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President’s
Corner
Mike Smith,
President
FMC lost a good friend in December with the death of former FMC President, Alex
Cook. Although Alex’s health had declined in recent years, he continued to
be active behind the scenes by doing the annual required audit of our
books. We will miss him. John Hurst attended Alex’s memorial service and
offered condolences to his family on behalf of the Club.
On a happier note, FMC’s annual
Rock and Mineral Show ran December 7-9 at the Boulder County Fairgrounds
and was a spectacular success. We broke our previous records for number of
attendees as well as for the amount of money raised. MANY THANKS to the
many FMC volunteers who put in a bunch of hours over the three days of the
show, plus additional setup and teardown time before and after…none of this
would have happened without your help!! Our partnership at the Show with
the Boulder Model Railroad Club also continues to be strong and very
beneficial to both of our
organizations.
We’re looking forward to some
interesting programs and field trips in 2013. The January program features
Ed Raines of the Colorado School of Mines. At our annual Christmas Party,
Ed’s program was tentatively given the title “Everything You Always Wanted
to Know about Zinc but Were Afraid to Ask!” It promises to be a galvanizing
evening, so plan to bring a friend. February’s program on “Front Range
Geology” will feature speakers from the Geological Society of America. I
attended this program several months ago— it’s really a lot of fun!
Wishing you many minerals and a
Happy and Peaceful New Year!
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Winter Club Meetings
Gabi
has gotten 2013 off to a good start with two really excellent programs. You
won’t want to miss either one of these! As always, our club meetings are at
the West Boulder Senior Center, 9th & Arapaho, at 7 p.m.
Club
meeting, Jan 10. Club member Ed Raines will present a talk on The Zinc
Problem: Its Mineralogy, Metallurgy, Solution and the Results
Club
meeting, Feb 14. The February program will be given by the Geological
Society of America. The topic will be Front Range Geology.
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Jr. Geologists
Activities
Jr. Geologists to
Work on Fluorescent Minerals Badge
The
next Jr. Geologists meeting will be on Thursday, January 17, when we will
be working on the new Fluorescent Mineral Badge. The kids will learn what
makes some minerals fluoresce under ultraviolet or black light. They will
have the opportunity to check some of the specimens in their collections to
see if any fluoresce. The meeting will be at the Boulder Library Reynolds
Branch, 3595 Table Mesa Drive in Boulder, starting at 6:30 p.m.
Several
of the Jr. Geologists earned their Showmanship Badge by creating a display
case for the club show in December. Congratulations to first-timer
displayers Miu Iwabuchi,
Piper Rausch, and Egan Rausch for earning this badge. And thanks to the
other Jr. Geologists who put display cases in the show.
Miu Iwabuchi
with her display case at the club show
The
Jr. Geologists program is open to all Flatirons Mineral Club families. Each
month we learn more about geology, plus earn badges for different earth
science activities. For information about the Jr. Geologists program,
please contact Dennis Gertenbach.
The
Jr. Geologists program is looking for adults to help with the monthly
programs. If you would enjoy working with the kids, either for a special
activity or at their monthly meeting, please contact Dennis.
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FMC Annual Show a Big Success
Our
club’s annual gem and mineral show in December at the Longmont Fairgrounds
was a great success—we set records in attendance (over 3200 for the
weekend) and in revenue raised for our School of Mines scholarship fund. We
also had a strong showing in the number and quality of display cases
entered. Following is the list of display case winners, and a selection of
photographs from the show.
2012 ADULT
DISPLAY CASES
Best
Personal Field Trip - Anita Colin
Best
Club Field Trip - Gabi Accatino
Best
Minerals - Hallie Cook
Best
Lapidary & Jewelry - Ray Gilbert
Best
Fossils - Dennis Gertenbach
Best
Museum Minerals - CSM / Ed Raines
Best
Museum Fossils - Dinosaur Ridge / Pete Modreski
Best
of Show - Jeff Self, CMS
2012 JUNIOR
DISPLAY CASES
Best
Personal Field Trip - Piper Rausch
Best
Club Field Trip - Miu Iwabuchi
Best
Minerals - Preston Daley
Best
Lapidary & Jewelry - Clayton Gilbert
Best
Fossils - Egan Rausch
Best
of Show - Shayleen Kent
Photos from the
FMC Annual Show
Piper
and Egan Rausch learning lapidary arts
Don
Mock selling grab bags
“Rock
of Ages” agate dealer
Grand
Door Prize winner Cash Vandiver
Preston
Daley’s Best Minerals display case
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An
Elephant Never Forgets!
