Alaska Pebble Patter
May 2013
ALASKA PEBBLE PATTER
May 2013
Official Bulletin Of The
Chugach Gem & Mineral
Society
Chugach Gem & Mineral Society
P.O. Box 92027
Anchorage, AK. 99509-2027
http://www/chugachgms.org/
CHUGACH GEM & MINERAL SOCIETY maintains
memberships in:
AMERICAN FEDERATION OF MINERALOGICAL SOCIETIES
Northwest Federation of Mineralogical Societies
Chugach Gem & Mineral Society meetings are held at First United Methodist Church, 725 west 9 th Ave. Anchorage, AK.
Enter from the rear parking lot, south of 8 th Avenue between G & H Streets.
BUSINESS MEETING – 2nd Thursday of each month at 7:00 PM.
– 4th Thursday of each month at 6:30 pm.
Bring an entrée, side dish, salad, or dessert (plus serving utensil) to serve at least 5 people.
Also bring your own plate, silverware and drink.
Most importantly, bring a rock to show!
POTLUCK MEETING
Annual membership fees: Individuals - $20.00; Families (2 or more) - $25.00; Bulletin only - $10.00
Lifetime membership fees: Individuals - $200.00: Families (2 adults & children under 18) - $250.00
This Issue:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Officers and Chairpersons for 2013: page 2
Websites of the Month: page 2
Business Meeting Minutes for April: pages 3-4
Board meeting notes: page 4-5
58th Annual Alaska Science & Engineering Fair report: pages 5-6
Feature Article: Space Bolides: Their Impact on Earth: pages 6-7
Updated 2013 Field Trip Schedule: page 8
Fieldtrip Report – Knik Glacier ATV Trip: pages 9-10
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CHUGACH GEM AND MINERAL SOCIETY OFFICERS AND CHAIRPERSONS
ELECTED POSITIONS FOR 2013
APPOINTED POSITIONS FOR 2013
PRESIDENT: Andres Macias 274-2204
PROGRAMS: Greg Durocher 337-2553
FIRST VICE PRESIDENT: Phillip Elrod 349-5457
FEDERATION LIAISON: Tom Cooper 262-9759
SECOND VICE PRESIDENT: Kyle Johnson 520-808-1220
FIELD TRIP: Bonnie Hepburn 274-0941
TREASURER: Nancy Danford 694-3288
PARLIAMENTARIAN: Norval Kane 243-4648
RECORDING SECRETARY: Bobbie Turnbow 337-6280
NEWSLETTER EDITOR: Chris Teutsch 694-
6586
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY: Nancy Danford 694-3288
SUNSHINE: Dorothy Arnold 279-3876
MEMBERSHIP: Chris Teutsch 694-6586
WEBSITES FOR MAY
Provided by Greg Durocher & Phillip Elrod
Here's the full URL for our club's FB page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chugach-Gem-andMineral-Society/157967464259784
Dinosaur stuff: http://phys.org/news/2013-01-evidence-dinosaurs-feathers-courtship.html
Interesting meteorite link: http://news.yahoo.com/1st-meteorites-1908-tunguska-explosion-possiblyfound-155101604.html
It's still a work in progress but looks like it has potential: http://rocktrading.org/
Items for Sale
Every now and then, the Pebble Patter will advertise items for its members that they wish to sell,
trade or buy. Contact Chris if you want to advertise. Your add will get into one of the Pebble Patters.
 Kurt Rein (344-5554) is selling the following:
1) Raw Australian Opals of various sizes, qualities and prices.
2) Pixie Grinder with four grinding wheels & end polisher. $800. Can be configured
in different ways to suit your grinding/polishing needs. Call: 344-5554
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May 2013
Business Meeting Minutes
CGMS meeting called to order on 09MAY13 by President, Andres Macias, at 7:05 pm.
~ Visitors were welcomed.
~ Bobbie Turnbow read the 11APR2013 CGMS Business Meeting Minutes. Corrections were made.
Motion was made, seconded, and passed unanimously to accept the minutes as corrected.
