Bulletin of the Mineralogical Society 
of Southern California

Volume 80   Number 9                                           September 2009

The 857th Meeting of The Mineralogical Society 
of Southern California

A Tour of Morocco

Spiced with Minerals and Geology

By

Janet Gordon

Geology Department, E-Building, Room 220

Pasadena City College

1570 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena

Featuring:

--News from Federations

--Passing of members

--A short trip to AFMS/NFMS show and Yellowstone

September Program

A Tour of Morocco

Spiced with Minerals and Geology

Friday September 11, 2009 07:30 p.m.

Geoglogy Department, E-Building, Room 220

Pasadena City College

On Friday, September 11, 2009, Dr. Janet Gordon will present a talk about a recent two-week tour of Morocco.  The tour was a cultural one with an emphasis on the modern and ancient capitals, but there were opportunities to spice things up with geological observations and some mineralogy.  The landscape is extremely varied with fertile agricultural plains, towering snow-capped mountains, spectacular desert oases, and orange sand dunes.  The folks are friendly, the food is excellent, and there are many superb traditional craftsmen ready to sell their wares.  Some craftsmen have applied their skills to minerals and fossils.  Paul Gordon got a new camera just before the trip and took vast quantities of pictures, the best of which will accompany the talk.

Mineral shop in rural southern Morocco.  Photo by Paul Gordon

Janet Gordon has enjoyed traveling since retiring from the Pasadena City College Geology Department where she taught a variety of classes including physical geology, mineralogy, petrology, and field studies.  Her geology education includes a BA from Occidental College, a MS from California State University, Long Beach, and a PhD from the University of Southern California.  She has been an MSSC member since about 1973 and enjoys speaking to the Society.

 

Potluck and Mineral Sales

at Fallbrook Museum

 by Shou-Lin Lee

This is the third year that MSSC was invited to Fallbrook Gem and Mineral Society’s annual potluck and mineral sale.  MSSC members Ann Meister, Robert Housley and former member Bill Besse were also in attendance.  Although several other clubs were also invited, the attendance was lighter than last year.  Still, the food was good and plenty. 

As soon as the food was consumed, the tables were cleared and people started bringing out their items for sale.  A lady had some large pieces of meteorites which she said was from her deceased husband’s collection.  Another lady brought in an extensive collection of quartz from Brazil.  Also on sale were a collection of eggs made from various materials such as ceramic, cloisonné, etc. 

It was nice to visit the Fallbrook Museum and meet people from other clubs, but it was not the same as the old MSSC potluck.  We need our own potluck.  I miss the August potluck our society used to have.  True, it was challenge for the Program Chair to find a suitable place, but it was a rare occasion for some long distance members to attend.  

Passing of Members

Email from Karlene Miller (Crutchfield’s daughter):

It is with profound sadness that I write this letter to you.  On Tuesday, July 21, 2009 Charlie and Fran Crutchfield were in a fatal, single-car accident.  They passed immediately, according to the Medical Examiner.  They have both been cremated and there will be no services or funerals, as they had requested.

Please know that they found great strength in each other and that they passed together is a huge relief to both my sister and me.  Thank you for your friendships with Fran and Charlie.

Obituary of Warren Haby: Born November 30, 1946 in Los Angeles, son of the late George H. Haby & Roseann (Trotta) Haby, Warren passed away on Tuesday, August 4, 2009 around 2pm.  He was an Altadena resident for 60 years.

A graduate of Don Bosco Tech in 1964, Warren earned many degrees before starting his career at the University of Southern California.  Among those were a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering (1968 and 1969) and Engineering's Degree (1971), MS in Environmental Engineering (1973), MA in Education (1975) and a lifetime Teaching Credential from the State of California.  He spent most of his career as a USC employee and was Lab Manager for the Mechanical Engineering Lab for many years.  Most recently he was Lab Manager for the Material Science Lab.  So well educated, he could converse on most any topic with knowledge and insight.