A
friendly reminder that your annual membership dues to the FMC are due on
October 1st, 2012. The dues are still only $18 per individual (and) their
immediate family. You can pay in two ways:
SEND
A CHECK MADE TO "Flatirons Mineral Club" (or) “FMC“ P.O. Box 3331 Boulder, CO 80307 (or) pay Gerry Naugle, Treasurer (or) Kristi Traynor, Membership Chair
at any FMC monthly meeting. One of them is at or near the sign-in table
upon entering the room for the monthly meetings. Your receipt is your new
annual 2012-13 FMC membership card.
You
can pay by CASH at these FMC meetings. Please do not send cash to the Club
P.O. Box 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 current member of the FMC.
The 2012-13 dues must be received by the club by Jan. 20th, 2013 in order
to stay current with the member benefits..
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Get Your Very Own Flatirons Mineral Club Baseball
Cap
The
club now has Baseball caps in a variety of colors for sale. They sport the
newly revised FMC logo. Buy them at any meeting. The member price is $10
each, while the non-member price is $15.
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Alex Cook
1922-2012
FMC
past President Alex Cook passed away on Dec. 12th. He had been active in
leading the Boulder Stamp Club, and was the president or treasurer of the
FMC during five separate periods in the 1990's and 2000's. His most recent
service to the club was as treasurer in 20072008. Alex served as a radar
technician in England during the Second World War. After the war he became
an accountant, and retired in 1987. He was twice chairman of the Denver Gem
and Mineral Show.
Alex
was an avid collector of stamps, coins and minerals, and will be missed by
all members of the FMC who knew him.
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Fossils
in the News
Dennis Gertenbach
How Did the Giant
Pterosaurs Take Off to Fly?
The
ancient pterosaur Quetzalcoatlus was a giant,
standing as tall as a giraffe with a wingspan of 34 feet and a 5 foot long
head. Although it only weighed about 155 pounds, paleontologists have wondered
how such a large animal could take off and become airborne. Using a
computer simulation, Sankar Chatterjee
of the Museum of Texas Tech University and his colleagues unraveled the
secrets of how Quetzalcoatlus, discovered in the
Big Bend area of Texas, was able to take off to fly. They found that with
each wing at least a 16 feet long, if the animal took off from the ground
by just beating its wings like most modern birds, it would smash its wings into the ground. If the animal was
taking off from a cliff, this would work fine, as they just needed to jump.
However, if Quetzalcoatlus was taking off from
the ground, it probably had to find a sloping area like a river bank. It
would first quickly run on all four feet, then on just its back two legs to
pick up enough power to get into the air. Once it was airborne, this animal
probably flew like an albatross or a frigate bird, soaring and gliding for
long periods of time, exploiting thermals or wind gradients above the ocean
surface.
Size
comparison between a Quetzalcoatlus, a giraffe,
and a man Credit: Illustration by Mark Witton
Why did some dinosaurs
have four wings?
About
10 years ago, strange feathered dinosaurs were unearthed in China that had
not two, but four wings. Dating back to 130 million years ago, this
dinosaur, Microraptor gui,
has puzzled scientists as to why it had four wings. Since then, several
other four-winged dinosaur species have been discovered, furthering the
mystery. Scientists had suggested that the dinosaur glided through the air,
either with all four wings out or with one pair positioned beneath the
other, like the wings on a biplane. Some scientists thought that the
dinosaur flew by flapping its wings in the air like birds. Others argued
that the dinosaur just used its wings to glide gently downward. In a new
study, scientists Justin Hall and Michael Habib
of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and their
collaborators suggest Microraptor gui and other four-winged dinosaurs tucked its hind
wings under its body most of the time as it flew. It brought the extra
wings out only when it needed to make sharp turns in air..
