everyone is welcome, in-the beading group met on april 19th at michael's crafts in silverdale....

MAY 2017

Elected Officers for 2017

President: Tony Schackmann (360) 801-1914 [email protected] Vice President: ViQ’Tree Keefer (360) 373-1744 [email protected] Secretary: Talena Webb-Klumper (360) 440-2046 [email protected] Treasurer: Carolyn Richter (360) 908-7199 [email protected]

The May meeting will be

held on Friday, May

12th at 7:00 PM.

Everyone is welcome, in-

cluding members, mem-

ber guests, and visitors.

We meet at the Chico Al-

liance Church Daycare

(entrance in the back).

Address: 3670 Chico

Way NW, Bremerton,

Washington.

Club website:

www.kmgs.org

Club Facebook page:

www.facebook.com/Kitsap

Mineralandgemsociety/

Club Email:

kitsapminer-

[email protected]

A word from our President:

Happy Month of May,

Member's, friends and family of this great

club welcome to another glorious month of

beauty as we see all the flowers, tree's,

grasses are blooming heavily with much

color. This gives me motivation, incentives

and awareness to get things going in our

lives far or near. Everyone is planning vacations and field

trips with many camping opportunities as the temperature

rises with days getting longer provides much more digging

time.

The officer's board would like to give all who volunteered, do-

nated, purchased and had fun with the experience of the an-

nual live auction a big thanks and appreciation for everything

we did to raise funds for juniors who are willing to learn

about Earth Science and the Hobby of Minerals and Gems!

Now let's talk about the funds raised. I'm getting a lot of ques-

tions as to why the split of proceeds, and not the whole

amount? All I know is that it's historical and never changed

due to the voted budget back in previous times, with today's

prices of schooling and cost of living, parents or juniors strug-

gle even more. The board is requesting to change the bylaws

to reflect this thought, and to ask the club to approve that all

funds go straight to the scholarship program for each annual

auction we do. When the general meeting members vote for

approval, the board will start the process for changes. Any

other questions concerns regarding our clubs procedures, or to

request to make changes to reflect today's modern technology

and society feel free to express it out and give reason, the

monthly board meetings are a good place to do this. My re-

sponsibility is to address this and ensure our club receives the

best. Thanks and see you soon.

Tony, KMGS President 2017

mailto:[email protected]

HARD ROCK NEWS MAY 2017

Monthly club raffle

As usual, there will be raffle tickets sold at the entry door located where you come into the meet-

ing. Tickets are 50 cents each. If you wish to donate something to the raffle, just bring it in and

set it on the table. Raffle tickets are drawn until all items on the table are gone. Money from the

raffle is used to pay our monthly rent at the church.

Monthly Silent Auction

There will be a silent auction at the club meeting. There is usually one table set up for adults

and another one set up for juniors. If you wish to donate something to the silent auction, please

give it to Doug Leider at the meeting.

Year’s Schedule:

M – March

N thru R – April

S – May

T thru Z = June

A thru B – Sept

C thru D – Oct

E thru F – Nov

G thru H – Jan

I thru L - Feb

May Refreshment schedule:

For the month of April, if your last

name starts with “S” it is your turn

to bring refreshments! Finger foods

are always best as they can easily

be placed on a

napkin.

Please stay

and help out

Karen in the

kitchen with

set-up and

clean-up.

Program for the May meeting

The rock club meeting on May 12th is the

President's wedding anniversary so the

meeting will be officiated by vice president,

ViQ'Tree Keefer. The program will feature

a short presentation of long time members,

Donna and Leonard Ballard, and show off

the collaboration of mix-

ing the media's of lapi-

dary arts, wood working

and beading.

At the May meeting, the scholarship committee will reveal and present the scholarships to the recipients of the awards. Some of the funds for the scholarship were raised by the annual auction, as well as various oth-er fund raisers and donations throughout the year. Come see as scholarship recipients receive their award!

Watch for Doug Lieder at the meeting too, he will have sign up sheets available for the fair, so don't forget to sign up for display cases and volunteer support during the Kitsap County Fair, August 2017.

DISPLAY TABLE THIS MONTH:

For the display table if you have something that you did as a collaboration of rock and

mixed media feel free to bring it to share, or bring whatever you would like to show off or

your rocks you want to know more about.