Committee Reports:
~ Financial Secretary: Nancy Danford reported all financial records are in order.
~ Corresponding Secretary: Nancy Danford distributed all incoming mail.
~ Sunshine Report: Dorothy Arnold announced Chuck Underwood is getting better all the time. On
a sad note, Pat Gibson has been diagnosed with Leukemia and brain cancer.
~ Membership Report: Chris Teutsch reported membership as of 01MAY2013 is 104 with 52 of those
being lifetime members.
~ Federation Representative: Tom Cooper was not available.
~ Pebble Patter: Chris Teutsch asked for trip leaders to send in trip reports to be added to the
newsletter.
~ Website: Anita Williams talked with Dave Walker about the process and fees to revamp the club
website. After discussion during the meeting, a motion was made, seconded and passed to move
forward with this project and keep the cost between $250 and $500.
~ Upcoming Trips: Bonnie Hepburn announced the next four scheduled trips. As an FYI, if you are
interested in a trip but not sure, put your name down with a question mark. That way, you can be
notified of any changes to that trip.
~ Scholarship: Andres Macias has seven candidates to present to the committee. Meeting will be
18MAY, 6 pm at Andres. Results will be presented to the club in the June meeting.
~ Science Fair: Andres Macias announced he is resigning effective immediately from this committee.
The club needs to canvas membership for a replacement.
Old Business:
~ Facebook: The trip list is not correct. A Facebook manager needs to get this fixed as soon as
possible.
~ Science Fair Posters: Andres Macias printed several posters and laminated them for the club. His
adventure at Kinko’s was quite entertaining.
New Business:
~ Board meeting results: Bobbie Turnbow read the minutes of the 19APR12 board meeting. A copy
will be published in the Pebble Patter. A motion was made, seconded, and passed unanimously to
amend the bylaws to include the proxy vote process.
~ Publishing Club Account Status: Bonnie Hepburn mentioned there was some concern about
publishing the club financials. Sue Hilton mentioned she had been contacted by a Federation
representative who advised publishing ‘The club financials records are in order.’ rather than exact
amounts. The club discussed this issue and decided to follow the guidance.
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~ Articles of Incorporation: Nancy Danford downloaded the pertinent forms and is working to get
the club compliant. She will call the State office for further guidance.
~ Field Trip Reports: Philip Elliot talked about the great time everyone had on the spirit rock hunt
27-28 April. It was good the weather cooperated and let us start our summer trips.
After a short break, Steve Herschbach, soon to retire from AK Mining and Diving, gave a
presentation on his 2011 trip to the Australian outback in search of the elusive gold nuggets there.
Thanks Steve.
Meeting adjourned at 9:05 pm
Respectfully submitted by
Bobbie Turnbow, CGMS Recording Secretary
Board Meeting Notes
CGMS Board Meeting was called to order on 19APR13 at 7:00 pm.
Voting members present: President, Andres Macias; 1st VP, Kyle Johnson; 2nd VP/Past President,
Phillip Elrod; Recording Secretary, Bobbie Turnbow; and Treasurer, Nancy Danford. Non-voting
club members attending were Soona Elrod and Joe Turnbow.
Issue 1: Club Articles of incorporation. Nancy Danford found a copy in Betty Mott’s records and
gave it to Andres Macias. Members present reviewed the document. Articles were dated 1968 and
stated they were valid for 50 years. During the meeting, Joe Turnbow researched the internet and
discovered our entity number is 4874D and the CGMS is listed as non-complaint in mandatory
document submissions since 2006. Phillip Elrod will research the incorporation issue and possibly
seek legal advice if needed. Nancy is hoping to get the club compliant by submitting the required
paperwork.
Issue 2: Absentee Voting. It was determined absentee voting can be used for the election of club
officers. All members voiced their opinions on the best way to manage the process. The process to
develop a slate of officers begins with the September Business Meeting. An official candidate list is
announced at the October Business Meeting. Voting for club officers is held at the November
Business Meeting. A motion was made, seconded, discussed, and unanimously passed to add the
following amendment to our existing bylaws.