To make a right turn, surface. the dinosaur would
lift its left hind wing. To make a left turn, the dinosaur would lift its
right hind wing..
Microraptor gui used its hind wings to make sharp turns in air. Credit:
Reconstruction by David Krentz
Scientists Find
Oldest Dinosaur
Researchers
have found the earliest dinosaur yet discovered, or a very close relative
of dinosaurs, in fossilized bones from Tanzania. Nyasasaurus
parringtoni walked on the Earth about 10 million
years before the previously earliest known dinosaurs, extending the
dinosaur lineage into the Middle Triassic Period. Using one upper arm bone
and six vertebrae, the scientists determined that the animal likely stood
upright, measured 7 to 10 feet in length, and may have weighed between 45
and 135 pounds. Because of the small number of bones discovered to date,
the researchers cannot say for certain if this animal was a true early
dinosaur or a very close relative. However, the bone structure is very
similar to other known early dinosaurs.
Nyasasaurus parringtoni was either the earliest dinosaur or the closest
dinosaur relative yet discovered. Credit: Natural History Museum,
London/Mark Witton)
3.5 billion years
old fossils?
At November’s Geological Society of
America meeting, scientists announced that their study of ancient
Australian rocks show traces of bacteria that lived 3.49 billion years ago,
only one billion years after Earth formed. This would make these trace
fossils the oldest ever found. Unlike fossil bones, shells, or wood, the
newly identified fossils are not petrified body parts. Instead, the
scientists based their conclusion from textures on the surfaces of the
sandstone, thought to be sculpted by once-living organisms. The modern
equivalent can be found along the coast of Tunisia, where thick mats of
bacteria trap and glue together sand particles, forming similar patterns as
found in the Australian and stones. To further support their findings, the
researchers looked at the ratio of carbon-12 to carbon-13 in the specimens.
Microbes using photosynthesis utilize a higher amount of carbon-12, leaving
a higher ratio of the two carbon isotopes in the rock. This provides a
fingerprint to determine if carbon found in a rock comes from some form of
life. The Australian rock has the signature of a carbon source from a
living organism. Their research is undergoing intense scrutiny by others to
verify these results.
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Denver
Gem & Mineral Show Mini Report January 2013
Judy
Knoshaug, Secretary
Planning
is already underway for the 2013 Denver Gem & Mineral Show. The dates
are September 13–15, 2013. The featured mineral is tourmaline. As everyone
knows, tourmaline is a beautiful mineral with such variety including colors
of pink, blue and green. Wait until you see the poster for the show. It is
spectacular! There will also be small flyers in a new format for
advertising the show. One side will be a small poster, featuring a
tourmaline specimen, with usual show information on the reverse side. The
Show Chair remains Larry Havens. This is Larry’s third year as Show Chair
and he has done a superb job. If you have any questions, concerns or ideas
for the show, contact Larry at lwrnchavens@comcast.net or 303-7576577.
The
show is sponsored by the Greater Denver Gem & Mineral Council, which is
made up of the eight local gem, mineral and fossil
clubs. These clubs are: Colorado Mineral Society, North Jeffco
Gem & Mineral Club, Flatirons Mineral Club, Littleton Gem & Mineral
Club, Denver Gem & Mineral Guild, Mile Hi Rock and Mineral Society,
Friends of Mineralogy Colorado Chapter, and Western Interior
Paleontological Society. All the planning and operation of the show is done
by the Show Committee, which consists of volunteers from these clubs. 2013
is the 46th annual show. Forty-six years is a long time for an annual show
which is put on by all volunteers. Plus the show keeps getting better every
year. The Show Committee meets at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science
the first Tuesday every month of the year except for December, February and
July. To keep the show a great show year after year takes commitment by the
members of the Show Committee. New members are always needed and welcome on
the Show Committee. If you enjoy the show and would like to become more of
a part of it, consider joining us. There are probably several members of
your club who are already members of the Committee. Talk to them about
their experiences and reasons for being on the Committee. Come with them to
a meeting to see what it is all about. You will meet people from the other
clubs and make new friends. The show is a great way to enjoy the gem,
mineral, and fossil hobby.
