All members attending with last name starting with A-M please bring a salad or vegetable and all members attending with a last name with N-Z please bring a dessert. If you are planning on attending, please RSVP to myself at 303-591-2830 or send me an e-mail at: gnaugle@earthlink.net on or before Aug 22nd. We need RSVPs to know how much meat and sodas/water to bring. Vegetarian meat-substitute available upon request with your RSVP.

I would like to recognize the following new members who have joined the FMC since the start of the year; they are: Dean Baldwin, Fred Barton and family, Carlo Caballero and family, Richard Cargill and family, Anita Colin and family, Julie Constantine and family, Mark Dixon and family, Cindy Domenico and family, Martin Huber and family, Peter Hurst and family, Bill Kellogg and family, Betsy Lehndorff and family, Tally O'Donnell and family, Sandra Schultz and family and Philip Simpson and family.

To all of these brand new FMC members, I wish to express a hardy rockhound welcome from the membership sub-committee AND all of the other FMC members and volunteers.

Thanks, Gerry Naugle

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Spring & Summer Meeting Schedule

Our program chair, Terry O’Donnell, has sent us this list of club program activities for the remainder of 2008. He has one tentative speaker lined up, Don Cook, to give a talk on Trilobites, but that may not occur until the January meeting, since the summer and fall meeting dates already have planned activities.

July 12, Annual Field Trip to Charlotte’s Garage

August 23: The August “meeting” is our annual club picnic at North Boulder Park (see President’s Corner, this page.)

September 16 or 17 (Date to be confirmed in Sept newsletter): Florissant and Douglas Pass shale splitting, at the West Boulder Senior Center (regular meeting place.)

October 9: The new Second Silent Auction

November 13: Annual Towel Show

December 11: Annual Gift Exchange
 

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Junior Geologists Activities

Earth Processes Badge. During the spring months, the juniors worked on the requirements for the new Earth Processes badge. For the badge, the kids learned to identify igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks. We made and used volcanoes to show how different volcanoes worked. As part of the badge, the juniors
investigated the rock formations west of Boulder, from the Precambrian metamorphics through the Cretaceous limestones. Seventeen kids completed the requirements for the badge and will receive them this month.

Stone Age Tools and Art Badge. Last month, the Junior Geologists began working on another new badge, Stone Age Tools and Art. In completing the requirements for this badge, the kids learn how native peoples utilized the rocks and minerals in their area for both tools and for their art. During the first meeting, several club members brought artifacts to show the kids, plus talked about how the kids used the different rocks and minerals to make these tools.

Here are a few pictures of the field trip outside Boulder.
 

Katie Runions investigates the mica and other minerals in a pegmatite outcrop.

Charles Mock and Nico Caballero look at fossils in the Cretaceous limestone north of Boulder.

 Katherine Codrescu, Perry Chesbro, Noah Fehlau-Barton, Evan Penczek, and Charles Mock study arrowheads as part of the requirements for the Stone Age Tools and Art badge.

The kids will continue to work on the requirements in July, plus take a field trip to a local museum to learn more. The Jr. Geologists program is open to all Flatirons Mineral Club families. We meet on the third Thursday of each month, plus have special weekend activities from time to time. For more information about the Jr. Geologists program, please contact Dennis Gertenbach or Todd Shannon.

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Field Trips

Upcoming Field Trips

Here are the field trips we have scheduled for the next several months. More field trips are in the planning stages and we will send out an update, once the trips are set. Please contact the trip leader for more details or to sign up for the trips.

 July 12: Our annual "field trip” to Charlotte's garage. We will be sorting minerals, fossils, and other specimens for the silent auction and grab bags. Plus, everyone will be able to take home some neat specimens. No place in Colorado has such a wide range of specimens to find. Trip Leader: Gerry Naugle.

 July 26: Dotsero area to collect pseudomorphs of goethite after pyrite and silica after calcite, plus Paleozoic fossils. For those wishing to stay overnight, we will collect fossils on the Flattops on July 27. Trip Leader: Dennis Gertenbach. 

