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HELL’S CANYON GEM CLUB Serving the Valley for

P.O. BOX 365 66 YEARS

LEWISTON, IDAHO 83501

PURPOSE OF HELLS CANYON GEM CLUB, INC. The purpose of this nonprofit, social club is to promote the rock hound hobby by providing opportunities for the collection, working and displaying

of gems and minerals, as well as educational programs in the field of geology.

MEETINGS: 2nd Friday of each month Business Meeting: 6:45 pm VISITORS ARE ALWAYS WELCOME

Dues: Adult (per person) $15.00; Junior (under 18) Free with a responsible adult membership.

2018 BOARD OF DIRECTORS

President Randy Squires 208-743-8812 1st Year Trustee Ryan Galantuomini 208-xxx-xxxx Vice President Steve Carlson 423-584-2808 2nd Year Trustee Joe Schacher 208-743-9238 Secretary Lola Collinsworth 509-254-7482 2nd Year Trustee Nathan Redde 208-836-5805 Treasurer MaryLou Northrup 208-743-6944 Federation Director Jerry Northrup 208-743-6944 Past President Linn Enger 208-746-4957 Federation Delegate MaryLou Northrup 208-743-6944 1st Year Trustee Teresa Stephenson 509-758-3880 WSMC Representative

HELLS CANYON WEBSITE: http://www.hellscanyongemclub.com WEBMASTER: Rick Westerholm: hcgemclub@yahoo.com

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HOW TO FIND OUR MEETING PLACE

To get to the meeting location for the Hells Canyon Club, go south on 15th Street in Clarkston. 15th turns into Scenic Way and goes up the hill. Scenic Way turns into Appleside Rd. Continue south on Appleside Rd to where it turns and becomes Reservoir Rd. The Grange Hall is located at 2220 Reservoir Rd, at the junction of Reservoir Rd, 6th Avenue and 22nd Street. Additional parking is available in the Church parking lot across 6th Avenue.

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January meeting minutes

New member Eric Dawson

Guests were Jessica & Cierra, Jeff Tomberg, Emily & Barbara

Minutes approved as in Boulder Buster

Treasurer report passed

Voted and passed scholarship fund of $100.00

Rockhound trips calendar will be finished in March, bring ideas to February meeting.

Annual rock club auction will be April 7 or 14th depending on availability of hall

Proposal to Federation for 2019 Show to be held by our club—we should be notified in a few weeks if they accepted our proposal.

Still looking for a better clubhouse building

Mentoring program and sending welcome letters to new members was discussed

Rockhound of the year committee members needed

Club lease administrator needed

Show dealership chairman position discussed

Motion made and passed to buy soapstone from Berry for $100.00

Show and Tell – wirewrap from Beth, Cabs from Darren & Cierra

Silent auction made $67

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Photo Quiz--- Where are these & how did they form?

(answer on last page)

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Dues are due!

2018 dues must be paid by Feb. 15th to avoid being taken off the membership list. Please fill out the form below and bring it with you to the Feb. meeting or mail to P.O. Box 365. A new card will be issued at that time. Dues are $15.00 per person.

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Idaho gets nation’s first International Dark Sky Reserve

Designation recognizes decades of work to reduce light pollution.

Jodi Peterson NEWSJan. 8, 2018From the print edition

BACKSTORY

Natural darkness — which is essential for plants, wildlife and humans — is

disappearing. In 2001, an Italian astronomer estimated that two-thirds of U.S.

residents can no longer see the Milky Way with the naked eye. In response, some

Western cities and national parks have modified their light usage. In April 2007,

Utah’s Natural Bridges National Monument became the first “International Dark

Sky Park” certified by the nonprofit International Dark-Sky Association

Read more

FOLLOWUP

Now, the West boasts the nation’s first International Dark Sky Reserve, certified in

December after decades of effort by volunteers and officials. The 1,400-square-mile

swath of central Idaho, in the Sawtooth National Forest, is so free from light

pollution that “interstellar dust clouds can be seen in the Milky Way,” reports E&E

News. Idaho gained two other “starry night” recognitions last year: The city of

Ketchum became the world’s 16th International Dark Sky Community, and Craters

of the Moon National Monument and Preserve became an International Dark

Sky Park. ===========================================================================

VALENTINE'S DAY IS COMING: Nothing says "I Love You" like a Valentine's pendant from the edge of space. On Dec. 29, 2017, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus flew a payload-full of these 18k rose gold plated Valentine's pendants to the stratosphere onboard a high-altitude helium balloon:

The necklaces traveled alongside an array of cosmic ray sensors, which the students use to monitor deep-space radiation penetrating Earth's atmosphere.

