TUCSON MAIN SHOW 2016

 

Well, the big day finally arrived---the opening of the 62^nd Annual Tucson Gem and Mineral Show.  I was in line early on opening day, the 11^th of February.  The theme of the 2016 show was Shades of Blue: Minerals of the World.  I was guessing the displays would include a variety of sapphires, topaz, fluorite, and azurite.  As it turned out, that was a pretty good estimate; however, I did not use up much brain power with that pronouncement! Much of the “fun” at the Tucson Show always includes the innovative names for the display cases.  The “Shades of Blue” theme brought out such titles as: The Birth of the Blues, Rhapsody in Blue, Shades of Blue, It’s a Blue, Blue, Blue World, Maine’s Got the Blues, Colorado Blues, Blue Minerals of the World, Blue Hues from Arizona, Mother Nature Sings the Blues, Arizona Type Blues, and the rather mundane Azurite from Russia.  Of course my favorite case was displayed by Jack and Kaye Thompson direct from the Colorado Springs Mineralogical Society. 

Thumbnails exhibited by Jack and Kaye Thompson.  My camera did not record this display well so the above photo is from the website www. Minerals.net and is copyright by Hershel Friedman and Minerals.net.

During most visits to the Show I find very few minerals within my purchasing budget.  I usually come home with a specimen or two but attend the Show mostly to see the fantastic display cases filled with minerals, and to ogle at the “for sale” minerals often priced at many tens of thousands of dollars.  Everything about the Show is exciting.

The early morning line on Day 1 at Tucson 2016.

Blue Australian opals often have an amazing opalescent glitter.

Lapis lazuli is a combination of many minerals; however, the blue color is always prevalent. 

 

A selection of blue faceted and cabbed gems. 

Who could ask for nicer malachite?  They are not “blue” but are fantastic copper specimens. 

Take your choice:  blue aquamarine or a hunk of gold. 

Some really nice jewelry.

Some of the nicest shades of blue are found in fluorite specimens at from many localities.

The mines at Bisbee, Arizona are famous for their blue secondary minerals.

 

I would love to have this specimen of azurite and malachite from Morenci, Arizona.

Krohnkite is a rare copper sulfate.  This specimen came from the Chuquicamata Mine in Chile.

BLUE CARLETONITE: TUCSON 2016

One of the big venues of the Tucson Shows is held at the Hotel Tucson City Center (HTCC).  The 292 vendors come from around the world and sell a variety of minerals, rocks, fossils, shipping boxes, books etc.  Unlike some venues, for example Kino, the vendors are selling treasures with a geology connection.  I believe these vendor standards are due to the promoter, Coloradan Marty Zinn.

Many of these HTTC vendors are selling high end minerals and fossils.  For example, Joe Dorris from Colorado Springs had some great specimens of amazonite and smoky quartz pulled from his discoveries near Lake George west of the Springs.  Other dealers sold a variety of very fine, museum-quality, dinosaur casts.  If buyers wanted the “real thing” Glen Rockers of Hays, Kansas, offered some very nice vertebrate fossils he collected from the Smoky Hill Chalk Member of the Niobrara Formation (Cretaceous).  Rockers collects on private land in western Kansas; therefore, the collection of vertebrate fossils is quite legal.  It is only on public land that the collection of vertebrate fossils is illegal.

This vendor had a great display of blue tanzanite, the gem variety of the mineral zoisite. I find it interesting that many brochures and jewelers comment on the great scarcity of tanzanite and how the mining of the mineral is just “drying up.”  However, there are thousands of specimens, both raw and faceted, for sale each year at the major shows.  I would like purchase a nice piece; however, the specimens are well out of my price range!

The vendors at the show display their wares in the large ballrooms as well as most of the hotel rooms. 

This is an interesting specimen of quartz.  Does not look like quartz?  Well it is a pseudomorph after anhydrite.

Every kid interested in dinosaurs would love this replica of a poor ole plant eater being zipped by a couple of small raptors.

Nice therapod (meat eater) skull.  Note those massive shearing Nice therapod (meat eater) skull.  Note those massive shearing teeth.

This display is available every year and I love it.  There are fake Moroccan trilobites, and other critters, all over the place.  It is hard to say but a good guess might be 75%? 

This is a “real” fossil from the western Kansas chalk beds (Niobrara Formation): Xiphactinus, the “Bulldog Fish.” 