Absentee voting can be used for officer elections if the following procedure is
followed:
If an individual will not be able to attend the November meeting and cast their vote,
they may cast an absentee ballot. Absentee ballots must be in the CGMS Post Office
Box at least 10 days prior to the election. CGMS Correspondence Secretary will
check the mailbox daily for 10 days prior to the election and note the date ownership
is transferred from the post office to them. All absentee ballots will be presented to
the election committee on election night and be verified and tallied during the
annual election.
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Issue 3: Vacant CGMS Scholarship/Science Fair Chair. Andres Macias tendered his resignation
from this position. The club needs to appoint a new chair.
Issue 4: Website. Board members all agreed this item needs to move forward. Kyle Johnson moved
the club invest around $500 but no more than $1000 to get this established. Nancy Danford seconded.
After discussion, the motion passed unanimously
Meeting was adjourned at 8:00 pm.
Respectfully,
BOBBIE TURNBOW
CGMS Recording Secretary
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58th Annual
Alaska Science and Engineering Fair
2013
By: Marie Motschman
The statewide science and engineering fair is an amazing opportunity for the most diligent,
curious, and focused students from K – 12 grades to present their best work using the scientific
method. There were 32 communities represented, of which, 45% were boys and 55% were girls.
Most schools had science fairs locally, then some districts had a regional science fair where the most
thorough and creative investigator moved on to the state fair held at East High in Anchorage March
22-24.
Over 100 adults volunteered, many as expertise judges within the 15 categories. There were
386 student entrants. The wide-eyed students waited anxiously to explain and defend their projects.
Some young scientists and engineers would share their project easily, while others needed coaxing
from the judge to discover the materials, procedures, and processes they used to come up with their
final results. New friendships were made and thoughts for next year’s projects were dancing in their
heads by Saturday night. The organizers dreamed of next year having access to a remote
loudspeaker system to assist in communication. The fair relies solely on donations and volunteers.
Chugach Gem and Mineral Society members hosted a table of free rocks and other gifts from
generous community and business leaders.
Sunday arrived with much anticipation by students and parents. The awards ceremony
almost packed the auditorium. Laurie Morrow, Education Manager at the Alaska Sea Life Center,
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discussed a fascinating walrus research project encouraging volunteers to apply. Laurie also updated
us on the baby walrus’s new homes and the current babies now being born at the center. Jackie
Holtzman, an Anchor Toastmaster, and FAA engineer was the MC for the awards; she did a fabulous
job of keeping the program moving along, while bringing up presenters and award winners. The
various awards given from 32 local and national organizations came with any assortment of monies,
gift cards, scholarships, medallions, ribbons, certificates, and society memberships. Three
outstanding students and their projects were chosen for an all-expense paid trip to the Intel
International Science Fair in Phoenix, Arizona in May. The top finalist is Stephen Kranich. Taylor
Seitz and Chelsea Parrocha will also attend with their joint project.
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Space Bolides: Their Impact on Earth
By: Greg Durocher
USGS - Science Information Services
When one looks at our moon through a binoculars or small telescope, they see numerous
craters. With every increase in telescope size, more and more craters appear. Earth has been
similarly bombarded by comets and asteroids - lumped together under the collective term "bolides" for eons. Yet because 70% of our globe is water, and the entire planet is subject to weathering and
tectonic processes, we know of fewer than 200 impact sites, as seen on this map:
http://www.passc.net/EarthImpactDatabase/Worldmap.html
Can we tell how large an object was that created an impact crater? The exact dimensions of the bolide
can't be determined, but given a set of reasonable assumptions on composition and velocity, we can
at least establish a minimum and maximum size. We know that the minimum Earth-impact velocity
is 11 kilometers per second, which occurs when something "catches up" to Earth and falls into our
gravity well. The average asteroid impact is about 12-20 kilometers per second, while comets
hurtling in from the Oort cloud could slam into us at 30-70 km/s. At the upper end of that range it
would be as fast as traveling from here to Talkeetna in under 3 seconds! A good impact calculator
(e.g. http://impact.ese.ic.ac.uk/ImpactEffects/) will show crater size, nuclear blast equivalent - even
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May 2013
tsunami height for water strikes - under different parameters of bolide size, composition, velocity,
etc.
