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Cedar Valley Rocks & Minerals Society

Cedar Rapids, Iowa cedarvalleyrockclub.org

CEDAR VALLEY GEMS JULY 2020 VOL. 46, ISSUE 7

Ray Anderson, Editor: rockdoc.anderson@gmail.com

Next CVRMS Meeting Tues. July 21

7:15 pm

featured presentation:

also Featuring:

Short Business Meeting “Show Us Your Favorite Rocks” “What Have You Have Been Up To?”

Join the Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89576795149

PowerPoint Presentation

by

Ray Anderson “••• a review of the forces that

created and sculpted the 7 major landscapes that are Iowa”

The giant extinct invertebrate Arthropleura resembled some modern millipedes, but could grow to be more than 1.5 feet wide, and may sometimes have been more than 6 feet long. During the Pennsylvanian and earliest Permian periods (about 320 to 290 million years before present), much of present-day North America and Europe was locat-ed close to the equator and was covered by vast, richly vegetated swamps. The flattened body of Arthropleura was composed of approximately 30 jointed segments, each of which was covered by two side plates and one center plate. The ratio of pairs of legs to body segments was ap-proximately 8:6, similar to some present-day millipedes. Typically, the body armor of Arthropleura fell apart after the death of the animal, and only individual segments or plates were preserved as fossils The only larger arthropod was the aquatic Early Devonian “sea scorpion” Jaekelopter-us, which, based on one isolated chelicera (pincer-like mouth part), reached an estimated length of 8.2 ft. http://www.geologyin.com/2020/05/largest-land-dwelling-bug-of-all-time.html?

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CVRMS Board Minutes June 23 CVRMS June 16 Virtual Meeting 7:20p.m. Meeting called to order by Marv

17 members signed on to Zoom. Members: Ray Anderson, Sharon Sonnleitner, Marv Houg, Kim Kleckner, Dale Stout, Bill Desmarais, Toby Jordan, Jay Vavra, Dell James.

The meeting called to order by Marv via Zoom 7:15 p.m. .

Treasurer’s Report: Dale sent to Board via email. Reviewed briefly with no major changes. Refunds have been paid to show vendors. Holding off paying the scholarships till fall. No rush since no field trips planned for the year due to Covid.

Minutes of last meeting reviewed. Motion to approve as pub-lished by Ray, second by Bill. Minutes approved.

Auction: Discussion regarding the pros and cons of conducting the annual rock auction. Various inputs from various sources about having versus not having. Cons included: no auctioneers, some consigners declining, no food vendor, status of Covid un-known. Pros include a lot of work already done by consigners, loss of income for club. Everything else has been cancelled such as picnics, geode fest, BLM Sunday.

Motion made by Sharon to cancel the auction, 2nd by Ray. Mo-tion passed. Auction will be cancelled. Appropriate people will be notified. Jay-consigners, Sharon-Website, Dale-email, Kim- Facebook, Ray-Newsletter.

Bus Trip: Still a possibility. There are currently 7 signed up. Bill will talk to bus owner before next meeting. Right now the bus would only hold 12 people out of 56 following the Covid rules. More discussion next meeting.

Programs: Bill and Ray are currently not conducting any on-site programs. Requests will be handled individually and not until it is determined to be safe. Ray did conduct one Zoom presenta-tion to the Cedar Valley Amateur Astronomers.

July Club Meeting: Discussion regarding Ray’s next program about Iowa’s landscapes. Shorter, sweeter programs well ac-cepted. Phil Burgess has lots of specimens and fossils galore. Could we do a live feed showing his collection? Various ideas about how to do this.

Kim, Monica and Lisa are working on getting a Jr. Rock Hound group together to take rock hunting for summer fun. Any sug-gestions, call Kim.

Marv is CLEANING HIS GARAGE. He is finding a lot of old Rock and Gem magazines and old minutes and lots of stuff. Call him if interested.

Bill made motion to adjourn, seconded by Dale. 8:25 meeting

adjourned.

Respectfully submitted Dell James, Sec.

7:20 p.m. meeting called to order Marv. 17 people signed in via Zoom Minutes of previous meeting: Correction made to state that instead of Waterloo’s club agate hunt should state that it is the BLM field trip “Sunday at the Quarry”. Correction will be made. Motion made by Dale to accept corrected minutes, second by Glen. Minutes approved with corrections.

