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GULF COAST MINERAL, FOSSIL & GEM CLUB

P.O. Box 1404      Venice, FL 34284

www.mineralfossilgemclubvenicefl.org

NEWSLETTER

VOLUME 7 NUMBER 5: February 2008

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PURPOSE

     The purpose of our club, organized in 1967, is to foster an interest in minerals, gems, fossils and lapidary arts, to give people with these interests the fellowship with each other and a chance to interact with informative meetings, programs and activities and to present our hobby to the community at our annual show.  We also try to foster an interest with the children of our community and to share our knowledge through programs and displays in the local schools and libraries.

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MEETINGS

     Meetings are held the first Monday of the month, October through May, except as noted below, in the Meeting Room at the Venice Public Library, 300 S. Nokomis Avenue, Venice, FL.

ANNUAL DUES ARE $10 FOR SINGLES OR $15 FOR FAMILIES

 

REGULAR MEETING DATES: 2007-2008 CLUB SEASON

Monday          7-9 pm             Oct 1, 2007     Show & Tell: Club Members                                   

Monday          7-9 pm             Nov 5, 2007    Speaker: Herbert Knodel—Amber

Monday          5:30-8pm         Dec 3, 2007    Dinner Meeting, Gift Exchange                               

Monday          6-8 pm             Jan 7, 2008     Discuss Show and Tom Ladd—Making Cabochons

Tuesday       6-8 pm             Feb 5, 2008     Silent Auction

            Monday          6-8 pm             Mar 3, 2008    Speaker: John Colagrande—The Nature of Fossils, Part I

Monday          6-8 pm             Apr 7, 2008     Speaker: Bob Morgan—Florida Fossils

Monday          6-8 pm             May 5, 2008   Dinner Meeting

       

CLUB SHOW January 26 & 27, 2008; Sat. 10am to 5pm; Sun. 10am to 4pm

 

CLUB OFFICERS

President and Liaison with AFMS: Allen Brown (941) 926-4171; allen_brown19467@msn.com

Past President: & Newsletter Editor: Geraldine Vest (941) 408-1711; Gvest201@yahoo.com

Vice President 1: open

Vice President 2 (Advisor): Ursula Jablonski, (941) 484-9956; ujjablonski@comcast.net

Secretary: Barbara Walker (941) 488-1302              

Treasurer: Tom Granata (941) 484-1533 sunshine744@verizon.net

Assistant Treasurer: open

Webmaster: Duane Daniell  (941) 375-8858 duanedaniell@yahoo.com

Educational Committee: G. Vest, T. J. Granata, R. G. Campbell (813) 754-6987 rareearthmaster2021@yahoo.com

Senior Trustee: Tom Ladd (941) 755-6428

Senior Trustee and Show Chairman: Ralph Marble, (941) 922-2135 marblesgems@verizon.net

Trustee: Gifford Smith (941) 698-0183 gif@gls3c.com

Trustee: John Mort (941) 794-2185 mayjohn008@aol.com

Trustee: Meyer, Katrina: (941) 484-1435 wiredwonders@yahoo.com

 

 

GULF COAST MINERAL, FOSSIL AND GEM CLUB

 
FIFTH MEETING—TUESDAY, February 5, 2008 at 6:00 to 8:00 pm

 

SILENT AUCTION

THIS IS THE SAME AS LAST YEAR’S AUCTION

  1. Slips can be picked up at the club show on Jan 26 and 27 from Geraldine Vest or Allen Brown, or before the meeting.
  2. Each club member can bring up to10 lots for sale.  For example, one lot could be: some journals fastened together with string or rubber bands, a piece of jewelry in a box, a set of jewelry in a box, a mineral specimen in a box, several cabs in a plastic baggie, a box of tumbled stones, a bag of small findings, some fossils in a box……..you get the idea.  {Just in case we do not have enough merchandise—bring a few extra lots that can be sold if necessary.}
  3. Fill out the slips before you arrive if possible.
  4. Arrive at 6:00 p.m. to help set up the tables; those club members that are selling lots can then display their items for sale.
  5. A short business meeting will be started at 6:15 pm, followed by the Silent Auction; people will have time to look at all the items and make bids.
  6. After a reasonable time, there will be an announcement that bids will stop in five minutes.  Make your final bid.
  7. Refreshments will be served all evening.
  8. Buyers can pay the sellers and collect their merchandise.  All sales must be paid in cash or by check for large items, if the seller agrees.  The club will not get involved and will not collect a fee.  100% of the sale price goes to the seller.  Everybody will then help take down the tables and clean up the place.

 

IF YOU DID NOT GET FORMS AT THE CLUB SHOW AND WANT THEM BEFORE THE MEETING—COPY THE BLANKS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Text Box: REFRESHMENTS will be served—Cold drinks will be supplied by the club and “home made” goodies will be supplied by: Coffey, Charlotte; Crouleich, Pat; Fambrough, Sue Anne; Frybarger, Debbie; Knodel, Barbara; Pascucci, Linda; Smith, Gifford

MESSAGE FROM YOUR PRESIDENT: ALLEN BROWN

     Our Vice President, Ursula Jablonski, due to health reasons, has resigned effective in January. We are therefore in need of a Vice President for the Club. We need members to become active in the officer positions so that we can have new ideas and a fresh perspective for the club and outside activities. I would ask some of the new members to get involved as many have experience and backgrounds that are interesting and useful. Please see me at the next meeting if you would like to become an officer.

     The club show is now history. Thanks to all those who participated in the show and to all those who helped at the door. It is always a fun and interesting time meeting people, telling them about the club, and inviting them to visit and hopefully become a member.

