The March 8th club meeting will be the FMC Club's 50th anniversary meeting. One of our club founding members is Dr. Martin Hultquist of Boulder and we will make every effort to get him over to the March 8th meeting at the West Boulder Senior Center that evening, with the meeting starting at 7:15pm. We will have a display of his world-famous mineral bowls there that night. Martin is at the top of the field of hobby crafting of mineral bowls and spheres. Many of his bowls and spheres have been displayed in museums and in prominent mineral magazines over the years. The very first executive board meeting of the club after it was chartered in 1957 was held at his house.

On April 12th we will have the annual club silent auction, so start getting ready for that. The club annual picnic has been reserved with the City of Boulder for Sat. Aug. 25th starting at 11:00am to 3:00pm this year at the main pavilion of the North Boulder Park. The 4:00pm to 8:00pm has had too many rainstorms, etc, for the past couple of years, so we will try the earlier time slot that day.

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February Club Meeting

For our February club meeting, February 8, 7:15 PM, we are having a slide show by club-president Gerry Naugle of "World Class Mineral Specimens in Colorado Museums". The photographer promises that we'll all need towels as we watch, as we'll all be drooling! Should be quite a show!

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FMC Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration
Charlotte Morrison

Charlotte Morrison is coordinating activities for the March 8th FMC meeting and is requesting that if you know any past FMC presidents who might not be presently active in the club, please contact them about the meeting on March 8th (maybe they need a ride).

We will have a portion of the meeting where past FMC presidents will be introduced and asked to give a brief summary of what went on during their tenure in office. Many displays of early club material will be set up around the room and anyone having some memorabilia from the early years of the FMC is asked to bring it to show it to the group.
 

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First Field Trip of the Year

With snows still on the ground (now at five weeks and counting), collecting trips are still a ways off.  However, as we wait for the snows to melt, we will have several field trips to places of geological interest. Our first trip this year will be a tour of Hazen Research, outside of Golden on Saturday, February 24th. Hazen is world-renown for working with mining, energy, and environmental companies to develop processes for recovering metals and other products from ores and providing clean energy from coal, oil shale, and other alternative fuels. Hazen has laboratories and small-scale equipment that is used to develop and demonstrate new processes, before commercial plants are built. During this tour, you will see equipment used in mining and chemical plants and learn about modern techniques that are used throughout the world to recover natural resources. Included in the tour is Hazen's mineralogy laboratory and separations plant. For more information about Hazen Research, see their website at http://www.hazenusa.com/.

To sign up for the tour, contact Dennis Gertenbach, Please bring a hard hat and safety glasses, if you have them. If not, these will be provided.

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An Elephant Never Forgets!

A friendly reminder that the annual dues to the FMC become due on October 1st, 2006. The dues are still only $15 per individual (or) immediate family. You can pay in two ways:

SEND A CHECK TO:

(made to) "Flatirons Mineral Club" (or) "FMC"
P.O. Box 3331
Boulder, CO 80307

(or) pay Gerry Naugle /Alex Cook, Treasurer (or) Chuck & Jan Buda, Membership Co-Chairs at any FMC monthly meeting. One of them is at the sign-in table upon entering the room for the monthly meetings. Your receipt is your new annual 2006-07 FMC membership card.

You can pay by CASH at an FMC meeting. Please do not send cash to the Club P.O. Box 3331 by USPS mail. Remember you can receive electronic (or) paper club newsletters containing the general meetings information, guided club field trips information, annual show opportunities, silent auction opportunities and an annual club summer picnic when you are a member of the Flatirons Mineral Club. The 2006-07 dues must be received by the club by Feb. 20th, 2007 in order to stay current on the newsletters and club member benefits.

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2006 Show A Great Success!
Ray Gilbert

I would like to thank all the members of the show committee and volunteers who took part in the show--the show would not have been successful without you. This year's show will be Dec. 7, 8, and 9 at the Boulder Fairgrounds in the Exhibit Hall with the train club. There will be a show committee meeting at John Hurst's home, March 20 at 7:15 PM. We will need to form subcommittees and make plans for this year's show. Everyone is invited to come and take part.

