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Wednesday, August 21, 2013

My silent auction purchases at a geology reunion

Doing the post on the Gem and Mineral show reminded me of the things I got at my Geology Reunion silent auction.  I've been meaning to write this up since April, my how time flys.
    Just look at all the nifty stuff I got:

The first thing was this mounted Ordovician fossils of the Cincinnati arch area.  I used to collect here a lot and have a lot of fossils from this area - now its so neat to have this on my wall as a quick and handy reference. I just love it and walk by it a couple of times everyday and look at it still.
 This was labeled as a Ammonite from Madagascar.  Other info it had with it -  pink calcitic steindern! (now I wonder what a steindern is since its not in my geologic dictionary or in Wikipedia.  Well looking on the internet there isn't a steindern but there is a steinkern which this fits the definition "of STEINKERN: a fossil consisting of a stony mass that entered a hollow natural object (as a bivalve shell) in the form of mud or sediment, was consolidated, and remained as a cast after dissolution of the mold."  Merriam Webster dictionary.   I do like learning new words and will have to remember this.

Wikipedia - Ammonite
Ammonite from Mdagascar
 .wikipedia - Carpopenaeus 
An ancient prawn or shrimp.
Carpopenaeus - Cretaceous;  Lebanon
 This one I thought I was bidding on a large piece of hornblende so I was surprised when I actually got it to see it was called edenite. wiki/Edenite .  The label said it was  from Cardiff Twp. Ontario Canada which is in keeping with where edenite comes from.
Edenite from Cardiff twp, Ontario Canada.
 wiki/Beudantite
This was labeled  Beudantite on quartz.  Black Pine Mine, Granite Co Montana.
Beudantite from Black Pine Mine-  Granite Co, Montana
 wiki/Celestite  
They messed up the labeling on this one, but then when they were packing things away they found a slip that said celestite and since the first label was obviously wrong we figured that this had to be it - since none of the other stuff fit.  
Celestite from Ohio
 At first I thought this mineral hexagonite was mislabeled because when I looked it up in my Dana manual of mineralogy it was not there.  Nor was it in my Geologic dictionary or listed in Wikipedia.  I thought they must be getting it mixed up with those Petoskey stones that's scientific name is Hexagonaria percarinata But then when I was like okay what is it?? and got out some of my rock identification books and started to search for what it could be- low and behold I did find it in the National Audubon Society "Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals - North America" (1979) pg 538. It's a form of Tremolite Wikipedia -.Tremolite.   Then when I was doing some more investigation of tremolite I found Balmat NY as a place for obtaining it.  So I guess this was right after all.  Tremolite is a calcium magnesium hydrous silicate.
Hexagonite;  Balmat, New York
 Petosky Stones (here at Wikipedia Petoskey_stone )  are a type of coral.  Here's the other info on it - Hexagonaria percarinata, usually found in Gravel Point Fm of the Traverse group Devonian - Michigan USA.  They had the stones spelled different from Wikipedia don't know which to go with. 
Petoskey Stones; -
 Years and years ago I had collected some stones like these and forgot to write the name down.  I was kicking myself because I could never remember it.  So when I saw these I just had to get them to find out there name.
Here's a better picture of one of them. I always loved the way they looked especially if they had been polished. 
Petoskey Stone from Michigan
 wikipedia-Native_copper
Native Copper; Michigan
 This piece was rare for its size.   And boy was this thing heavy.  I was glad I had my car and not having to transport it on an airplane. Here's a different view of it.
Native Copper from Michigan
I was very pleased with all of what I got.   I tried to go for things I wouldn't run across in other places.

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