Most of Earth's large craters, including the famous Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T) Impact Event, are
assumed to have asteroidal rather than cometary origin. Now, a few scientists are arguing that the
dinosaur-killing bolide that created the K/T Chicxulub Crater
(http://miac.uqac.ca/MIAC/chicxulub.htm) was a large comet striking us at about 32 km/s, rather
than a more stately asteroid. The jury will probably be out on that for awhile. It is assumed that the
1908 Tunguska event was an exploding icy comet, owing to its atmospheric explosion and the lack of
meteorite debris in the area.
Fewer than 6% of meteorites recovered in Antarctica - where just about everything on top the ice in
some areas is extraterrestrial - turn out to be iron. The rest are stony or stony-iron. The majority of
Earth's crater-producers are thought to reflect that ratio. The reason "irons" are over-represented in
museums is because they are more recognizable in farm fields and streambeds, and they don't
disintegrate as much as "stonys" when striking the atmosphere. Most craters were probably
produced by stony asteroids, but the well-known Barringer Crater in Arizona is thought to have been
produced by a 50 meter diameter iron-nickel asteroid traveling at around 13 km/s, evidenced by the
presence of iron meteorite fragments scattered throughout the area.
Thankfully, bolides like the one that caused so much injury and damage recently in Chelyabinsk along with the forest-destroying Tunguska Event - are only thought to strike us once every 100 years
or so. That's not to say we're out of the woods for another century, but it certainly places "cosmic
collisions" pretty far down on the list of things to worry about!
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May 2013
2013 Chugach Gem and Mineral Society Activity List
Date
Mar 7
Club membership is required for all club trips
Activity Name
Leader(s)
Comments
Evening at Nature’s
Joe Turnbow
Meet at Joe’s shop and talk about rocks. Bring an
Jewels (KF)*
interesting blue rock to the event.
Alaska Science and
Andres Macias
K-12 science fair at East High School. CGMS members
Engineering Fair
help with set-up, teardown and judging. CGMS gives
(KF)*
awards for best geology exhibits.
Spirit Rocks
Phillip Elliott
ATV trip. Beachcombing north of Nikiski for spirit rocks.
Joint trip with Mat-Su Club.
Mar 22-24
Days
Thurs
6:30 pm
Fri-Sun
Apr 27-28
Sat-Sun
May 11
Sat
Knik Glacier
Phillip Elliott
June 2
Sun
Spring Cleanup at
Hatcher Pass (KF)*
Andres Macias
Bonnie Hepburn
TBD
Fri
6:30 pm
Thurs
7 p.m.
Sat
Growlers, Grillers
&Gravel @Greg’s
Anchorage Dunes
(KF)*
Sixmile Creek
Goldpanning (KF)*
Point Woronzof
(KF)*
Prindle Volcano
Expedition
Greg Durocher
Anita Williams
June 6
June 8
June 14
June 2023 (from
Chicken)
July 4-7
Fri
6pm
Thu-Sun
Thu-Sun
ATV/4WD to Knik Glacier to view interesting ice
formations. Joint trip with Mat-Su Club.
Meet in Hatcher Pass at the Gold Mint parking lot at 11
am. Free parking for volunteers. Joint trip with Mat-Su
Club. Note new date.
Greg Durocher
Beer, brats, and a tour of Greg’s rock collection. Bring a
dish to share. To be rescheduled.
See the dunes near the motocross area of Kincaid Park.
Phillip Elrod
Moil for gold near Hope.
Anita Williams
Evening of beachcombing and picnicking in Anchorage.
Bring a log for the bonfire.
ATV and backpack to Prindle Volcano. Trip starts in
Chicken. Joint trip with Mat-Su Club.
