)(OH)₃], 
gets its “strange” name from the Type Locality in Morocco, the Arhbar (orAghbar) Mine.  It usually has a dark blue color, a vitreous to sub-vitreous luster, a blue streak, and often forms as botryoidal cluster of radially grown crystals.  However, at times the crystals are so tiny that the mineral appears massive. Arhbarite forms in the oxidized zone of polymetallic ore deposits due to percolating hydrothermal fluids and is usually associated with other copper arsenates such as conichalcite and guanacoite.  Arhbarite is a rare mineral only found in two localities, the Type and in Guanaco in Chile.

In fact, the “strange” name for the second mineral, guanacoite, comes from its Type Locality in the El Guanaco Mine (Atacama Desert, Chile).  The mine produces gold (primary commodity), silver, and copper (chalcocite, bornite, enargite, and covellite) from Eocene rhyolite.  It is both a subsurface and surface mine. In addition, the Mine is a source for numerous and colorful blue and green copper minerals, including copper arsenates.

Dark blue massive arhbarite vug (top) with light blue guanacoite  prismatic and bladed crystals (bottom).  Length (vertical in photo) of both minerals ~3 mm. Photo: Mike Nelson

Closeup of above photomicrograph. Photo: Mike Nelson.

Dark blue arhbarite surrounded by prismatic crystals of guanacoite.  Maximum width of blue mass ~1 mm. Photo: Mike Nelson. Guanacoite is similar to arhbarite in that it is a hydrated copper magnesium arsenate except it has additional water [Cu2Mg3(AsO4)2(OH)4-4H2O]. It has a pale blue to blue color, a white to light blue streak but most important for identification, it usually occurs as prismatic, acicular to bladed, translucent crystals.  Guanacoite is often found as tiny blades lining, or associated with, vugs of arhbarite.  Again, it is a rare mineral only known from the Type Locality, Morocco, and Spain.    The copper zinc carbonate, rosasite (R) and the arsenate mixite (M) from the Tintic district..  FOV ~ 1 cm. Photo: Mike Nelson.