Respectfully
submitted,
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Upcoming Events
Feb
14-17, Thur.-Sun. Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, held every year on the
second full weekend of February. It has set the standard for gem and
mineral shows around the world and is now the largest gem and mineral show
in the United States. The show is open to the public and presents retail dealers
only, although many wholesale dealers set up shop in surrounding venues.
This year’s show theme is “Fluorite, Colors of the Rainbow.” See
http://www.tgms.org/ for additional information. (And see the Jan. 2012
issue of this newsletter for John & Jeannie Hurst’s “Tucson Tips”.)
Feb
22-24, Fri-Sat-Sun, Feb. Gem and Mineral Show, Jefferson County Fair
Grounds, Exhibits Building; sponsored by the Denver Gem and Mineral Guild.
Free admission & parking; hours 10-6 Fri. & Sat., 10-5 Sun. For
more info see http://denvergem.org/Shows.html.
Mar.
16-17, Sat-Sun, Western Interior Paleontological Society (WIPS) Symposium,
Ice Worlds and Their Fossils; "Discover how glacial climates &
life interact to shape evolution and the biosphere". At the Green
Center, CSM campus, Golden. See http://www.westernpaleo.org/symposiums/pages_2013/2013.php
for full information. (early registration - $10
discount- runs through Jan. 7). These symposia, held every other year by
WIPS, are GREAT!
Mar
22-24, Fri-Sat-Sun, Fort Collins Rockhounds Gem
and Mineral Show, McKee 4-H Building at The Ranch (Larimer County
Fairgrounds), Loveland, CO; at I-25 exit 259; 4-8 p.m. Fri., 9-6 Sat., 10-5
Sun. Admission, adults $4/day or $7/3-day pass, students age 12-18 with
student ID $1, children under 12 free with adult. See http://www.fortcollinsrockhounds.org/
Apr.
6-7, Sat.-Sun., Hands of Spirit's 16th Annual Spring Mineral and Jewelry
Open House from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm. You're sure to find an incredible
selection of the finest crystal and mineral specimens, stone carvings, and
a lovely selection of jewelry. Refreshments will be served. Call
303-541-9727 for directions and further information. www.handsofspirit.com
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Flatirons Mineral Club Annual Picnic
Be
sure to circle 17 Aug on your brand-new 2013 calendars for the FMC Annual
Picnic in August. The picnic will be at the main pavilion of North Boulder
Park, start at 11:00am same as previous years. Grab bags, pot-luck lunch
(club provides sandwiches & beverages) and awards follow the luncheon.
Plan to bring the whole family.
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Calendar of Events
Jan.
10 - FMC Club Meeting, 7:00 PM, West Boulder Senior Ctr,
9th & Arapahoe. Ed Raines will talk on the mining and metallurgy of
Zinc.
Jan.
17 - Junior Geologists Meeting, Boulder Public Library, Reynolds Branch, 6:30 p.m.
Jan.
28 - FMC Board Meeting - To be conducted via e-mail
Feb.
14 - FMC
Club Meeting, 7:00 PM, West Boulder Senior Ctr,
9th & Arapahoe. Program presented by the Geological Society of
America,
on Front Range Geology
Feb.
21 - Junior Geologists Meeting, Boulder Public Library, Reynolds Branch, 6:30 p.m.
Feb.
25 - FMC Board Meeting - Mathias Thurmer's HOA
Building, start 7:00 p.m.
Mar.
16-17 - WIPS Symposium, “Ice Worlds and Their Fossils,” CSM Campus
Mar.
22-24 - Fort Collins Rockhounds Annual Gem and
Mineral Show, Larimer County Fairgrounds, Loveland
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Updated 1/14/13
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