Jun 27, 2018General Meeting

7pm HMCC

July 12-15Field TripWisconsin

July 14, 2018July Newsletter Deadline

Send something now!

July 25, 2018Board Meeting/Club Picnic

2p - 9p

This Edition

June Program: Silent Auction....... p1Calendar/Board............................. p2Field Trip/Picnic/Summer Raffle... p2Silent Auction Mechanics.............. p3ALAA Message.............................. p4Odd Scary Threat........................... p5Words Used At Us........................... p6Junior Page: Aluminum................. p7About Us: Power Line ................... p8

General Meeting7 pm June 27, 2018

Summer Silent Auction

On June 17th we will be having a special program featuring our very own silent auction! This is an opportunity to share (i.e. sell) some of your rocks, minerals, and similar items (lapidary) with others. Proceeds from the silent auction sales will go back to the member (unless you decide to donate a portion to the very worthy Tulip City Gem and Mineral Club). There will be two Special Tables - one will be devoted to items that only our Junior members (under 18 years of age) are allowed to purchase and where these items are usually priced a little lower! The other Special table will be for items that benefit the Club, not an individual. The Club Treasurer will take payments for Club benefit items.

Auction slips can be printed off from our own Tulip City Gem and Mineral Club website. Just go to www.tulipcity.org. (Club Sponsored Events – at the bottom of the page are links to four variations of bid slips that may be printed.)

Here is a reduced-length direct link to the 50-cent silent auction slip: https://tinyurl.com/ya8h3bzg

Donors identify if an item is for Juniors or the general club. Sellers select the starting price, and the minimum bid increase. As each selleris responsible for making change for the items they sell, don’t forget tobring small bills and coins. It would help all concerned if buyers brought small change and/or a checkbook for this event.

If you are selling items, please start setting up around 6:30pm. In case space becomes limited, it may be necessary to limit your offerings.

Bring your recent finds, or maybe something that’s been tucked away for years. This is also your chance to pick up some great pieces.We’ll have tables periodically closing throughout the evening’s program. Watch those auctions closely, and the timer so you can make sure to get in the last bid before closing! Come share and expand your collection!

Bulletin of the Tulip City Gem & Mineral Club, PO Box 2082, Holland, MI 49422 Website: www.Tulipcity.or g

June 2018 Volume 51, Edition 4

THE

TULIP CITYCONGLOMERATE

Page: 2 Tulip City Conglomerate June 2018

Club Calendar

July 25 Board/Picnic (Wed) CHANGEDAug 15 (Wed) Board Meeting, 7p, HMCCAug 25 (Sat) Tailgate, Sam's Club Aug 29 (Wed) – General Meeting, 7p, HMCCSep 14-16 – 2018 Show Oct 10 (Wed) Board Meeting, 7p, HMCCOct 24 (Wed) – General Meeting, 7p, HMCCNov 14 (Wed) Board Meeting, 7p, HMCCNov 28 (Wed) – General Meeting, 7p, HMCCDec 5 (Wed) Board Meeting, 7p, HMCCDec 19 (Wed) – General Meeting, 7p, HMCC

HMCC = Howard Miller Community Center, 14 S Church St. Zeeland, MIBold listings are Club events. Italic listings are non-Club events.Major source of material is from: http://www.amfed.org/mwf/Calendar/

