Minerals of Skarns

September 24-26, 2004

The symposium is scheduled for September 24-26 and will be held at the Red Lion Motel at Kelso, WA.  The Pacific Northwest Chapter has reached another milestone this year with our 30th annual Symposium.  (See the article in the July-August "Rocks and Minerals" by Bill Dameron)

The theme this year is "Minerals of Skarns" and we have confirmed renowned and excellent speakers:

• Ray Grant will be presenting his experiences in Russia, highlighted by a presentation on skarn deposits of Dal'negorsk.
• Jeffery Scovil will be providing a photo tour of specimens from skarns. And a second presentation will be a set of mineral photos that will appear in an up coming mineral book about the Houston Mineral Museum.
• Don Grybeck, a PNWFM member, has also volunteered to give a presentation on the Lost River Skarns in Alaska.

Symposium Committee Members:
     

Chairperson     Aaron Weiting     pdxpounder@hotmail.com	Registration     Jade Weiting     pdxpounder@hotmail.com
Facilities Coordinator     Sharleen Harvey     bill-sharleenharvey@worldnet.att.net	Set up / Tear down / Audio     Wes Gannaway     debnwes@comcast.net
Speakers / MC     Aaron Weiting     pdxpounder@hotmail.com	Micromounters Program     Bob Meyer     pyrite111@aol.com
Dealers     Rudy Tschernich     tschernich@msn.com	T-Shirt Design and Production     Jade Weiting and John Lindell
Displays     Bob Meyer     pyrite111@aol.com	Publicity     Aaron and Jade Weiting     pdxpounder@hotmail.com
Auctions     Karen and Gary Hindermanr     gkmhind@gte.net	Competitions     TBD

For those needing a refresher on what a skarn (sometimes refered to as a tectite) is, a couple of excellent websites provide detailed information.

• http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~meinert/skarnHP.html
• http://earthsci.org/mindep/depfile/skarn.htm

Einauldi, et al. (1981) proposed that the term skarn be used descriptively in reference to localities characterized by a particular suite of calc-silicate minerals consisting primarily of garnet, pyroxene and amphibole.  Typically, these may form along the contacts of felsic to intermediate intrusions (such as granite or monzonite) with limey sediments (such as limestone or dolomite).  Since skarns are typically associated with intrusions, ore-bearing fluids may have also been present.  Subsequently, the topic of skarns is really a huge topic as demonstrated by the different types of economic skarn deposits presented on Dr. Meinert's web site.

Past Symposium Topics can be found on this link.