[Rockhounds] New York City minerals ( was, Extreme Rockhounding)

[pmodreski at aol.com]

Reading this query about mineral produced during tunneling reminded me that I'd wanted to post to the Rockhounds about the latest issue of Rocks & Minerals magazine which, for those who don't subscribe and probably have not seen this yet, contains an article that I think will be "a classic" of interest to many collectors.

The latest issue, May/June 2009, just published and delivered to subscribers last week, is a "New York III" special issue, the third issue devoted to minerals of New York State; the first two were in Nov/Dec. 2007 and May/June 2008.

In addition to several other articles about New York, the one I'm particularly referring to is "The Minerals of New York City", by John Betts (of John Betts-Fine Minerals), pp. 204-240 in this issue.? I'll say that it is an excellent and very complete historical (up to the present)?review of all the kinds of minerals found in NYC, accompanied by many, many excellent photographs.? Many of these minerals came from the old quarries, excavations, and tunneling projects which are?noted for having produced specimens from NYC, such as the famous "subway garnets".? The issue also includes a "Connoisseur's Choice" article (a monthly feature) by Robert B. Cook about almandine from NYC, pp. 244-252, featuring a picture of the American Museum's 4.4-kilogram trapezohedral "Subway Garnet", as well as a review of other prominent almandine localities throughout the U.S. and worldwide.

You can read about the magazine and this issue at,
http://www.rocksandminerals.org/index.html

Sincerely, Pete Modreski

-----Original Message-----
From: Nathan Martin <rocknate at gmail.com>
To: Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem collectors <rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com>
Sent: Sun, 3 May 2009 8:37 pm
Subject: Re: [Rockhounds] Extreme Rockhounding



John,
As you probably noticed from the Discovery Channel videos, modern tunneling
methods involve huge cutting machines that grind the rock to a small size.
This mostly eliminates the possibility of specimen recovery.  I have not
heard of any significant specimens that were produced by the big dig here in
Boston.  This is in contrast to the tunneling that took place for the
Quabbin aqueduct in Massachusetts (between 1897 and 1905).  A series of
shafts spaced along this 25 mile long tunnel were used to bring waste rock
to the surface.  Hand sized rock chunks at the shaft 10 locality in
Hardwick, MA have been a source of collectible minerals including epidote,
fluorite and babingtonite since that time.

I'm sure the new tunneling methods are faster and cheaper but the early
1900's were indeed the good old days when it came to producing specimens
from such projects.

best regards,
Nate martin
Lexington, MA

On Sun, May 3, 2009 at 8:29 PM, John Siebel <john at pandemoniumgraphics.com>wrote:

> So I took today off and watched a Discovery Channel video titled, "Extreme
> Engineering" that, so far, covered "Widening the Panama Canal", the Boston
> "Big Dig"', building Hong Kong's Airport and the tunnel under the Alps from
> Switzerland. All of these entailed massive excavation. Does anyone know if
> these projects discovered any fun specimens? I would love to have played in
> the tailing piles of any of these projects.
>
> John
>




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