THE BADGER DIGGIN’S

The Badger Lapidary and Geological Society, Inc.

Monroe, Wisconsin

Devoted to the Earth Sciences

Vol. 53, No. 8 October 2018

President’s  Message  –  Laurie  Trocke  

Hi  Badgers,  

Thank you to all who joined us on Lapidary Day! We had a nice turnout of mostly newer club members, including 10 kids. They got to go hunting in the rock pile, try their hand at polishing and play with the various critters on the farm. The grownups got a chance to play on the machines also. We missed all of our old friends, but it was a great chance to spend some time with new friends! We could not have asked for a more beautiful day to spend time with a group of fantastic people!

Fall is starting to make itself known, with harvest veggies, cooler temps and trees changing colors. I’m hoping that it sticks around for a while so we can make it to our October field trip without worrying about snowsuits! Hope everyone gets a chance to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather in our beautiful state!

See you at the October meeting!

Laurie  Trocke  BLGS  Pres.  

 

 

 

 

From the Editor – Teri Marché

While there are a lot of great article submissions for this month, this issue is missing some critical columns. I am particularly saddened by the passing of the “What’s Rockin’? table and column. There is simply no room for it in our current meeting place. We have outgrown that space, almost from the beginning. There is no room for treats in the room, and in fact treats have also gone by the wayside. Not only is the room small, but it grows more cluttered by the month. I hope we can consider a more spacious venue.

Next Due Date, October 31

   

Our Next Meeting October 13, 2018

10:30 a.m.

Mystic Moraine Minerals 500 W. Milwaukee St.

Janesville, WI

Soapstone Carving Look for further instructions

via email

 

Officer Roster:

President Laurie Trocke 4771 CTH II Highland, WI 53543 608-935-0597 laurie.trocke@landsend.com Vice-President Cliff Thomas 3321 W. Loomis Rd., Apt. 5 Milwaukee, WI 53221 414-982-8619 cliftc06@hotmail.com Secretary Tamara Unger-Peterson 3626 Falcon Ridge Dr. Janesville, WI 53548 tungerpete@gmail.com Treasurer Jack Hoxie 500 W. Milwaukee St. Janesville, WI 53548 608-563-0223 jhoxie@hotmail.com Newsletter Editor Teri Marché 5415 Lost Woods Court Oregon, WI 53575 608-835-2653 tmarche555@gmail.com Field Trip Chair Dan Trocke 4771 CTH II Highland, WI 53543 608-935-0597 Dan.trocke@gmail.com Show Chairperson Debbie Wehinger 708 W 2nd Avenue Brodhead, WI 53520 608-897-2608 jdrules3@gmail.com   Officer at Large Clay Schroll 1795 S. Demeter Drive Freeport, IL 61032 815-233-2136 mrclay71@me.com          

Calendar, 2018 Oct. 13 Meeting – Soapstone Carving Oct. 27 Fieldtrip - Prairie du Chien Nov. 10 Meeting – Video/Freeport Show

Thanksgiving

Celebrate  Earth  Science  Week,  October  14-­‐20,  2018  

Submitted  by  Jordan  Marché                                                                                        The  American  Geosciences  Institute  (AGI)  invites  young  people  and  others  to  recognize  and  celebrate  Earth  Science  Week,  October  14-­‐18,  2018,  in  cooperation  with  STEAM  (Science,  Technology,  Engineering,  Arts,  and  Mathematics)  education  efforts  practiced  anywhere.  “Earth  as  Inspiration”  is  this  year’s  chosen  theme,  which  “emphasizes  artistic  expression  as  a  unique,  powerful  opportunity  for  geoscience  education  and  understanding  in  the  21st  century.”  How  does  the  Earth  inspire  you?  AGI  notes  that  “creativity,  problem-­‐solving,  and  critical-­‐thinking  skills  are  as  important  to  the  Earth  sciences  as  they  are  to  the  arts.”                                                                                            A  variety  of  learning  resources  and  activities  are  designed  to  engage  “young  people  in  exploring  the  relationship  between  the  arts  and  Earth  systems.”  This  theme  promotes  “public  understanding  and  stewardship  of  the  planet,  especially  in  terms  of  the  ways  art  relates  to  geoscience  principles  and  issues  as  diverse  as  energy,  climate,  the  environment,  technology,  industry,  agriculture,  recreation,  and  the  economy.”  To  learn  more  about  these  resources,  visit  the  Earth  Science  Week  2018  website:  <www.earthscienceweek.org>  and  corresponding  Toolkit  website:  <www.earthscienceweek.org/materials>.  A  mixture  of  classroom  activities,  focus  days,  and  contests  are  available  in  categories  of  video,  photo,  art,  and  essay  contests,  with  nationwide  prizes  being  offered.  One  such  learning  activity,  “Using  Art  to  Understand  Earth,”  is  open  to  students  in  grades  K-­‐12.  Classroom  teachers,  take  note!!  