Among Warren's many interests, he enjoyed helping USC students build and race the SAE Formula 1 cars.  He also enjoyed memberships in several clubs and organizations, including the San Gabriel Trojan Club and The Mineralogical Society of Southern California.  He also enjoyed hiking, sailing and his orchids and garden.  An avid horseman since 1970, Warren owned and loved many horses.

Warren loved model trains and will be remembered for never being without his "Engineer's Cap" which was a tradition started at USC by the School of Engineering.  If you saw Warren, you saw that famous cap!

Surviving him are many loving and cherished friends and family members.

Editor’s note: Charlie Crutchfield was a chemist.  His article “Testing for Borates” was published in MSSC Bulletin Volume 79 Number 5 May 2008 issue. 

Warren Haby was a second generation MSSC member.  His parents were MSSC members.  According to Ann Meister, both Mr. Haby and she were MSSC junior members in the 1950s.  Mr. Haby was the Society’s Facilities Chairman for many years. As the Facilities Chair, Mr. Haby took care of the trailer and display cases used for shows.  Back in the days when MSSC used to hold large shows, the job of Facilities Chair was no easy task.

News from the Federations

• Calling for Volunteers: If you are interested in attending Bureau of Land Management meetings and the like and live in the southern part of the state, the California Federation of Mineralogical Societies (CFMS) needs your help.  CFMS needs some one to fill the position of Public Lands Advisory Committee (PLAC)-South.  Anyone is interested in the position, please contact CFMS president C. J. Quitoriano at 7968 Elder Avenue, Rosamond, Ca 93560, or by phone at (661) 209-9092, or email cjq_62@yahoo.com.
• New categories added in American Federation of Mineralogical Societies (AFMS) Bulletin Competition: During the award ceremony of Bulletin Competition, Linda Jaeger, AFMS Bulletin Editors Advisory Chair, announced that this year three new categories of competition were added: webmaster, adult poetry and junior poetry.  So MSSC poets, start submitting your poems to this bulletin. 
• The 2010 AFMS/CFMS Show will be in Southern California:  It is announced that the 2010 AFMS/CFMS Show will be hosted by the North Orange County Gem & Mineral Society at the Southern California University of Health Sciences Campus 16200 East Amber Valley Rd., Whittier, on June 18-20, 2010

A Short Trip to Billings, Montana

Photos and text by Shou-Lin Lee

Deciding to go to Billings, Montana to attend the American Federation of Mineralogical Societies (AFMS)/ Northwest Federation of Mineralogical Societies (NFMS) Show was not an easy one.  Aside from getting work approval for vacation time at the last minute, and purchasing airline tickets, booking for a hotel to stay at, there is always this perennial question of what should Chris, a non-rockhound spouse, do while I, the rockhound spouse, was having fun at the show?  Chris was totally bored when we were in Tucson.  During the past few times of visiting Tucson, we already checked out the museum in the military base, the cave and the Bio-Sphere 2 and were running out of tourist places to see.  Last year while we were at Menasha Wisconsin for the Agate Symposium, Chris amused himself by driving around visiting cheese factories and looking for Germantown while I was having fun at the Symposium.  So when Chris told me that he planned to visit the Little Bighorn Battlefield and take a scenic drive through the mountains during the two full days we were in Montana, I was glad.  Little did I know.  I had no concept of the amount of time it would take to do all these. 

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According to the map, we would fly over Nevada, Colorado, Wyoming and lower part of Montana.  Since this was the first time we flew to Montana I was busy taking pictures of the ground, hoping to identify the places by matching them up with Google Map later.  From Denver, Colorado to Billings, we flew by some area which appeared to be high plateaus with deep ravines (see picture).  I thought this may be the Grand Tetons but was not able to match it with the map I had.