Andres Macias
July 20
Sat
July 23
July 27-28
Tue eve
Sat-Sun
Richardson Hwy
North
Crow Creek Mine
(KF)*
River Walk
Flat Creek
Aug 5-13
Mon-next
Tue
Nugget Creek
Expedition
Andres Macias
Aug 11
Sun
Golden Zone Mine
Dorothy Arnold
TBD late
summer /
early fall
TBD fall
5 days
from FBX
Elliott Hwy
Anita Williams
Bonnie Hepburn
TBD
UAA Geology
Exhibits (KF)*
Bonnie Hepburn
Oct 5
Sat
3rd Annual Elliotts
Summer Wake
Phillip Elliott
Elizabeth Haus
Phillip Elliott
Phillip Elliott
8
Road trip to explore Rainbow Ridge and Gulkana Glacier
areas. Pogo Mine tour. Joint trip with Mat-Su Club.
Pay-to-play gold mining at Crow Creek Mine in
Girdwood.
Join Mat-Su club on one of their 4th Tues river walks.
ATV/4WD to areas near Little Nel. Agates, fossils. Joint
trip with Mat-Su Club.
ATV and hike in W-StE NP. Trailhead in Strelna. Public
use cabin reserved. Permission to collect on private claims.
Short version: Join group for long weekend.
$120 adult/$50 child for transportation from MP188 Parks.
Meet there at 9AM. Make check payable to “Denali
Sightseeing Safaris”. Could camp nearby on Sat. Joint trip
with Prospectors, Mat-Su Club.
Road trip to explore permafrost tunnel, Elliott Hwy to
Manley Hot Springs. Starts in Fairbanks.
Tour BLM Alaska rock and mineral specimens that were
moved from Douglas to Anchorage. Tour relocated UAA
geology “rock garden”.
Come over to the Elliotts for a potluck and bring rocks to
show off! Main dish and sodas provided. Limited to the
Alaska Pebble Patter
Nov 8-10
(?)
Fri-Sun
AMA Rock and
Mineral Show(KF)*
May 2013
first 25 who sign up.
Get your displays ready for this year’s show!
TBD and
committee
Last updated: 2/10/2016
(KF): Kid Friendly; Note: Children's supervision is solely the responsibility of their parent(s).
Fieldtrip Report
On May 11, fifteen members of both the Mat-Su Rock Club and Chugach Gem & Mineral Society met
at the Jim Creek trailhead parking lot for a Knik Glacier ATV trip. Phillip Elliott, the trip leader, had
to drop out early in the trip because his machine developed mechanical problems. Another Mat-Su
club-member, who knew the route, took over and the entire party of nine proceeded on the twentyfive mile journey to the foot of the glacier. The weather was mild though windy. Crossing Friday
creek and the Knik River created no problems, though some of the mud-holes along the vegetated
western edge of the Knik river drainage, did. Chris Teutsch, the only CGMS member on the trip had
to be winched out twice in order to get unstuck. Otherwise, it was a beautiful trip with splendid
scenery and a first-hand look at one of our near-by glaciers, ice formations and the surrounding
geology of polished rock and numerous moraines.
Looking towards Knik Glacier
Birth of Knik River
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Ice formations and melt pond
May 2013
ATV on morainal bench before foot of Knik Glacier
Polished shale bedrock with exposed quartz veinlets
at the foot of Knik Glacier.
Wolf point, mile 14.5 on flood plane glacial gravels.
The broad U-shaped valley of the Knik River drainage.
Glacial ice enveloping bedrock at western foot of Knik
Glacier.
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Of course we only viewed a relatively small portion of the western edge of the Knik glacier. The
glacier’s foot curves around to the south for at least five miles and its melt-waters empty into Inner
Lake George. What we were able to view was a glacial landscape bounded by the Chugach
Mountains with Mount Palmer to the south. Our trip basically kept to the northern edge of the muchbraided Knik River valley underlain with glacial till. Numerous lateral moraines were cut through by
the emerging melt-waters. A mixture of uneven sized gravels reflected ground-up greywacke,
shale/slate material along with vein quartz. Some iron staining suggested mineralization and in fact
the lower end of near-by Metal Creek has a placer gold mining history. __ct
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