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Jr. Geologists Learn about Minerals

After several snow storm delays, we finally held our meeting this past month at Charlotte Morrison's house, learning about special properties of minerals. At the meeting, we were joined by 10 Cub Scouts from Den 4 of Pack 59 in Longmont. They are learning about geology, rocks, and minerals, and joined our program for the evening to learn more. We studied fluorescent minerals, cleavage, electrical and magnetic properties of minerals, and double refraction of calcite.

At future meetings, the juniors will be learning lapidary techniques, earning their Lapidary badge. The Jr. Geologists program is open to all Flatirons Mineral Club families. We meet on the third Thursday of each month at 7 p.m.; mark your calendars for the next meeting on February 15th. For more information about the Jr. Geologists program, please contact Dennis Gertenbach or Todd Shannon.
 

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Spring Life Long Learning Classes offered by Ed Raines
 

This spring our own Ed Raines will be offering two excellent courses through the Boulder Valley Schools' Life Long Learning program: Front Range Geology (April 10 to June 12), and Mineral and Rock Identification Lab (April 11 to June 13). Ask anyone in the club who has taken Ed's courses and you will get an enthusiastic recommendation! The Front Range geology course includes evening classes and weekend field trips. In the mineralogy lab you will have the loan of a modern binocular microscope for the duration of the course, as well as weekly take-home specimen kits. If you haven't done so, take advantage of these great classes. You can sign up on line, www.bvsd.org/LLL or by phone, 303-499-1125, ext. 222. There are tuition and materials fees for these courses, but they are well worth it!

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Geologic Names Survey Results
by Pete Modreski

Back in November, just before Thanksgiving, I sent out my informal survey on, "What do you think are the best generally known geologic formation names in the U.S. and in the rest of the world?" I received a total of 176 responses to this, after sending it to various groups, of which 72 replies were this present mailing list of mostly-but-not-all Colorado geologists, teachers, "rockhounds", and other interested persons. I'll follow this up with a longer report with some interesting comments about the kinds of responses I received, but below is a summary of the results. You'll see that the "most voted for" U.S. rock unit was the Morrison Formation, and internationally, the Burgess Shale (just nosing out the Old Red Sandstone). For the record, among the responses from this present group, the leading choices were also the Morrison Formation (21 "votes") and for outside the U.S., the Burgess Shale (of British Columbia) and Old Red Sandstone (of England) were tied with 12 votes each.

Total responses (5 different groups): U.S. formation 176, elsewhere in the world 139

 Total votes out of 176, formations within U.S.:
Morrison Formation                37   
Navajo Sandstone                  12   
'Grand Canyon'                       ll (including 1 vote for Grand Canyon Supergroup)   
Dakota Sandstone                   9
Devils Tower                            7
Vishnu Schist                          6

Total votes out of 139, formations elsewhere in the world:
Burgess Shale                       27
Old Red Sandstone                25
Dover Chalk                           14
Ayers Rock (Uluru)                  9
Solenhofen Limestone             9

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The History of Uranium in Colorado
by Dennis Gertenbach

The history of uranium and other radioactive elements has been intertwined with Colorado mining for over 125 years. Uraninite, a black oxide mineral (UO2), was first discovered in the United States in 1871 associated with gold and quartz veins in the Wood Mine in the Central City Mining District. Small amounts of uranium ore were produced from this mining district in the late 1800s.

A yellow uranium ore was first discovered in the Uravan Mining District in western Colorado in 1881. This yellow oxide mineral was later named carnotite [K2(UO2)2V2O8'3(H2O)]. Some of this ore was sent to Madam and Pierre Currie and was used in their early investigation into radioactivity. The Uravan District became the largest uranium producer in Colorado. The ore was also valued for its vanadium content, an element used to harden steel. The name of this district was derived from the first three letters of uranium and vanadium.

