Gemology…
gemology links in alphabetical order

Accredited Gemologists Association
is a nonprofit research, education and ethics organization benefiting professional and avocation gemologists as well as consumer interest

Alexandrite Gemstone Buyer and Collectors Guide
history, sources, valuation and collection of alexandrite gemstones. Topics also include chemical and physical properties, mythology, and color change phenomena as well as alexandrite synthetics and imitations

American Gem Society
m embers of the American Gem Society are dedicated to providing the most knowledgeable service to their customers

American Gem Trade Association
the AGTA is an association of US and Canadian colored gemstone and cultured pearl industry professionals dedicated to promoting the natural colored gemstone trade

Asian Institute of Gemological Sciences (AIGS)
located in Bangkok, Thailand, founded in 1978 as Southeast Asia’s first educational and research institute devoted exclusively to the training of students in the scientific and practical aspects of gemology and the gem trade

Canadian Gemmological Association
Canada’s professional organization for the practice of gemmology. Website contains information about the organization, including information on membership, products, meeting times, annual Gem Conferences and more.

Centre de Recherche Gemmologique
the Gemological Research Center at the University of Nantes

CISGEM
Italian centre for information and services in gemmology. As well as carrying out its principal work of analysis, the Centre provides extensive information on gemmology, through courses, conferences, publications

DeMello Gemological National Laboratory
Providing expert gemological testing and related appraisal services for consumers, gemstone buyers, collectors, legal counsel and law inforcement

D-Gem-G
Europe’s leading institute for training and research concerning gemmology since 1932

L’Ecole des Gemmes
Centre de formation qualifiante en gemmologie. Allied teaching center of the Gemmological Association of Great Britain in France.

Field gemology
dedicated to people sharing an equal passion for gems, gemology and traveling

Gem and Jewelry Institute of Thailand
Bangkok-based government gem lab and school

GEMLAB
gemological laboratory based in the Principality of Liechtenstein offering laboratory services

Gemlab Inc.
Research and development high-tech gem treatment laboratory, short courses in gem treatments, fabrication of gem instruments and gem treating equipment, books, etc.

Gemmes Inclusions
Photographs of inclusions in gemstones. Also covers treated stones, syntheses, doublets.

Gemmological Association and Gem Testing Laboratory of Great Britain
gives details of courses, tutotials, workshops, exam details and dates, trips and other special events, lectures etc.

Gemmological Association of All Japan
Japan’s leading gemmological educational institution

Gemmological Association of Australia
Australia’s traditional gemmological educator since 1945

Gemmological Society of South Africa
promotes fair trade and full disclosure by all gemstone traders

Gemmology in Scotland
Scottish Branch of the Gemmological Association

Gemmology World
Canadian Institute of Gemmology

Gem Nantes Gemmologie à Nantes
diverses formations en gemmologie (DUG et programmes courts) et les activités de recherche scientifique en gemmologie

The Gemology Project
non-profit gemstone and gem science wiki-style database for anyone interested in gemstones and gemology

Gemstone Identification Chart
analyze the results got with the refractometer, polariscope, dichroscope, spectroscope, UV light, dichromatic filter, density scale, microscope and loupe, hardness tester

Gemval
is an online guide to gemstone prices

GIA – Gemological Institute of America
the world’s largest and most respected nonprofit institute of gemological research and learning

Gübelin Gemmological Laboratories
Swiss gemmological laboratory

HRD (Hoge Raad voor Diamant)
Diamond High Council, Antwerp, Belgium

Instituto Brasileiro de Gemas e Metais Preciosos
private, non-profit association of Brazilian gemstone, jewellery and related industries

Institut Gemmologique de France
French gemological institute

Institut National de Gemmologie
The National Institute of Gemmology teaches over 500 persons a year and gives certifies over 100 persons each year (Brevet Professionnel, FEEG, Diploma of ING)

Instituto Gemológico Español
Spanish gemological institute

International Colored Gemstone Association
a non-profit association to represent the international gemstone industry

International Gem Society
dedicated to bringing quality information and educational services to everyone interested in gemstones

JewelInfo4u
collection of gemstone related information like buying guide, recource directory, info on different gemstone species, etc.