September 6: Tepee Buttes, east of Pueblo, to collect Cretaceous marine fossils. The Tepee Buttes are unique structures, formed at methane vents under the Western Interior Seaway that covered much of Colorado during this time. These vents supported an ecological community which has been preserved as fossils. Trip Leader: Dennis Gertenbach.

Field Trip Leaders Needed!!

We would love to have two field trips a month throughout the summer, but we need more volunteers to lead trips. Perhaps you have a favorite place to go collecting that you would like to share with club members. Or, there is a new place that you would like to explore with others in the club. Or, pick a collecting place out of one of the Colorado collecting books and have other club members join you.

If this sounds like you, consider leading or co-leading a trip for the club. Leading a trip is pretty simple, you just need to select a place and date, promote the trip and get club members to sign up, collect the liability releases from participants, and go out and have a good time. For more information about leading a trip, please contact Dennis Gertenbach.  Remember, the more trip leaders we have, the more field trips we can have this year.

Grab Bag Specimens

While you are out collecting this summer, pick up specimens for grab bags. Each year we need nearly 10,000 specimens for the grab bags we fill. The money earned selling grab bags is used for college scholarships for geology students.

Wyoming Field Trip in May  

Over Memorial Day weekend, 17 club members visited several sites in Wyoming. The weekend proved to be quite rainy and cool, with lots and lots of mud, but everyone had a great time and brought home lots of interesting specimens.

Day 1 included a stop at Wamsutter to collect the famous turitella agate. During the Eocene age, western Wyoming had three large lakes, where abundant wildlife flourished. Millions of fresh water turitella snails (Goniobasis) have been preserved in a hard silica matrix, which is prized for lapidary work. After being chased out by the rain, the group traveled to Kemmerer to either camp or stay in town overnight.

Day 2 was a trip to one of the fossil fish quarries that have the Eocene fish fossils seen in all the rock shops. The road was quite muddy, requiring four wheel drive, but the day was beautiful and the fishing was great. By splitting shale at the quarry, everyone was able to find several species of fish fossils in excellent condition.

On Day 3, we traveled to the Blue Forest agate area to collect fossilized wood. This is another classic site that we found after several false starts. Although we only had a few hours to dig before we needed to head home, everyone found several nice specimens.

Here are photos from our trip:


  

A piece of turitella agate showing the fossilized snails on the surface.

 
Anita Colin, Darcy Traynor, Charles Mock, Noah and Emmett Fehlau-Barton cooking marshmallows at the campsite.

Club members splitting shale and the fossil fish quarry.

Emmett Fehlau-Barton with one of the many fish fossils he found.

Anita Colin digging for Blue Forest wood.

Planning Your Own Field Trip

Colorado is blessed with many, many areas of geologic interest. When planning your summer trips to visit our beautiful state, consider adding a stop or two to learn more about Colorado geology and perhaps do some collecting. One resource for discovering is the Colorado Geological Survey’s publication, Rock Talk. This newsletter is devoted to “Colorado’s Magnificent POGIs” or places of geological interest. There are 20 pages of place to go and see dinosaurs and fossils, minerals, mining history and mine tours, scenic geological sites and activities, and cave tours.

If you would like to find collecting places in Colorado, Pete Modreski of the USGS has published a great article. The article describes many collecting sites in the state, plus recommends several books that list collecting localities. Another source of collecting places is http://www.peaktopeak.com/colorado/index.php3, which lists areas by location and mineral. And, don’t forget one of the best sources for collecting ideas – our own club members.

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New Flatirons Mineral Club Display at the Longmont Public Library

Flatirons Mineral Club members have installed two display cases at the Longmont Public Library. These will be on display throughout the month of July, and again for the month of November. For you model railroad enthusiasts, note that the Boulder Model Railroad Club has a nice (and permanent) train board display in the lower lobby of the Longmont Public Library.

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Lapidary Work Nights

Remember, use of the club's lapidary equipment, including saws and lapidary machines, is open to all club members every Wednesday night at Charlotte Morrison's home. Please contact Charlotte to let her know you are coming.
 