     We are always looking for speakers at the meetings. If you have an interesting subject, you would like to tell us about or know someone who would like to speak at one of the meetings, please contact me. The speaker should plan on about a 20 - 30 minute talk.

     With the new library hours and the meeting room being occupied before our 6:00 P.M. starting time we can expect somewhat of a logjam at 6:00. However, bear with the inconvenience, as we will probably start the official meetings around 6:15 P.M.  If anyone has any suggestions for the club, please feel free to contact me, as I am always open to new ideas.

 

Text Box: 2009 CLUB SHOW The Venice Community Center is reserve for show hours: Saturday, January 24—10 am to 5 pm Sunday, January 25—10 am to 4 pm

 

 

 

 

 

 

CONGRATULATIONS AND BEST WISHES TO OUR MEMBERS CELEBRATING:

FEBRUARY BIRTHDAYS:

Donna Budd (Feb. 6), Fred Buti (Feb. 7), Emilia Panergo (Feb. 8) Eileen Marble (Feb. 18),

George Bothum (Feb. 23), Dick Dennison (Feb. 27)

 

FEBRUARY ANNIVERSARIES:

Herbert & Barbara Knodel (Feb 14), Dick & Gloria Dennison (Feb 29)

 

Text Box: REPORT ON CLASSES: Geraldine Vest Wow, what a response! Thirteen members are taking the Mineralogy course; fifteen members are taking Gemology I (Colored Stones); and nine are taking the advanced Gemology II (Gemstone Identification) course. Each session covers a bit of the science packet handout—it would be too much to cover in a separate session. If you are starting the courses late: Mineralogy—1/13/2008 covered Dana Class 1—elements (gold, silver, copper, platinum, sulfur, graphite, diamond, bismuth, etc.) Mineralogy—1/20/2008 covered Dana Class 2—sulfides, etc. (many) Gemology 1—1/13/2008 covered organic, non-mineral materials (amber, ivory, coral, pearls) Gemology 1—1/20/2008 began covering cabochon materials Gemology 2—1/13 and 20/2008 covered glass, composite stones, coated stones, and some other treatments 1/27/2008 all students will attend the club show—selling or buying minerals, gems, fossils, jewelry

OPALS

 

by Geraldine M. Vest, Ph.D., FGA, G.G.(GIA) & Robert Campbell G.G. (GIA)

Continued from the December Newsletter…

 

Another Classification of Opal from “Minerals and their Localities” (5) pg 439

These are the terms used in the technical journals

No

Classification

Description

1

A-opal

Amorphous, very pure, as colorless hyalite

2

AG-opal

Amorphous gel, a precious opal with well known internal play-of-color (POC), which generates due to optical diffraction from a faulted, closepacked ordered array of minute transparent silica spheres

3

C-opal

Admixture of opal and crystobalite—belonging to the more common type of opal

4

T-opal

Admixture of opal and tridymite—belonging to the more common type of opal

5

CT-opal

Admixture of opal and crystobalite & tridymite—belonging to the more common type of opal

 

FORMATION OF OPAL/GEOLOGY

     Opal forms under hydrothermal or sedimentary conditions at low-temperatures at or near the earth’s surface. Opal never occurs as crystals, its forms include: reniform, globular, stalactitic or massive aggregates, porous or earthy, as coatings, as the vein and fissure filling and similar forms. (5)

 

Type/color

Petrological Environment

Location

Country

01

Blue-green hyalite

Beryl-bearing pegmatites

Simpson quarry, S. Glastonbury, Hartford Co.

USA CN

02

Hyalite

Fractures or vugs in granite pegmatites

Newry, Rumford, Paris; Oxford Co.

USA ME

03

Hyalite

Fractures or vugs in granite pegmatites

Conway, Carroll Co.

USA NH

04

Hyalite

Tin-tungsten ore deposits

Cinovec, Bohemia

Czech Republic

05

Hyalite

Polymetallic veins

Freiberg & Schneeberg, Saxony

Germany

06

Hyalite

Uraninite veins

Predborice, Bohemia

Czech Republic

07

Hyalite

Silver-antimony ore deposits

Kremnica

Slovakia

08

Hyalite

Volcanic activity & Geysers

Yellowstone National Park

USA WY

09

Hyalite

Volcanic activity & Geysers

 

Iceland

10

Hyalite

Volcanic activity & Geysers

 

New Zealand

11

Orange-brown

Petrifying tree trunks

at Provraznik, near Ponicka Huta

Slovakia

12

Red, brown, orange

 

Her’lany geiser

Slovakia

13

Precious opal

Andesite tuffs

Dubnik precious opal mine

Slovakia

14

Precious opal

trachyte

Erandique

Honduras

15

Orange to red fire opal

rhyolites

San Juan del Rio, Queretaro

Mexico

16

Dark precious opal

volcanites

Mezezo, Shewa Prov.

Ethiopia

17

Blue ~transparent opal

pink ~translucent opal

Blue is colored by chrysocolla

Pink is a mixture of opal and palygorskite

Acari Copper ore mine, near Nazca,

Arequipa Deptment

Peru

18

Milky opal

Altered rhyolite

World’s largest beryllium deposit at Spor Mts., Juab Co.

USA UT

19

Milky opal

rhyolites

Tepetate, 40 km SW of San Louis Potosi

Mexico SLP

20

Milky opal

 

Iranian Azerbaijan

 

21

Opal-hyalite

Basalts and their tuffs

Klamath Falls, Klamath Co.; Opal Butte, Morrow Co.

USA OR

22

Colorless hyalite

botryoidal coatings 4 cm thick

Valec, Bohemia

Czech Republic

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