LABGEM
Portuguese gemological laboratory

Laboratoire français de Gemmologie
French gemological laboratory in Paris

RealGems.org
information on gemstones, collector stones and rare facetable minerals

Russian Gemological Server
information on business, research and educational projects in gemology

Swiss Gemmological Institute
part of the Swiss Foundation for the Research of Gemstones, founded by trade organisations in 1974 and works independently on a scientific basis

True or not, pretty interesting

grand_canyon

Remember how disgusted you felt when, in the closing scene of the film, Raiders of The Lost Ark, the Ark of the Covenant – hidden in an anonymous wooden crate – was consigned to a giant warehouse full of similar looking crates? Your reaction was ‘Cover up by the government!’ – no doubt. This was fiction, but do such cover-ups really happen?

One of the most revered historical institutions in the USA, if not the world, is the Smithsonian Institute, compilers and keepers of American history for as long as anyone can remember. Would they – could they blatantly ignore the existence of a staggering historical find, because it seemed too radical for conventional thinking? People must judge that for themselves.

One of the greatest natural wonders of the world cuts deep into the heart of Arizona – the Grand Canyon. Beautiful and breathtaking, this vast cleft in the earth holds many secrets, perhaps none more mysterious than the one reported in the Phoenix Gazette, on April 5th 1909. An explorer, one G.E. Kincaid (who had served the Smithsonian for over thirty years) was reporting a startling archeological discovery.

Grand Canyon

Kincaid’s boss, Professor S.A. Jordan of the Smithsonian – who were financing the expedition – was said to be enthusiastic that the find be further investigated, as it was of ‘major significance’. Kincaid had found, about 2000 feet up the canyon wall above the Colorado river – some forty-two miles upstream from the El Tovar crystal canyon – a cave entrance to a vast underground city, chiseled from the solid rock.

There were steps up to the cave, suggesting that the river level had been that high when the inhabitants had lived there. This would mean at least 3000 years had passed since then! This citadel was almost a mile underground, and was very precisely carved, in geometric patterns, over an enormous area. Kincaid reported that several hundred rooms had been discovered, but that the full extent of the ‘city’ was still impossible to estimate.

Perhaps the most startling find was the great hall, about 100 feet in from the cave entrance. This contained a carved idol (presumably of the god these people worshipped), which he described thus: The idol sits cross-legged, with lotus flower or lily in each hand. The cast of the face is oriental, and the carving shows a skilful hand, being remarkably well preserved. It resembles Buddha, and though scientists are unsure of its religious import, it reminds them strongly of the ancient people of Tibet.

Many smaller, beautifully carved images were reported, as was the finding of all kinds of copper tools – preserved by some hardening method, which modern day scientists have failed to emulate. Artistic vases and urns of copper and gold as well as enameled ware and glazed vessels were found. Granaries, like those found in oriental temples, and still holding seeds, were also discovered.

There was a grey metal found, resembling platinum, which scientists could not identify, and yellow stones, known as ‘cat’s eyes’, were everywhere, each one engraved with a Malay type head. Even more significant was the finding of hieroglyphics – amazingly similar to those found in Egypt – engraved on urns, on tablets and around doorways. Deciphering these would be a major step toward solving the mystery; but did it ever happen?

A large crypt was found, with many mummies in it, reportedly well preserved. They were all male, entombed with weapons, suggesting that this was a burial site for soldiers – though varying degrees of development in the ceramics found with them hint that this was a civilization that was constantly refining itself. It was thought that up to 50,000 people could have lived in this city.