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Fossils in the News
Dennis Gertenbach

First Jurassic Anklyosaur Footprint Found in Colorado

This March, Manual High School science teacher Kent Hups was exploring an ancient floodplain outside Grand Junction and discovered the first known tracks of a Jurassic anklyosaur. The well-preserved tracks are 30 million years older than previously found footprints of these armored dinosaurs. Based on the size and spacing of the tracks, Martin Lockley, a dinosaur track expert at the University of Colorado Denver, estimates that the anklyosaur that made the track was about 25 feet long and 4 feet high, much larger than Jurassic anklyosaurs were thought to be.

Anklyosaurs were plant-eating dinosaurs with broad, triangular heads, spikes, and heavy club-like tails. Dr. Lockly indicated that this find is the first and only anklyosaur footprint ever found in the Jurassic anywhere in the world and were made about 150 million years ago. A few anklyosaur tracks have been found in rocks from the Cretaceous Period and have been dated to 100 million to 120 million years old. Lockley speculates that the scarcity of anklyosaur tracks indicate that they did not frequent areas where there was mud for them to step in.

Students in Hups earth science classes at Manual have helped clean the tracks and make molds for replicas that will be displayed at Manual, UC Denver, and the Museum of Western Colorado.

T. Rex tasted like chicken?

A new study recently published in Science has shown that collagen protein retrieved from a 68-millon-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex bone from Montana closely resembles that found in chicken and ostrich bones, but is quite different from protein found in lizards and other reptiles. This provides additional proof that birds, and not reptiles, are the closest living descendants of dinosaurs. This conclusion is not without controversy. Other scientists question the validity of the study, as DNA, protein, and other large molecules from plants and animals generally degrade after thousands of years, much shorter than the age of dinosaurs. However, the finding does boost the theory that birds are closely related to dinosaurs, which has been previously based on bone structure. The results indicate that T. rex, chickens and ostriches descended from a single unidentified predecessor.

Does this also mean that T. rex tasted like chicken?

Dinosaur Bones Reveal Ancient Bug Bites

Paleontologists have long been perplexed by dinosaur fossils with missing pieces – sets of teeth without a jaw bone, bones that are pitted and grooved, even bones that are half gone. Now a Brigham Young University study published in the journal Ichnos identifies a culprit: ancient insects that munched on dinosaur bones.

They studied insect traces on bones from a 148-millionyear-old Camptosaurus, a plant-eating dinosaur recovered from Medicine Bow, Wyoming. Using an electron microscope to look at the mandible markings in the bone, the researchers analyzed the eating patterns and the width between the mandible marks. These were compared the marks made by other bone-eating insects, including moths, termites, mayflies and dermestid beetles. Their analysis revealed that dermestid beetles were responsible for the markings on the Camptosaurus bones. Dermestid beetles still exist today feed on flesh, hair, skin or horns of carcasses.

This work shows dermestid beetles existed much earlier than previously thought. The traces on this Camptosaurus predate the oldest dermestid beetle fossils found in amber by 48 million years. Based on the environment where dermstid beetles live today, the marking shown that the climate in Wyoming was much
different during that time, with an average temperature of 77-86 and 60-80 percent relative humidity.

Huge Flying Reptiles Ate Dinosaurs

A new study reveals that pterosaurs, flying reptiles that lived during the Age of Dinosaurs, did not catch prey in flight, but rather stalked them on land. Until now, these dinosaurs were thought to be skim feeders, flying over lakes and oceans grabbing fish from the water's surface, much as gulls do today.

Scientists analyzed fossils from a group of large pterosaurs called azhdarchids. Quetzalcoatlus, one of the largest azhdarchids, weighed about 550 pounds and had a wingspan greater than 30 feet. Skeletal features, including long hind limbs and a stiff neck, were not conducive to skim feeding. The tiny feet of these animals ruled out probing for food in the mud. Additionally, the researchers realized that over half of known azhdarchid fossils had been found inland. These point to an animal that fed by walking around and grabbing animals and other prey, most likely small and baby dinosaurs and amphibians. They probably used their long wings for moving around, not for feeding.