Glen Rockers of www.paleosearch.com always has nice displays of Cretaceous vertebrate fossils from the Kansas chalk beds.

A portion of a fossil cycad collected from Lower Cretaceous rocks in the southern Black Hills of South Dakota.  Cycad National Monument was created in 1922; however, without much supervision (by the local ranchers only) collectors simply pilfered most of the available specimens.  The Monument was decommissioned in 1957.  When I visited the area in 1966 a few pieces of the fossil plants were still around.  Specimen is from the Black Hills Institute of Hill City, South Dakota.

Before leaving for Arizona and the Tucson Shows I received my copy of Rocks and Minerals and was delighted the issue centered on “blue minerals” to correspond with the theme of the main Tucson Show.  One of the magazine articles was a description of the mineral carletonite, a new one for me [KNa₄Ca₄Si₈O₁₈(CO₃)₄(OH,F)-H₂O].  I noted it was such a gorgeous royal blue color but sort of put it aside in my mind as I saw descriptions such as rare, expensive, and “finding a fine specimen of carletonite today is nearly impossible.  And the outlook for the future is not promising…” (Pohwat, 2016).

Photomicrographs of carletonite with enlargement above.  Width FOV bottom ~8 ,mm.  Both royal blue and clear material can be observed.  

Carletonite was originally described as UK15 (for unknown) and was not named until 1971.  The mineral is only known from one locality, Poudrette Quarry Mt. Saint-Hilaire, in Canada.  The quarry has been off limits to collectors for several years and the main collecting pegmatite for carletonite is now flooded; therefore, with encouragement like that I did not expect to even see crystals of carletonite, let along see specimens for sale in my price range.  To my great surprise, as I was strolling along the motel rooms, I stopped to observe some “sale specimens” of a Canadian dealer.  Wow, there was a specimen of carletonite in my price range ($7).  It probably is not the best specimen in the world; however, it certainly qualifies as an interesting mineral in my collection since any specimens of carletonite on the market today come from older collections.

The colorful carletonite is that beautiful royal blue color although some crystals are colorless, pink or light blue. Many of the crystals are zoned with blue centers surrounded by colorless crystalline material.  This type of zonation may be seen in photos of my specimens.  The crystals range from transparent (colorless material) to translucent (blue material) and have a vitreous luster.  They are somewhat soft at 4.0-4.5 (Mohs) with a white streak.  The crystals (Tetragonal) tend to be prismatic although this feature is difficult to discern on smaller fragments.

Mont Saint-Hilaire is a fascinating mineral locality.  MinDat lists 404 valid minerals collected from the quarries with 63 of the species being first described from the locality.  What makes the locality so special? Powhat (2016) noted the dominant rocks at Mont Saint-Hilaire are feldspathoidal seyenite, an igneous intrusive rock composed of alkali feldspar, a feldspathoid, and accessory minerals. The feldspathoid minerals are usually sodalite (sodium aluminum silicate chloride) and nepheline (aluminosilicate of sodium and potassium).

Feldspathoid-rich rocks (wherever they occur) often produce a great variety of rare minerals, including carletonite.  A glance at MinDat will often amaze the rockhound since the list of minerals (the 404) is a lesson in “what in the world is that mineral?”  Besides the seyenite, carletonite also evidently occurs in metamorphosed siliceous limestone: marble (www.webmineral.com).

REFERENCES CITED

Pohwat, P.W., 2016, Carletonite, Mont Saint-Hilaire, La Vallee-du-Richelieu RCM, Monteregie, Quebec, Canada: Rocks and Minerals, v.91, no. 1.

BLUE SERPIERITE: TUCSON 2016

Now, when I finally found the Colorado Springs group I had forgotten my camera.  So, I have substituted some beautiful Mexican Gold Poppies blooming in the desert.  They are a spring delight.

My next journey was to visit the displays of the Miners Coop Rock Show.  I had been hunting several days for the vendors as the show venue moved from the 2015 location.  Of course I never bothered to examine one of the Show booklets to locate a position; however, even the booklet had a wrong listed location!  At any rate I found them on the west side of I-10 near the Ina Exit.  I was particularly interested in this group since at least three vendors were members of the Colorado Springs Mineralogical Society (CSMS).  In addition, a business from Arkansas and another from Gardner, Colorado, were present with their booths.  These latter two are regular vendors at our June CSMS event.  After visiting with the CSMS members, I diligently hunted through other displays and came up with up a couple of nice blue specimens of a calcium copper zinc sulfide known as serpierite [Ca(Cu,Zn)₄(SO₄)₂(OH)₆-3H2)].