You can have one for $169.95. Each glittering pendant comes with a greeting card showing the jewelry in flight and telling the story of its journey 36 km (118,110 feet) above the Sierra Nevada mountains of central California. Sales support the Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray ballooning program and hands-on STEM research.

Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store All proceeds support hands-on STEM education

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2018 GEM SHOWS(Partial list, see--- AMFED.ORG/NFMS

Feb 24 & 25, 2018 Sat 10 – 6 Sun 10 - 5

Idaho Gem Club Expo Idaho

5610 Glenwood Boise, Id 83714

Brent Stewart 208-342-1151 rocksbybrent@gmail.com

Mar. 23 – 25, 2018 Fri, Sat – 10 – 6

Sun 10 - 4

Rock Rollers Club of Spokane, WA

Spokane Fair & Expo Center N. 604 Havana at Broadway

Spokane, WA

Mike Shaw 509-251-1574 showchair@rockrollers.org

April 21 & 22, 2018 Sat – 10 – 5 Sun 10 - 4

Lakeside Gem and Mineral Club

Benton County Fairgrounds 1500 South Oak Kennewick, WA

Mary Lou Omstead 509-783-2798 PO Box 6652, Kennewick, WA. 99336

April 27 – 29, 2018 NFMS Show and

Convention Fri – 10 – 6 Sat – 10 – 6 Sun – 10 - 4

Yakima Rock and Mineral Club

Central WA State Fair Park Modern Living Building and

Pioneer Hall 1301 South Fair Avenue

Yakima, WA 98901

Kurt Junt or Ronna Watkins Yakima_rockhounds12@yahoo.com

509-433-7841 Yakima Rock and Mineral Club

PO Box 326 Yakima, WA 98907 yakimarockclub.com

Standing Committees Gemshow Committees

1. Membership Chairman --- Linn Enger 1. Show Chairman --- Rock Club Officers 2. Juniors Chairman -- David Dabritz 2. Show Treasurer -- Marylou Northrup 3. Fieldtrip Chairman -- 3. Dealer Chairman – Lynda Grebe 4. Program Chairman -- 4. Advertising Chairman -- Randy Squires 5. Show & Tell Chairman -- 5. Displays Chairman -- Joe Schacher 6. Claims Chairmen – Nate Reade, Randy 6. Demonstrations Chairman -- Travis Heath Squires, Jerry Northrup 7. Historian Chairman -- 7. Floorplan Chairman -- Rick Westerholm 8. Library Chairman -- 8. Silent Auction Chairman -- Jerry Northrup 9. Hostess Chairman.--. 9. Kids Corner Chairman – Charlie Sabin 10. Bulletin Editor --- Ed Shoemaker 10. Admissions Chairman – Lola Collinsworth 11.--Security Chairman –Bruce Borgelt and ? 12.--Raffle Chairpersons.-- Nate & Lynda Grebe 13.--Floater for show.-- Bruce Borgelt

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Fun facts about Quartz

Quartz isn’t remarkable because it’s rare—it’s the second-most abundant mineral on Earth, after feldspar. It’s quartz’s versatility that makes it amazing, from Stone Age tools to gemstones to wristwatches, and as a key ingredient in cement, solar panels, glass, and microchips.

BY THE DIGITS 7: Quartz’s rank on the ten-point Mohs Hardness Scale. The only minerals that are harder are topaz, corundum, and diamond.

32,678 times per second: Frequency of the quartz crystals that vibrate inside modern watches. The most accurate mechanical watches have time springs that oscillate 36,000 times per hour.

1.42 billion: Number of quartz watches produced in 2015.

7,148 kg: Quartz crystals stored in the US National Defense Stockpile.

$280: Price per kilogram of cultured quartz crystals used in electronics, though prices can exceed $1,000/kg for some applications. China, Japan, and Russia are the biggest producers.

Quartz is a crystalline form of silicon dioxide, but trace impurities can create a dazzling variety of forms. They include amethyst, rose quartz, jasper, and smoky quartz (reportedly used to make sunglasses for Chinese judges in the 12th century, so they could hide their facial expressions).