“Sunday at the Quarry” has been cancelled for this year.

Keokuk Geofest has also been cancelled.

Treasurer’s report by Dale. No changes from last report.

Ray conducted some videos from previous Tucson shows.

Decision reached to cancel picnics for the summer. Covid 19 is still with us.

Auction: Various opinions have been expressed by sellers and participants about whether we should hold the auction and if we did would you help? There was no strong consen-sus but since other shows have cancelled and the lack of auctioneers possible, we will take a vote next month. Lots of changes and improvements must be made and since there is no big rush, we can wait another month.

Glen asked about field trips and there are no current plans for field trips. Marv will check with Deb from River Rocks to inquire

9:02 p.m. Motion to adjourn by Dale, second by Ray. Meeting adjourned.

Respectfully submitted, Dell James, Secretary

The 2020 CVRMS

Membership Directory has been mailed to

club members. If you didn’t get yours

contact:

Sharon Sonnleitner sonnb@aol.com

396-4016

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Scientists studying fossils that were collected about 18 miles west of Milwaukee 35 years ago have identified the oldest-known scorpion species, a prehistoric animal from about 437 million years ago. The researchers found that the animal likely had the capacity to breathe in both ancient oceans and on land.

The discovery provides new information about how animals transi-tioned from living in the sea to living entirely on land: The scor-pion's respira-tory and circu-latory systems

are almost identical to those of our modern-day scorpions -- which spend their lives exclusively on land -- and operate simi-larly to those of a horseshoe crab, which lives mostly in the water, but which is capable of forays onto land for short peri-ods of time. The researchers named the new scorpion Pari-oscorpio venator. The genus name means "progenitor scorpi-on," and the species name means "hunter." They outlined their findings in a study published in the journal Scientific Reports. "We're looking at the oldest known scorpion -- the oldest known member of the arachnid lineage, which has been one of the most successful land-going creatures in all of Earth history," said Loren Babcock, an author of the study and a professor of earth sciences at The Ohio State University. "And beyond that, what is of even greater significance, is that we've identified a mechanism by which animals made that critical transition from a marine habitat to a terrestrial habitat. It provides a model for other kinds of animals that have made that transition including, potentially, vertebrate animals. It's a groundbreaking discov-ery." This scorpion is about 2.5 centimeters long -- about the same size as many scorpions in the world today. And, Babcock said, it shows a crucial evolutionary link between the way an-cient ancestors of scorpions respired under water, and the way modern-day scorpions breathe on land. Internally, the respira-tory-circulatory system has a structure just like that found in today's scorpions. Paleontologists have for years debated how animals moved from sea to land. With these prehistoric scorpi-ons, there was little doubt that they could survive on land be-cause of the similarities to modern-day scorpions in the respira-tory and circulatory systems. http://

www.geologyin.com/2020/01/oldest-scorpion-fossil-discovered.html

Ruby (Al2O3:Cr ) is the most valuable variety of the corundum mineral species, which also includes sapphires. Rubies can com-mand the highest per-carat price of any colored stone. This makes ruby one of the most important gems in the colored stone market. In its purest form, the mineral corundum is col-orless. Trace elements that become part of the mineral’s crystal structure cause variations in its color. Chromium is the trace element that causes ruby’s red, which ranges from an orangey red to a purplish red. The strength of ruby’s red depends on how much chromium is present—the more chromium, the stronger the red color. Chromium can also cause fluorescence, which adds to the intensity of the red color. The most re-nowned rubies, like those from Myanmar, the Himalayas, and northern Vietnam, typically form in marble. They’re found in layers that are distributed irregularly within the surrounding marble. Marble forms as part of the metamorphic (rock-altering) process, when heat and pressure from mountain for-mation act on existing limestone deposits. Marble has low iron content, so the rubies that originate in marble (called “marble-hosted” by gemologists) lack iron. Because of this, many have an intense red color. In addition, rubies found in marble typical-ly fluoresce red under ultraviolet light—even the ultraviolet light in sunlight. Fluorescence can make a ruby’s color even more intense and increase its value. In other locations, rubies can be found in basalt rocks. Rubies from these sources can have higher iron content, which can make the rubies darker and less intense in color. Higher iron content in the chemical makeup of a ruby can also mask the red fluorescence, elimi-nating that extra glow of red color seen in marble-hosted ru-bies. Historically, rubies have also been mined in Thailand, in the Pailin and Samlout District of Cambodia, as well as in Af-ghanistan, Australia, Brazil, Colombia, India, Namibia, Japan, and Scotland; after the Second World War ruby deposits were found in Madagascar, Nepal, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, and Vietnam. The Republic of North Macedonia is the only country in mainland Europe to have naturally occurring rubies. They can mainly be found around the city of Prilep. Macedonian rubies have a unique raspberry color. The ruby is also included on the Macedonian coat of arms. A few rubies have been found in the U.S. states of Montana, North Carolina, South Carolina and Wy-oming.