MEMBERSHIP & DUES:

Don’t forget, your dues should be paid each year

in January. For new members that joined at

the November show last year, your dues are

free for 2017, but remember to get them paid up

when 2018 rolls around! Contact Karen Demer-

ick if you have any questions, (360) 620-9072.


Board Meetings

Board Meetings are held on the Wednesdays follow-

ing the monthly meetings. This month the board

meeting will be Wednesday, May 17th, starting at

7pm at the Chico Alliance Church in the side room in

the basement. We discuss business with the chair

persons and officers, but all members are welcome.

Please feel free to attend, and don’t be shy to partici-

pate in the business of the club. You can be a part of

the decision making and get a chance to voice any

questions or concerns.

FUN FOR BEADERS!

The beading group met on April 19th at Michael's Crafts

in Silverdale. Karen Demerick mentored the group who

attended on basic beading techniques. The next beading

group scheduled at Michael's Craft's in Silverdale will be

on Wednesday, May 17th from 12:30 PM to 3:00 PM.

Bring whatever project you want to work on.

Vangie’s next wire wrapping workshop will be on be May 22nd at 10 AM. Call

her at (360) 373-3370, for directions and details.

UPCOMING FIELD TRIPS WITH THE MINERAL COUNCIL:

Check here for more information: http://www.mineralcouncil.org/FieldTrips_2017.pdf

NICK ON THE ROCKS: A little tip came in from one of our newer members. She happened to catch a write-up in the Seattle Times about Nick Zentner and his short video series. Nick Zentner’s short videos, featured online and on KCTS 9, introduce the region’s geo-

logic wonders in ways that are playful as well as scientifically sound. Check out the article at this link: http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/science/pacific-northwest-disneyland-for-geology-lovers-cwu-prof-guide/


Field Trip Report:

Hey all, sorry we had to cancel the last field trip. We had scheduled

Twin Rivers to collect fossils, and we had to cancel due to some per-

sonal conflicts and just too much going on! Our May is filling up fast,

and with Memorial Day in there, the weekends are not looking too

open. I have two personal trips planned for May, one of them due to

a family member’s illness, but we are going to try and squeeze in a

trip to Crystal Mountain, depending on snow level and how the

weather is. Saturday, May 13th will be the day. That’s the Sat-

urday immediately following the monthly club meeting. At the meet-

ing I will ask for a list of who will be attending, and I should have a

decent idea then of how the weather will look and where the snow

level is. This trip could get cancelled at the last minute due to poor

weather.

At Crystal Mountain you can find all sorts of neat looking agate and

jasper. It can be a little bit of a climb, so you need to be reasonably

physically fit. For this trip, it’s really important to have 4 wheel

drive and your 10 essentials. DO NOT GO ON THIS TRIP WITH-

OUT YOUR 10 ESSENTIALS. The weather can turn quickly, and no matter what, you always want

to be prepared in case you have to spend a night in the cold.

Bring shovels, possibly a pick axe, and of course buckets or a sturdy backpack to carry rocks in. Con-

tact Danielle at [email protected] or Eric at [email protected]

if you have any questions.

We will have a meet-up time and location information at the May

meeting. Crystal mountain is located off hwy 97/970 somewhat near to

Cle Elum, WA. It will be an early morning get-up and a late night, so you

could reserve lodging in Cle Elem for convenience.

Resources and Information:

Have you still been wondering about the mysteries of making cabochons? Try Inland

Lapidary. Their tutorial at the following link is very detailed with helpful pictures. At

the end of their instructions they provide links to their store where they sell quite a few

different types of machines, parts, and supplies. Looks pretty good to me!

http://wwwinlandcraft.com/howto/cabbing/cabbing.htm

Still looking for tips, or just interested in Lapidary related topics? Have you subscribed

to Rock and Gem magazine? Try the following link for more information:

http://www.rockngem.com/

Interested in carving or sculpting stone? Check out the Northwest Stone Sculptor's Asso-

ciation. They are coming up on their 30th Annual International Stone Carving

Symposium at Camp Pilgrim Firs, in Port Orchard, WA, July 8th-15th 2017.

http://www.nwssa.org/

Did you know that our club has its own library? Contact Bryan Tallman at the next

meeting to see what’s available in the library and to check out a book!