Amphibian Missing Link Found

A team of scientists from the University of Calgary have published a detailed description of the fossil of Gerobatrachus hottoni, an amphibian from the early Permian that closes the gap between frogs and salamanders. The fossil, found in Texas, proves that frogs and salamanders evolved from an ancient amphibian group called temnospondyls. The skull, backbone, and teeth of Gerobatrachus show a mixture of frog and salamander features. The fossil has two fused bones in the ankle, which is normally only seen in salamanders, but is lightly built and has a wide skull, similar to that of a frog. The new fossil also helps narrow the time period that salamanders and frogs evolved into two separate groups, sometime between 240 and 275 million years ago, much more recently than DNA data had suggested.


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Boulder Country Gold Mine in Production
Dennis Gertenbach

One of the oldest gold mines in the state, the Cash Mine located about nine miles west of Boulder, has reopened and is in production. Gold was discovered in the area in 1859 and hard rock mining began in about 1869. However, as production costs increased and gold prices became soft, gold production came to an end in the area. As gold prices increased in the 1990s, a Canadian company, Global Minerals Ltd, investigated the site and after obtaining the necessary permits reopened the mine to production.

The owners have installed modern equipment at the mine to extract and process ore mined 1,000 feet underground. After drilling and blasting, the loose ore is loaded into electrically powered rail cars (some of which were purchased from Disneyland) and brought to the surface for further processing. Once the ore reaches the surface, it is concentrated in a newly installed mill that includes grinding, froth flotation, and filtration equipment. The final gold-bearing concentrate is shipped to a metal refiner in Mexico to recover pure gold, plus lead and zinc.

There are 40 people involved at the operation. This year, seven truckloads of concentrate have been shipped to the refiner, with each truckload containing 20 to 30 tons of concentrate. The operation expects to ship an additional 15 truckloads by the end of the year.

Exploration for future expansion is ongoing, with the goals of opening other veins in the area from the Cash Mine, if the gold and other metals can be mined economically. Several photographs of the operation can be found at the company’s website.

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New Geology Discoveries
Dennis Gertenbach

Meteor That Killed the Dinosaur May Have Struck Oil

As reported in the May issue of the journal Geology, the Chicxulub meteor that struck the Yucatan peninsula and is widely thought to have lead to the demise of the dinosaurs, may have also ignited an oil field. Smoke particles have been found in many rocks throughout the world that correspond to the time of this meteor strike, which is known as the K-T (Cretaceous-Tertiary) boundary. Geologists have long thought that these smoke particles were a result of massive forest fires that resulted from the meteor impact. However, the lack of large amounts of fossil charcoal, which would be expected from massive forest fires, has not been explained. This recently reported study showed that the smoke particles found at the K-T boundary are quite similar to those created from high-temperature coal and oil burning, as opposed to forest fires. This would explain why geologists have not found large amounts of charcoal at the K-T boundary.

The geologists speculate that the Chicxulub meteor crashed into oily shales in the Gulf of Mexico, causing the oil in the rocks to vaporize and ignite in the air. The large oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico are found near the edge of the impact crater, indicating that there was sufficient oil in the rocks to ignite. The heating and fracturing from the impact may be responsible for the oil that collected in the region and is extracted today.

The Milky Way May be Responsible with Mass Life Extinctions

A new study indicates that the periodic mass extinctions on earth may be caused by the position of the sun in the Milky Way. As the sun travels through our galaxy, it passes through areas of higher and lower gravity that could dislodge comets found outside the planets and send these comets into the inner solar system where earth is located. The earth passes through times of higher gravity every 35 millions years. A study of impact craters on earth indicate increased comet
collisions every 36 million years. These times of increased collisions also correlate with many of the mass extinctions that took place in the past, including the demise of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Their study also indicates that we may be very close to another period of increased comet activity in our solar system.

Minerals Have Moderated Carbon Dioxide Levels in the Air

Geologists have long noted that the amount of carbon dioxide in the air has been quite stable over millions of years. A recent study has indicated the mechanism that is responsible for this stability. When carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere rise, the rain becomes more acidic. The higher acidity accelerates the breakdown silicate minerals in soils. This produces more calcium ions, which dissolve in water and are transported by rivers to the oceans. Marine organisms such as mollusks combine the calcium ions with dissolved carbon dioxide to make their calcium carbonate shells, removing both calcium and carbon dioxide from the ocean and keeping the carbon dioxide in equilibrium. By studying the amount of carbon dioxide trapped in air in ice cores extracted from Antarctica with geochemical data from ocean sediments, the researchers showed that the amount of carbon dioxide in the air never varied by more than 1 or 2 percent. Their study confirms the mechanism that has been speculated by previous researchers. Unfortunately, this mechanism is too slow to moderate the about of carbon dioxide generated today by the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation.