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June’s Photo

What in the World are these steep, grassy hills and where are they??

(hint: learn all about them at July’s CVRMS Zoom meeting on July 16.)

What in the World?

July 21—CVRMS Pot Luck Picnic Squaw Creek Park Shelter

INSTEAD

7:15 pm see page 1 for details

to join meeting click on https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89576795149

(link to also be sent via email)

Last month’s “What in the World?” photo shows the summit of Ol Doinyo Lengai (Oldoinyo ngai), "Mountain of God" in the Maasai language, an active volcano located in the Gregory Rift, south of Lake Natron within the Arusha Region of Tanzania, Africa. Part of the volcanic system of the East African Rift, it uniquely pro-duces natrocarbonatite lava, lavas rich in the rare

sodium and the potassium carbonate minerals nye-rereite and gregoryite, whereas most lavas are rich in silicate minerals. Due to this unusual composition, the lava is erupted at relatively low temperatures (approximately 1000-1120°F). This temperature is so low that the molten lava appears black in sunlight, rather than having the red glow common to most lavas. It is also much more fluid than silicate lavas. The 1960 eruption of Ol Doinyo Lengai led to geologi-cal investigations that finally confirmed the view that carbonatite rock is derived from magma.

Aug. 18—CVRMS Pot Luck Picnic

INSTEAD

7:15 pm (more info to come)

Sept. 19-20—CVRMS Rock Auction Amana RV Park and Event Center

Amana, Iowa

Sept. 27-29 - Geode Fest and Rock Show Chaney Creek Boat Access

Illinois Highway 96 N Hamilton, Illinois

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Ask a Geologist is a monthly column that gives CVRMS members an opportunity to learn more about a geologic topic. If you have a question that you would like addressed, please send it to rockdoc.anderson@gmail.com, and every month I will answer one in this column. Please let me know if you would like me to identify you with the question. I will also try to respond to all email requests with answers to your questions.

Columnar basalt has always fascinated me. How can a lava flow solidify in these uniform prismatic structures? The columnar

structures (usually hexagonal in cross-section and most commonly in basalt) are separated by joints or fractures. They form

when the rock shrinks during cooling. This majestic columnar jointing can be explained with a little bit of physics. The diagram

below will be helpful for the explanation. Basalt is an igneous, volcanic rock (“igneous” means that the rock formed from a melt

and “volcanic” means that the melt erupted on the Earth’s surface). After lava is erupt-

ed, it cools, but that may take a while, and as it cools it may develop a temperature gra-

dient. Most commonly, the top of the lava flow will be cooler than the bottom of the

flow. When the lava cools, it contracts.

This is because hot things generally take up more space than cool things. When objects contract, they often crack or fracture.

When contraction occurs at centers which are equally spaced (see the above diagram), then a hexagonal fracture pattern will

develop. If the contraction is not evenly spaced, then other geometries of fractures, such as 5-sided or 7-sided fractures, may

occur. Contraction may not be equally spaced if, for example, the thickness or composition of the lava flow varies. The fracture

pattern that forms at the cooling surface will tend to be propagated down the lava as it cools, forming long, geometric columns.

