P.E.T.R.® Our acronym is for People for the Ethical Treatment of Rocks

P.E.T.R.®

Yes this is really an organization.  One that I just started, today.

Our acronym is for People for the Ethical Treatment of Rocks.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Rocks(PETR) is the largest rock rights organization in the world, with more than 2 members and supporters. 

PETR focuses its attention on the four areas in which the largest numbers of rocks suffer the most intensely for the longest periods of time: on factory smelters, in the clothing trade, in laboratories, and in the entertainment industry. We also work on a variety of other issues, including the cruel mining of minerals, geologic formations, and other "geologic oddities" as well as cruelty to domesticated rocks. 

PETR works through public education, cruelty investigations, research, legislation, special events, celebrity involvement (currently neither of our memebers are celebrities), and protest campaigns.

Our Expeditions are designed to educate people on how to ethically collect rocks and minerals.

We have been given a special opportunity to collect rare Bixbyite crystals associated with topaz on October 22nd.  This is not to our typical collecting site at the Solar Wind Claim but about 25 feet below it. See how the professionals mine this treasure and collect your own (ethically of course). 

Worldwide, bixbyite is rare.  Crystals of bixbyites up to, but not larger than 4mm, are found in less than a dozen sites around the world.  The Solar Wind Claim produces crystals up to 30mm (1.25 inches)! Often associated with brown topaz (now nearly extinct breed mostly due to overharvesting). 

We will be liberating these crystals, with the appropriate hand tools, from their cruel captivity all day and preserving them in special wrapping so they can be transported home safely. 

All our mining of domesticated rocks at this location will be done with complete respect to the rocks and the geologic surroundings.  No rocks will be tortured in this process (except the ones that get broken, we do exclude Matrix and Leverites from our Ethical standards). 

If you bring in your finds to the rock shop laboratory we will be glad to clean them for you using methods that are proven to be safe on the rocks.  We do not do harmful experiments or testing on any rocks or minerals (except for those that get trimmed).  All our chemicals are rock friendly and safe (No More Tears® for these rocks).

We believe in treating all rocks and rock formations in this respectful manner.  Join us on any of our expeditions and find the same results. 

We are currently looking for more celebrities (any) to get involved.  If you attended our last rock shop show in September you would have meet BaROCK Obama, J.D. ROCKerfeller, Orin Porter ROCKwell, Norman ROCKwell, The King of ROCK (Elvis), and ROCKy. 

A History of Bixbyite Starting With Maynard Bixby

It is impossible to talk about bixbyite without looking into the past of Maynard Bixby.  Maynard was born June 28^th, 1853 in Pennsylvania where he worked as a clerk in his father’s dry goods store until he moved off to college.  He graduated from Lafayette College in Eastern Pennsylvania, along with his brother, in 1870.

Maynard and his brother and their father and his current wife all moved to Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania and worked either operating or for a bank.  Maynard studied law during this period but shortly decided to travel the U.S. looking for an adventure.  He discovered mining in Colorado and Arizona.  He eventually worked his way back to Chicago and then traveled to England in 1884 for a few months and then came back the U.S.  It has been speculated this was a mineral collecting trip.

By 1890 he was living in Salt Lake City and had married Katherine.  In Utah he explored a lot of the mining districts but is most famous for his work in the Thomas Range. 

Here he had claims for topaz and in his advertisements he states; "For several years I have collected the very finest of the Utah minerals and have concluded to offer them direct to collectors at the following low prices ..."

It is here that he discovered what is now bixbyite, named in his honor.

He also discovered the red beryl which was named bixbite in his honor.  It has been discredited as a separate mineral species and labeled a variety of beryl (red beryl).

Using his formal education and his field experience he wrote articles for “The Mineral Collector”.  This is only a partial list of articles he wrote;

A description of topaz crystals, their localities and occurrences in Utah (1894)

A collector in Colorado (1894)

Montana Sapphires (1896)

Idaho Opals (1894)

Notes on Collecting in Utah (1897)

Notable minerals in western mines (1894-1895)

Pseudomorphs from Utah (1896)

A trip to the Utah desert (1897)

A trip to the Old Jordan & Galena Mines, Bingham, Utah (1896)

In 1906 he published his first edition of “A catalog of Utah minerals and their localities”. 

