A shout out to the Gem and Mineral Society of Palm Beaches.  They have been around since the 60′s and going strong!

The Gem & Mineral Society of the Palm Beaches has a rich history starting from 1966. This rich history is documented in
scrapbooks and photo albums from the beginning to present. The “Big Book” along with several photo albums are
available for viewing at the club meetings.

Show info:

The Gem & Mineral Society of the Palm Beaches holds regular
meetings on the third Thursday of each month.

• Florida Black Coral
  
• The Ancient Art of Chainmaile
  
• Ruck’s Pit
  
• Crystalography
  
• Flourescent Minerals
  

Everyone is welcome to attend the monthly meeting, but if you want to
take advantage of all the club has to offer, you should become a member!
As a member, you will have access to:

• A fully stocked lapidary workshop including:  3 different sized rock
  saws, full range of cabbing and polishing wheels, faceting equipment, a
  flat lap and more! (Certification needed to use some machines.)
  

• Classes taught by skilled club members.
  

• Monthly newsletter, “The Rockhound”.
  
• Check out some issues on the newsletter page.
  

• Informational programs at our monthly meetings
  

• Social picnics, member show and sells
  

• Field trips to collecting sites

OKLAHOMA Rockhound Club

March 25-27

ADA, OKLAHOMA:

A Festival Of Gems, Minerals & Fossils 2011 !!!

BEADS, JEWELRY, GEMS, MINERALS, FOSSILS & ROCKS

Swap, Show and Sale

March 25,26 & 27 2011

Free Admission.

The show will feature various demonstrations and displays of fluorescent rocks, minerals, fossils, lapidary and jewelry. Silent auctions of materials donated by dealers and members will be held  hourly.

** A raffle Drawing on Sunday Afternoon at 3 P.M. For all Ticket Holders, need not be present to win**

Special Kids’ Event: Fossil Dig.

Petting Zoo

Hours: Friday 10 AM till 6 PM.

Saturday 9 AM till 5 PM,

Sunday 10 AM till 4 PM.

Admissions & Fees: Free

Dealers: Dealers from the surrounding states (Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, & Texas & Indiana).

Event Location: Pontotoc County Agri‑Plex, Ada, Oklahoma

Main Building #1 (Western Side of Agriplex)

At the N.E. Corner of the intersection of State Highway 99 (U.S. 377) and the Richardson Bypass (SHwy 1 & 3E)

Information Mailing Address:  Ed Vermillion, Show Chairperson

P.O. Box 782

Purcell, Ok 73080

405-527-6431

okieed42@windstream.net

Show Committee:

Bill Rushlau

Melody Ulanowski

Ovetta Vermillion

Web site: www.freewebs.com/agmfc/index.htm

**Check out their field trip gallery!  One pic from there…

Dogtooth Calcite

Fresno FGMS

Most months the club plans field trips to the coast, desert, and other interesting places where fascinating stones and minerals can be found, collected and or worked for tumbling, cutting and polishing. We offer day trips and overnighters for both the novice and experienced rockhound. Our field trips are great fun for the entire family.
Times and dates are posted in our monthly newsletter.

FIELD TRIP

Saturday, March 12, 2011
Quartz Mountain, Coarsegold, Madera County

Come and join us for a day of Quartz Crystal collecting behind the Casino in Coarsegold.  Quartz Mountain is a small BLM area, featuring smoky to clear quartz crystals.  It’s also the site of the historic Narbo Mine, a late 18th century gold camp.  Unfortunately (for the investors and miners) there wasn’t enough gold found to keep the mine open for long.

If you attended one of our digs there last year, you will remember the “trudge” up the Mountain. It wasn’t bad, but FGMS member Paul has improved the road up the Mountain, and it’s now passenger car accessible.

Quartz Mountain

We will meet at the Chevron Station at Hwy 41 & Picayune Road at 9:30, and proceed to the dig site at 10 am. Please be prompt, since we’re required to close the gate after entering and I prefer digging to running up and down the Mountain.

We�re look forward to having a great time! Feel free to contact Kris or Bob with any questions.

Click here for the Google Maps link.

Field Trip Co-Chairman – Kris Rowe – 559-250-5057   Bob Coates – 559-313-0440

http://www.fgms.us/fieldtrip.php

A big hello to the Maplewood Rock and Gem club in Edmonds WA.

http://maplewoodrockclub.com/index.html

Maplewood

Maplewood Rock & Gem Club fosters community spirit by encouraging the lapidary arts and and appreciating the earth sciences of geology, fossils, minerals, and gem stones. Members join together to enjoy each other’s company as we explore new avenues of learning through field trips, lectures, seminars, craft workshops, and special shows and events.  Maplewood welcomes adults, youth and junior members who actively contribute to the growth and liveliness of the group.

Contact us at: info@maplewoodrockclub.com

Maplewood Rock and Gem Club welcomes new adult members for $20 per year, and $15 for juniors. Family memberships are $45.

Meetings are held once a month. Visitors are encouraged and heartily welcomed! We have several programs throughout the year as well.

Meetings start at 7:00 pm.
Board Meetings – 1st Thursday of each month
Regular meetings – 3rd Monday of each month

Very nice news letter- click here for PDF

-nice article on septarian nodules in above PDF:

…Septarian concretions or septarian nodules, are concretions containing angular cavities or cracks, which are called “septaria“. The word comes from the Latin word septum; “partition”, and refers to the cracks/separations in this kind of rock. There is an incorrect explanation that it comes from the Latin word for “seven”, septem, referring to the number of cracks that commonly occur. Cracks are highly variable in shape and volume, as well as the degree of shrinkage they indicate. Although it has commonly been assumed that concretions grew incrementally from the inside outwards, the fact that radially oriented cracks taper towards the margins of septarian concretions is taken as evidence that in these cases the periphery was stiffer while the inside was softer, presumably due to a gradient in the amount of cement precipitated.