BRIEF HISTORY of QUARTZ WATCHES

Quartz watches today are inexpensive and extremely accurate: Who wouldn’t love that? Well, Switzerland’s storied watchmakers refer to the introduction of the new technology as “the quartz crisis.” The rest of world calls it “the quartz revolution.” 1969: Seiko introduces the Astron, the first-ever quartz wristwatch, guaranteed to be accurate within five seconds a day. The cost? $1,250, nearly the price of a small car. 1972: Hamilton Watch Company, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, introduces the first digital watch. They call it the Pulsar, give it an LED (light-emitting diode) display, and attach a $2,100 price tag. 1975: The US gets into the watch game when more than 50 semiconductor companies start making and selling watches in the States. 1979: The Swiss enter the quartz game with a line called Delirium. The Delirium IV is, to this day, the thinnest watch ever made. 1980: After a boom-and-bust cycle, all US companies have gone kaput—except for Texas Instruments, which halved LED prices in 1978 and killed the competition. 1983: The Swiss watch industry is hurting, with 1,000 companies going under and the number of industry employees plummeting from 90,000 to 34,000. 1983: Swatch (“second watch”) saves the day. Swiss entrepreneurs launch the revolutionary plastic watch in an effort to make analog timepieces cool again. 2016: The Swiss watchmaking industry, now under fire from smartwatch makers like Apple, is in trouble again. Operating profit hits a 15-year low.

Without pure quartz, we wouldn’t have computer chips. To make silicon wafers, a seed crystal of silicon is heated to high temperatures in a giant quartz crucible, then stretched out into a long cylinder. The cylinder is then sliced into wafers, which eventually receive electronic circuitry. To ensure that the silicon cylinder is as perfect as possible—any defects mean the chips won’t work—the crucible has to be made from high-purity quartz. Benches, tools, and other elements used to help form the chips are also made from quartz. Almost all the quartz crystal used in electronics are “grown” in a lab

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from mined feedstock, mostly from Brazil.

“Synthesized quartz is made using the hydrothermal process in an autoclave. You probably don’t have one of those in your kitchen, but you may have a smaller equivalent. If you decide to risk the Instant Pot (pressure cooker) you got for Christmas, you’ll be following in the footsteps of German geologist Karl Emil von Schafhäutl—the first person to grow a crystal grown by hydrothermal synthesis, back in 1845.

grow a quartz crystal

crystal growing kit

If Geologists are Rock Stars---- what does that make a rockhound? A Rock Starlet, no that’s not right, lets see—maybe a Small Rock Star, no some rockhounds are not very small—Pebble Star doesn’t have the right ring to it—maybe Rock All-Stars, that has possibilities—maybe a Rockette, maybe not—maybe parttime Rock Star – maybe Just-for-the-Fun-of-it Rock Star--- maybe Pay-Your-Own-Way Rock Star, --- maybe ………………………….

why geologists lick rocks

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Riddle—I dig out tiny caves and store silver and gold in them. I also build bridges of silver and make crowns of

gold. They are the smallest you could imagine. Sooner or later everybody needs my help, yet many people are

afraid to let me help them. Who am I?

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Hints for Surface Collecting When searching for translucent material, like agate, walk towards the sun, you will see the sun shine through the stone. When looking for reflective material like crystals, have the sun behind you and the material will shine or sparkle in the sun. If you walk sideways to the sun, look side to side for both translucent and reflective material. If you find something good or unusual, stop and mark the spot, look up the slope and down the slope to find the source of the material. I like to pile rocks every time I find something unusual, that way I can see the fall-line of the material. via Hard Rock News, 3/11

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He wasn’t married and was looking for a bride. He took four Herkimer Diamonds with him at all times. He thought that would help. After all, Four Quartz is equal to one gal. Via The Rockhounder, March 2011

Top Ten Reasons I Go to Rock Swap’s

By Steve Hurlock

#10 You get to get your hands dirty

#9 You get to get your hands wet

#8 You get to see some not so nice Rock’s

#7 You get to see some really nice Rock’s

#8 You get to dig thru boxes and tubs looking for those really nice Rock’s

#6 You get to wheel and deal trying to get those really nice Rock’s

#5 You get to make Friend’s trying to get those really nice Rock’s

#4 You get to learn from those friends about what to do with those really nice Rock’s

#3 You get to gets your hands wet and dirty again, putting and polishing those Rock’s

#2 You get to enjoy the beauty of the Rock that God and your friends have provided you

And the #1 reason I go to Rock Swaps and do all of this?

You get to visit with friends, get dirty, get wet, get out and enjoy the beauty of the outdoors,

make something with your own two hands, and that is just fantastic!!

A dentist

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By Clay Williams, El Dorado County Mineral & Gem Society Whether a case contains mineral specimen(s) or the product of any other related activity, the challenge is to display

them to best effect. The author, who is struggling with the mastery of this art and has been for a number of years

through successes and occasional failures, was asked by several club VIP‟s to share some of his insights.

