COLLECTING AMMOLITE IN ALBERTA

One of the “fun” things about being a rockhound is the opportunity to join with like-minded persons in a local rock and mineral club(s).  Upon moving to Colorado Springs nearly ten years ago I attended a meeting of the Colorado Springs Mineralogical Society (www.csms.us) (CSMS), was greeted warmly, and shelled out a few bucks to join.  The club usually meets on the third Thursday of the month at the Colorado Springs Senior Center; see the web site for additional information.  In addition to the monthly meetings, the club has a number of satellite groups that hold regular or semi-regular meetings, numerous field trips are scheduled for the summer months, and an informative newsletter is published ten times per year.

Most rock and mineral clubs in the U.S. belong to one of the seven regional federations that span the country.  CSMS belongs to the Rocky Mountain Federation of Mineralogical Societies (RMFMS) as do other clubs in Colorado (20), Arkansas (1), Oklahoma (10), Kansas (7), Nebraska (1), South Dakota (1), North Dakota (1), Nevada (1), Texas (1) Utah (7), Wyoming (6), New Mexico (7) and Arizona (17).  The Federation holds yearly meetings with field trips, publishes a newsletter, and a number of committees works on projects between meetings.  See the website at www.rmfms.org. 

In turn, the regional federations belong to the “mother” federation, the American Federation of Mineralogical Societies (www.amfed.org).  Their structure is similar to the regional federations—hold a yearly meeting, publish a newsletter, and support committees working on a variety of projects.

In the RMFMS I chair the International Relations Committee, not because of any great expertise in the area but because volunteering to fill a vacant position seemed a decent thing to do.  It has turned out to be an interesting assignment since I get to correspond with international rockhounds and sometimes am able to offer valuable (I hope) advice.  Last year I was able to connect a person living in Germany (via Yahoo interpretation program) desiring Arkansas Novaculite with a dealer in that state.  I also was able to help a rockhound planning a commercial geology trip to the western U.S.

The majority of the questions received are from European visitors (15 this year) requesting information on collecting rocks, minerals and fossils in the United States---where to collect. Most people who contact me have noted my collecting interests shared on these Blog Postings.  A few have seen the specimens of amazonite and smoky quartz at a rock and mineral show and are interested in digging. One North African wanted to sell me “giant” barite roses. I am somewhat able to converse with persons requesting information on collecting in the Midwest and Rocky Mountain states but am generally lost on collecting east of the Mississippi River. Often the various state geological surveys have collecting information that I relay to requesters, or perhaps I know of books such as the roadside series. It is not an onerous job and I sort of like conversing with these visitors. At any one time 10-20 percent of my Blog readers are international residents. What that means---I don’t have the slightest idea!

Fantastic specimens of cephalopods displaying a gemmy finish called ammolite.   Collected from Cretaceous rocks of Alberta, Canada (legally).

I also had an inquiry from two U.S. residents living in a state of the Midwest Federation of Mineralogical Societies. They wanted to know if a group of rockhounds could travel to Alberta, Canada, and hunt/collect ammolite from Cretaceous ammonites. I was not quite understanding why they picked me out of the lineup but was pretty certain the answer was “no. But I decided that must be one of life’s persistent questions that needed an answer. The group was also interested in contacting Alberta rock and mineral clubs. Well, I have been to Calgary and Medicine Hat a couple of times but never visited a rock club. However, I was able to locate answers to both questions due to the wonders of the Internet!

The short answer to the collecting question is “no,” visitors to Alberta may not collect fossils since they are protected under the Historical Resource Act (HRA). But visitors may purchase fossil leaf impressions, petrified wood, oyster shell and ammonite shell under some circumstances.

Visitors may purchase these fossils from First Nation (Native Americans in the states) sellers who collected such fossils on their Reserves (Reservations). The fossils may then be brought to the U.S. and sold or whatever. But it would be wise to ask the seller for a copy of their letter authorizing them to collect, as well as a written invoice. This documentation is great for getting through Customs. 

Visitors may also purchase these fossils from vendors at trade shows or retail shops. But again, ask for documentation: get a copy (best) of their disposition certificate received from the Government of Alberta, or at least record the number of the certificate (not as good).

Most of us have seen ammolite on display and for sale at major rock and mineral shows here in the U.S. (and probably elsewhere); therefore, it must be “legal” to purchase---and it is. But I add a small disclaimer (news to me): ask the vendor for their disposition number (an OK to sell), their export documents (an OK to export out of Canada) and get a copy of your receipt. With the purchase and the documents buyers may do what they want with their specimen.