Upcoming Pacific Northwest Area Shows:

Information brought to you by, The Mineral Council of WA state.

https://mineralcouncil.wordpress.com/


Brad Smith’s Bench Tips:

CUTOFF WHEELS

Cutoff wheels are inexpensive and do a great job cutting or shaping

steel. You can use them to sharpen tool points, cut piano wire to

length, make slots, and sharpen worn drills. Other uses include mod-

ifying pliers and making your own design stamps.

My preference is the one inch diameter size. Be sure to hold the

wheel firmly so nothing moves to break the disk, and definitely wear

your safety glasses. Those are little flakes of steel coming off the

disk.

BTW - Cutoff wheels are poor at soft metals like copper, silver and gold. Soft

metals clog up the cutting edges.

-------------

DEBURRING JUMP RINGS

When cutting jump rings from large gauge wire for chain-making, you'll notice the saw leaves a small

burr. An easy way to remove these is to tumble the rings with some fine-cut pyramids. It's best not

tumble for a long period with the pyramids because it will remove the polished finish from the wire.

No tumbler, no problem. You don't actually need a tumbler. I just put a handful of pyramids in a wide

mouth plastic jar and shake for a bit. You can find these pyramids in the tumble finishing section of

most jewelry supply catalogs.

See all Brad's jewelry books at

Amazon.com/author/bradfordsmith

Are you interested in faceting stones like fine jewelers do? Did you know that the United States Facet-

er’s Guild has an online library of various cut diagrams which are essential to faceting gemstones?

https://usfacetersguild.org/faceting-diagrams/

Check out the link for many more patterns and beautiful cuts. Try your hand at some of these and

show us how it went. Ask one of the club mentors at the next meeting about faceting machines and tips

for faceting!


These giant tunnels in South America aren't caves – they’re pre-

historic burrows

BY DAVID MOSCATO APRIL 19, 2017

Go exploring along certain rock faces in South America, and you might come across strange, smooth-

walled tunnels cutting through the earth. There are hundreds of them in certain regions of Brazil and

Argentina, some so large you could stand up in them. At first, you might suspect these were simple

caves, but caves are formed by water dissolving rock. These tunnels are different: up and down the walls,

you can see marks that were clearly made by something with

enormous claws.

According to geologist Heinrich Frank, these unusual tunnels

aren't much like normal caves at all. "[The tunnels] are long,

have a circular section, are sinuous and, of course, can show

claw marks on the roof and the lateral walls." What's

more, "you will find them in rocks that can't be dissolved, like

altered granitic rocks, sandstones and so on."

Frank is a geologist at the Federal University of Rio Grande de

Sul, and part of a team of Brazilian scientists who recently

published a new study identifying and classifying the incredible features of these massive burrows.

There's only one problem: there are no digging animals anywhere in the world today large enough to

have created these tunnels, the largest of which stretches to two metres (6 feet) tall and four metres (13

feet) across. To find the burrowing culprit, we need to look to the giants of the distant past. That's right:

these aren't just burrows, they're "palaeoburrows"!

There were plenty of massive mammals living during

the Ice Age, more than 10,000 years ago, but most of

them – mastodons, saber-toothed cats, the sorta-rhino-

like Toxodon – weren't equipped for digging. However,

two groups of Ice Age animals were the right size and

had claws to match the grooves in the tunnel walls: gi-

ant armadillos and giant ground sloths.

Today's armadillos are expert diggers, with powerful

arms and large claws. The largest living species creates

burrows less than half a metre (1.5 feet) across, but in

the past, South America was home to armoured gi-

ants like Holmesina and Pampatherium, which were several times larger than any of their modern cous-

ins. Frank and his colleagues suspect these animals could certainly be responsible for some of those pal-

aeoburrows.

But even the giant armadillos don't measure up to the biggest of the tunnels. Ground sloths, on the other

hand, were suitably monumental. The largest, like Megatherium and Eremotherium, could grow to be

bigger than a rhino – and they were built for burrowing.

"If you want to dig, you have to be very mobile," Frank explains. "Because of this, the sloths are perfectly

suited to dig: [they're] big, can twist their bodies and have enormous claws."

The researchers have identified two different "species" of tunnels, probably created by at least two differ-

ent types of diggers. Over the past few decades, they have found more than 1,500 of these palaeoburrows

across southern Brazil and Argentina. Clearly, these tunnels were very important for the animals that

made them.