A good place to start is the color scheme. The colors of all supporting elements of the exhibit should be relatively

muted and, for the best effect, should both match each other and what is being displayed. The author took labels in

colors that were appealing and also blended with his specimens, along with a junk piece of mineral that matched

those specimens, to a fabric store where he placed each next to liner fabric candidates. The store clerk must have

wondered what was going on. When the winning fabric was finally determined, the only other limitation was, could

enough be purchased to cover all liner foam board and any possible fabric covered risers?

The word, muted, cannot be emphasized enough when talking about the case, the liners, the mounts and/or risers and

the labels! All should be less eye catching than the object or objects on display. Various earth tone colors are an

excellent way to execute this difference. Avoid bright colors, especially red, at all cost! That the last, when on cars,

draws inordinate scrutiny from police should be a hint why. The bright purple liner that I saw at a recent show

should probably go in favor of something much less attention getting -- after all, the intent is to get people to focus

on what is being displayed, not on the background.

Labeling is important and indicates the exhibitor has taken the trouble to correctly identify his treasure. In most

cases, such as with minerals and fossils, it should definitely include locality and name information. This should be

more specific than, say, “Emerald, South America.” A better effort would state that emerald is a variety of beryl

and, at the very least, give the country and province, region or district of origin. It also might be nice to know where

a lapped piece of tiger’s eye, topaz in a jewelry setting or turquoise in a belt buckle came from.

Competitive entries have certain requirements, which vary for different types of displays. Check the AFMS rules

and CFMS Supplementary Rules Information. It would also be a good idea to ask for someone’s advice if you are

contemplating such a move. [www.amfed.org]

Even though not really muted, black, depending on the shade of your liner, usually is fairly readable. Readability is

an important issue and is one reason why the author tested a sample label at the fabric store. Readability also limits

your choice of fonts. Making that font bold and of a reasonable size helps, as it must be assumed that not everyone

can see or read well.

The author’s labels are composed on a PC and then printed onto transparencies using an ink-jet. Each transparency

page is then cut into individual labels, which may be further trimmed to fit in the spaces between specimens. Gloves

are used whenever handling the finished product, as it fingerprints easily. This not often seen procedure gets lots of

attention from those more interested in the process than the item or items being displayed.

Layout within the case is, of course, a personal thing. However, too much clutter looks very unprofessional and

should be avoided; it diminishes the overall impression. Also, to be avoided is the placement of lower quality

material among stars; the former detracts from the latter. This is easier said than done, especially if one is new to

collecting and, therefore, has a limited choice of what to include.

Labels should be of consistent type and not look like they were just thrown in. The liner or liners should cover the

entire area visible through the glass, and not be stained or dirty. Avoid giving the appearance that your effort was

lacking.

It is a good idea to try putting your case together pre-show. Such a dry run will get the kinks out, if any. It is the

time to make final changes and is great practice, especially if the exhibit is at all complex. Also, this can uncover

any omissions while something can still be done. Good luck! Editors Note: Clay Williams has credentials behind his advice. He has entered his displays and won in competition at California

Federation of Mineralogical Societies shows. He won the 1st Place Advanced Minerals Trophy for his copper minerals case and was also

awarded the coveted Hamel Minerals Trophy at the 2005 CFMS Show in Roseville, CA. In June, he received the 1st Place Masters

Minerals Trophy for his copper mineral case at the 2007 CFMS Show in Lancaster, CA via CFMS Newsletter 11/07, via Breccia 1/08 ,via The Rockcollector 02/08 via Calgary Lapidary Journal 04/08, via GCFMS Newsletter 01/11, Via Quarry Quips 2012

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METEOR OF THE MONTH

Out-of-This-World Diamond-Studded Rock Just Got Even Weirder

By Stephanie Pappas, Live Science Contributor | January 11, 2018 06:54pm ET

A tiny chunk of stone that looks like nothing else ever seen in the solar system might be even weirder than scientists thought.

The Hypatia stone was found in southwestern Egypt in 1996. It was hardly more than a pebble, just 1.3 inches (3.5 centimeters) wide at its widest and a smidge over an ounce (30 grams) in weight. But analysis revealed that the stone (dubbed "Hypatia" for a fourth-century female mathematician and philosopher) fit into no known category of meteorite. Now, a new study suggests that at least some parts of the stone may have formed before the solar system did.

