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The Rockhound's Bark: |
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The Rockhound's Bark: |
CONTENTS
Society Details
Minutes
Upcoming Programs
Get Well Soon Andrew
Mineral Identification
Meeting Date, Time, and Location
Last Saturday of each month from September to May. There is no meeting in December.
7:30 PM to about 10:00 PM
Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History, 1747 Summer St., Halifax, NS, Auditorium (Lower Level)
Dues
$20 per year, due on January 1st each year.
2001 Executive
President
Vice President
Secretary
Treasurer
Bark Editor
LibrarianKen McKenzie
Fred Walsh
Karla Pelrine
Ronnie Van Dommelen
Andrew Brock
Andrew Brock422-0784
852-4611
477-9940
429-6661
462-7912
462-7912mckenzie at accesscable.net
kmpelrin at dal.ca
dommelen at dal.ca
brocktech at ns.sympatico.ca
brocktech at ns.sympatico.caSociety Mailing Address
The Nova Scotia Mineral and Gem Society
P.O. Box 29082
Halifax, NS
B3L 4T8
The March regular meeting of the Nova Scotia Mineral and Gem Society was held on March 29th, 2003 at the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History. The meeting was called to order at 7:40 PM with 11 members and one guests present.
Old Business
There has not yet been any correspondence with the museum concerning the issue of the pay-to-use parking lot.
New Business
There was a discussion of club collecting trips, perhaps to Amethyst Cove. Fred pointed out that there was too much ice and snow cover to conduct several GSA field trips, so we will have to wait awhile. All excited about the new collecting season.
Two members received a package of rocks from a gentleman in Utah. Last summer when he visited they gave him several samples from around the province, so in return for their kindness he sent many very interesting samples which they brought for show.
A motion to adjourn the business portion of the meeting was forwarded at 7:47PM by Fred and seconded by Dot.
Respectfully Submitted
Karla Pelrine – Secretary
UPCOMING PROGRAMS
April 2003
Unfortunately, the presentation on mineral photography by Judy Amirault has been postponed.
However, Karla Pelrine has tentatively agreed to do a short talk on the Sudbury nickel mining district in Ontario. Karla worked at a Ni/Cu mine there last summer and has photos and core samples. If she is available that night, then that will be the program; if not, then Ken will bring in another video.
Regardless of the program, the theme of the evening will be sulphates. Nova Scotia’s most abundant sulphates are gypsum and anhydrite but we also have beautiful linarite and barite crystals. Can you think of any others? Time to dig out those books!
May 2003
Back to TopThe long awaited tour of the N.S. Museum's mineral collections will be led this evening by Geology Curator Deborah Skilliter. There will be no mineral theme this evening.
GET WELL SOON ANDREW
Andrew Brock, the regular Bark editor, has been quite ill recently and by the time you read this, will probably have had some surgery to correct the problem. Of course we all wish you a speedy recovery Andrew! You can be sure we’ll have you out collecting again in no time.
MINERAL IDENTIFICATIONIn last few years many unusual minerals have been found in Nova Scotia; mostly from the East Kemptville and Dunbrack mines. Generally these crystals are micro in size, getting up to a few millimeters at best. However, we have found excellent examples of each and they are very attractive. Terry Collett has discussed with the club the idea of sending a few of these away to get properly identified. However, to reduce the cost, we would prefer to send away as few as possible.
To narrow down the list of unknowns, I recently submitted several unknowns to Bob McKay, a technician with the Dalhousie geology dept who runs the electron microprobe machine. It tells which elements are present in a sample and gives rough proportions for each. While the technique does not tell you what mineral you have, the information is still valuable. Combined with visual clues from the mineral (form, color, habit, associations, etc), it can be used to remove from the list several of the easiest minerals. The remaining unknowns can then be subjected to more rigorous (and expensive) tests like x-ray diffraction.
So what are the results? Well, from East Kemptville we have several common minerals such as adularia, stilbite/stellerite (as sharp orange individual blades quite different from most of the zeolite from the mine), and siderite as unusual but beautiful hourglass shaped crystals. From Dunbrack, we have confirmed that small orange bipyramidal crystals are wulfenite and some beautiful bright blue crystals are linarite. This is the first report that I am aware of for each of these minerals in Nova Scotia. In fact they are rare in the whole of Canada. Also from Dunbrack, a green resinous mineral is a copper phosphate, most likely pseudomalachite.
Wulfenite on pyromorphite - Dunbrack Mine, Nova Scotia. Xtl 1mm.Ronnie Van Dommelen
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