OK, back to collecting. Neither visitors, or nor even Canadians, may  collect ammonite shells (baculites, scaphites, belemnites, ammonites [I presume also nautiloids and ammonoids]) on private land or Crown land without a permit. Canadians may surface collect other fossils, including petrified wood, on both private and Crown land [I presume invertebrates only but remain uncertain]; however, they cannot export or sell such fossils without a permit. It also is my understanding that visitors to Canada may not collect fossils of any sort, and one certainly does not want to offer explanations to Customs. And if visitors do purchase, they must make certain to declare such items at the border. So, my suggestion is to go sightseeing or fishing in Canada but not to pick up rocks or fossils or other natural items.

I also found that Alberta does have a number of rock and mineral clubs:

www.afrc.ca/calgaryfacetersguild.htm Calgary Faceter’s Guild

www.crlc.ca/ Calgary Rock & lapidary Club

www.edmontonlapidary.ca/ Edmonton Tumblewood Lapidary Club

www.afrc.ca/lacombe.htm Lancombe Handicraft & Lapidary Club

www.afrc.ca/medicinehat.htm Medicine Hat Rock & Lapidary Club

www.rockhounds.ca/ Southern Alberta Rockhounds

A couple of final comments. Last year in Tucson I noticed ammolite on large cephalopods collected in Montana. This year I saw a very nice ammonite (with ammolite) collected in South Dakota. In the early1980s I had an opportunity to participate in a couple of Canadian field trips and distinctly remember picking up and examining a few baculites scattered across the landscape. The leader reminded me that I could look but not take them out of the country. In the late 1980s I flew to Saskatoon for a conference on musk oxen and reindeer (at that time I was working on fossil musk oxen). At the Calgary airport cute little furry toy seals were selling like hotcakes in the gift shop. However, when going through American Customs all of these cute little guys were confiscated since the original fur bearing animals were on the endangered or threatened or marine mammals species act in the U.S. And finally, during my recent fishing trip to Ontario, Canada, two 70+ year old guys with a week’s growth of beard and traveling in a 15-year-old pickup were detained for 1.5 hours by Customs. The drug sniffing dogs went through the vehicle not once but twice. The agents had a good look at at our used undergarments and stinky fishing clothes. They did find a 10-inch piece of a dead fir tree that was being taken home to be used to turn a custom fishing rod handle. It had not been declared and was a natural item so was confiscated. Luckily my two pieces of Precambrian rocks went unnoticed! So, don’t collect the fossils when you visit the great and interesting country to the north.

A nice cephalopod from South Dakota displaying color hues of ammolite.

Disclaimer: the interpretations of Canadian collecting laws are just that---my interpretations and understandings. Those interpretations and a couple of bucks would buy you a cup of coffee but would not stand up in a court of law. 

For additional information contact the Alberta Federation of rock clubs at: www.afrc.ca 

BLUE CAVANSITE; ZEOLITES: TUCSON 2016

Today was another short day on the observing/collecting trail.  In the last post I lamented about participating in dump day, a necessary but “not so fun” time---my least favorite day of the week.  Today is my second least favorite day, but one that is much more appealing to the sensory organs—laundry day!  This particular event always returns me, at least in my mind, to this dreaded day during my college years.  To be honest, I was terrified the first few times when entering a self-service laundromat, absolutely scared to death. Some of that fear continues today. 

Before leaving for the freshman year in college my mother tried to show me a few tips on the home washing machine about this entire ordeal; however, most of her information just did not take with me.  And, her machine was unlike anything I later observed in the laundromat.  Living in the residence hall (a dorm back in the old days) I tried to be very frugal with my clothes usage.  However, the day finally came on a Saturday—my roommate, also terrified of the monsters, suggested that we head out to wash our clothes.  Perhaps he was unsatisfied with my cleanliness, perhaps he was just running out of wearable material.  At any rate, off we went hoping to avoid meeting any females in the laundromat.  We assumed that females knew all about the washing process and we were greenhorns and did not want to show our lack of intelligence about certain items.  And besides, if members of the opposite sex were around we surly would need to sort of hide our “white clothes.”