Strangely enough, the tradition among the Hopi Indians tells of an ancestry that harks back to their people having once lived in an underworld in the Grand Canyon, until rivalry broke out between two factions. The good faction – the people of one heart – were led to the outside world by their chief, Machetto – while the people of two hearts remained behind.

Isis_Temple

The Isis Temple, Grand Canyon

Today, visitors looking from the South Rim of the Canyon can see the structure called ‘The Isis Temple’ – a pyramid hewn from the solid rock of the cliff top, and obviously man-made. Page 302 in the book, Ancient secrets of the Flower of Life Vol II, holds an account, by two backpackers, of an exploration of this edifice.

They tell of finding cave entrances that had been deliberately sealed, though they did seem man made, one having a clear, 6ft circular pattern carved into the roof. This site is over 40 miles from the one reported in the newspaper article – yet why would caves that are almost inaccessible need to be sealed up, and was the originally stated location simply a mistake?

G.E. Kincaid was a respected man, the first white child born in Idaho, and an explorer for all of his life. His words about the entrance to the citadel are prophetic: ‘First, I would impress that the cavern is nearly inaccessible, he said. The entrance is 1,486 feet down the sheer face of the canyon wall. It is on government land, and no visitor will be allowed, under penalty of trespass. A trip there would be fruitless, and the visitor sent on his way. I sent a number of relics to Washington, after which the exploration was undertaken.’

In the latter part of the twentieth century, detailed research by one Carl Munck uncovered a mathematical system, employed by the ancients for the exact placement of the Egyptian pyramids in alignment with certain star systems. This same code can be applied to other such structures, wherever they are found. His findings revealed that the Isis Temple must be a major archeological site, lined up as precisely as it is with the great pyramid of Giza.

Great Pyramid, Giza Egypt

In 1909, the Grand Canyon citadel was regarded as not only the oldest archeological discovery in the United States, but also as one of paramount importance to the world, yet today, nothing more is known to the public than has already been said. The Grand Canyon is festooned with places that bear ancient Egyptian names, yet no one in authority can tell you why.

Interest in the area is highly discouraged by officialdom, and the Smithsonian Institution claim to have no record of Kincaid, Professor Johnson or a lost Egyptian civilization in Arizona. The Phoenix Gazette story must have been a hoax; or could it be that something was discovered, back then, of such monumental import that it needed to be ‘hushed up’ for evermore?

Did G. E. Kincaid actually exist? With no records of his work, or any proof from the Smithsonian that he worked for them, many think the newspaper article was an April Fool’s Day joke! However, the above copy of an earlier newspaper piece from 1909, published a whole month before the Phoenix Gazette piece appeared, shows that G.C. Kincade’s expedition did indeed happen as reported!

What is more, a translated ancient manuscript, recently located, describes a voyage made thousands of years ago by a group from Asia travelling to a city built within what they called ‘The Canyon of Light’, intending to visit a holy man, or shrine. The descriptions given seem to indicate that this city was to be found in the Grand Canyon!

The Nile

No one is prepared to answer the questions that all of this poses, even though the research done within the citadel might have proved, beyond doubt, that the race which built it were of oriental origin, possibly Egyptian travelers from the time of Rameses. Hieroglyphs found in Australia point unequivocally to Egyptians having been there at some time, so why not the Americas as well?

Perhaps the Nile, the Colorado and the Grand Canyon are inextricably linked through a span of time that defies the imagination, but if so, someone has decided that we should never know how strong those links are. The citadel may, officially, be no more than an elaborate myth, but the evidence for a contrary view is quite compelling.

It would, perhaps, be unfair to put the ‘lost’ underground city into the same category as Area 51, but the secrecy surrounding it over ninety years can’t help but make you wonder just what was actually discovered. Unfortunately for the enquiring minds amongst us, we may never know.

OTHER LINKS:

Egyptian Artifacts in the Grand Canyon
The Phoenix Gazette – April 5, 1909

click here

Green River

With gratitude to Steve Wingate

for his own efforts at finding this cave and our combined effort to solve this mystery.

