Mineralogy

Field Trip to Hot Springs, Arkansas

November 15-18, 2001
Mineralogy Class of 2001

Back row: Andrea Ames, Doug Damery, Terri Tackett, Bryan Warner and Jake Barnes. Front Row: Sr. Sarah Hanson and Jon Gentner

 

Day 1
 We left painfully early Thursday morning and drove all day. We arrived at the campsite early that evening where we met up with a group from the University of New Orleans.

 

Day 2
 We spent this day looking at the geology of the Magnet Cove area and collecting many fine minerals there. The late Cretaceous Magnet Cove alkaline igneous complex consists of a series of ring dikes that were intruded into folded and faulted Paleozoic sedimentary rocks of the Ouachita geosyncline. It is from these alkaline rocks that many of the cool minerals we were collecting weathered out.
We started out with a walk in the woods looking for the phlogopite outcrop. Unfortunately we never did find it. (Terry Tackett in photo)
Our first stop was along the road at an excellent exposure of the nepheline syenite and carbonatite. Here we also collected aegerine crystals. Sarah is watching, although she did collect a few aegerine crystals later.

We then headed to a little creek to collect phlogopite crystals. Here they are weathering out of nearby rocks and accumulating in the creek bed. Jake Barnes, Bryan Warner, Terry Tackett and Jon Gentner are looking for phlogopite.
We then proceeded to a little creek where we collected beautiful little pyrite crystals. After crossing the creek, the collecting frenzy began (left). There were many pyrite crystals to be had, all you had to do was dig in and adjacent to the creek (and get wet) (right).
Our last stop was a roadcut where we collected brookite crystals.
We then headed back to camp where Tack, for old time sake, cooked us up an excellent dinner of cheeseburgers and hot dogs.

 

Day 3
 We spent much of this day just west of Hot Springs at the Fiddlers Ridge quartz quarry. Here quartz occurs as fracture fillings in the Paleozoic sandstones and shales of the Ouachita Mountains. If you are lucky and hit a pocket, you will find beautiful quartz crystals. We were lucky as the owners of the Fiddlers Ridge quarry were kind enough to help us out by bulldozing a new area and showing us where the "good stuff" was. We all went home with a bag or two full of nice quartz crystals.
We started out collecting in the main quarry. But after a short time, our hosts allowed us to visit a recently bulldozed area (after we removed the fence).
Sarah helped by holding the signs. Here we are excavating some small pockets that the mine owners uncovered for us. We all found beautiful quartz crystals from here.
We ended the day collecting rare and unusual phosphate minerals including wavellite, variscite and turquoise at a local quarry. Jake Barnes climbs a talus pile looking for wavellite.
And Dr. Hanson made sure that everyone stayed in line.
That evening, in keeping with tradition, we had dinner at Stubby's Barbeque and went back to camp very full. Those who stayed up late and waited for the clouds to clear out were treated to the Leonid Meteor shower which gave a spectacular show this year.

 

Day 4
 We got up early and headed for home.