The Bar 2014 Edition

fernley1 · Post by **fernley1** » Mon Mar 10, 2014 4:13 pm

At Fossil Hill we find lots of ammonites, they are all over the hill. But to find the good ones, you got to hike to the top of the hill.
I have lots of them in my yard.

unjonharley · Post by **unjonharley** » Mon Mar 10, 2014 4:44 pm

After climbing that hill, Its no wounder there is nothing left but the schell..

Now one of you tell me how that black rock mountain got there..

Did it fall out of the sky?.. Or.. Was it a lump that didn't mix with rest of the bach after the big bang?.. Don't be telling me Dog dropped it..

^Rhino! · Post by **^Rhino!** » Mon Mar 10, 2014 4:56 pm

Ygmir: "dang.......boron aluminum silicate, yes?
I'm trying to do this from memory, so............hahaa"

Very good, yggy. It is. Now try a boron cyclosilicate precursor that they have in California that leads to that.
Dumortierite is usually a weathering product of something else. Guessed it yet?

Hint: long slender crystals up to 16" long in the Harney Peak granite of the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Hint #2: Comes in a variety of colors.

Guessed it yet?

Tourmaline. Elbaite is the black varietyfrom South Dakota. "Watermelon" tourmalines are from the Pala area of California. It was used as the crystal in pressure gauges in World War II, because its piezoelectric, more so than quartz. It's also pyroelectric. A slight electric current is generated by heating tourmaline.

Oh yeah...the petrified wood that is radioactive, it may fluoresce under ultraviolet light. The pure white opal from Virgin Valley in Nevada does, and that's due to just a trace of uranium.

And I'm doing this all from memory, too.

Now, on the ammonites: are they ammonites, goniatites, or ceratites? What age? Are they sutured extravagantly? Do they have any of the original nacreous luster produced from original aragonite matrix?

The Rhino wants to know.

Aurelia · Post by **Aurelia** » Mon Mar 10, 2014 5:33 pm

Ooo, the boys are smarties.

Have you read the article in today's paper about Burning Man ?...sort of destroys the mystery and deserves debunking

xoA.

fernley1 · Post by **fernley1** » Mon Mar 10, 2014 6:25 pm

Rhino, I just got out my Geology book from the Nevada Bureau of mines and Geology, Geology and mineral deposits of Pershing county. Bulletin #89.
From page 16
The middle member of the Prida formation, on the east flank of the Humboldt range, contains one of the most complete and best studied succession of Anisian marine fossils in the world. It includes halobiid clams, ammonoids, nautiloids, and vertebrates. The member contains fauna indicative of lower, middle, and upper Anisian age.
Upper Anisian fossils from the middle member indicates that the age of middle Middle Triassic boundary.
The ones we find are whole ones, but all gray, like the limestone, or are casts of the shells in the limestone.

I hope my uneducated ramblings make some sence to you.

ygmir · Post by **ygmir** » Mon Mar 10, 2014 11:11 pm

fernley1 wrote:Rhino, I just got out my Geology book from the Nevada Bureau of mines and Geology, Geology and mineral deposits of Pershing county. Bulletin #89.
From page 16
The middle member of the Prida formation, on the east flank of the Humboldt range, contains one of the most complete and best studied succession of Anisian marine fossils in the world. It includes halobiid clams, ammonoids, nautiloids, and vertebrates. The member contains fauna indicative of lower, middle, and upper Anisian age.
Upper Anisian fossils from the middle member indicates that the age of middle Middle Triassic boundary.
The ones we find are whole ones, but all gray, like the limestone, or are casts of the shells in the limestone.

I hope my uneducated ramblings make some sence to you.

on one of my trips there, I encountered a grad student, who explained he had found what he claimed was either new, or rare ( I can't remember) ammonite, called "Nevadities" (SP?). Luckily, all the vertebrate fossils I've collected there, or pieces thereof, were many years ago, when it was still legal. I have some vertebrae, ribs, a tooth, a joint (looks like a wrist) and other misc. ichthyosaur parts. Belamites, and some sort of tapered tube thing............

as to the Dumortierite, it's massive, some blocks weighing several tons, comes in mottled colors pink, lavendar and a medium blue. Champion spark plug company mined there originally for the resistor quality of the material, for their resistor spark plugs.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty dang sure that's the rock.............I have a ton or so here. some very beautiful blue, challenging the azurite I found across the canyon, directly east.
I don't think we are talking the same place, fernley1, though I'd bet it's the same formation. the pace I go is a series of gullies, and the formation is capped well before the top of the ridge. I've gotten ammonites up to 8" dia.