What Makes Old Faithful so Faithful?

The short answer may be the weather. The Old Faithful geyser in Yellowstone National Park is world-renown for erupting like clockwork. However, the interval between eruptions changes from year and year, which has puzzled scientists. A new study published in the journal Geology seems to have found the answer; the intervals between eruptions are closely linked to the amount of precipitation in the park. In years with more rain and snow, Old Faithful’s eruptions are more frequent. The researchers found that during wet years, such as 1997, Old Faithful erupted on average every 75 minutes. But by 2006, after a series of drought years, eruptions took place every 91 minutes.

As water seeps into the ground and contacts the magma found 5 miles below the surface, it is heated to 1,500 degrees and building pressure, which is released through the geysers in Yellowstone. During years with higher precipitation, more water flows down through the ground, generating steam pressure more quickly, resulting in more frequent eruptions to release the built-up pressure. Another factor that changes the eruption times is earthquakes in the area. Earthquakes are thought to alter how wide or narrow the channels are between the superheated steam and earth surface, which controls how much pressure must build up to set off a geyser eruption. However, during the time of this recent study, Yellowstone did not experience any significant earthquakes, ruling out this as an explanation for the change in eruption times.

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Upcoming Events, Nearby & Elsewhere
 

The Friends of the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument sponsors a summer series of seminars and field trips relating to fossils, nature, and geology. Here is a capsule list of the titles & dates of the remaining programs. For complete info, see their website, http://fossilbeds.org/:

July 8- 10, 9- 5, Trees and Wildflowers of the Central Rockies, Doug Coleman
July 12, 9-5, Teacher Workshop: How to Excavate for Fossils-Hands on Activities for Students, Dr. Bob Carnein and Jeff Wolin
July 19, 9-5, Archaeology of South Park, Dr. Susan Bender
July 20, 9-5, Treasures in the Basement: Pegmatite Minerals of the Pikes Peak Granite at Crystal Peak, Dr. Bud Wobus
July 24, 9-5, Railroading on the Backside of Pikes Peak, Mel McFarland
August 9, 9-5, Evolution and the Nature of Science: Pheromes, fossils, and a fish pod, Dr. Louise Mead

Thu-Sun, August 7-10, Buena Vista, CO. Contin-Tail Continental Tailgate rock swap, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Rodeo Grounds, Buena Vista, CO. Colorado’s largest outdoor gem and mineral show. Free to the public. For more information see www.coloradorocks.org, or call 303833-2939 or 720-938-4194.

Fri.-Sun., Aug. 15-17, Lake George Gem and Mineral Show; "Local Specimens, Field Trips, Free Admission, Free Parking!" Lake George, CO (38 miles west of Colorado Springs on US 24)

Fri-Sun, Sep. 12-14, 41st annual Denver Gem and Mineral Show, Denver Merchandise Mart, I-25 & 58th Ave. This year’s theme will be “Minerals of Colorado”. See www.denvermineralshow.com for complete details.
 

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Calendar of Events


July 12 FMC CLUB “FIELD TRIP” Annual Field Trip to Charlotte’s Garage (Gerry Naugle, leader)
July 17 JUNIOR GEOLOGISTS MEETING, 7:00 PM Charlotte Morrison’s house
July 28 FMC BOARD MEETING, 7:15 PM Hallie Cook’s house
July 29 2008 FMC SHOW COMMITTEE MEETING Alex Cook’s house
Aug 21 JUNIOR GEOLOGISTS MEETING, 7:00 PM Location to be announced
Aug 23 ANNUAL FMC CLUB PICNIC, 11:00 AM, NORTH BOULDER PARK PAVILION
Aug 25 FMC BOARD MEETING, 7:15 PM Location to be announced
Sep 12-14 DENVER GEM AND MINERAL SHOW Denver Merchandise Mart, I-25 & 58th Ave.

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Updated 7/9/08