Check out the Facebook Group:https://www.facebook.com/tulipcityclub/

2018 Officers and Board of DirectorsPresident C.H. Falstad cfalstad@ameritech.netVice President Shari Luttikhuizen sluttikh@oaisd.orgVice President Peter Riemersma riemersp@gvsu.eduSecretary Dan DeGroot degrootd@sbcglobal.netTreasurer Julia Sherwood bobandjulia@accn.orgFld Trip Coord. Bob Sinke bobsinke@comcast.netHistorian Betty Hoekstra kbhoek@att.netJr. Club Coord. Rick Smith Hollandrsmith@gmail.comJr. Club Coord. Linda Winkelmann lindawinkelmann@att.netLiaison Deb Smith dbsmith.2025@gmail.comMembership Christine Silich CSDS77@icloud.comNewsletter Ed. Rudy Silich tulipcitygemnews@charter.netShow Coord Sue Goedert sonbeams2000@yahoo.comSocial Coord. Linda Plumert rlplumert@gmail.comDir. at Large Dan Nevins dmnevins@mtu.eduDir. at Large Amy Dickinson adickins@oaisd.orgPast President -Bob Sherwood bobandjulia@accn.org

For 2018, there are fifteen (15) positions, which have one vote each. There are currently (17) persons on the Board (four persons share two positions).

Cheese Head Field Trip

Wisconsin Field Trip July 12-15 Limited to 10 individuals ( only 2 spots left) Four to five collecting spots. Detailsavailable at June 27th meeting. Call Bob Sinke at 616-901-6157 for details or to register.

Picnic Time! Change the Date!July 25th.

The date for the Club picnic will be Wednesday, July 25 from 2pm to 9pm at the West Side County Park in Allegan County. (Take I-196 to exit 34. go west to Adams St., then south about1.5 miles to the park.) Mark the date!

Summer Raffle Event!

Item: Madagascar Petrified WoodDonated by: Beauties of Creation

A slice of natural history is the exciting specimen for our new summer raffle. It’s a log slice, ¾” inch thick and about 10” in diameter. The winning ticket will be drawn at our July Club meeting (you don’t have to be present to win). Tickets are also available at theJune Club meeting and are 1 for $5, 5 for $20 or 13 for $50.

Page:3 Tulip City Conglomerate June 2018

Silent Auction Mechanics

Our Club holds silent auctions once or twice per year at our General Meetings. For members thatare new, or need a refresher, this article will explain the mechanics of how a silent auction works.

Members who wish to sell items bring in their item, along with a silent auction slip. One slip foreach item for sale. What do these slips look like? The look like this:

Please list the material to be sold, where if originated (if known), and the owner's name.

Enter a minimum big price. Make it high enough to satisfy you, but low enough to induce people to bid on your item! The goal is to have people fight (metaphorically speaking) over yourtreasure.

At the bottom, enter the material again, and the owner's name again. When the successful bidder pays for the item, this portion can be separated and given to the new owner, as a receipt.

Once the bid slips are filled out, place your item (with the corresponding bid slip) on the auction table. There will be regular auction tables, a table or two for items to be sold to juniors only, and a table or two for items that aresold for the benefit of the Club.

When the auction starts, look at the items forsale. If you like one, you place a bid by writing your name and a higher price than the minimum,or the last bid price on the bid slip. Make sure your bid is higher than the last bid by the increment indicated on the sheet. (The bid slip shown to the left has an increment of 25 cents. So, if someone bid $2.50, the next bid must be at least $2.75 or higher.) If someone goes higher, you may write in a higher bid. This process continues until the auction is closed by the auctioneer.

If you are the highest bidder, take the item, the slip, and your money to the owner, and pay him/her. Congratulations!

If you placed items for sale, please bring enough coins and bills to make change, if necessary. If you are a purchaser, please bring bill and coins to make buying more efficient.

This silent auction will have a table stocked with items specifically for juniors to bid on. Also, there will be a table for items that will be sold forthe benefit of the Club. If you have any items you wish to sell, and have the proceeds go to the Club, please place your items on that table.

Page:4 Tulip City Conglomerate June 2018

From the ALAA

To all ALAA Members, Rockhounds and Friends,If you enjoy Rockhounding in the Quartzsite, Brenda or Bouse area of Arizona. your Recreational

Rockhounding days may be numbered. Your help is urgently required to keep Rockhounding alive in these areas. The access Roads are being closed and may be as soon as January 2019.

See the attachment for more information.Please read the information below and submit any comments and recommendations.

