[Rockhounds] "D'ever Wonder?" - Wondering about mountain leather ... and looking for pictures.

[smkell45 at aol.com]

-----Original Message-----
From: Kris Rowe <lapidary.specialties at gmail.com>
To: rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com <rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com>
Sent: Wed, 14 Jan 2009 10:02 pm
Subject: [Rockhounds] "D'ever Wonder?" - Wondering about mountain 
leather ... and looking for pictures.

Hi.Check www.mindat.org for mountain leather. smkell








Howdy, y'all!
                     I was sitting (shivering) on the back porch last
evening, reading a Lapidary Journal (from 1968, if I remember correctly)
with a great article on 'Amethyst of Korea.' Amongst the many materials
written of was something that was unfamiliar to me, called
"mountain leather."
So, lacking any underground (at least deeper than 8 feet) mining 
experience,
I googled it and found "TEM observations of a 30 million
year old mountain leather nanofiber mineral composite" on ScienceDirect.
However, they want my money before letting me read the
paper, and my Queen of Reciepts says "$31.50 for a research paper? for
FUN?", at which point I slunk back to my Laz-e-Boy and
decided to ask y'all ... what the heck IS mountain leather, what does it
look like, and have any of you found any?

The Intro to the research paper makes mountain leather sound like 
something
Dupont wishes it would have made, and brought a smile
to my face with the amazed comment that it was 30 million years old, the
same wry smile I get when someone marvels at how amazing
it is that Nature could create something so complex!  *lol*
Warning to you search wizards (like me) there's almost nothing readily
available online about this material, other than the mentioned paper.
So, dear miners with letters behind your names, help me if you can. I 
don't
want to wake up at 4 am wondering about this question. My
sanity is in your hands (sorry it's so sticky, the kids were plaaying 
with
it.)

Be Well!
              Kris Rowe
              Lapidary Specialties


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