Thus, as lava cools to form basalt, it may crack in a hexagonal (or other) shape and form columns. These columns form in a varie-

ty of sizes– some are fairly small, and some are wider and much taller than people! The formation of columns can be enhanced

by the presence of water. Where water cooling has played a significant role (often when lava flows are ‘ponded’ in river valleys

and are cooled by river water flowing over them) a predominantly two-tiered set of columns can develop, known as entablature

and colonnade. The colonnade columns rise straight up from the basal cooling… whereas the ingress of water in the upper parts

of the flow sets up a variety of different angles of cooling fronts. This leads to an irregular and sometimes hackly jointing called

entablature in the upper parts of the flow. Columnar jointing isn’t restricted to basalts, however. This structure can also form in

other types of rocks which undergo cooling and contraction. For example, there is some columnar jointing in the Bishop Tuff of

the Long Valley Caldera in California, and columnar rhyolites can be observed in the St. Francois Mountains in Missouri. The col-

umner basalts that formed in Iceland are among some of the most spectacular to be found anywhere. Many years ago I spent 2

months studying geology in Iceland. This class, sponsored by a Fullbright exchange program between the University of Iowa and

the University of Reykjavik, included a month of studying geology in Reyukjavik followed by a month-long field excursion around

Iceland. On this field excursion I got to observe numerous, spectacular columnar basalt exposures.

Here’s a picture of some entablature (upper) and colonnade (lower) columnar jointing structures in basalts in Iceland.

Stuðlagil, the Basalt Column Canyon in Jökuldalur valley, Eastern Iceland

A diagram showing how columnar jointing forms in a body of magma that is cooling from the top down

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A crater in western Australia was formed by a meteor strike more than 2.2 billion years ago and is the world's oldest known impact site, new research published recently shows. This eroded remnant of an impact crater is situated in the northern Yilgarn Craton near Yarrabubba Station between the towns of Sandstone and Meekatharra, Mid West Western

Australia. The diameter of the original crater is uncertain, but has been estimated to have been from 19 to 43 mi. This study marks the first time that the Yarrabubba crater has been pre-cisely dated, at 2.229 billion years old, and means it is 200 million years older than the Vredefort crater in South Africa, the previous oldest crater. The revelation also raises the intri-guing possibility that the massive impact could have signifi-cantly altered the Earth's climate, helping end a period of global "deep freeze." Scientists had long suspected that Yar-rabubba, in a remote part of the outback, dated back several billion years. But dating ancient craters is not easy because the sites tend to be poorly preserved because erosion and tectonic events such as earthquakes have "progressively erased into the geologic past," the researchers wrote in their paper, published in the journal Nature Communications. And even where craters are still present, determining their age is complex. To date Yarrabubba precisely, the team hunted for evidence of "shock recrystallization" in minerals at the site—essentially where the massive impact of the meteor had al-tered the structure of materials including zircon and monazite. This date places the impact at the end of the Huronian glacia-tion first period of “Snowball Earth,” a time when the planet was mostly or completely frozen. Its coincidence with termi-nation of the world-wide glacial conditions at the beginning of the Palaeoproterozoic prompts further consideration of the ability of meteorite impacts to trigger global climate change. http://www.geologyin.com/2020/01/meteor-crater-discovered-in-australia.html

Scientists had nicknamed it "The Thing" – a mysterious foot-ball-sized fossil discovered in Antarctica that sat in a Chilean museum awaiting someone who could work out just what it was. Now, analysis has revealed that the mystery fossil is in fact a soft-shelled egg, the largest ever found, laid some 68 million years ago, possibly by a type of extinct sea snake or lizard. The revelation ends nearly a decade of speculation about the fossil, and could change thinking about the lives of marine creatures in this era, according to an article in the jour-nal Nature. "It is very rare to find fossil soft-shelled eggs that are that well-preserved. This new egg is by far the largest soft-shelled egg ever discovered. We did not know that these eggs could reach such an enormous size, and since we hypothesize it was laid by a giant marine reptile, it might also be a unique glimpse into the reproductive strategy of these animals.” The fossil was discovered in 2011 by a group of Chilean scientists working in Antarctica. It looks a bit like a crumpled baked pota-to but measures a whopping 11 by 7 inches. For years, visiting scientists examined the fossil in vain, until in 2018 a palaeon-tologist suggested it might be an egg. It wasn't the most obvi-ous hypothesis given its size and appearance, and there was no skeleton inside to confirm it. Analysis of sections of the fossil revealed a layered structure similar to a soft membrane, and a much thinner hard outer layer, suggesting it was soft-shelled. This was also confirmed by chemical analyses, which showed that the eggshell is distinct from the sediment around it, and was originally a living tissue. But that left other mysteries to unravel, including what animal laid such an enormous egg – only one bigger was produced by the now-extinct elephant bird from Madagascar. The team believe this egg wasn't from a dinosaur – the types living in Antarctica at the time were mostly too small to have produced such a mammoth egg, and the ones large enough laid spherical, rather than oval-shaped, ones. Instead they believe it came from a kind of reptile, pos-sibly a group known as mosasaurs, which were common in the region. https://www.sciencealert.com/these-amazing-fossil-discoveries-reveal-the-kinds-of-eggs-ancient-giants-laid