--- American Lands Access Association, Inc.

The roads being closed here are most of the roads we use in The Brenda AZ. and Bouse, AZ. areas. I haven’t checked Cactus plain yet We need to ask for an extension until at least Feb. 1, 2019. Also submit asap any GPS coordinates as rockhound sites needing roads. Also emphasis the need for roads for senior citizens and those with disabilities. Let me know if you are responding!!

--- Jack Caufield caufieldj@earthlink.net

[ Here is the news release attached to the message – Editor ]

News ReleaseColorado River District, ArizonaFor Immediate ReleaseMay 30, 2018Media Contact: Dolores Garcia, dagarcia@blm.gov 602-417-9241

BLM seeks public input on Bouse and Cactus Plain Travel Management Plan

LAKE HAVASU CITY, Ariz. - The Bureau of Land Management Lake Havasu Field Office invites public participation in the review of the Bouse and Cactus Plain Travel Management Plan and Environmental Assessment. The plan and environmental assessment involve the communities of Parker and Bouse in La Paz County, Arizona. The documents have been released for public review and input through an online platform. There will be two open house meetings scheduled for mid-June.

Travel management is a comprehensive approach to the administration of travel and transportation networks of roads, primitive routes, trails and areas. This planning includes the inventory and mapping, route designations, and other measures necessary for providing access to and across public lands for a variety of uses by right-of-way holders, recreational users, grazing allotment permittees, mining claim holders and more.

The open houses are Tuesday, June 12 at the Bouse Booster Club from 4-7 p.m. and Wednesday, June 13 at Parker High School from 4-7 p.m. BLM staff will be available for discussion, Maps of the travel network alternatives will be on display for review at the following locations:

Bouse Booster Club Parker High School (Alumni Hall)27747 Frame Ave 1608 Laguna AveBouse, AZ 85325 Parker, AZ 85344The public comment period is from May 31, 2018 to June 29, 2018.Stakeholders are encouraged to submit their comments for the record through the BLM online

land use planning tool, ePlanning, at the following web address: https://go.usa.gov/xQvuu. The ePlanning site also has an interactive web map that will record public comments online. Written comments may be mailed to: Lake Havasu Field Office, 1785 Kiowa Ave, Lake Havasu City, Arizona 86403, faxed to (928) 505-1270, or emailed to blm_az_lhfo_tmp_comment@blm.gov.

More information is available online at: https://go.usa.gov/xQvuu

[ This was reprinted from an ALAA Alert email. - Editor ]

Page: 5 Tulip City Conglomerate June 2018

Rocks Under I-95 Present Odd, and Scary, Threat to Power Grid By Brian K. Sullivan

Updated:13 June 2018, 2:51 PM Published: 13 June 2018, 7:00 AM

(Bloomberg) -- Here’s something you probably didn’t know you needed to worry about: There’s a layer of 300 million-year-old rock under Interstate 95 that’s capable of killing the lights from Washington to Boston and beyond the next time the sun erupts in all its fury.

Sound far-fetched? Perhaps. But not to scientists. A solar storm is now viewed as enough of a riskin fact that grid operators across North America are working on plans to respond to just such a disturbance. And a draft of a soon-to-be-published U.S. Geological Survey report pinpoints the Eastern Seaboard as one of the areas most in danger.

That’s because this Paleozoic-era rock doesn’t let the energy from a major geomagnetic storm -- aonce-in-a-100-years kind of event -- pass through it but instead acts as a backstop that sends the surge back up above the ground for a second shot at causing mayhem.

“It’s an active problem that a lot of people are trying to solve and understand,” said Christopher Balch, space scientist at the Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado.

Through a stroke of bad luck, the worst of these rocks basically traces the path of I-95 from Richmond, Virginia, to Portland, Maine, passing through Washington, New York and Boston along theway.