By 1935 he and his wife and daughter had moved to San Diego, California where he died on February 18^th, 1935. 

 

Bixbyite forms as black shiny cubes (or modified cubes) associated with topaz, red beryl, pseudobrookite, hematite, fluorite, sanadine, and quartz.  It is rarely associated with holfertite at the holfertite pit.  The majority of bixbyite crystals are single crystals but twinning does occur commonly.

Thomas Range

Bixbyite is found in many places around the world but the most recognizable, the largest, the most distinct crystals come from one place; the Solar Wind Claim on the north end of the Thomas Range in Juab County, Utah.  Here crystals form from 1mm to over 30mm often associated with, and on, sherry colored topaz.  The Thomas range formed 33-35 mya when rhyolite erupted from the ground.  All the minerals found here tend to be concentrated in vertical fissures where hot gases were escaping from within the earth.  These gases deposited the minerals on the walls of these vertical fissures and within the sandy filling of the fissures.

Other Utah locations for bixbyite include the Wah Wah Mountains and a rhyolite flow in Marysvale.  Both locations produce bixbyite crystals to 4mm.

Bixbyite is found in a number of other localities around the world.  Most notably include;

Mexico has a couple of locations for bixbyite.  Here it occurs to 7mm crystals.

Germany also produces some 3mm crystals.

N'Chwaning Mines, Kuruman, Kalahari manganese fields, Northern Cape Province, South Africa.  Specimens from here are small plates composed of clusters of crystals.

New Mexico.

Brontotheriums are a family of extinct mammals which include horses, rhinoceroses, and tapirs.  They resemble a rhino but are more closely related to horses. They thrived 56 to 34 million years ago during the Eocene.  

These Horn Sections show distinct Bite Marks and Claw Marks from predators or Scavengers.

Go here to see these horns for sale! 

American Scientists (Forever) Stamp Collection

The postal system has issued a set of 4 stamps honoring scientists.  They have all made significant contributions to science but many have never heard of them.

Melvin Calvin was an American scientist who spent most of his 5 decade career at the University of California in Berkley.  His won the Nobel Peace prize in 1961 for his ground breaking work on photosynthesis.He and two other scientists traced the path of carbon-14 through a plant mapping the path of carbon through photosynthesis.  He was able to prove that sunlight acts on chlorophyll in a plant to aid in the manufacturing of organic compounds and not carbon dioxide, as previously believed in the organic chemistry world. 

Asa Gray was Charles Darwin’s closest friend.  He traveled twice to the American west to collect botanical samples.  He climbed Gray’s Peak in Colorado, which is named after him.   He authored many books.  His donation of his book collection and plant collection was donated to Harvard, where he was a professor.  This donation created a botany department at Harvard, where he is still held in high honors.

Maria Goeppert Mayer is a German-born American theoretical physicist who in 1963 won the Nobel laureate for proposing the nuclear shell model for the atom nucleon.   She should be considered one of the greatest minds of all time.  Her work is as important as Einstein’s.  She was escorted into the Nobel Ceremony by King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden. 

Severo Ochoa was a Spanish-American doctor and biochemist who won the Nobel Prize for his work in physiology.  His work was ground breaking in protein synthesis and replicating RNA viruses.  He was a world traveler. 

Prints In Time A Dinosaur Story - Plus New Dinosaur Foot Prints In-Stock

We just acquired 3 new dinosaur foot prints.  These are very large and attractive.  They range from $500 to $2500. 

Here is the rest of the story.  These are formed as dinosaurs step into soft sediment such as a boggy marsh leaving a deep foot print on the ground.  More sand and gravel wash into the indent in the ground filling it.  Even more sediment covers the entire marsh or bog.  Such much more sediment, that the marsh is compressed from hundreds of feet thick to only a foot thick.  This pressure transforms the marshy material into coal.  

Fast forward 65 million years and now humans are extracting the coal for electricity.  As the miners are removing the coal, these dinosaur feet prints stick to the ceiling of the mine and are later extracted by workers for safety reasons.  The prints tend to break loose and fall from the ceiling “stepping” on and killing miners.  

Most of the mining companies have a strict policy to not save these prints.  So even though they are rather common in the mines they are rarely seen outside of museums.  