^Rhino! · Post by **^Rhino!** » Tue Mar 11, 2014 4:54 am

Fernley1, your 'ramblings' are dead on the money.

You answered my questions with flair and correctness. Thank you,

I'll be back more with later. Time for a field day at work.

and RUN! Gotta GO!

fernley1 · Post by **fernley1** » Tue Mar 11, 2014 7:25 am

Good morning all.
Well, now I want to go look for Dumortierite.
I searched and found this.
University of Nevada Bulletin #2, March 15 1928.
Mackay school of mines staff, on the minersl Dunortierite.
The bulletin talks sbout the Champion spark plug company mining at Rochester canyon.
The bulletin also list a deposit of pink Dumortierite in the southern Granite Range, 8 miles northwest of Gerlach. (Field trip during the Burn)

8 inch diameter ammonites! Wow, my grandkids would love to find one that size. (Hell, I would like to find one that size.)

Dr. Pyro · Post by **Dr. Pyro** » Tue Mar 11, 2014 8:05 am

Mornin' campers.

This Saturday is the Brides of March! I know there are a number of events all over the country, but in Sacramento we're meeting up at the Mercantile Saloon 1926 L Street in midtown beginning at 2 p.m. I went out a week or two ago and picked up a nice gown at the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store on Watt Avenue just south of El Camino. $14.50 out the door. It's a size 14, and I assume it'll fit my 5'10" 208 pound frame. They didn't have anything in an analagous male size. When the dude who was at the check out counter asked me who the lucky lady was, I simply said, "Uh, me." He turned away, just handed me the receipt, and shuffled off to who-knows-where. Last year this was a helluva lot of fun. Even Channel 10 came out and did a short story on us. The entire bash was made up of mostly burners, including my good friends Mary (Pandora), Betty (Krazybetty), Melanie, Dave O., and on the list goes. Most of the people who show up for the First Thursday Meet-up were there. If you're looking for a great excuse to bar crawl on a sunny Saturday afternoon and cause mayham, join in the fun! I do recommend having a designated driver. I certainly intend to.

ygmir · Post by **ygmir** » Tue Mar 11, 2014 8:48 am

*wanders in, makes CCC*
HI gang!

have fun Doc!! dang,wish I could make it!

*heads for ROS*

unjonharley · Post by **unjonharley** » Tue Mar 11, 2014 8:59 am

morning.. Portland has the bridies think.. Its crazy.. I don't go cuse I'm a non drinker...Foged in here in Salem, down to 300 hundred feet.. Guess the sun is on its way..An other day of killing blackberry..

^Rhino! · Post by **^Rhino!** » Tue Mar 11, 2014 3:39 pm

ygmir wrote:
fernley1 wrote:Rhino, I just got out my Geology book from the Nevada Bureau of mines and Geology, Geology and mineral deposits of Pershing county. Bulletin #89.
From page 16
The middle member of the Prida formation, on the east flank of the Humboldt range, contains one of the most complete and best studied succession of Anisian marine fossils in the world. It includes halobiid clams, ammonoids, nautiloids, and vertebrates. The member contains fauna indicative of lower, middle, and upper Anisian age.
Upper Anisian fossils from the middle member indicates that the age of middle Middle Triassic boundary.
The ones we find are whole ones, but all gray, like the limestone, or are casts of the shells in the limestone.

I hope my uneducated ramblings make some sence to you.
on one of my trips there, I encountered a grad student, who explained he had found what he claimed was either new, or rare ( I can't remember) ammonite, called "Nevadities" (SP?). Luckily, all the vertebrate fossils I've collected there, or pieces thereof, were many years ago, when it was still legal. I have some vertebrae, ribs, a tooth, a joint (looks like a wrist) and other misc. ichthyosaur parts. Belamites, and some sort of tapered tube thing............

as to the Dumortierite, it's massive, some blocks weighing several tons, comes in mottled colors pink, lavendar and a medium blue. Champion spark plug company mined there originally for the resistor quality of the material, for their resistor spark plugs.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty dang sure that's the rock.............I have a ton or so here. some very beautiful blue, challenging the azurite I found across the canyon, directly east.
I don't think we are talking the same place, fernley1, though I'd bet it's the same formation. the pace I go is a series of gullies, and the formation is capped well before the top of the ridge. I've gotten ammonites up to 8" dia.