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The first gemstone weighed 20.43lb while the second weighed 11.25lb. A small-scale miner in Tanzania has become an overnight millionaire after selling two rough Tanzanite stones - the biggest ever found in the country. Tanzanite is the blue and violet variety of the mineral zoisite [a calcium aluminium hydroxyl sorosilicate—[Ca2Al3(SiO4)(Si2O7)O(OH) + (Cr,Sr)]; it’s color caused by small amounts of vanadium. Tanzanite belongs to the epidote mineral group. Tanzanite is only found in Tanzania, in a very small mining area (approximately 4.3 mi long and 1.2 mi wide) near the Mererani Hills. A Tanzanian mining boss has earned more than $3.35m after workers at his operation in the southern African country found the two largest tanzanite gemstones ever recorded. The two

dark violet-blue gemstones, each about 12 in long and 4 in thick, were discovered by miners employed by Saniniu Laizer in a mine in the north of the country. “There will be a big party tomorrow,” Laizer, from Simanjiro district in Manyara, told the BBC. “I want to build a shopping mall and a school. I want to build this school near my home. There are many poor people around here who can’t afford to take their children to school,” he said. Local and international reporting of the find has described a rags to riches story, with a “subsistence miner” said to have “hit the jackpot”. However, Laizer runs a sub-stantial mining operation involving more than 200 people, which he has funded with the profits of his extensive cattle and farm-ing businesses, and was not present when

the record-breaking find was made. “He has logistics experts, engineers, geologists who help him in the planning of the opera-tions. He doesn’t himself go to the pit to dig.

He has a number of tired laborers who … do the mining,” a manager, Kiria Laizer told the Guardian. “It’s a really challenging experi-ence. It’s tough of course, working in this dusty area. We inhale a lot of dust and get sick, but we haven’t lost the determination to work. We feel grateful that our boss has finally got these stones. We are planning to have roast meat together when we return to the mining site.” The first gemstone weighed 20.4 lbs and the second 11.3 lbs, a mines ministry spokesperson said. Both were found last week, but the discov-ery only became known when Laizer sold them to the government on Wednesday. He said that 10% of the earnings from the sale of the stones will be distributed among the workers. Relatives said Laizer, 52, was organizing festivities to celebrate the find in his home village. Laizer was pictured on Tanzanian television being presented with a large check. President John Magufuli phoned to congratulate him live on TV. The president reportedly ordered officials to buy the two gemstones and place them in the national museum in the commercial capital, Dar es Sa-laam, where tourists can admire them. “This is a confirmation that Tanzania is rich,” Magufuli said. Tanzanite is found only in a small northern region of the east African nation. It was first identified in 1967. Tanzania built a fence around tanzanite mining concessions in northern Tanzania in April 2018 in an attempt to control illegal mining and trading activities. At the time, officials said 40% of tanzanite produced there was being lost. The biggest previous tanzanite find was 7.5 lb stone found by a commercial mining company 15 years ago. http://www.geologyin.com/2020/06/tanzanian-miner-finds-worlds-biggest.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GeologyIn+%28Geology+IN%29

The dark violet-blue gemstones were found by miner Saniniu Laizer in one of the tanzanite mines in the northern part of Tanzania