The process that created the septaria, which characterize septarian concretions, remains a mystery. A number of mechanisms, i.e. the dehydration of clay-rich, gel-rich, or organic-rich cores; shrinkage of the concretion’s center; expansion of gases produced by the decay of organic matter; brittle fracturing or shrinkage of the concretion interior by either earthquakes or compaction; and others, have been proposed for the formation of septaria (Pratt 2001). At this time, it is uncertain, which, if any, of these and other proposed mechanisms is responsible for the formation of septaria in septarian concretions (McBride et al. 2003). Septaria usually contain crystals precipitated from circulating solutions, usually of calcite. Siderite or pyrite coatings are also occasionally observed on the wall of the cavities present in the septaria, giving rise respectively to a panoply of bright reddish and golden colors. Some septaria may also contain small calcite stalagtites and well-shaped millimetric pyrite single crystals….

Danbury Mineralogical Society

Connecticut_Rockhound

Connecticut_Rockhound

Meetings:  First Thursday of every month (except July, August, September, and January), at the Broadview Middle School, Danbury, CT, at 7:30PM.  All are welcome.  Please check back before the meeting to make sure of the date and location.  There may be more changes…..

Directions

From the West:
I-84 East to Exit 5

Straight ahead through 4 lights.

Turn right at 5th light (entrance to North Street Shopping Center) onto Hayestown Ave.

Turn right at next light onto Tamarack Ave.

Turn left at next light onto Hospital Ave.

Broadview will be on your right.

——————————————

From the East:
I-84 East to Exit 6

Turn right at exit.

Turn right at next light (entrance to North Street Shopping Center) onto Hayestown Ave.

Turn right at next light onto Tamarack Ave.

Turn left at next light onto Hospital Ave.

Broadview will be on your right.

Flint Rock Club

Click here for club website

The Flint Rock and Gem Club is a non-profit organization. Its purpose to promote and encourage the understanding of earth sciences, lapidary arts, and their related fields. Our goal is to share information with club members, educational institutions, and the general public.

Club meetings are held every third Thursday of the month, February through October, at the Clio Senior Center  2136 W. Vienna Road in Clio.

Please note there are no meetings in the months of November, December, and January.

Executive board meeting: 6:00 pm.

General membership meeting: 7:00pm.

Visitors are always welcome.

Membership dues are $10.00 per year, which includes the club newsletter, participation in the annual rock swap, the Flint Rock and Gem Show, club picnic, and annual banquet.

Cabochon classes are on Mondays from 5:30 pm – 8:30 pm. Summer hours 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm will resume on March 15, 2010.

The Flint Rock and Gem Club is a member of Midwest Federation of Mineralogical & Geological Societies.

Hello Boston Rockhounds!

The Boston Mineral Club (BMC) was founded in 1936 to “promote the study and collecting of rocks and minerals, to encourage friendly cooperation among mineralogists and collectors, [and] to promote the study of mineralogy and related arts and sciences coming within the purview of earth sciences…” In the pursuit of these goals, the BMC offers educational programs at club meetings, mineral collecting field trips, a newsletter, and access to our mineralogical reference library.

The Boston Mineral Club is a member of the American Federation of Mineral Societies and the Eastern Federation of Mineral and Lapidary Societies.

You do not need a college degree in earth sciences to join the club! We are open to all. We welcome and encourage new members to join the club.

http://www.bostonmineralclub.org/

Minnesota’s state gemstone…

MMC members successfully lobbied the state legislature to have the Lake Superior Agate named as the state gemstone.  This is just one aspect of the club’s affair with Lakers.  In 1988, the club hosted the “Night of the Lake Superior Agate” where members and guests could actually see some of the more famous Lakers and hear from agate author, club member Scott Wolters.  In 1995, Night of the Agates II again brought many local agate lovers together for an all agate exhibit and presentation.  Night of the Agate III is tentatively planned for 2007 or 2008, as a prelude to “A World of Agates” scheduled for 2012.

Club member Mike Carlson created the coffee table book “Beautiful Agates” with photos by fellow club members Pete Rodewald and Dennis Westman and lapidary work by several club members. Pete and Mike, along with member Larry Costigan and his son Brian were invited to participate in the international Agate Show held in Munich Germany in October 2005.

A club hello to the Minnesota Mineral Club, check out their site
ALso Oct 20/21st they are having a Great Lakes/ Great Rocks show, click on the link for full rock show info- http://www.minnesotamineralclub.org/MMC2007show.pdf

Mike from Needles gem and mineral club stopped by and said hello, I checked out their club blog that posts their field trips and articles and found it to be quite interesting, check it out…  If you are in the Needles CA area, check the club out, they seem to have great field trips such as their next one-

Field Trip February 24, 2007 Saturday Ludlow Area for Zoisite (massive green and pink Thulite) 4WD High Clearance Vehicle Advised, Meet at Ludlow (off I-40 West) in the Dairy Queen-76 Station parking lot at 9 AM PST 10 AM MST

http://needlesgemmineralclub.blogspot.com/ 

Pictures from a recent trip, read about it and many others-