The AFMS/NFMS Combined Show

The show had 30,000 square feet floor space and was packed with about fifty dealers, close to 200 display cases and several demonstration stations.  The theme of the display cases covered a wide ranges.  Some were one kind of minerals such as agate, corundum, some were minerals from one location. 

Outside of the show floor, there were tables for people to sign up for field trips during the week of August 3 through 9.  A total of 11 field trips were planed.  The locations included: Bear Canyon for black and white fortification agate, Stillwater Mine tour, several trips to various locations along Yellowstone River, and the Spencer Opal Mine in Idaho.  Some field trips were very popular, and had more than a hundred people signed up. 

As soon as I walked into the show, I was greeted by a giant “aquarium,” maybe eight or nine feet long.  The aquarium showcased master carver, Robert Salhi’s carvings of sea creatures.  To the right was the Rock Food Dinner Table.  The table had ten plate settings and all the “food” items were rocks that resembled food.  They were the collection of Bill and Lois Pattillo.

I did not count, but according to the report by John Martin and Dee Holland in the CFMS Newsletter, there were 160 display cases and 38 competitive cases.  Among the cases, some were informative, some were educational (such as the color change gems), some were humorous (such as the debut appearance of Montana moon rock), and some were just “wow, how did they do it?”

The most memorable ones were:

• Will Heierman’s six cases of his collection of corundum by locations.  There were some large corundum spindles from North America that were in perfect form measuring about five or six inches long.  Large corundum crystals are not rare, but a corundum with more than one foot in diameter was amazing.  
• A series of five cases of samples collected along the Yellowstone River complete with a hand drawing of the river, description of what could be found, and the actual rock/mineral. 
  
• The case on color change gems that not only explained how color change occurs in gem with pictures and a diagram, the lighting was designed in such a way that the light sources were switched from daylight equivalent to incandescent light in intervals to showcase the color change property. 
• A case featuring four pieces of objects and a two foot obsidian sword all were done with flint knapping technique.  The four pieces on the top row were very thin, maybe no more than one eighth of an inch thick (see picture in page 10).

The demonstration part featured some usual ones such as gemstone carving, cabbing, wire wrapping, beading, etc., and some unusual ones such as an unmanned concave facetor and a group of young people demonstrating flint knapping. 

Since we planed to visit the Little Bighorn Battlefield in the afternoon, I refrained from lingering among the sale tables, instead I took pictures of all the cases, visited one dealer, then took off.

The Little Bighorn Battlefield

After the show, we drove 60 miles to visit the Little Bighorn Battlefield.  There was a cemetery, a museum about the battle, two memorials, one for the US soldiers and one for the Indians, and here and there were white stones that resembled headstones marking the spot where each soldier fell.  A park ranger gave a half hour talk on the political background of why and how the battle started, and what happened during the battle.  In conclusion, he recommended that those who were interested in learning more should drive the five miles down to the site where the battle started.  Afterward, we drove the five miles.  As our car moved slowly, we saw here and there a white marker.  Occasionally, there were pictures depicting the battle of that particular location and a brief narrative of what happened.  

The battle was long gone.  The field was covered with grass now.  The August sun in Montana was hot and bright even at five o’clock in the afternoon.  The wind blew gently.  The place was absolutely peaceful.  We both felt a profound sadness.  We did not talk much on the way back to Billings.

The Road to Yellowstone National Park

When Chris showed me the map of where the scenic route was, I did not give it too much thought.  Chris said that he was told by his co-worker that we could do it in one day.  So we decided to do it after the Editors’ Breakfast which should be ended by ten o’clock.  The Editors’ Breakfast ran longer than we had expected.  Still, we decided to do it, especially after Chris told me that the road actually leads us to Yellowstone National Park.  I was excited.  I did not expect to be able to fit Yellowstone into our two-day schedule.  Should we have known what laid ahead, we probably would not do it in one afternoon.