If so — and that is a big "if" — the stone might reveal that the dust cloud that eventually congealed into our solar system was not as uniform as previously believed.

Oddball discovery --When the Hypatia stone was first discovered, researchers weren't sure where it came from. Because it is studded with microdiamonds 50 nanometers to 2 micrometers in size, one possibility was that it was a strange example of a type of diamond known as a carbonado diamond. But studies in 2013 and 2015 definitively knocked out that possibility: The ratios of noble gases in the stone show that it is most certainly from out of this world. (The diamonds probably formed from the shock when the space rock blasted through Earth's atmosphere.)

Some parts of the Hypatia stone may have formed before the solar system did, scientists now say.

"This is a piece of extraterrestrial material," said Guillaume Avice, a postdoctoral scholar of geochemistry at the California Institute of Technology who participated in the 2015 study.

But that's about all that can be definitively said about the Hypatia stone. The makeup of the rock matches no known meteorite. In fact, the rock hasn't been officially categorized as a meteorite, even though it came from space, because only about 0.14 ounces (4 grams) of the original mass of the rock can currently be accounted for. It's not that the rest is permanently lost, Avice said, but it's been chipped apart and sent around to so many labs that fragments are all over the place. The Meteoritical Society requires 20 percent of a meteorite's original mass to be present to officially declare it to be a meteorite.

Mysterious minerals----In the new study, researchers focused on the minerals in the Hypatia stone. They discovered that the stone itself is not uniform, but consists of a carbon-rich matrix shot through with a variety of minerals. These mineral inclusions are as weird as the rest of the rock. They include pure metallic aluminum nuggets, an extremely rare find in the solar system; moissanite and silver iodine phosphide grains; and strange ratios of elements that fail to match the typical ratios of solar system objects. For example, unlike any other solar object ever found, these minerals include a nickel-phosphide compound with very high ratios of nickel to iron.

"There is no known or imaginable mechanism that [this compound] could have been produced naturally in the solar nebula," study leader Jan Kramers, a geologist at the University of Johannesburg.

The solar nebula is the dust and gas that remained after the formation of the very early sun at the dawn of the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. Kramers and his colleagues think that this portion of the Hypatia stone may have formed from the pre-solar nebula, making it older than the sun itself. The rest — the carbon-rich matrix — may have coagulated later in the coldest outer reaches of the solar nebula because forming large bodies requires a dense dust cloud like the solar nebula to provide the material.

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But current theories of solar system formation hold that solar nebula dust was the same everywhere, and Hypatia doesn't fit that picture. The matrix of the stone contains no silicate minerals. The Earth and other rocky planets are full of silicates, and so are stony meteorites. If the matrix of the Hypatia stone formed from the solar nebula, that nebula couldn't have been totally uniform after all.

However, that interpretation of the Hypatia stone's formation is still questionable, Avice said. The test that would cinch whether any part of the object is pre-solar in origin is an analysis of the Hypatia stone's isotopes, or variations of atoms based on the number of neutrons in their nuclei.

Kramers also said isotopic analysis of both the matrix and the mineral inclusions in the stone is the next step researchers need to take to better understand the mysterious space pebble.

Until then, Avice said, "we still don't know what this is, exactly."

Original article on Live Science.

Photo Quiz answer---Karst mountains surrounded by Canola fields, southern China.

According to Chinabackpacker.info, “rapeseed flowers are planted to harvest cooking oil from their seeds after the flowers had withered after their colorful bloom. They are planted all over China but bloom at different times of the year, depending on the temperature of the locations. The rapeseed farms in Luoping are among the largest scale in China. They are normally the first-off-the-block every year, followed by those in Guizhou and other provinces“.

The formation of karst mountains

In the most dramatic instances, karst mountains are created when acidic waterflow wears down limestone bedrock, creating cracks in the bedrock surface. Once cracks are formed, water is then able to flow more quickly and with greater force, creating underground drainage paths, which, in turn, lead to greater erosion.

With time—and not a short time, but rather, millions and millions of years—much of the surrounding rock will be eroded, and with vegetation taking root in the warmer tropical climates of southern China, the erosion process is hastened and limestone mountains are formed. Karst topography is often characterized not only by sharp peaks, but also by caves and underground streams and pools. Karst formations are located worldwide (think sinkholes).

Want to refresh your memory on Karst topography? Follow the links below for more info.

Wikipedia--karst

karst_landscape

more photo's of the area

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If you would like to see some extra ordinary museum mineral displays like the 2000 lb. quartz crystal on

the following page, follow this link…. Dazzling Minerals and Gems

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