Uranium mining in Colorado has seen four boom and bust cycles. The first Colorado uranium boom began in 1910 and was fueled by a demand for radium, a byproduct element found in the Uravan uranium ores. Although the amount of radium found in these ores is very small (200-300 tons of carnotite ore was needed to produce one gram of radium), it sold for $120,000 to $160,000 per gram. The mines in western Colorado and Rifle shut down by 1923, after an extremely rich deposit was developed in the Belgium Congo. The ore from the Congo contained 60% U3O8, compared to 2% in the Uravan ores, and the cost of radium dropped to $70,000 per gram.

As World War I began, the demand for vanadium skyrocketed to make hardened steel for cannons and other weapons. This fueled the second uranium boom in Colorado, beginning with vanadium production from Uravan in 1916. Even after the drop in radium prices in 1923, several mines in the Uravan district continued to produce vanadium. During this time, the uranium in the ore was considered a contaminant and ended up in the mine tailings. Vanadium production continued in the Uravan District through the 1940s.

The development of atomic weapons during World War II resulted in the third Colorado uranium boom. The uranium-bearing waste piles in Uravan were processed to recover uranium to support the war effort. The US government continued to purchase Uravan uranium for nuclear weapons to 1970.

Uranium for electrical production set in motion the biggest uranium boom in Colorado during the 1950s and 1960s. Production from Uravan continued throughout this period. During this time, the largest uranium deposit in Colorado was discovered in Jefferson County in the late 1940s by Fred Schwartzwalder. The Schwartzwalder Mine began production in 1953, continuing to produce until 2000. Other Colorado uranium deposits were developed in Saguache and Freemont Counties. At the end of the Cold War, uranium from weapons stockpiles entered the market depressing the price for uranium. In addition, mines in Canada and Australia came on line, further lowering uranium prices from $40 per pound U3O8 in the late 1970s to less than $10 per pound in the 1980s and 1990s. Because of these continued low prices, uranium production in Colorado came to a halt.

During the past year, prices for uranium and vanadium have climbed to over $30 per pound U3O8 and nearly $10 per pound V2O5. The increase in uranium prices is due to a production shortage, as weapons stockpile uranium is depleted. In the US, there are 103 nuclear power plants, making the US the world's largest producer of electricity from nuclear power plants. About 20% of the electricity produced in the US comes from nuclear plants. Japan, the second largest nuclear power generator in the world, only produces half as much as the US. The surge in vanadium prices is driven by the strong demand for steel by the Chinese economy. With these increased prices, several companies are investigating restarting uranium production in Colorado,
perhaps fueling a fifth uranium boom in the state.

For more information about the uses of uranium and the history of uranium in Colorado, see the latest Rock Talk (Volume 9 Number 2), Uranium--It's Hot!!, available on the Colorado Geological Survey's website.
 

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Mysterious Egyptian Glass Formed by Meteorite
by Dennis Gertenbach

In 1987, Maxine Kleindienst, an anthropologist at the University of Toronto in Canada, discovered strange specimens of natural glass in the western Egyptian desert. The origin of the glass - known locally as Dakhla glass - had puzzled scientists since their discovery. Recent studies have shown that the glass was produced by a meteorite slamming into Earth between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago. Kleindienst found glass in sediments between layers that have archaeological evidence of human habitation. This provides the first clear evidence of a meteorite striking an area populated by humans.

Some researchers had suggested the Stone Age glass might have been produced by burning vegetation or lightning strikes. But Gordon Osinski, a geologist at the Canadian Space Agency, found that the glass samples contain strands of molten quartz. Only a meteorite impact has sufficient energy to form these structures. The glass deposits have been found in locations tens of miles apart, suggesting a massive event. However, scientists have found no signs of an impact crater in the area. The absence of a crater, the scientists believe, suggests that meteor may have disintegrated as it entered Earth's atmosphere. This would have created a gas pulse, capable of the high heat necessary to form the glass. It is not known if any humans perished during the impact, but the evidence suggests that this is quite likely.