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Glass beads were found inside fossil clams in a Florida quarry, and researchers now believe that they're the first particle evi-dence of ancient meteorite strikes in the area. Researchers picking through the contents of fossil clams from a Sarasota County quarry found dozens of tiny glass beads, likely the call-ing cards of an ancient meteorite. Analysis of the beads sug-

gests they are microtektites, particles that form when the explosive impact of an extraterres-trial object sends molten debris hurtling into the atmosphere where it cools

and recrystallizes before falling back to Earth. They are the first documented microtektites in Florida and possibly the first to be recovered from fossil shells. Mike Meyer was a University of South Florida undergraduate when he discovered the microtek-tites during a 2006 summer fieldwork project. As part of the project, students systematically collected fossils from the shell-packed walls of a quarry that offered a cross-section of the last few million years of Florida's geological history. They pried open fossil clams, washing the sediment trapped inside through very fine sieves. Meyer was looking for the shells of single-celled organisms known as benthic foraminifera when he noticed the translucent glassy balls, smaller than grains of salt. Sand grains appear as “lumpy, potato-shaped things,” but these were tiny, perfect spheres. After the fieldwork ended, his curiosity about the spheres persisted, but he could not find anyone who knew what they were. Meyer kept the spheres -- 83 in total -- in a small box for more than a decade. Many years later he had some free time, and analyzed the elemental makeup and physi-cal features of the spheres and compared them to microtek-tites, volcanic rock and byproducts of industrial processes, such as coal ash. His findings pointed to an extraterrestrial origin, microtektites, the products of one or more small, previously unknown meteorite impacts, potentially on or near Florida. Initial results from an unpublished test suggest the spheres have traces of exotic metals, further evidence they are micro-tektites. Most of them had been sealed inside fossil Mercenaria campechiensis or southern quahogs; and as clams died, fine sediment and particles washed inside and were preserved with the clams. http://www.geologyin.com/2019/07/mysterious-glass-

beads-in-clams-point.html

Two microtektites found inside ancient clam shells.

About 200 million years ago, a brutal underwater attack took place in the Atlantic. A squid-like creature, armed with 10 tentacles studded with hooks, swam up to a prehistoric fish. The predator wrapped its long arms around the fish's head and crushed its skull. The cephalopod was looking for a quick, delicious bite, but the meal cost the creature its life. Predator and prey died in a deadly embrace, and their inter-

locked bodies were fossilized under the waves. A new study analyzing that fos-sil, which has been accepted for publica-tion in Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, suggests this is the oldest evidence of such a squid attack ever found. Alt-hough the fossil was originally discovered in the 19th century off the southern coast of the UK, it was recently reexamined after being on display in a British museum. The researchers determined that the preda-tor in question was a coleoid, a type of squid ancestor, named Clarkeiteuthis montefiorei. The 16-inch-long cephalo-pod chomped down on an 8-inch-long fish called Dorsetich-thys bechei. They noted that the fossilized position of the squid's arms – ensnaring the fish's head and body – suggests that the two animals died together, rather than perishing separately and then being preserved together. In their study, the researchers speculated on why the cephalopod met its doom instead of satiating its hunger. One hypothesis was that the squid's eyes were bigger than its stomach: The fish was simply too large for its attacker, and became lodged in the predator's beak. Eventually, the squid died, and the pair sank to the seafloor together. They also suggested that perhaps the greedy cephalopod, after biting down on its hap-less prey, might have purposefully sunk down to deeper wa-ters to avoid other predators. But in doing so, it entered a part of the ocean too deficient in oxygen to survive, and suffocated. https://www.sciencealert.com/evidence-of-a-200-million-year-old-squid-attack-was-frozen-in-time

Image above shows the full fossil with the body of

the squid on the left and its arms, with the

trapped fish, to the right.

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Bones of more than 60 mammoths have been unearthed at the location of a new Mexican international airport. The find was first reported in an Ancient Origins news article about anthropologists from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) discovering two mammoth hunting pits (traps) in the neighborhood of Tultepec, just north of Mexico City. Titled the world's “first mammoth traps,” it is thought that the ancient hunters may have chased the mammoths into the pits, where they would have been battered to death, and some of the bones showed evidence of butchery. Now, archaeologists excavating near

this site, in the town of Santa Lucia in the central Mexican state of Mexico State, have unearthed al-most 70 fossilized mam-moths while clearing land for a new airport. Anthro-pologists have confirmed they had likely been “hunted down by Neolithic humans 15,000 years ago,” according to a press release by the INAH. Researchers had believed about a dozen mammoths would be found at the Mexican excavation site, but the team discov-ered the remains of nearly 70 specimens. Standing at 15 ft. tall and weighing in excess of 22,000 pounds, and with an estimated lifespan of around 65 years,

