Creativity at the WCGMC Workshop

published in the April, 2016 WCGMC Newsletter

If you have yet to visit the Wayne County Gem and Mineral Club workshop in Wolcott during one of the club’s monthly Saturday events, then you are missing out on the opportunity your club membership provides you to saw, slab, grind, and polish rocks into cabochons, spheres, or whatever geometric (or non-geometric) design you wish.  Not to mention the camaraderie provided when 10-15 or more rock hounds come together to partake in such activity.  But there is even more you are missing.  Each month we convene it seems that our Workshop Coordinator, Glenn Weiler, has managed to introduce something new and creative to the shop.  Continue reading Creativity at the WCGMC Workshop

Diamond – April Birthstone

Published in the April WCGMC Newsletter

Diamonds are found in very unusual magmatic intrusive bodies called kimberlites or in alluvial deposits resulting from the weathering and erosion of kimberlites and the concentration of the hard and resistant gems in placer deposits.  Kimberlites are pipe-shaped igneous intrusions that erupted from great depth.  With high gaseous and volatile content, they were able to fracture and penetrate the very thick continental crust, often encapsulating blocks of the fractured host rock as they ascended. (Kirkley et. al.,1991).  Their pipe-like morphology is evident in the picture of the kimberlite pipe quarry from Kimberly, South Africa pictured in the header of this article.

Continue reading Diamond – April Birthstone