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Fossils in the News
by Dennis Gertenbach

550 Million Year Old Fossil Embryos As recently described in the journal Science, a group of scientists have captured an image of an ancient embryo fossil in the process of dividing. The researches were studying fossil embryos from Guizhou Province in south China, which are the oldest known fossil embryos. The tiny fossils are part of the Doushantuo Formation, a limestone bed deposited between 635 and 551 million years ago that contains layers composed almost entirely of fossil embryos. Researchers believe the fossil embryos are from primitive sponge-like creature, although no adult creatures have been found in this deposit.

The internal structures of the embryos were examined using a technique known as microfocus x-ray computed tomography (microCT). This method allowed the scientists to construct 3-D images of the tiny fossils. When examining the images, the team found kidney-shaped structures that they believe could be nuclei or other internal component. In some four-celled embryos, each cell has two of the kidney-shaped structures, suggesting they were caught in the process of splitting during cell division.  This suggests that complex multi-cell life began earlier that the Cambrian Explosion 542 million years ago, which is widely held as the beginning of complex life.

Largest Terror Bird Found in Argentina A curious teenager in Argentina has discovered the fossil skull of the biggest bird ever found.  Researchers at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County announced the discovery, a swift, flightless predator 10 feet tall with curved, hooked beak that pursued its prey in Patagonia 15 million years ago. The bird is thought to weigh as much as 400 pounds and most likely preyed on rodents the size of sheep that once grazed on the South American savanna. Luis Chiappe of the museum described its skull as bigger than a horse's head.

The fossil is changing scientists' understanding of the evolution of these prehistoric terror birds that roamed in South America. Until this latest discovery, these flightless birds were thought to have become less agile as they grew into larger carnivores. However, this latest find has slender leg and foot bones, which closely resemble running birds. This bird most likely chased down its prey.

The Argentine high school student, Guillermo Aguirre-Zabiala, found the fossil two years ago near his village. Because of his discovery, he has changed his course of study to paleontology and Earth science.

Dinosaur Found near La Junta Volunteers working under the supervision of Bruce Schumacher, paleontologist for the US Forest Service, are helping to dig up the bones of an Apatosaurus, formerly know as a brontosaurus. Discovered in a side canyon in the Picket Wire Canyonlands, the biggest fossil extracted so far has been a 7-foot-long shoulder blade. The animal's hip bones, larger vertebra, and one leg bone have also been found. The neck vertebra extend into the hillside, and the project will continue for several more years to see if the whole neck can be found, perhaps with a skull. The site was found in 2004 by volunteer Wes McCraven on a survey trip. It's called the Last Chance Site because McCraven found a fragment of bone on a hillside on the last part of the last day of the trip, leading him to find the site further up the hill. The fossils now reside at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. They are the first Apatosaurus fossils found in Colorado that have remained in the state. Two other apatosaurs were previously found in the state, but they were taken to other museums.

Ancient Jaws Roamed the Seas A prehistoric fish, Dunkleosteus terrelli, that lived in the seas 400 million years ago, had the most powerful bite of any known fish. As reported in Biology Letters, its bite was even more powerful that today's great white shark. Only some large alligators and dinosaurs have a stronger bite. The heavily armored fish was among a family of fierce predators that dominated the seas during the Devonian Period, 415 million to 360 million years ago. Dunkleosteus was a toothless killer, with blade-like jaws in a huge, armored head. Based on fossils, paleontologists believe that it grew up to 30 feet long and weighed as much as 4 tons, about the size of today's killer whales. Scientists at the Field Museum in Chicago and the University of Chicago built a computer model that determined the strength of the fish's bite. The fish needed that strength to pierce the bony armor that many sea creatures of the era possessed and was capable of biting anything it came across in half.

Dinosaur-Aged Germs Found In shades of the movie, Jurassic Park, scientists have discovered bacteria, fungi, algae, and microscopic animals known as protozoans in amber. These microscopic plants and animals were preserved some 220 million years ago at the time when the very first dinosaurs began to appear. Scientists found that these microscopic organisms look very similar to those still living today. As reported in the journal Nature, these fossilized organisms are unusual, as they were found in terrestrial material, rather than in common marine sediments. The amber was found near Cortina d'Ampezzo, a village in northern Italy. During the Triassic, this region of Italy was covered by forests on the coast of an ancient sea. Although many ancient organisms have been found in amber, samples older than about 135 million years are quite rare.