An Analysis on the Probable Location of an “Underground Citadel”

Alleged to be in the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River, Arizona,

according to a “Phoenix (Arizona) Gazette” front page news story dated “April 5, 1909″

First published June 27, 2001 at: “Lost Civilizations and Hidden Mysteries”

Exploration and Imagination with Jack Andrews and Susan Anway:

I have known of this location since 1972.

I have held the secret since then.

I feel it is the proper time to reveal the location.

Jack Andrews June 27, 2001

click here

Crystal_creek_grand_canyon

Thanks- environmentalgraffiti.com

gold_in_pyrite

Question:

In a nugget patch I’ve been working there is vein of green stone(chorite shist). It really sounds off my metal detector. I think it is loaded with pryrite. Is there a simple test for gold I can do? Also around this vein is decomposed bedrock that has a lot of black sand, not much gold. Could this sand contain gold that isn’t
visible to the eye? Any suggestions?

Answer:

For iron pyrite (sulfide), here’s the test:

(In a ventilated area… using a small sample)

Crush and roast the sample at high heat.

When iron sulfide is roasted, the sulfur vaporizes and results in iron.

The iron will pick up with a magnet.

Check this website out for a full answer:

http://www.delostooleauthor.com/gold_platinum.html

“The reason most prospectors know a lot about the appearance and habits of iron pyrite is twofold:
1) To keep from being fooled.
2) Because of the known association between pyrite and gold. Pyrite is found in, or asociated with,
more than 70% of the world’s gold deposits.”

I am looking to post about rockhounding places/trips from my readers-if its rockhounding, I’m interested!!!

Also stories as well as rockhounding news or just a shout from a local rockhound club.  My blog is as good as my submissions!

g-

RockHoundBlog@yahoo.com

Austinite

Austinite is a member of the adelite-descloizite group, adelite subgroup, the Zn end member of the Cu-Zn series with conichalcite. It is the zinc analogue of cobaltaustinite and nickelaustinite. At one time “brickerite” was thought to be a different species, but it is now considered to be identical to austinite. Named in honour of Professor Austin Flint Rogers (1877–1957), American mineralogist from Stanford University, California, USA.

Enantiomorphism

Any crystal which has a mirror plane as one of its symmetry elements has the property that its mirror image (with any plane as the mirror plane) can always be superimposed on the original crystal by translation or rotation or both.
If there are no mirror planes as symmetry elements then the mirror image of a crystal cannot be brought into superposition with the original crystal by rotation or translation. This is enantiomorphism, and the mirror images are said to be enantiomorphs of each other.
The possibility of enantiomorphic crystals is determined by the crystal symmetry, ie by the point group of the crystal species. There are 32 possible point groups, and 22 of these are capable of forming enantiomorphs. The enantiomorphs are designated right or left handed, according to whether they rotate the plane of polarised light to the right or to the left. Sometimes it is clear from the outward form of the crystal whether it is right or left handed, and sometimes optical methods are needed to determine this.
The commonest enantiomorphic mineral is quartz, with point group 32; all quartz crystals will be either right or left handed, but it may not be possible to distinguish this from the external form unless some critical crystal faces are present.
Austinite has point group 222, with no mirror planes, so austinite is also an enantiomorphic mineral, occurring as both right handed and left handed crystals, with right handed ones more common.

Environment

Austinite is a rare mineral in the oxidation zone of arsenic bearing base metal deposits, where it is found developed on the colloform (pertaining to the rounded, globular texture of mineral formed by colloidal precipitation) surface of limonite or lining small cavities. It is closely associated with adamite, and appears to be a later mineral.
Associations: Adamite, quartz, talmessite and limonite at the type locality.
Type Locality: Gold Hill Mine (Western Utah Mine), Gold Hill, Gold Hill District (Clifton District), Deep Creek Mts, Tooele County, Utah, USA.