 

 

 Minutes  of  the  Meeting      September  8,  2018      

(Editor’s  note)  Since  no  minutes  were  submitted  here,  I  cannot  print  them  in  this  issue.  I  expect  that  they  will  be  read  at  the  next  meeting  and  printed  in  the  next  newsletter.

What’s Rockin’? – Kim Hoxie

(Editor’s note) Because there is no room for a “What’s Rockin’?” table in our current meeting place, there has been no article under this column for several months. More’s the shame, since it was always a fun aspect of our meetings.  

From  the  Showchair  –  Debbie  Wehinger          

(Editor’s  note)  One  more  regular  column  with  no  submission.    However,  we  do  have  some  good  articles!  

Extracting  a  Giant                                                                  Cliff  Thomas  

The day started off normally with walking around and looking at what the rock piles already had to show. Kristin and I were finding lots of quarter sized brachiopods and gastropods. Also we were finding a lot of small dime sized galena specimens. We turned to walk by Dan and as I looked to the right I spotted it. The largest cephalopod fossil I had ever seen! I showed Dan, and he said he had walked by it 5 times without seeing it. We were all stunned by its beauty. Then we realized the monster job it would be to extract this fossil in one piece. The fossil was located on the face of a 5-ton boulder, with 10 inches of limestone above it.

Luckily, I had brought all the toys: bags full of chisels, a maul, and my 14 inch chop saw, not to mention the mini jack hammer. I knew I had the tools to accomplish the extraction, but would I have the time?

 

 

After 5 hours of cutting and chiseling the fossil was set free from its limestone grip in 1 piece.

Here are a couple of Door Prize articles by some of our youngest members. Good for you! Thanks, too, to parents who helped.

Anthropic  Rock  Currently,  there  are  5,200  known  minerals  according  to  International  Mineralogical  Association  (IMA),  but  the  IMA  only  recognizes  natural  minerals.  In  addition  to  these  5200  minerals,  there  are  208  that  are  known  to  exist  solely  or  partially  due  to  humans.  

Most  of  these  minerals  are  created  inadvertently  by  humans.  Most  are  associated  with  mining  and  are  created  as  a  byproduct  of  those  processes.  Several  are  created  due  to  smelting  processes  or  reactions  that  

occur  in  geothermal  piping.  Anthropic  miner

als  have  also  been  formed  from  the  corrosion  of  ancient  artifacts  at  sacrificial  burning  sites.  This  means  that  humans  have  been  making  new  minerals  for  thousands  of  years.  One  example  of  an  unintentional  anthropic  rock  is  “fordite”  which  comes  from  paint  slag  along  the  walls  of  car  paint  booths.  Fordite  can  be  polished  to  create  beautiful  stones.  In  another  interesting  case,  a  new  mineral  was  formed  in  a  drawer  in  a  museum  when  minerals  interacted  with  chemicals  in  the  wood.  Other  new  minerals  have  formed  in  shipwrecks.  

Some  anthropic  rocks  are  created  intentionally.  Cubic  Zirconia  is  a  commonly  known  man-­‐made  mineral  that  is  created  in  a  lab  as  a  cheaper  form  of  diamond  for  jewelry.  Less  known  is  Yttrium  Aluminum  Garnet,  which  was  developed  by  humans  for  use  in  focusing  high  energy  lasers.  Some  anthropic  rocks  represent  entirely  new  minerals,  and  others  replicate  existing  minerals,  but  create  them  in  greater  abundance,  higher  purity,  or  dramatically  different  locations  than  natural  processes.  An  obvious  example  of  this  is  asphalt  and  concrete,  but  a  more  exciting  example  that  is  common  at  gem  and  mineral  shows  is  ultra-­‐pure  bismuth.  Technically  bismuth  of  high  enough  purity  to  develop  a  rainbow  oxide  layer  could  exist  in  nature,  but  such  samples  are  typically  very  small  and  extremely  rare.  Lab  grown  ultra-­‐pure  bismuth  is  reasonably  common  and  inexpensive,  and  beautiful.  