Ancient Camouflaged Insects The fossil of a leaf-imitating insect, (Eophyllium messelensis), that lived 47 million years ago has been discovered, bearing a striking resemblance to today's insect mimickers. The discovery is the first fossil of a leaf insect to be found and shows that leaf imitation is an ancient and successful evolutionary strategy. Scientists, led by Sonja Wedmann of the Institute of Paleontology in Bonn, Germany, found the specimen in Germany at a well-known fossil location. The 2.4-inch-long insect had physical characteristics similar to the leaves of trees living there at the time.

Flying Dinosaurs with Biplane Design A new study on previously discovered feathered dinosaur fossils from China has suggested that the first flying dinosaurs took to the air like a World War I biplane. Earlier constructions of Microraptor gui, which lived 125 million years ago, had the wings side-by-side, more like a dragonfly. Researchers Sankar Chatterjee and R Jack Templin studied the limb joints and feather orientation, demonstrating that the side-by-side wing design would not have provided sufficient lift to glide between trees, nor would have allowed the dinosaur to walk on the ground very easily. A computer flight simulation using this biplane design showed that Microraptor would easily glide between trees.

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Upcoming Events, Nearby & Elsewhere 

Thurs, Feb. 8, at the Western Museum of Mining and Industry, Colorado Springs, adult lecture series, Dr. Vince Matthews, Colorado State Geologist. Did you know that more than 774 different types of minerals are found in Colorado? Locked within the rocks of Colorado are awesome stories recorded by three billion years of geologic activity. Join us at WMMI to hear Colorado's State Geologist, Dr. Vince Matthews present Messages in Stone: Colorado's Colorful Geology. Free admission; 7:00 p.m. 225 North Gate Blvd., Colorado Springs, I-25 exit 156A, opposite the north entrance to the U.S. Air Force Academy, 719-488-0880 (please call for reservations). For more info see http://www.wmmi.org

Jan 27-Feb 10, Arizona Mineral & Fossil Show (Martin Zinn Expositions). Five locations, free admission. Over 400 dealers. See www.mzexpos.com for details.

Jan 27-Feb 10, Electric Park Learning Center, Tucson. If you're going to Tucson, you may be interested in the new Electric Park Learning Center: www.electricparklearningcenter.com. It's a first for Tucson: a brand new stand-alone show-and-tell tent at the Tucson Electric Park Show, where there will be free, scheduled, demonstrations, lectures, and show-and-tell three times a day every day of the show. If you're into carving, Eddie Davenport is giving a demonstration including use of the air chisel and many of the other tools. If you're into carving in smaller size, in gem materials such as jade, high-energy Mark Zirinsky's presentation will likely be an event to remember. If you're a lapidary, check the "Lapidary Problem Hour." There's a whole day of hand-on faceting. Plus sessions for jewelry-makers too.

Feb 8-11, Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, Tucson Gem and Mineral Society, Inc. "Australia-Minerals From Down Under", Tucson Convention Center 260 South Church Avenue, Tucson, AZ Thursday-Saturday 10AM - 6PM, Sunday 10AM - 5PM Tucson Gem and Mineral Society Office, (520) 322-5773, e-mail: tgms@tgms.org,

Monday, Feb. 12, at DMNS, Darwin Day: Flock of Dodos Screening, Featuring Dr. Kirk Johnson, Vice President of Research and Collections; filmmaker Dr. Randy Olson; and the indelible Muffy Moose. Come celebrate Charles Darwin's birthday and enjoy an encore performance of Flock of Dodos: The Evolution-Intelligent Design Circus. Olson, an evolutionary biologist-turned-filmmaker, has created a film that explores basic aspects of evolution and uses the extinct dodo as a metaphor for what happens to those unable to change with their environment. After the screening, Olson and Johnson will answer your questions about the film and the volatile issues it raises. You will also meet one of the film's most memorable personalities, Muffy Moose, aka the filmmaker's mother, Muffy Olson. 7:00 p.m., Phipps IMAX Theater, $12 member/student, $15 nonmember.