the tusks of the Columbian mammoth could grow up to 16 ft long, but this species had much less fur than their woolly cousins living in the northern tundra. According to a report in Heritage Daily, Pedro Francisco Sanchez Nava, the National Coordinator of Anthropology at the INAH, told local media that alongside “more than sixty Columbian mammoths” other fauna from the Pleisto-cene (epoch) like bison, a camel, and bits of horse were discovered. And it’s thought that some of these plant-eating giants lived more than 35,000 years ago, while the beasts dating to 14,000 years ago may have been “ trapped by humans” who hunted in this region. And while today an airport is being built on the space, the area was once a body of water called Xaltocan Lake, locat-ed at the intersection of four separate valleys so it acted like “a natural corridor,” according to INAH. Mr. Sanchez Nava said he thinks 15,000 years ago humans may have observed the natural mammoth passage and may have “organized as a society to hunt them.” Mr. Sanchez Nava also said his team of “31 archaeologists and three restorers” are working at the site while the new air-port is being built and there are plans in place to build a new mammoth museum at the airport to offer visitors an insight into what life was like in the region more than 35,000 years ago. At this rate, 2020 might be remembered as the year of the mam-moth, for earlier this year researchers in Russia began studying three magnificent “mammoth-bone” structures dating to 24,000 BC. Archaeologist Alexander Pryor and his team of researchers from the University of Exeter in England published a study which declared one of these huts as “the oldest building” ever erected by Homo sapiens. This ancient architectural marvel would have been covered with animal skins and it is thought that a series of surrounding pits had originally been quarried for loess to use in construction. Afterwards they may have served as food and fuel storage spaces and also for waste. Considering the discovery of these mammoth-bone huts in Russia, the Mexican mammoth hunting pits found in November last year, and now this new site, it seems this gargantuan beast played a central role in the formation of early human communities and may have led to the thinking processes and skills required to hunt, which are not that different to the social organization and management procedures needed to build. And maybe much more. For additional information visit. https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/mexican-

mammoths-0013756?

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In 1907 the famous Steamboat Tourmaline was unearthed by Frank Barlow Schuyler in San Diego County in a rich tourmaline-bearing pocket zone in the mine which was named the Tourma-line King. It was then sold by Schuyler to Washington A. Roebling and it is now housed at the Smithsonian Institution. The specimen’s two parallel crystals (which look like steamboat stacks) display a range of vibrant colors that start at vivid red-dish-pink at the bottom and transition to a bright bluish-green at the top. The tourmaline crystals rise out of a base of Cleaveland-ite, which is perched atop a large quartz crystal. Tourmaline is a crystal with an incredibly variable composition. Basically, it is boron silicate mineral compounded with elements such as alu-minium, iron, magnesium, sodium, lithium, or potassium. In fact the International Mineralogical Association recognizes 36 named minerals (endmember formulas) in the group. It is hard and durable and very well suited for jewelry, and is classified as a semi-precious stone with gemstone quality crystals coming in a wide variety of colors. It is a pyroelectric mineral, meaning that when warmed, it attracts dust and other lightweight parti-cles. Tourmaline is found in granite and granite pegmatites and in metamorphic rocks such as schist and marble. Schorl (black) and lithium-rich tourmalines are usually found in granite and granite pegmatite. Magnesium-rich tourmalines (dravites) are generally restricted to schists and marble. Tourmaline is a dura-ble mineral and can be found in minor amounts as grains in sandstone and conglomerate. http://www.geologyin.com/ 2020/06/steamboat-tourmaline-one-of-californias.html?