Well, we picked the wrong time of the day for our little chore since most of the machines were busy, and several college coeds were present and seemly starring at us as we entered the dreaded building and put our claim to three washing machines.  My roomie just dumped his bag, containing all sorts of colors and whites, into the same machine.  At least I knew enough to stuff the colored material into one machine while sneaking the whites into another washer.  The next question revolved around how much soap should we use?  We had purchased a large bottle of the cheapest laundry soap we could find at the store. My buddy came to the conclusion that since we had cheap soap then more was better.  The machines were “top loaders” so we poured in a generous amount, and then added a little more.  We set the little button on “hot,” inserted the coins and stepped back with a smug look on our face---we had challenged the monsters and won, nothing to it---WRONG.  Big way wrong.  As the machine filled and the agitator began to whirl back and forth we noticed frothy bubbles creeping out of the void around the lid, something like a rabid dog. A few seconds later the bubbles turned into something like a volcano, pouring out of the machine and heading to the floor. The monsters were unleashed—who let the dogs out? Wow, what could we do as the machines would not shut down!  Could we pull the plugs and dip out the suds?  No, as the cords were hard-wired.  Our faces grew very red as we grabbed for a mop and spent the rest of the wash cycle trying to stem the river of soapy water.  The coeds, at least in our minds, were laughing their heads off at two guys from the sticks.

That little episode in the laundromat scared me forever and I still break into a cold sweat whenever I smell that particular odor coming out of a building.  Here in Arizona, laundry day simply means getting a later start on tackling some of life’s persistent questions.  However, I am pretty certain that laundromats left a vivid impression on many males of my generation.

Every year on a short day I try to visit a building on Oracle Street that specializes in zeolites from India.  This venue has the most amazing collections of zeolite minerals, several of which are museum-quality specimens.  I head to this store, not to purchase, but to observe the displays of minerals collected from the basalt on the Deccan Plateau.  The Deccan Traps, as the basalt is known, has produced some of the finest zeolite specimens in the world.  At virtually any rock or mineral show there are literally hundreds/thousands of Deccan zeolites for sale.  The encasing basalt was extruded somewhere around 65-66 Ma, right at the end of the Cretaceous.  Today the volcanic hotspot may lie under the Indian Ocean island of Reunion.  As crustal plates associated with the modern country of India passed over the hotspot on its way north to collide with parts of Asia (producing the Himalaya Mountains) vast quantities of basalt reached the surface.  And these basalt layers are rich in zeolites, a varied group of aluminosilicate minerals. 

 

A fine specimen of scolecite exhibiting several sprays of elongated and acicular crystals.  Height ~25 cm.

A large vug containing zeolite crystals, probably stilbite/stellerite and others.  This is a very large “concretion” perhaps 1.2 M in length.

Stalagmitic stilbite (I think) about ~30 cm in height.

Sprays of mesolite (I think) sitting on top of another zeolite, perhaps stilbite/stellerite.  These sprays are ~15 cm. high.

A really giant vug (notice lamp) exposing at least two different zeolites (stilbite/stellerite and others) in the center.  This “concretion” is ~152 cm in length.

I previously offered postings on a few zeolites such as those collected at Table Mountain in Golden, Colorado, the thomsonite nodules from Lake Superior and mordenite from the western US.  However, identification of individual species from this large group (~90) of minerals still confuses and sort of frightens me—sort of like entering a laundromat! 

 

So, what does one purchase while looking at Indian zeolites?  The obvious answer this year would be blue cavansite, a hydrated calcium vanadium silicate Ca(VO)SiO₄O₁₀-4(H₂O) (and I purchased three specimens).  One in my collection is a nice specimen of stilbite crystals (may be stellerite) perched on a base of heulandite, both are zeolites, with a dainty spray of tiny blue crystals perched on the stilbite. The record of discovery goes to the basalts cropping out in Malheur County, Oregon, but today most collector specimens come from India.  I suppose that I may have missed cavansite in Mineralogy class since it was not reported in the literature until 1967!

Cavansite spray perched on stilbite/stellerite with a base of heulandite.  Width of entire specimen ~5.5 cm while width of spray ~7.5 mm. top is a photo while bottom is a photomicrograph.

Cavansite usually appears as radiating sprays, or balls, of prismatic dipyramidal crystals (Orthorhombic System), blue in color, soft (3-4 Mohs), and with a vitreous luster. Cavansite is a secondary mineral (probably low temperature) found in vugs of basalt. It usually occurs with zeolite minerals but is not chemically related to that group. It has a paramorph termed pentagonite (same chemical formula and color but with bladed crystals) that seems to be a high temperature form.

So, although the day was short I saw some beautiful and spectacular zeolites and even made a frugal purchase of some nice blue minerals.

WHY IS THE SKY BLUE:  A clear cloudless day-time sky is blue because molecules in the air scatter blue light from the sun more than they scatter red light.  When we look towards the sun at sunset, we see red and orange colors because the blue light has been scattered out and away from the line of sight... Blue is the color between violet and green on the optical spectrum of visible light,      Human eyes perceive blue when observing light with a wavelength between 450 and 495 nanometres.
              From Dept. of Physics, University of Riverside, California,