JUNIORS SECTION:

Hello Junior Rockhounds! We will be getting together during the May meeting for a craft. We

hope that you will be able to attend! Sincerely, Kathy Reimers, Bobbie Sack and Jill Wetzel,

Juniors Leaders

(giant tunnels continued…) "The main challenge posed by trace fossils

is figuring out who made a specific trace," says Tony Martin of Emory

University, the author of The Evolution Underground and an expert in

the study of trace fossils like footprints and burrows. "The original ani-

mal only rarely gets preserved in its burrow … so most times we have

to use clues in the trace fossils, such as size, shape, or other features

that match the anatomy of a possible maker."

These scientists aren't the first to propose an explanation for the tun-

nels. Local people have attributed the burrows to various mythological

creatures over the years, including the backward-footed Curupira and

a giant snake called Boiúna. Geologists have also known about them

for decades, but have long suspected they might simply be caves exca-

vated by water or lava.

Martin believes the Brazilian scientists have met this identification

challenge admirably. "I think they're right," he told me. "[T]hey did a

terrific job and I salute them for figuring out who made these once-

mysterious tunnels."

The identities of the diggers may indeed be revealed, but there are

plenty of other mysteries surrounding the palaeoburrows. It's un-

known, for example, why they're so common around southern Brazil

but not farther north, or exactly how old they are – though they must

be at least 10,000 years old since that's when those Ice Age giants died

out.

There are also questions about exactly what the animals were doing inside the burrows, or how long they

were using them. Some of the structures are hundreds of metres long; some branch or intersect each oth-

er; and some even have smooth, circular patches along the floors where the big animals may have laid

down to rest. "A lot of questions remain for further work," says Frank.

Visit Earth Touch News Network for original article by David Moscato.

https://www.earthtouchnews.com/discoveries/discoveries/these-giant-tunnels-in-south-america-arent-

caves-theyre-prehistoric-burrows/

Septarian Nodules - information from http://www.therockshed.com/information.html

Septarians were formed during the Cretaceous period, 50 to 70 million years

ago when the Gulf of Mexico reached what is now Southern Utah. Decom-

posing sea life killed by volcanic eruptions, had a chemical attraction for the

sediment around them, forming mud balls. As the ocean receded, the balls

were left to dry and crack. Because of their bentonite content they also

shrank at the same time trapping the cracks inside. As decomposed calcite

from the shells was carried down into the cracks in the mud balls, calcite

crystals formed. A thin wall of calcite was transformed into aragonite sepa-

rating the bentonite heavy clay exteriors from the calcite centers. Because of

this, the nodules are called Septarians.

HARD ROCK NEWS MAY 2017 PAGE 9

The name Septarian is derived from the Latin name, Septem, meaning seven. This relates to the fact

that the mud balls cracked with 7 points in every direction, thereby creating the beautiful design.

Septarians are composed of Calcite (The Yellow Centers), Aragonite (The Brown Lines) and the Outer

Grey Rock is Limestone. Occasionally the fossil or some of the fossils which started the formation of the

rock is noticeable in the rock. Color the septarian nodule below!

Editor Contact Information: Danielle Foss

[email protected] Phone: (360)

621-5603.

“The Hard Rock News” is the Official Publication of the Kitsap Mineral and Gem Society. Meetings are held at 7:00 PM on the second Friday of most months at Chico Alliance Church Daycare (entrance in the back). Address: 3670 Chico Way NW, Bremerton, Washington.

The object of the Society is to provide a general dissemination of knowledge pertaining to the earth sciences; to sponsor regular meetings and field trips for the benefit of the membership and to be helpful along these general lines to one another. The Society is social and educational in character.

Feel free to contact me if you want to put an announce-

ment in the newsletter. Deadline for each newsletter is

the 25th of the previous month.

Looking Forward to March and Beyond...

The Port Townsend club “Gemboree” is coming up on May 6th.

July 15th will be our annual club picnic at Raab Park in Poulsbo. Mark your calendars!

The November Fall Fall Festival of Gems is coming up! Mark your calendars for November 18th and 19th.

Club Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/KitsapMineralandgemsociety

Club website: kmgs.org

PO Box 3342 Silverdale, Washington 98383-3342

TO:

HARD ROCK NEWS

May

https://www.facebook.com/KitsapMineralandgemsociety

everyone is welcome, in-the beading group met on april 19th at michael's crafts in silverdale....

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