Happy 125th Birthday, GSA

It is my understanding that last Friday (12/27) was the 125th Anniversary of the founding of the Geological Society of America. Sorry I missed a timely acknowledgement. Best wishes for another 125 years!

Rockhound TV

I just found Prospectors on the Weather Channel a few weeks ago as the result of an ad on one of the other cable channels I watch, e.g., Discovery Channel, History Channel, yada yada. Here is but one clip: The geologic "Walter Mitty" in me wishes I had considered this line of work when I was in grad school years ago. I did a little bit of prospecting just for personal rockhounding sake. I have worked a couple of mineral shows at what used to be called the Weinman Mineral Museum (now Tellus) in Cartersville, Ga. Made a small profit each time. One summer I largely paid for a solo vacation by buying wholesale mineral specimens in El Paso and then selling them to rock shops in the east. My best luck was with arborescent silver specimens from Chihuahua that I sold to Ledford's Rock Shop in Spruce Pine, NC. Should have done more of that. At a large show here in Atlanta recently, I sold to a dealer a "flat" of andradite garnet specimens for $150, specimens that I had purchased for a much smaller amount perhaps 25 years ago. The specimens, from Stanley Butte, AZ were the most choice specimens that I had. My other favorite show is "Gold Rush" on Discovery Channel. For some reason, I can't seem to get into "Bearing Sea Gold" as much, perhaps it is the scuba aspect of it.

Accretionary Wedge #63

Yeah, I have been away for a while, including the Geoblogging Events called Accretionary Wedge. The last one was #54, on Geology and Beer (and other adult beverages). The current one relates to the relationships between plants and rocks. I will have to give this one some thought. My life (including my incarnation as a field scientist) is divided between two primary locations, Georgia and the El Paso, TX area. Quite different in both categories.