Humans  have  been  changing  the  landscape  for  thousands  of  years.  We  have  changed  the  ecology,  the  topology,  and  the  climate;  and  minerals  are  no  different.  In  a  blink  of  geological  time  we  have  created  dozens  of  new  minerals  that  have  never  existed  on  earth  before,  and  we  have  moved  and/or  created  rocks  in  new  geological  distributions  across  the  globe.  The  study  of  anthropic  rocks  could  help  us  to  understand  our  impacts  on  our  planet,  and  would  make  a  fun  field  to  understand  better.  

Researched  and  Drafted  by  Marek  Schraedley  

Edited  by  Rob  Schraedley  

Sources  (and  additional  reading):  

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/mar/01/rock-­‐of-­‐ages-­‐impact-­‐of-­‐manmade-­‐crystals-­‐defining-­‐new-­‐geological-­‐epoch-­‐study  

https://www.livescience.com/58122-­‐208-­‐human-­‐made-­‐minerals-­‐revealed.html  

https://phys.org/news/2017-­‐03-­‐human-­‐caused-­‐minerals-­‐bolsters-­‐argument-­‐declare.html  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropic_rock  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fordite  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bismuth    

The mysterious fossil

We  were  going  to  Rockton,  Illinois  to  go  fossil  hunting  on  a  road  cut  in  the  highway.  We  found  a  lot  of  cool  stuff.  It  was  freezing  so  I  did  not  want  to  go  but  when  I  got  in  the  car  I  felt  a  lot  more  confident.  After  a  drive  of  about  an  hour  so,  we  stopped  at  a  gas  station  to  get  a  treat.  I  got  an  emoji  flashlight  pop  in  case  we  got  hungry.  When  we  got  there  we  made  up  a  point  system  where  we  got  points  depending  on  how  good  or  bad  the  fossil  was.  Later  in  the  fossil  trip  my  mom  yelled  “100  points!”  so  I  rushed  over  to  see  the  fossil.  It  looked  like  it  had  bones  coming  out  but  we  weren’t  sure;  it  was  mossy  and  green;  it  was  dense,  and  it  had  a  hole  in  it  with  green  moss  in  it.  My  mom  looked  around  to  see  if  she  could  find  more  pieces  of  the  rock  but  she  could  not.  We  still  don’t  know  what  it  is  so  we  will  bring  it  to  the  next  gem  and  mineral  meeting  for  help.          

By  Gavin  Schraedley  

Michigan Man Discovers Glowing, Fluorescent Rocks Called

"Yooperlites"

Submitted by Ted Tinker

Erik Rintamaki was searching for rocks on a Michigan beach last summer when he made what he calls a "mind blowing" discovery. Resting among the thousands of pebbles covering the Lake Superior beach, Rintamaki saw a glowing rock. The gem and mineral dealer told CBS News he often goes rock hunting. But on this particular June night, he found a rock unlike any other — a florescent orb that he later named "Yooperlite." Like lava glowing through cracks in the earth, a glowing light seeped out of the lines in the small rock. Rintamaki knew this couldn't be the only Yooperlite out there, but he couldn't find any information about glowing rocks online. He knows many people in the gem and mineral field, but everyone he asked had no clue what these mysterious rocks were.

http://www.geologyin.com/2018/09/michigan-man-discovers-glowing.html#4CYVEbxTLG4pp6ht.99 Follow us: @GeologyTime on Twitter

http://www.geologyin.com/2018/09/michigan-man-discovers-glowing.html?m=1#dzOG00orT9TTehEW.99

Badger Lapidary & Geological Society, Inc.

Teri Marché, Editor

5415 Lost Woods Court

Oregon, WI 53575