OK, I'm back now to make this a little more interesting. First off.....take a snicker with me when I edumakate Mr. Ygmir here. He had the spelling right on the Nevadites fossil, a ceratitid. But (sniff, sniff, tears coming to my eyes...) he didn't tell me which species of the genera. But that's OK. I'm just kidding. Nevadites gabbi, Nevadites humboldtensis, and Nevadites hyatti. All are from the Prida Formation of Middle Triassic age(equivalent roughly to the Keuper shale in the three-fold definition of the Triassic in Germany that geology students are inflicted with...the Muschelkalk, the Keuper, and the Bundsandstein). Fossil Hill is loaded with species...42 in all. I suggest going to this site for pics for comparison and more information:

http://inyo.coffeecup.com/site/ammonoids/ammonoids.html

Belemnites are the internal supportive 'pen' of squid-like critters from the Triassic. I'm most acquainted with the ones from the Sundance Formation of Wyoming, Pachyteuthis densis. Good pic at this site:

http://www.ammonoid.com/oxfordian.htm

I don't mess in the Mesozoic much (forgive the horrendous pun). I'm an Ordovician researcher, tried and true, from my undergraduate days, and specializing in the Lower Ordovician, known today as the Ibexian. I'm also good in the Mississippian and Devonian. Just the luck of the draw.

All that and engineering geology, too...what a wonderful science.

fernley1 · Post by **fernley1** » Tue Mar 11, 2014 4:59 pm

Rhino, that coffeecup.com site is awesome, so much good information.
But can't figure out where Ammonoid canyon is yet, Gabbs formation and Sunrise formation areas, got to get my Geology maps out tonight.

^Rhino! · Post by **^Rhino!** » Tue Mar 11, 2014 5:56 pm

fernley1 wrote:Rhino, that coffeecup.com site is awesome, so much good information.
But can't figure out where Ammonoid canyon is yet, Gabbs formation and Sunrise formation areas, got to get my Geology maps out tonight.

fernley1:

You have always been a super individual here on eplaya. Consider the site URL a personal gift from me to you. Thank you for all your kindnesses and ability to discuss things in the coolest way. You're an extremely good match for all of us who participate.

Anybody feel like discussing opals or turquoise here? Nevada has the lock on both.

I mean precious opal, rivaling that of Australia's Lightning Ridge and Coober Pedy deposits, and a sight better than anything coming out of Ethiopia today. I've been to the Bonanza Opal mine in Virgin Valley and the Royal Peacock, also in Virgin Valley. To get there, take US 95 north from Winnemucca, then take a left on Nevada 140. From there, you head up to Denio Junction on the Oregon-Nevada border. Another left takes you to the Sheldon National Antelope and Wildlife Refuge, on Virgin Valley Ranch Road. Go to the End of the road, and you're at Royal Peacock. Bonanza is before you get to the Royal Peacock.

Turquoise today is going for about $120.00/pound. Nevada has the world's biggest supply. Anybody want to comment further with locations that allow rockhounds for mining? I'm all ears.

FIGJAM · Post by **FIGJAM** » Tue Mar 11, 2014 6:00 pm

I though Bisbee turquoise was supposed to be the best?

https://www.google.com/search?q=Bisbee+ ... 60&bih=618

tatonka · Post by **tatonka** » Tue Mar 11, 2014 6:03 pm

I was looking at some land near Bonanza , was 15 acres for 12,000 .

Aurelia · Post by **Aurelia** » Tue Mar 11, 2014 6:49 pm

ygmir · Post by **ygmir** » Tue Mar 11, 2014 10:50 pm

we found a medium blue opal in nodules and such, just out of Lovelock. Some, showed some fire. it's not real stabile, and can dry out to a milky white.
Lots of opalite, and probably some good stuff near Midas, NV, where I have some land and do some rock hunting. Got some nice geodes "in situ" there, not great, but cool because it's black basalt and the geodes are weathering out.
Opalized wood, in spots, even some very nice stuff here in Nevada County.

I've found many very nice copper minerals within sight of I-80 at imlay, at a mine at the head of Rye Patch reservoir. It was a native copper mine, and a lot of the beautiful rock was cast off as waste.........there is not nearly as much there as in years past. but still good pieces and stones. I have one with many of the major copper minerals I brought home.....weighs about 2500 lbs. or so.
Also some nice coppers near Rochester.