INSULATORSThey’re known to scientists as insulators, and when disruptive energy from the sun bounces back

up from these rocks, adding that extra bump in the grid can trigger blackouts. In a worst case scenario, it can burn out multiple transformers, potentially causing outages that could take months to repair, according to Space Weather Prediction Center.

Until now, only parts of the central U.S. had been studied, so the threat faced by the mid-Atlantic and the Northeast, the most densely populated parts of the U.S., was largely unknown, said Jeffrey Love, a research geophysicist with the Geological Survey and lead author of the forthcoming report. The region is further at risk because it’s closer to the North Pole than say Florida or Texas, which makes it more vulnerable to outbursts from the sun.

Love and his team have been working for years to map the entire U.S. to gauge the threat, and still have a long way to go -- the entire Southwest from California to Texas is currently unknown.

“It is very important, the work the USGS is doing,” said Mark Olson, senior engineer in the reliability assessments department at the North American Electric Reliability Corp., the nonprofit responsible for enforcing rules protecting the grid. “Our reliability standards and the utilities’ actions will be able to take advantage of that work to better our risk assessments.”

SIGNIFICANT THREATThe sun poses a significant threat to modern life on Earth. A massive geomagnetic storm can

trigger mass power failures, disrupt navigation satellites and knock out radio. In 1989, a geomagnetic storm from a solar outburst shut down Quebec’s power grid, leaving more than 6 million people in the dark for nine hours, according to the North American Reliability Council.

Love said the rocks there are probably similar to those in New England and New York, though he hasn’t studied the region. And not all rocks have the potential for mayhem. Sedimentary rocks throughout central Pennsylvania and elsewhere would let the sun’s bursts pass right through.

The studies will help develop models for operators to test their grids’ ability to withstand solar storms, as required by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Still, there’s not a lot of experience to draw on, Balch said.

Researchers are developing models to help utilities and grid operators, though

Page: 6 Tulip City Conglomerate June 2018

“We only really have roughly 35 years of digital data,” he said. “Earth conductivity is something that is just beginning to be available in more realistic types of models.”

Copyright 2018 Bloomberg LP.

Reprinted from Bloomberg.(https://www.bloombergquint.com/business/2018/06/13/rocks-under-i-95-present-odd-and-scary-

threat-to-power-grid:)

The Words That Are Used At Us

It is late, and I have a few lines to fill as I arranged this edition of the Conglomerate, so I decided to do something I have never done here before – write a 'column' or 'editorial'! I hope it is, first, entertaining, and second, thought provoking. I speak with no expertise, other than my education as an engineer (“Electrical Option”), and a course I took in college years ago titled “Politics and the Press”. I am also a bit of a logophile (a lover of words), so this also prompts me to write. Here we go!

The Bloomberg article above is the subject. I will pick out the words and phrases that hammered at me as I read the story. I'll list them in order:

Odd...Scary...Threat. Capable of killing...sun erupts in all its fury. Solar storm...risk...disturbance. Areas most in danger. A second shot at causing mayhem. Active problem. Bad luck. The worst of these rocks. Disruptive energy. Trigger blackouts, causing outages. The threat. The most densely populated...largely unknown. Further at risk...more vulnerable...outbursts from the sun. The sun poses a significant threat to modern life on Earth. Massive geomagnetic storm. Potential for mayhem.

If I didn't know any better, I would think that Godzilla, the Daleks, or a James Bond supervillain was threatening the world by controlling the sun somehow. Instead, some unspecified non-sedimentary rock (because he said “sedimentary rocks” would “let the sun's bursts pass right through”) is the villain. Why? Because it has a high electrical resistance.

What he is really getting at is the effects of sudden changes in the magnetic field, and how that may effect electrical circuits. At the most basic level, a conductor moving through a magnetic field produces an electric current. You can physically move a wire through a magnetic field, and current will flow. Or, you can move a magnetic field over a stationary wire, and current will flow. That is how agenerator creates electric current, and how a motor turns. The bottom line: magnetism is an integral part of electricity and electrical power. If the Earth's magnetic field changes greatly, this will have a measurable effect on electrical power systems.