Serpierite is another one of those nice blue copper minerals ranging from a light to a dark sky blue with some almost a blue-green turquoise color. It occurs in fluffy tufts, crusts, or aggregates of very tiny, lath-like vitreous crystals.  These small crystals are transparent and some almost lack color.  They are somewhat confusing, at least to a soft rocker like me, in that the crystals are elongated along axis a and not the “usual” c axis.  In fact, they are flattened along the c axis to produce the lath-like shape.  Serpierite fractures easily into splinters and seems quite soft (~2 Mohs).  I tried an unglazed porcelain plate and the mineral essentially leaves a white streak.

Serpierite is a member of the small Devilline Group. I have a small specimen of devilline [CaCu₄(SO₄)(OH)₆-3H₂O] where the small tuft of platy crystals are essentially impossible for me to distinguish from serpierite.  As one can observe devilline is missing the zinc of serpierite.  Add some cadmium in place of some of the calcium in serpierite and the mineral becomes aldridgeite (structure the same: isostructural). 

Serpierite is a secondary mineral and found in the hydrothermal zone associated with copper and zinc deposits.  For example, at the type locality of serpierite in the Lavrion District of Greece, there are numerous primary copper minerals and primary zinc minerals such as sphalerite.

 

I have three specimens of serpierite from different localities and all are somewhat different: Lavrion District, Greece; Creole Mine, Beaver County, Utah; Bay Horse District, Challis, Custer County, Idaho.

Photomicrograph of serpierite collected from its type locality at the Serpieri Mine, Lavrion District, Greece.  Width FOV ~3 mm.

The Lavrion District of southeastern Greece is probably the country’s most famous and oldest mining area.  There are signs copper was mined in the years 3000 B.C—2000 B.C. corresponding to the Early and Middle Bronze Age.  Of interest is that copper, along with tin, is the major component of bronze.  In 483 B.C. large deposits of silver were discovered and these mines had a direct and major effect on the creation of the Athenian Empire---Classical Athens.  The mines were abandoned in the 6^th Century A.D and reopened in the 1880s producing lead, silver, cadmium, manganese and helped finance the building of the modern country of Greece.  The ore deposits became exhausted in the 1980s. (above information from www.ancient-greece.org).

Photomicrograph of rosettes of lath-like crystals of serpierite collected from the Creole Mine, Beaver County, Utah. Width FOV ~1 cm.

My second specimen of serpierite was taken from the Creole Mine in Beaver, County, Utah, one of the more mineral-rich counties in western Utah.  Information about the mine is tough to locate; however, it was mined for scheelite crystals prior to 1943. Hobbs (1944) reported that several hundred tons of ore containing 0.75% WO₃ were mined out by 1943.  Prior to that mining activity lead and silver ores (probably silver- rich galena) were taken from “massive sulfide replacements in limestones along the contact of a quartz monzonite or granite dike.”  The scheelite was located in the overlying oxidized zone in masses of “limonite.”

Photomicrograph of numerous platy lathes of serpierite? Collected from the Bay Horse Mine, Challis, Custer County, Idaho. Width FOV ~7 mm.

Back in the 1980s I had an opportunity to help write an Environmental Impact Statement for a proposed fluorspar (fluorite) mine near the old ghost town of Bay Horse in the mining region of the same name.  Specifically, I was looking at the paleontological resources, if any, in the area of the proposed mine.  I do not remember all of the details except that we camped south of Challis along the beautiful Salmon River, the local population was not overly friendly to strangers, and the massive deposits of the Tertiary (Eocene, ~50-55 Ma) Challis volcanics held a gazillion pieces of petrified wood.

The rocks examined at the proposed mine were part of a thick section of something like 35,000 feet of Paleozoic marine rocks that have an extremely complex stratigraphic and structural history (Hobbs and others, 1991).  About the only fossils I remember finding (but again my memory sometimes fades) were numerous graptolites in the black shales.  It was sort of eerie driving through a deserted “ghost town” in remarkably good shape. The area was privately owned and we did not stop to explore.

Part of the Bay Horse Mining District now incorporated into the Land of Yankee Fork State Park.  Photo courtesy of www.deq.idaho.gov.