Scientists recently identified the oldest material on Earth: star-dust that's 7 billion years old, tucked away in a massive, rocky meteorite that struck our planet half a century ago. Stars have life cycles. They're born when bits of dust and gas floating through space find each other and collapse in on each other and heat up. They burn for millions to billions of years, and then they die. When they die, they pitch the particles that formed in their winds out into space, and those bits of stardust eventually form new stars, along with new planets and moons and meteorites. And in a meteorite that fell fifty years ago in Australia, scientists have now discovered stardust that formed 5 to 7 billion years ago -- the oldest solid material ever found on Earth. "This is one of the most exciting studies I've worked on," says Philipp Heck, a curator at the Field Museum, associate pro-fessor at the University of Chicago, and lead author of a paper describing the findings in the Proceedings of the National Acad-emy of Sciences. "These are the oldest solid materials ever found, and they tell us about how stars formed in our galaxy." The materials Heck and his colleagues examined are called pre-solar grains—minerals formed before the Sun was born. "They're solid samples of stars, real stardust," says Heck. These bits of stardust became trapped in meteorites where they re-mained unchanged for billions of years, making them time cap-sules from before the solar system. But, presolar grains are hard to come by. They're rare, found only in about five percent of the meteorites that have fallen to Earth, and they're tiny—a hundred of the biggest ones would fit on the period at the end of this sentence. Presolar grains used for this study were isolat-ed from the Murchison meteorite about 30 years ago at the University of Chicago. The meteorite was crushed to dust, then dissolved with acid until only the presolar grains remained. It was dated using exposure age data, which measures their expo-sure to cosmic rays. But the age of the presolar grains wasn't the end of the discovery. Since presolar grains are formed when a star dies, they can tell us about the history of stars. And, 7 billion years ago, there was apparently a bumper crop of new stars forming; a sort of astral baby boom. http://www.geologyin.com/ 2020/01/7-billion-year-old-stardust-is-oldest.html

This is the famous "Steamboat" tourmaline mineral specimen from the Tourmaline King mine in the

Pala District of San Diego County, California. Photo by Duncan Pay

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U. of Wisc Geology Museum Madison, WI

Burpee Museum of Natural History Rockford, IL

Sign Up ASAP if interested contact Bill DesMarais (319-365-0612)

Non-Members Sign up—Sept 1

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2020 Officers, Directors, and Committee Chairs

President ............ Marv Houg (m_houg@yahoo.com)…………..……...(319)364-2868 Vice President. ... Ray Anderson (rockdoc.anderson@gmail.com) .......... 337-2798 Treasurer ............ Dale Stout (dhstout55@aol.com) ................................ 365-7798 Secretary ............ Dell James (cycladelics@msn.com) ............................. 446-7591 Editor .................. Ray Anderson (rockdoc.anderson@gmail.com) .......... 337-2798 Liaison ................ Kim Kleckner (ibjeepn2@gmail.com) ......................... 560-5185 Imm. Past Pres. .. Sharon Sonnleitner (sonnb@aol.com) ........................ 396-4016 Director ’20 ........ Jay Vavra (vavrajj@gmail.com) ................................... 447-9288 Director ’21 ........ Desmarais (desmarais_3@msn.com) .................... 365-0612 Director ‘22……….Toby Jordan (rejordan79@msn.com) .......................... 360-2762 Sunshine ............. Dolores Slade (doloresdslade@aol.com) .................... 351-5559 Hospitality .......... Desmarais (desmarais_3@msn.com) ............... 365-0612 Webmaster......... Sharon Sonnleitner (sonnb@aol.com) ........................ 396-4016 Club meetings are held the 3rd Tuesday of each month from September through November and from January through May at 7:15 p.m., at the Hiawatha Community Cen-ter in the Hiawatha City Hall, 101 Emmons St., Hiawatha IA. The December meeting is a potluck dinner held on the 1st Tuesday at 6:30. June, July, and August meetings are pot-lucks held at 6:30 p.m. at area parks on the 3rd Tuesday of each month

CVRMS was organized for the purpose of studying the sciences of mineralogy, geology, and paleontology and the arts of lapidary and gemology. We are members of the Midwest (MWF) and American (AFMS) Federations. Membership is open to anyone who professes an interest in rocks and minerals. Annual dues are $15.00 per family per calendar year. Dues can be sent to: Dale Stout 2237 Meadowbrook Dr. SE Cedar Rapids, IA 52403

CVRMS website:

cedarvalleyrockclub.org

CEDAR VALLEY ROCKS & MINERAL SOCIETY

Ray Anderson, Editor 2155 Prairie du Chien Rd. NE Iowa City, Iowa 52240-9620