Devin Does Reno

Recently Devin hopped on a plane to do some good old fashioned crystal diggin'.  Today he tells his tale:

My latest rockhounding hunt took me to Reno, NV, the Biggest Little City in the world!  I had the opportunity to do some crystal digging at a private, commercial mine.  The target: quartz scepter crystals!

Before I even headed out to the mine I found my first rock: a Carboniferous limestone sample that just happened to a piece of the actual Blarney Stone from Ireland.

After a quick rub for luck it was time to head to the mine to hone the fine art of "scepter" finding.  We loaded up the 4x4 and headed out to the classic locality of Hallelujah Junction, very near the California/Nevada state line.

After a rough and woolly 4x4 drive up a few desert hills to get the blood pounding, we came to the mine.  Not open to public (no trespassing!) – this is an active, federally permitted open pit mining operation, complete with excavator and a fantastic and educational team of professional diggers and rockhounds.

All of these amateur and professional geoscientists and collectors were here, picking through weathered granite rocks, to seek “the prize” - large smoky quartz crystals of a first generation fluid, growing from the walls of pockets weathered into the local granites by hot hydrothermal fluids. They form the unique “scepter” shape to make the holder feel like, well, a king.

What makes these crystals special is what happened next.  2nd, 3rd and even 4th generations of fluids moved through the pockets, and like lollipops, deposited layers of different quartz minerals onto the existing dark crystals.  The result are beautiful clear amethyst and quartz crystals growing like helmets on the smoky quartz.

These are rare – only a few places on Earth exist known where the ingredients came together to make this particular mineral form. After many hours shoveling broken rock, chain gang style, I was able to gently prod and poke these pockets with heavy duty chopsticks.  Sometimes the chopsticks would penetrate far into the wall of the mine.  A pocket!  If lucky, in a few minutes you are cleaning off great beautiful crystals.

           

Enjoyed my two days of digging, and was sore and happy when I got home.  I had plenty of smoky quartz and a few small scepters for my collection. The one large one above was so nice, the mine kept it to sell in trade for some other minerals. But boy was that one nice!

Geo-RoadTrip 2014

Here it is!

Geo-RoadTrip 2014: Valley of Fire

After leaving the Hoover Dam, we went down the road quite a ways to our next stop, the Valley of Fire State Park.  The park is full of dramatic, almost alien-looking sandstone formations.  Its appearance can be dramatic and its picturesque nature draws travelers and professionals (more on that later).

Notice the holes in the rock surrounding Devin.  Various theories abound involving water flow and mineral deposition, but these too help to add to the park's ambiance.  So much so that, like many places in the area, it has drawn the attention of Hollywood producers.  One of the many productions that have utilization this location include the movie Star Trek: Generations.  The "holes" can be seen behind Captain Picard:

Other than being the dramatic backdrop for Picard's heroics, the area has secured a place in pop culture history as being the "death place" of Captain James T. Kirk (which occurred in the same movie).

It won't be the last Star Trek related stop on our trip, so stay tuned.  Next up is Death Valley!  Also, video is coming soon!

Geo-RoadTrip 2014: Hoover Dam

Another year, another Geo-RoadTrip!  This one started in Las Vegas!  But we quickly left the bright lights and loose slots of Sin City and searched for something impressive.  The first stop on our itinerary was Hoover Dam.  On the way we stopped to make a pit stop in Boulder City for some grub and alien-themed photo-ops:

A UFO & dam influenced town is just a highlight on the road to history.  After a few burgers and hijinks it was straight to the bridge for some picture snapping and video shooting.  Here's what all the fuss is about:

Not much can be said about the dam that hasn't already been said.  It's big and impressive and worth a stop if you are in the area.  One interesting thing we noticed was a symptom of the recent drought.  Check out the Lake Mead "bathtub ring":

When the water level decreases you can see the white area on the shoreline.  Mineral deposition causes this color and in ideal times it would be covered by water.  Hopefully some relief will come to the area soon.

Next up is the Valley of Fire!  Video coming soon!