We are offering an opportunity to own a piece of dinosaur memorabilia that is not only rare but is also exquisitely preserved as well as aesthetic.  What a conversation piece! 

These prints come from the coal mine in Huntington Canyon, Emery County, Utah.

Enter Into The Rock Shop Rock Show Best of Season 2011

We know that many of you have been itching to show off some of the fantastic specimens you've been finding on the rock hounding trips this year! 

To help you  show them off and win some great prizes we're setting up a special cabinet just for you to display your favorite pieces during the 2nd Annual Rock Shop Rock Show! 

First prize will be a  rock hounding holster (you've seen the kids wearing them out in the field) and the Best of Season Rock Hounding Award,  There will also be prizes for "junior" rockhounders.

Just call and RSVP so we can make sure to have enough space. You'll also need to drop your specimens off sometime between now and September 7th! You won't want to miss this opportunity to show off and win big! 

If you need help cleaning up your favorite specimens before the show, NO PROBLEM, Rick will be more than happy to help! Just stop by anytime Rick's there. You may want to call first and keep in mind he'll be out in the field on Saturday this week for the Azurite & Malachite Trip to the La Sal Mountains. Speaking of which, if you haven't gotten to go on this amazing adventure yet, this is the last time we'll offer this trip during the 2011 season so sign up quickly and get your gear ready! 

We can't wait to see all the finds September 9th and 10th! Good luck!  

What About Silicon

What About Silicon? 
 

Silicon is the second most common element in the earth's crust, with oxygen being number one.  This means man has figured out how to use it to our advantage.  We use it for abrasives, making glass, silicon chips for computers, in grease and caulking.

Oddly, it is not naturally found in or incorporated into our bodies, which is surprising given its abundance.  Because silicon is so closely related to carbon (the next element in the periodic table),science fiction writers have speculated relentlessly about life forms made of pure silicon from other planets.  Indianaa Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull made hype of this.  I love the scene where he says the skull was carved from a single piece of silicon, against the grain. Indiana says ," ...even today we couldn't cut a piece of quartz like that without it exploding."  I think he means HE couldn't do it.  Even though some forms of quartz do show grain, I know we can polish it here at the rock shop without anything exploding.  Most agates (banded chalcedony) do have a grain to them.  But in the movie it was clear quartz that the skull was made of and large pieces of clear quartz crystals tend to not have a grain.  If you do any tumbling or polishing of rocks you know you can polish against the grain without any explosions!

Silicon easily bonds with oxygen to form a tetrahedral molecule called silicate.  This silicate by itself is called quartz.  When the silicate molecule bonds with sodium or potassium it forms feldspar minerals.  When it bonds with iron/manganese it can form garnets.  When it bonds with beryllium it forms aquamarine/red beryl/emeralds/goshenite.  The list goes on and on to as there are hundreds of silicate minerals.  See Mindat.org for a complete list.

Health Benefits of Minerals

Health Benefits of Minerals People purchase things all the time to help improve their health.  We have composed a list showing ways collecting rocks, minerals, and fossils are healthy for you. 1.  They are fat free.  2.  Most, but not all, are low sodium. 3.  All rocks, minerals, and fossils are free of ALL trans-fats including hydrogenated oils (some may only be per serving). 4.  If you collect minerals, all you have to do is move your collection around in your house. By reorganizing your displays you can get a little cardio-workout.  If you move faster, then you can get a good cardio-workout.  If you have heavy specimens, then you can call it weight training. 5.  When purchasing a specimen for you collection, if you pay with cash, your wallet will appear thinner making your butt look better.  If you purchase expensive specimens this way, you can appear to loose a lot of weight making you look a lot slimmer.  If you carry a large purse on your shoulder and you pay with cash,  your hips will look slimmer.  This is another reason why credit cards are bad-they make us look fat. 6.  Some minerals can be ground into a fine powder and used as makeup.  Avoid the toxic and radioactive ones for this. 7.  If you carry a rock in your pocket or purse you can use it for self defense.  The bigger the specimen, the better the defense and the more expensive the specimen, the better the chance of getting acquitted.  ( If you purchased the expensive specimen from the rock shop, see benefit #5 above). Want to join the conversation about Health Benefits of Rocks and Minerals? Click on over to our Facebook Page and post your favorite benefits as well as seen everyone else's!