We went to a mine in "Black Canyon" twice. Very cool. you belly crawl in the collapsed portal. and when you round the first corner, you light lights the tunnel like Disneyland! massive garnet, with quartz, and epidote/peridot (forget, but green), for about 1/4 mile underground. some nice red garnet, mostly dark dark red to brown. some up to 1/2" dia. I brought several 5 gallon buckets of them home, and made some exposed aggregate with it........prolly all caved in by now, but some stuff is evident on the surface.

and due south of there, a mine which contains crystalline cinnabar. during mining operations, crystal zones were chopped out with axes, for the pure stuff. I have some small examples of the beautiful red crystals, somewhere.

ok, someone stop me......I could ramble about realgar, stibnite crystals like fur on rocks, 10 diameter standing petrified trees (sub surface now, been dug down), 30' logs I've uncovered and then reburied, limb casts, green beryl crystals, big as a pencil (on my mantle), rutilated quartz crystals, ferite included as well, moss agate, red plume agate, on and on and on..........all within a days drive and back of Lovelock. Spent a good 20 years avidly "hounding" that whole corner on Nevada, Reno to Black rock to Elko, to Austin, back to Fallon.

I wish I had your college, Rhino. sigh, it's all self taught and picked up from "old timers" who often got the names wrong, but, could sure find the "good stuff"

ygmir · Post by **ygmir** » Wed Mar 12, 2014 8:23 am

*wakes up in IBBOD, hits "start" on ECM remote*

dang, I'll just open the doors.

Post by **AntiM** » Wed Mar 12, 2014 8:57 am

Early morning errands done, time for coffee!

unjonharley · Post by **unjonharley** » Wed Mar 12, 2014 9:34 am

Good Wodan's day to you Ygmir and AntiM

MyDearFriend · Post by **MyDearFriend** » Wed Mar 12, 2014 4:38 pm

Thanks gods it's wodensday, indeed.

But I have not quite yet worked half my week.

Tired out.

Post by **trilobyte** » Wed Mar 12, 2014 6:07 pm

Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday.... The weather here's been nice and sunny and warm, though I haven't had a chance to enjoy it much. Either news crews just can't get enough of that fire from yesterday, or they're using copters to survey the scene something fierce, because they've been buzzing overhead all damned day!

I had to go through the painful process of drafting a proposal about my project today. I'm not sure what the deal is there, in person I won't shut up about my plans but when it comes time to write things down...I clam up. Anyhow, I managed to slog through it. Then, to my surprise, a delivery at the door. The pizza oven I ordered a few days ago arrived several days earlier than I expected... nice!

Anyhow off I go to tinker around with a few more elements of the camp plans, getting things a bit further along before dinner. Cheers!

Post by **trilobyte** » Wed Mar 12, 2014 6:46 pm

Grumble grumble grumble... the damned oven arrived all beat up. A big dent in the roof, and the rest of it looks like it was packed incredibly poorly (makes me think there might be other problems). Fortunately it's something we're doing early on, so there's plenty of time to get with the vendor and have it replaced.

Elliot · Post by **Elliot** » Wed Mar 12, 2014 7:02 pm

trilobyte wrote:Grumble grumble grumble... the damned oven arrived all beat up. A big dent in the roof, and the rest of it looks like it was packed incredibly poorly (makes me think there might be other problems). Fortunately it's something we're doing early on, so there's plenty of time to get with the vendor and have it replaced.

Some years ago I ordered a porcelain commode for Millicent The Bus. It wasn't possible to count all the pieces. Stuff happens, I guess. And having worked in trucking, I know what happens sometimes.
Well, so long as they send another -- and one eventually makes it.

Readied two Playa Loaner bikes today.

MyDearFriend · Post by **MyDearFriend** » Thu Mar 13, 2014 6:08 am

Yay for bikes, Elliot!

Sorry about your pizza oven, Trilo.

"Fell off the truck," yeah...

Okay I need

This feels like the longest week ever.

Post by **AntiM** » Thu Mar 13, 2014 6:14 am

Dang about the pizza oven. We looked at a propane one, pricey buggers. A stone will do. We need to run down to Cabelas and pick up a special small square pizza stone for our camp chef oven. We plan on individual biscuit-pesto pizzas. Yum.

VultureChow · Post by **VultureChow** » Thu Mar 13, 2014 6:21 am

Good call on the pizza stone. Makes all of the difference in your oven. I just leave mine in there permanently; keeps the temperature steady and makes everything bake more evenly.

Patsh · Post by **Patsh** » Thu Mar 13, 2014 7:14 am

Hmmmm... this gets me wondering if the marble tile I have would work as a pizza stone..
highly polished white marble, a foot square by 3/8" thick.
I'll have to try that!!

Aurelia · Post by **Aurelia** » Thu Mar 13, 2014 7:47 am

Good Morning All !

Here I am; so getting on track, following Fossa's lead, ready to begin my morning work-out,
and you catch impressionable me up with Pizza talk
I will not !

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