Day 9 - Tucson Electric Park

We missed our crystals. It was torture to do chores while we knew that thousands of minerals were less than a mile away. We broke... but the Tucson Electric Show was lots of fun. It's one of the largest shows in the city and one of the most versatile. We didn't see a lot of fancy jewelry, but some unique items.

YEA for the "Crystal Man"! Clint and I met him at the artist's site at the Electric Park. His language is quiet, yet you can see him for rows and rows.

We are surprised how slow the show is. We keep waiting for the crowds and they don't show. A few dealers have actually closed down and not near as many came this year compared to last year. Some places have lowered prices, yet others have increased theirs. We picked up some items we really wanted / needed, and then we'll check the end of the show hoping for specials.

I met the artist of hand-painted collector coins. I really enjoyed them. They're excellent quality and full of color. I like the coins from Tibet and, I forget the country, but it's an ocean front with a lighthouse. Even the US state quarters were cool. Even the not real astrological and Chinese zodiac coins were interesting.

The most fascinating part was chatting with the retired chemist from New Mexico. He spent an hour or more educating me on the chemical composition of metals and how they're crystals are formed. Too much info to relay, but some key points I do remember: (If you're not into geology or chemistry, please feel free to skip this section down to the Personal.)

• Calcite melts in cold water and solidifies in hot water.

• Sulphur in the air, not oxygen, tarnishes silver. When coal burns, it releases sulphur which is why the British elite had a maid whose full-time job was always cleaning silver. The sulphur in the house from the coal-burning fires constantly combine with the silver creating the dark color.

• Miners can tell where the water level was in caves and mines because certain minerals grew only in liquid water while others created by oxidation or sulfides grew out of water.

• Colorado mines silver from galena like California mines gold from quartz. Pure silver is almost white, but since it's found often as a compound in galena (lead sulfide), people associated the silvery, shiny metal color of galena for silver. (So, if you buy silver, go for the whitest for the purest.)

• During rock-forming, water would dissolve copper, carrying the atoms downstream which would combine with other elements to create new minerals. Those closest to the source have the most copper and as the water flowed further away, the minerals would have less copper available and combine with other atoms. So, as we saw in Nevada, I'd see copper, close by is turquoise, then walk a little to find azurite, then malachite.

• I learned about two types of morphed minerals - those that keep the crystalline shape of the old mineral but morph chemically into a new one; and those that keep the same chemical combo but morph into a new shape. Such as the shape of a silver sulfide. The minerals Argentite and Acanthite have exactly the same chemical make-up (AgS2) yet depending on the temperature the mineral cooled affects the shape. The miners usually just call it all the same thing - Argentite - cause they just care about obtaining the silver. The geologists have the separate name for the different shape.

• Sulfides are extremely popular. During rock formation, water heated up from nearby magma, expands, flows to crevices, dissolves sulphur (a very soft element) which combines chemically with the water to make sulphuric acid, which dissolves the harder minerals. As the water cools, it contracts forcing the other elements to re-solidify. When they do, many of them combine with the sulphur creating sulfides and a whole new mineral.

Personal: Man, it's getting warm during the days - 80 in early February and windy. I'm enjoying the rocks and look forward to the rest of the shows opening up. I also want to check out a lot of the local touristy items such as the museums and parks. Some of the best observatories are suppose to exist around here. Many are up in the mountains and won't be open yet. I was hoping that might open early due to the warm weather except they're expecting snow this weekend.