The Bay Horse mining area deposits were first noted in 1864 by a prospector traveling along the river but the first lode claim was not located until 1873.  In 1877, a major lead-silver vein was discovered and by 1878 a gold/silver rush to the area had begun. The metals were found in replacement ore bodies (probably associated with Cretaceous and Tertiary intrusives).  In 1880, a 30-ton smelter was constructed, and within two years charcoal kilns were constructed to provide the smelter with a local fuel source. By this time, the town of Bay Horse had a population of about 300 and a complex of substantial, permanent buildings.  Only nine years later in 1889 the smelter closed.  Evidently smaller scale production continued until 1925 as the ore was transported south to a smelter in Clayton.  The Bay Horse District was a quite productive area as total mineral production is estimated at ~200 oz. of gold, 6.3 million oz. of silver, 6.6 million lbs. of lead, and 39 thousand lbs. of zinc. (above from www.deq.idaho.gov)

   

Since I visited the area the State of Idaho made a great decision and purchased the Bay Horse area and renamed it the Land of Yankee Fork State Park.  I look forward to returning. And, I never paid much attention to note if the fluorspar mine was ever completed.

  

My third specimen of serpierite has an older looking label stating it was collected in the Bay Horse area at Challis, Idaho.  However, the descriptions of serpierite at www.mindat.org do not recognize the mineral at Bay Horse.  But I did find a reference in the Handbook of Mineralogy, www.handbookofmineralogy.com  noting the occurrence of serpierite from the Bay Horse Mine at Challis.  Maybe?  Maybe not?

REFERENCES CITED

Hobbs, S.W., W.H. Hays, and D.H. Mcintyre, 1991, Geologic map of the Bayhorse Area, Central Custer County, Idaho: USGS Miscellaneous Investigations Series Map I-1882 pamphlet.

Hobbs, S.W., 1944, Tungsten deposits in Beaver County, Utah: USGS Strategic Minerals Investigations Bulletin 945-D. 

AND SPEAKING OF ARIZONA GOLD AND ORANGE! 

BLUE LAVENDULAN: TUCSON 2016

The Kino Gem and Mineral Show is one of the larger venues housing items for sale at the Tucson shows.  In 2016 there were 205 vendors listed; however, it seems increasing difficult to purchase individual mineral or rock specimens.  Instead there are a wide variety of somewhat bizarre items for sale including guns (this is Arizona), “coon skin” hats complete with tails, authentic animal fur and skins, incense, gongs and brass items direct from Asia    The tents are set up at the Kino Sports Complex in south Tucson and are a mixture of individual tents and the large football field size units.  One large unit houses dealers displaying a great variety of lapidary machines while another tent has smaller kiosks stocked with overpriced jewelry.  What is missing are the small mom and pop operations that were once the heart of the venue---essentially booted out.  But life goes on as buyers could locate a great variety of amethyst cathedrals and smaller broken pieces. 

I do like the colors in this large concretion with internal agate banding.

And away we go to explore the offerings.

I always enjoy seeing specimens collected from siliceous hot water deposits near Milford, Utah.

Anything you need from southeast Asia, except rocks and minerals.

Here is my favorite guy at the venue offering tasty snacks.

So this is Arizona and maybe rockhounds need to shoot claim jumpers.  Of course it is not uncommon to see, as Marty Robbins sang, "the big iron on his (her) hip."

Every rockhound needs genuine hide or fur to line their cases and drawers.

I always thought these were natural lingam stones but now realize they are linga (plural). I also believed they were collected by natives from a sacred river in India.  Somehow doubts creep in when I see thousands and thousands for sale in the US being pawned off as Hindu religious items guaranteed to increase your masculinity.

At last a shop selling rocks and minerals!

What appears as a crust of blue lavendulan (copper arsenate) is actually hundreds of tiny thin platy crystals; however, they measure in individuals less than 1 mm and are beyond the range of my scope.  The R points to one of a cluster of radiating individual crystals.  Total width FOV ~ 7 mm.

And, looking really hard at some stock I was able to locate a really nice piece of blue lavendulan.  The specimen appears as sort of a crust of intense electric blue on the matrix.  However, on closer examination under high power one can observe the crust is actually composed of very tiny aggregates of thin platy crystals, some of which form rosettes. An older label indicates collection at El Guanaco Mine, Santa Catalina, Antofagasta Province, Chile where MinDat noted 31 valid minerals and two type localities.  At the mine copper and gold veins are emplaced in Upper Cretaceous and Paleocene volcanic sequences.  I presume, but am uncertain, that both the copper and the arsenic could be the result of oxidation of the primary mineral, enargite [Cu₃AsS₄].

