AIRBRUSH MAKEUP COMPRESSOR

We're actually leaving the national park at this point. The loop as we did it starts from the visitor center, leaves the park to get out to the Mineral Bottom road, makes a left at the Green River and follows the White Rim trail around to the Shafer Trail. It's more or less the normal loop, though ~half the people travel in the opposite direction.

This photo appeared in the following ideotrope albums:

White Rim October 2005 - The White Rim again.I was just here in May. It's a great trip: easy to plan, beautiful scenery, only two days off work, and it feels like a completely different world.This was my 5th White Rim trip, 4th with Topher, 3rd with Megan, 2nd with Julie and Kevin. For my parents and Barry it was their first time to Canyonlands NP, and it may have been Coy's first time on the White Rim. Topher drove sag, my mom fed him avocados, and the rest of us pedaled and pushed our bikes along the road.Day 1. We had some rain in the afternoon of our first short day to Labyrinth B. It turned out to be a beautiful campsite overlooking the Green River. I had viewed it as sort of desolate when riding by it before, but this was my first time camping here.Day 2. A long day to White Crack. We certainly did more than 1/3 of the riding of this day including 2 of the 3 big climbs on the loop (Hardscrabble and Murphy). Everyone was ready to be at camp by the time we reached the top of the Murphy Hogback, but we pedaled on in the setting sun to White Crack where we had music for Julie and my dad's arrival in the last of the fading light.Day 3. We had time in the morning to walk down the trail toward the confluence for a couple hours and, back near camp, enjoy the incredible view from the White Crack, the name given to the narrow ridge of White Rim Sandstone that continues out to a point high above the confluence of the Green and Colorado rivers. One bend of the Colorado River is barely visible, and the Green River is completely hidden in the canyons below.We had a short ride to Airport campsite. The cyclists took off and my mom did too to start walking along the road. We all knew Topher would catch up in the truck. Hours later, we cyclists were almost at Airport camp and had had no sign of Topher or my mom all day. We didn't worry too much. Instead we opened our second (and last that we had with us) bottle of wine and extended our 2nd lunch a little longer. Topher finally did arrive, complaining about a dead battery back at White Crack. He even had a story about the next group arriving and giving him a jump. It really did turn out to be true (I was the only one who doubted the story at all). Topher said he really wasn't the least bit worried. He had all the food, water, warm clothes, tents, sleeping bags. He knew we'd return sooner or later. We all made it to Airport with plenty of time to enjoy the sunest.Day 4. Our final short day up the Shafer Trail. On the way we stopped at Musselman Arch, Walking Walks, and the Gooseneck Trail. These excursions took long enough that we were just starting the drive home at 4PM. I had said earlier I wanted to start the drive between 2 and 4PM. We made it thanks to the end of the daylight savings time.

Our rock club (the Sacramento Mineral Society) just received a nice pile of a mineral called dumerite (or is it dumarite or dumorite? ). I have not been able to find any information on it online.

What I do know is that it is likely volcanic in origin, comes from somewhere near Paso Robles, CA., and appears in nodules which externally resemble thundereggs. Inside they have a mottled appearance that takes up the entire nodule (there is no matrix/filling with bizarre shapes, like you would see in thundereggs). This color appears to be somewhat unusual. Of the 20 or so nodules that I saw when they were cut or windowed, all but one had a bluish-with-black center. This was the only one with a greenish tint. The patterns also look different (more rice-stone-like) I was able to finagle the heel cut of this rare specimen (enough to make one very thick cab).
The exact ID of this stone is still somewhat of a mystery. The person who donated this material to our club has revised the ID from "dumerite" to diabase. However, at this point, I am happiest with the ID of "gem glaucophane" (provided by Chris Rowe of FGMS and Rockhound Field Trip Fanatics) -- glaucophane crystals suspended in a matrix of of high-manganese chalcedony.

This makes sense mainly from a geological stand-point. Glaucophane is an amphibole mineral, and this material was collected in an area where other amphiboles (nephrite jade, asbestos...) are known to occur. Diabase is not found here; as far as I can tell one needs to travel east for quite a bit before it occurs. I can understand the confusion: I have seen some polished material that resembles the greenish version of this material. However, for the most part it is coarser.



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Previous description:

The material is hard like agate or good jasper and polishes nicely, so I suspect that it is some sort of silicate.

Some of the tags indicate possible IDs I've received from knowledgeable sources.

Best guesses by experienced rock-hounds as to what this material may be, include gem glaucophane, diabase and andesite. All seem possible, given the origin of the material