Gold Hill is located south of Wendover and west of the Great Salt Lake Desert. Go south out of Wendover and follow the signs to Gold Hill.

40°9′38″N – 113°48′20″W

magnet_cove_Arkansas

Magnet Cove! The most mineralized 5 square miles in Arkansas!

History of Collecting
Before 1820, locals recognized there was something different about this area. Their compasses went haywire as they walked across the ground. Then by the 1840’s people began to notice a variety of unusual minerals. Later in the 1850’s many specimens had been shipped to Europe and examined by German mineralogists and Magnet Cove’s fame as a collecting area began.

Hot Spring County
Magnet Cove Historical Marker

“This is Magnet Cove which covers an area of irregularly oval shape about five square miles. The cove is made up of volcanic rocks which have gradually been forced to the surface of the earth. It was probably not an eruptive volcano. About 42 distinct mineral species have been found in the cove and many of the mineral types and combinations are of world-wide interest to mineralogists because they are know to occur in only two other localities, the Ural Mountains and the Tyrolean Alps. Here was the home of James Sevier Conway from 1834 until after 1840. Here the eminent English geologist G.W. Featherstonhaugh visited in the autumn of 1834.”

Truly a world-famous site
Magnet Cove has provided many heydays for rockhounds, collectors, mineralogists, and geologists. And it continues to do so when access to sites is available. There are 2 comprehensive publications on Magnet Cove. The earliest is a part of the Arkansas Geological Survey’s Annual Report for 1890 – “The igneous rocks of Arkansas” by J. Francis Williams and the most recent is USGS Professional Paper 425 (1963) by Erickson and Blade. Both of these reports are long out-of-print, but may be reviewed at major university libraries. William’s report goes into some detail concerning the minerals and their occurrence at Magnet Cove and the USGS report details the chemistry, along with some additional mineralogy, of the igneous rocks. Many of the sites named are the same, despite the decades of time separating these two publications. There have also been a series of articles in recent years in Rocks and Minerals magazine on various minerals and sites of this area.

<read more here>

frog_in_amber

Amber is the popular name for fossilized resin of botanical origin. The proper scientific terminology is fossil resin, but we will use the terms amber and fossil resin interchangeably. The word amber also denotes a golden color that amber predominately reflects (recall that when human eyes see color, it is actually the portion of the visible light spectrum that an object reflects that is detected). In fact, amber reflects many frequencies of light, including red, green and blue that together constitutes the entire visible spectrum. Archeological findings show that amber was one of the first materials prehistoric humans used for ornamentation, with instances dating back as far as 30,000 years. Use of fossil resin for jewelry and other decoration continues unabated, and amber is often considered as a gemstone.

Amber is also valued for its botanical and animal inclusions that are trapped by the sticky resin as it flows as sap, which is also organic. Of course, other life is captured including microscopic bacteria that often produce gas bubbles, and various fungi. Both the botanical and animal inclusions not only add beauty, but also are of potential scientific value in the study of taxonomy and evolution. Animal inclusions are usually invertebrates, specifically arthropods, and only extremely rarely a vertebrate such as a tiny lizard. Fossil resin inclusions are predominately insects, which should be no surprise since botanical resin is an evolutionary adaptation of plants that is, in part, for protection against insects.

Fossil Amber Chemistry
Fossil resin’s molecular constituency is mainly carbon and hydrogen atoms that readily form hexagonal rings. Molecular bonding between the rings increases over time (called polymerization), and the sticky resin becomes hard. There are other types of atoms in trace to larger amounts that alter physical properties and may be substrates to certain organic solvents. For all practical purposes, the hardened resin, or amber, is a “plastic”. Just when the resin becomes amber, or a fossil, is not defined, and is perhaps not definable. It is even contentious, since fossil resin is a commercial product in a competitive market. Younger amber is often called copal, though it is essentially as hard and its physical properties differ little from older resins.

