Article I wrote for Oct., 2014 WCGMC News
Who knows the most significant event of 1982? Could it be:
- The Epcot Center opens in Orlando, Florida
- Britian overcomes Argentina in the Falklands.
- Chariots of Fire wins Oscar for Best Picture.
- MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imagery) makes its medical debut.
Wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong. The most significant event in 1982 was when the International Commission on Mineral and Mineral Names (CNMMN) adopted the name titanite and discredited the mineral name sphene. Unlike those other events, the impact was immediate and worldwide. OK, maybe a few of you missed the event, but now you know.
WCGMC flirted with titanite collecting all summer. Perhaps not as infamous as the cry “It must be an amphibole”, but “ooh, it’s another titanite” was commonly heard in the field this summer.
Continue reading Titanite is Everywhere →
Article I wrote for August, 2014 WCGMC News
Amphiboles, Apatites, and a Whole Lot More
Wonderful weather and a glorious suite of minerals greeted the eleven WCGMC members who spent 5 days and 4 July nights camping and collecting in the Bancroft, Ontario area.
The group did not let moss grown under their collecting feet. After setting up camp on Monday afternoon, it was off to the Graphite Road outcrop north of town for tremolite and biotite and our first set of mosquito bites. As a small and readily accessible roadcut listed in the 2013 Bancroft Chamber of Commerce collecting site book, this site is heavily visited, but we still found it worthy of an hour or two of dedicated digging and collecting and quite a few pounds of tremolite and biotite went back to the campsite for cleaning and packing. Back at the campsite we enjoyed Eva Jane’s chicken casserole and dreamed of the huge apatites and titanites to come.
Continue reading Bancroft, Ontario 2014 →
Retired, collecting minerals and stamps, growing flowers and vegetables, and when the spirit moves, toying with technology