Thursday, Feb. 15, Colorado Scientific Society monthly meeting, Golden: Paleogeography of the Ancestral Rockies, by Chuck Kluth (rescheduled from December).

Thurs., Feb. 22, 7:00 p.m., at the Tutt Science Center, Colorado College, in Colorado Springs, A Geologist's View on Global Change: How does it Impact Colorado? by Dr. Bob Raynolds, Denver Museum of Nature and Science Research Associate. Free public lecture in the Friends of the Florissant Fossil Beds Community Programs 2007 Series. [Uintah Street exit (143) on I-25; go east, just past Cascade Ave. turn right into a parking lot, from which the Tutt Science Center is east across a grass area, with a large sign in front.]

Feb. 23-25, Jewelry, Gem, and Mineral Show sponsored by the Denver Gem and Mineral Guild, Jefferson County Fairgrounds, 15200 W. 6th Ave., Golden, 12-7 p.m. Friday, 10-6 Saturday, 11-5 Sunday. Free admission. Many very good exhibits. Contact: Dan Tomkus, 303-434-9423.

Wed., Feb. 28, 7:00PM, Morrison Town Hall, 110 Stone St., Morrison, Friends of Dinosaur Ridge Fireside Chat, Dinosaurs of China, by David Warren, former president of the Western Interior Paleontological Society.

Sat.-Sun., March 3-4, Western Interior Paleontological Society (WIPS), Founders Symposium 2007: Inscribed in Stone: Evolution and the Fossil Record: What's new, what's true, and how to teach it. Colorado School of Mines, Green Center, Golden, Colorado. Presentations by leading scientists and educators including Donald Prothero, paleontologist and author of Evolution of the Earth, and Judy Scotchmoor, director of public education and programs at the University of California Museum of Paleontology and an authority on teaching evolution. For more information see http://www.wipsppc.com/symposium-2.html

Thurs., Mar. 8, 7:00 p.m., at the Tutt Science Center in Colorado Springs, Gold in the Land of the Midnight Sun: A Brief Look at the History of Gold Mining in Alaskaand Current Mining and Exploration Projects, by Tim Brown, Exploration Manager, Cripple Creek and Victor Mining Company. Free public lecture in the Friends of the Florissant Fossil Beds Community Programs 2007 Series. See Feb 22 for directions.

March 23-25, 46th Annual Gem & Mineral Show Sponsored by Fort Collins Rockhounds, March 23: 4-8 pm, March 24: 9 am-6 pm, March 25: 10 am-5pm. Located at Lincoln Center, 419 W. Magnolia St., Fort Collins, CO. Featuring geodes and copper minerals. We have exhibits, door prizes, grab bags, demonstrations, and gem and mineral dealers. Contacts: Show chairman, Dave Halliburton: 970/493-6168; Dealer information: 970/221-0338; Email: fcrockhounds@yahoo.com

April 27-29, Colorado Mineral & Fossil Show?Spring. Holiday Inn Denver Central, 4849 Bannock St, near I25 & I70. Free admission, free parking. Wholesale, retail; minerals, fossils, meteorites, decorator items, gems, beads.

April 28-29, Rocky Mountain Bead Society Bead Bazaar, Denver Merchandise Mart, Expo Building, 425 E. 58th Ave. Saturday 10-6, Sunday 10-5. $5 admission, good both days. http://rockybeads.org/bazaars.htm

May 5, Colorado Mineral Society silent auction, Lakewood. www.coloradomineralsociety.org

August 9-12, Contin-Tail Continental Tailgate, Buena Vista, Colo. Rodeo Grounds Colorado?s largest outdoor gem and mineral show. Admission free. In conjunction with Buena Vista Gold Rush Days. 303-833-2939 or 720-938-4194. www.coloradorocks.org

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Updated 2/6/07