Post by halitedigger on Sept 25, 2013 20:30:30 GMT -5
I was quite surprised to find there are no threads on this board regarding halite. So, let it be!
Last year my daughter came home on a Friday afternoon and told me, "Dad, there is a really cool gem show my science teacher told me about called Gem o Rama and it's tomorrow and we have to go!" After doing a little research i quickly found out it was 3.5 hours away in. Trona, Ca. and you can collect several sought after minerals like Pink halite, Hanksite, Sulphohalite and more. It sounded like a great adventure so we we off at 6am Saturday morning.
A little background on halite, basically a salt and the color depends on the type of bacteria in the brine where it grows. What makes the Searles lake halite special are the colors and sizes of the crystals. As far as I know the specimens out of this area are unique in the world and command a good price from collectors. Specimens come in white, blue, pink and cranberry colors.
Fast forward to Sunday, the Halite field trip on Searles Lake. Shortly after parking, we spent the next 6 hours digging 1' wide clusters of blue and pink halite out of the brine pools. It's hard work. The salt is just as hard as rock. The pros use large breaker bars to dislodge pieces. All I had was a rock hammer and chisel, but after all was said and done i came home with about 50lbs of beautiful specimens. Some of the pictures are below.
Gem O Rama is October 12 & 13 in Trona, Ca. Google it and check out the "Blow hole" videos on YouTube.
Ok, well for some reason everytime I try and post a picture I get "This forum has exceeded it's picture limit" message. I will put them on my flickr here:
www.flickr.com/photos/100325085@N07/
Last year my daughter came home on a Friday afternoon and told me, "Dad, there is a really cool gem show my science teacher told me about called Gem o Rama and it's tomorrow and we have to go!" After doing a little research i quickly found out it was 3.5 hours away in. Trona, Ca. and you can collect several sought after minerals like Pink halite, Hanksite, Sulphohalite and more. It sounded like a great adventure so we we off at 6am Saturday morning.
A little background on halite, basically a salt and the color depends on the type of bacteria in the brine where it grows. What makes the Searles lake halite special are the colors and sizes of the crystals. As far as I know the specimens out of this area are unique in the world and command a good price from collectors. Specimens come in white, blue, pink and cranberry colors.
Fast forward to Sunday, the Halite field trip on Searles Lake. Shortly after parking, we spent the next 6 hours digging 1' wide clusters of blue and pink halite out of the brine pools. It's hard work. The salt is just as hard as rock. The pros use large breaker bars to dislodge pieces. All I had was a rock hammer and chisel, but after all was said and done i came home with about 50lbs of beautiful specimens. Some of the pictures are below.
Gem O Rama is October 12 & 13 in Trona, Ca. Google it and check out the "Blow hole" videos on YouTube.
Ok, well for some reason everytime I try and post a picture I get "This forum has exceeded it's picture limit" message. I will put them on my flickr here:
www.flickr.com/photos/100325085@N07/