How much of an effect, and what problems will it cause? We really don't know, and the author spends most of the article speculating wildly and suggesting that “here's something you probably didn't know you needed to worry about”. Really? We NEED to worry, because we haven't measured the resistance of every square mile of the earth in the United States yet? I'll let you in on a little secret: don't worry. A sudden change in the Earth's magnetic field may cause electrical power lines to spike in current. (It's been a while since I had to use my brain on this, and I'm too lazy to look it up at the moment, but I believe it's the surge in reactance - capacitance or inductance – that causes the issue.) But don't fear! Power systems are calibrated and coordinated so that if there is a problem, you WILL get a blackout, but the blackout will be limited to the problem area. It would be similar to a breaker tripping in your house when you throw the toaster in the bathtub. The breaker trips so the surge in current in the wires won't burn your house down. Same idea if magnetic fields cause disturbances in the power lines.

So, the research is all about calculating the electrical resistance (or conductivity – the inverse) of specific areas. It's not nearly as emotional, or as dangerous, as the article sounds.

Darn, out of room, and I'm just getting warmed up. Don't get me started on his anthropo-morphizing! That second sentence...is CAPABLE OF KILLING ME! I'm out of room!

Page: 7 Tulip City Conglomerate June 2018

Junior Rock Club Page

Aluminum – 100% can be recycled! Where does itcome from initially?

Stardust. Aluminum is one of the first elements and is a non-renewable resource (except from meteorites). It bonded strongly with other elements and created many silicate minerals, etc. However, aluminum itself wasnot isolated as a useable metal until 200 years ago. NOWpeople can hardly live without it!! Think of aluminum foil for cooking, canned goods, airplanes with light-weight exteriors, sandpaper in your workshop, abrasives in manufacturing!! It is easy to weld and cast. It doesn’t rust. It makes a sparkle in fireworks and rocket fuel. Sowhere does it come from now?

BAUXITE (Aluminum ore) is a general term for topsoil rocks with a high percentage of the element Aluminum. Bauxite deposits (AlXOx and impurities) resulted from the weathering of silicate minerals in the rainy Tropics or in former tropical regions (Arkansas USA, Caribbean Islands, Oceania, Brazil, Ghana and the village of Bauxite, France). This sedimentary rock looks like “hard clay with shrinkage pits and/or pisolitic spots”. Bauxite looks a bit like old pizza.

Bauxite Ores MUST be processed to make alumina, then smelted by electrolysis to precipitate the shiny, flexible metal that we know and love. Aluminum becomesa 100% recyclable product (better than glass or plastic). It is very valuable… and thank you for turning in your soda cans for 10 cents each.

Rick Smith & Linda WinkelmannJunior Club Leaders

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Our club is a non-profit organization sponsored by the Holland Recreation Department. it is a member of the Midwest Federationand the American Federation ofMineralogical Societies. The generalpurpose of this club is to develop interest in and increased knowledge of minerals, rocks, gems, fossils, andthe lapidary arts. The objectives of this club shall be promoted wheneverPossible, through family participation.

Meetings are held monthly on the last Wednesday of the month at the Howard Miller Community Center, 14 S. Church Street, Zeeland, MI at7pm, unless announced otherwise in the TULIP CITY CONGLOMERATE.Junior Club welcomes young rockhounds and meets separately duringthe meeting.

To become a member,complete the form at

www.tulipcity.org

The deadline for submissionsis 5p the Thursday after the Board Meeting.

Advertising rates for club members are: $5 for businesscard size, $10 for ¼ page, $15 for ½ page, $30 for fullpage. non-member rates are double. Make check payableTo: TCG&M with ad copy to Editor.

Tulip City Conglomerate Rudy Silich, Editor 416 West Mae Rose AveHolland, MI 49424