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 1 Alaska Pebble Patter May 2013 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 2 Alaska Pebble Patter 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. 3 Alaska Pebble Patter May 2013 ~ 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. 4 Alaska Pebble Patter May 2013 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 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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, 5 Alaska Pebble Patter May 2013 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. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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 6 Alaska Pebble Patter 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! 7 Alaska Pebble Patter 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 9 Alaska Pebble Patter 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. 10 Alaska Pebble Patter May 2013 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 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 11