All fossil resins are substrates for both hydrophilic (e.g., alcohol or acetone) and lipophilic (e.g., benzene) organic solvents and will disolve in them. The solvents will create various weak chemical interactions with the resin in order to solubilize it. The most common of these interactions are the relatively weak van der Waals interactions (induced dipole interactions), the stronger dipole-dipole interactions, and the even stronger hydrogen bonds (interaction between O-H or N-H hydrogens with O or N atoms).

Diamonds (and most mineral based gems) are forever, but fossil resin (amber) is not. As an unstable organic polymer, amber is biodegradable, just like a plastic milk jug or fiberglass boat. Its many weak covalent bonds and weaker hydrogen bonds are easily broken, a process that is accelerated by electromagnetic radiation of all frequencies and heat; ultraviolet is especially damaging (do not expose amber to sunlight), while visible and infrared much less so. Thus, while amber is, in a sense, the perfect preservative of fossils, once removed from the environment in which it formed, it is destined to crumble into dust; the time is long compared to the human lifespan, but essentially instantaneous on a geological timespan. Diamonds, on the other hand, go on forever.

Amber, Natural Selection and Chemical Warfare
Fossil resin (a.k.a., amber) is the result at least in part of nature’s oldest drama, predator versus prey. Science does not yet know when it appeared in the Kingdom Plantae’s arsenal of survival tactics, but natural section has conserved and probably diversified its usage. In temperate climates, the pines are prodigious producers of resin, which is used to make turpentine. In tropic climates, the genus Hymenaea, a timber tree, is the prolific producer. The evolutionary advantages of resin are varied. The resin is exuded to seal wounds such as from wind, fire, lightening or insect predation. Resin also contains a diversity of chemical defensive weapons. Some of these repel insects, and others attract insects that attack harmful insects, or attract parasites of insects that attack the plant, or are toxic to harmful fungi; in short a diverse chemical arsenal.

A Container for the whole Tree of Life
In terms of the Tree of Life, amber is most interesting since it entombs all three domains, Arachaea, Eubacteria and Eukarya. Archaea and eubacteria microbes are, of course, everywhere and surely embedded in the amber at high density. Interestingly, it is possible that some microbes. Still controversial finding a decade old claims to have recovered from the gut of a Hymenoptera from 30 million year old Dominican amber some three-dozen species of bacteria from ancient spores that grew on culture plates. The bacteria are from the extant genus Bacillus, a group that go dormant forming spores. Interestingly, Bacillus thuringiensis is used in the biological control of insects. Bacillus thuringiensis parasitizes the caterpillars of some harmful moths and butterflies. Spraying or dusting plants with its provides some protection against gypsy moth, tent caterpillar, and the tobacco hornworm. The bacteria has a gene that produces a toxic chemical warfare. The gene for this toxin has also been introduced into some crops.

Fossil Amber Ecosystems
One way to view amber is as a sealed unit containing a cross section of an ancient ecosystem with all its intricate predator-prey as well as beneficial symbiotic systems (e.g., termites as the methane produced by symbiotic bacteria that digest fiber in the termite gut). Fossil resin is a superb preservative, with organisms such as insects and spiders preserved in full three-dimensionality and in living color. To some degree, even, nucleotide sequence from ancient DNA is preserved, although resurrection of a Jurassic dinosaur is clearly science fiction.

Spider_in_Amber

Amber’s Geographic Dispersion
Amber comes from throughout the world, even the Arctic. However, in terms of commercial availability, the Baltic area of Europe produces vast amounts, followed by the Dominican Republic in a distant second, with minor amounts coming from Central and South America, and more specifically, Mexico and Colombia, respectively. Amber from other localities is miniscule.