Lavendulan [NaCaCu₅(AsO₄)4Cl-5H₂O] is a hydrated copper arsenate and forms as a secondary mineral in “oxidized zones of some copper deposits” (MinDat).  So far, so good; however, I need to rely on the label for identification since a very similar mineral, lemanskiite, is known from the location (discovered in 1998).  In fact, the mine is the type locality for this copper arsenate.  Lemanskiite and lavendulan have exactly the same chemical formula but belong to different crystal systems-they are polymorphs.  Lavendulan is Monoclinic and lemanskiite is Tetragonal.  Trying to visually identify lavendulan from lemanskiite is above my pay grade!

As noted in other postings the arsenate radical (AsO4) is similar in size to the phosphate radical (PO4) and they often interchange.  Well, sampleite is a copper phosphate in a solid solution series with lavendulan.  If one substitutes lead for the calcite in lavendulan the mineral becomes zdenekite.  Learning is “fun”! 

So I am calling these tiny crystals lavendulan since I don’t carry around an XRD or something but knowing I well could be wrong!  These great- colored crystals have a vitreous to maybe a sub vitreous luster, are brittle, translucent, commonly cleave or fracture, and are quite soft (~2.5 Mohs).  Looking closely one can observe twins and the streak is a light blue.

I love life.  There’s so much to learn and see all of the time, and nothing nicer for me than to wake up, and the sky is blue.   Pattie Boyd

TUCSON 2016: 22nd STREET

The 22^nd Street Show is one that I attend every year as it offers something for everyone!  The event is held inside of a giant tent (or so they say) anchored on a concrete floor.  Like most of the ancillary shows the parking lot is gravel and a tremendous amount of dust greets visitors upon arrival,  When I first attended the Show several years ago a hot dog was about the best one could do for lunch.  Today the food trucks have found the location and a variety of decent food is available.  The 22^nd Street location is also the building where many of “The Prospectors”  of TV “fame” hang out and sell their wares.  There seems to be a big market for signed posters and selfies with one of the celebrities!

Prospector Amanda at her booth.

How this stylized human figure composed of metal relates to rocks, minerals and fossils is beyond my realm of thinking. 

You name it; you take it home.

A wash basin for all with lots of partial cephalopods direct from Morocco.  I have often wondered how many cephalopods have been collected from Morocco??  

Item in abundance at 22^nd Street include a variety of fossils, especially large vertebrates.  Although illegal to collect from Federal lands in the U.S., the vertebrate fossils on display were collected, I presume, from private lands.

Last year I purchased several specimens of red spinel and ruby from a Pakistani dealer, and had some very nice conversations.  This year that particular dealer was absent, as was another dealer who always had several tables of minerals and crystals.  Instead the tent is increasingly being populated by some rather ecletic items of little interest to me.

 

However, I was able to hunt through some mineral tables and pick up a specimen of afghanite, another one of those $5 minerals that displays a nice bright blue color and is rather uncommon in collections.  I felt fortunate in being able to ferret out this sample.

Fossil fish on a slab collected from the Eocene Green River Formation from near Kemmerer, Wyoming in the western part of the state.  If readers are ever in that area be certain to visit Fossil Butte National Monument.  The fish have been enhanced with a dark ink in order to provide a “better” display since these are objects de art rather than museum specimens.

A very nice reproduction of the Cretaceous carnivore Albertosaurus offered for sale by Tribold Paleontology over in Woodland Park, Colorado.  

An impressive reproduction of Torvosaurus, a large carnivore from the Jurassic Morrison Formation (Skull Creek Quarry, private) near Dinosaur, Colorado.

This is a lower jaw of a very young mastodon collected from the La Brea Tar Pits of California.  It must be an old specimen (20^th Century) since it is fairly impossible to get an actual specimen out of the preserve today.  Perhaps it came from a trade with some of the earlier paleontologists?

Skull of Basilosaurus, an Eocene whale from Morocco.  To early paleontologists it looked like a reptile hence the saurus moniker.  However, it actually in a mammal.  I did not check on the percent of reconstruction!