It was more than a hundred miles drive winding up mountains up to ten thousand feet elevation.  The view was breathtaking, but the road was narrow, winding, with sheer drop to one side or sometimes both sides.  To make the matter worse, the sky darkened, big fat rain drops started pouring.  As the altitude rose, the wind speed picked up and started whistling.  The occasional lightning startled us from time to time.  It was August but large patches of snow still covered some areas.  There was no speed limit, but our speed slowed to a crawl.  Despite all this, many bikers zipped by us in the rain.  From time to time the views were such that we just had to stop to take some pictures, since we did not have time to sit and really see.  Finally, around four thirty local time, after four hours of driving, we arrived at Yellowstone National Park, northeast entrance. 

We were almost two hundred miles from Billings, and our flight departure time was ten thirty the next morning from Billings.  We decided that we would not take the same route back to Billings as planned.  Instead, we would drive through Yellowstone, exit the north entrance, drive up north to Livingston then take the freeway back to Billings, since there was no speed limit on the freeway in Montana.  So we were told.

After deciding the course of action, we settled back to enjoy the scenery again.  After all, we were in Yellowstone.  Although it was almost five o’clock, bison were still out and about.  Eating.  When I spotted a sign that said Mammoth Hot Springs, 2 miles, Old Faithful, 51 miles, it was almost six o’clock, but I couldn’t resist.  The sun did not set until nine o’clock in Montana at this time of year.  Fifty-one more miles?  Old Faithful was out of the question but the Hot Springs?  I had to have some pictures of that place.

Mammoth Hot Springs

This was what we saw as we got out of the car.  The word “mammoth” was not exaggerated.  The whole area actually included the grey area from the left side of the picture to the beige and white area to the right side of the picture.  The beige and white area was the area covered by spring water.  Although the grey area appeared to be dried up, there were signs warning people to keep off because the area was hot and active.  How hot it was, we could not tell.  Although there was steam coming out of the water, we did not feel the heat, even when we were very close to the spring.  Some areas appeared to be hollow underneath because there were sinkholes on the seemingly solid ground.  Some were five or six feet across.  At the area where the spring water runs past, the mineral deposits formed terraces similar to the rice paddies on the hillside in Asia.  There was only a very slight whiff of sulfur smell in the air.  It took us almost 40 minutes just to explore the area you see on the right side of the picture. 

After I exhausted the 1 GB memory card in my digital camera, it was about time to go.  With that, we left the Yellowstone National Park and headed back to Billings. 

2009 Calendar of Events

September 4-7 2009, Fort Bragg, CA Mendocino Coast Gem & Mineral Society Town Hall Cr. of Main & Laurel Hours: Fri. to Sun. 10-6, Mon. 10-4

September 12-13 2009, Vista, CA Vista Gem & Mineral Society Antique Gas & Steam Engine Museum 2040 N. Sante Fe Ave. Hours: Sat. 10-5; Sun. 10-4

September 19-20 2009, Redwood City, CA Sequoia Gem & Mineral Society Redwood City Community Activities Bldg. 1400 Roosevelt Ave. Hours: 10-5 daily

September 19-20 2009, Paso Robles, CA Santa Lucia Rockhounds Pioneer Park & Museum 2010 Riverside Ave. Hours: 10 - 5 both days

September 19-20 2009, Stockton, CA Stockton Lapidary and Mineral Club Scottish Rite Masonic Center 33 West Alpine Ave. Hours: 10 - 5 both days 

September 26-27 2009, Carmel, CA Carmel Valey Gem & Mineral Society Monterey Fairgounds Hours: Sat.10 - 6; Sun. 10-5 Website: www.cvgms.org

September 26-27 2009, Downey, CA Delvers Gem & Mineral Society Womens Club of Downey 9813 Paramount Blvd. Hours: Sat.10 - 6; Sun. 10-4

September 26-27 2009, Monerey, CA Carmel Valley Gem and Mineral Society Monterey Fairgrounds 2004 Fairgrounds Road