Baltic Amber
An enormous amount of fossil resin is extracted on the shoreline of the Baltic Sea, and these strata are dated to be Eocene in age, give or take a few million years, thus making it some of the oldest amber that is available in commercial quantity. The largest Baltic amber mine is in Kaliningrad, Russia, but Baltic amber is also found in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Russia, and sometimes washes ashore far away in Denmark, Norway, and England. Fossil inclusions are relatively rare, almost always in isolation and usually tiny, and the amber is normally occluded with botanical debris and bubbles; for this reason, fossil specimens are best made viewable in pieces cut to small size prior to polishing, and pictures many times require a trinocular microscope.

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Bancroft Rockhounding

47th Annual Rockhound Gemboree

Dates: Jul 29, 2010 to Aug 1, 2010
Location: North Hastings Community Centre & Bancroft Curling Club
Website: www.bancroftdistrict.com
Phone: (613) 332-1513
Canada’s Largest Gem and Mineral Show.

Afghanistan

WASHINGTON — The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself, according to senior American government officials.

The previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium — are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe.

Lithium

An internal Pentagon memo, for example, states that Afghanistan could become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium,” a key raw material in the manufacture of batteries for laptops and BlackBerrys.

The vast scale of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth was discovered by a small team of Pentagon officials and American geologists. The Afghan government and President Hamid Karzai were recently briefed, American officials said.

While it could take many years to develop a mining industry, the potential is so great that officials and executives in the industry believe it could attract heavy investment even before mines are profitable, providing the possibility of jobs that could distract from generations of war.

“There is stunning potential here,” Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of the United States Central Command, said in an interview on Saturday. “There are a lot of ifs, of course, but I think potentially it is hugely significant.”

Minerals-Afghanistan

The value of the newly discovered mineral deposits dwarfs the size of Afghanistan’s existing war-bedraggled economy, which is based largely on opium production and narcotics trafficking as well as aid from the United States and other industrialized countries. Afghanistan’s gross domestic product is only about $12 billion.

“This will become the backbone of the Afghan economy,” said Jalil Jumriany, an adviser to the Afghan minister of mines.

READ MORE… (more…)

AgateLady.com

Agate

I bumped into Karen recently and she told me about her love for agates.  As well she told me about a book she was releasing…

The Gitche Gumee Museum Announces the Publishing of a New Agate Book
A new book “Agates: Inside Out” will be available in June.  The book helps readers to think like an agate so they can be more successful in finding them.
Grand Marais, MI April 1, 2010 – After the first agate book Understanding and Finding Agates was published in 2004 rockhounds said they wanted more information.  Staff at the Gitche Gumee Agate and History Museum launched an intensive research effort.  Data was compiled and written in a non-technical manner to explain what agates are, how they formed, and how to look for them.

The book features photographs taken by Thomas P. Shearer.  He uses innovative techniques that have never before been employed to take pictures of minerals.  Also included are helpful diagrams that illustrate how agates formed.

Unlike the first book that primarily focused on Lake Superior agates, this new book covers agates from all over the world.  There is also detailed information and photographs of over 30 different types of agate structures and banding patterns.

Karen Brzys, owner of the Gitche Gumee Museum, and Tom Shearer, owner of ColdStone Photography LLC, hope to team up with other educational and entertainment products aimed at the dedicated and growing number of rockhounds.  Some of these future products may include DVDs, post cards, and calendars.

Advance orders for the book are now being accepted.  The book is currently at the printer and will be available for shipment by the end of May or early June.  To place an advance order or to see additional information about the new agate book, please visit www.agatelady.com.  All book sales benefit the museum.

The Gitche Gumee Museum was operated by Axel Niemi from 1954 until 1978.  Karen Brzys, who spent time in the museum as a child, purchased and renovated the building and reopened the museum in 1999.  The museum is open mid-May through September, or by appointment.  Please visit www.agatelady.com for more information about the museum.

Contact:
Karen Brzys, Owner and Curator
Gitche Gumee Museum
21739 Brazel Street
PO Box 308
Grand Marais, MI 49839
906-494-2590 office
906-494-3000 museum

http://www.agatelady.com

Karen@agatelady.com

More about whats in the book, click below:

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