| Berks Mineralogical Society |
| Club Contact Info: |
| Berks Mineralogical Society 31 Homestead Lane Robesonia, PA 19551 Phone: 610-693-5581 Attn: Bret Cadmus BerksMineralSociety@yahoo.com |
| Welcome to the Berks Mineralogical Society webpage. Here you find information about our club, our events and links to relevant information. We are a club dedicated to fossils & mineral collecting & identifying, lapidary and geologic phenomena; all within the guidelines of our charter. We meet the second Tuesday of every month (except July & August) at the Reading Public Museum's auditorium. Entrance is through the rear of the museum. Meetings begin at 7:30 and host a variety of topics. The public is welcome to all meetings. |
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| Pennsylvania Fossil: Phacops Rana Devonian Trilobite |
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| Pennsylvania Soon-to-be-State-Mineral: Celestite But we need YOUR help to make it happen. Please see the October newsletter. |
| Tired of looking down? To dark to hunt for minerals? Why not look up? Check out the Berks County Amateur Astronomy Society. |
| Last updated March 8, 2008 |
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| Want to see something colorful in nature? Why not try the Baird Ornithological Club of Berks County? |
| An AMAZING comprehensive website of nature activities in Berks County can be found at Berks County Nature. Thank you for all the wonderful information Karl. |
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| We meet at the Reading Public Museum's auditorium. Directions are here. |
| Now on the Field Trip page, upcoming trips and pictures from past collecting trips. |
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| BMS is now a proud member of the Eastern Federation Mineralogical & Lapidary Society. |
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| You won't want to miss June 10th's presetnation. Our speakers will be Kutztown State University professor Edward Simpson and David Fillmore, a recent undergraduate student. They will speak on the recently “rediscovered” Pre-Dinosaur Amphibian Body Impressions housed at the Reading Public Museum.
Simpson wrote the scientific paper, “Amphibian Body Impressions from the Mauch Chunk Formation,” with Spencer G. Lucas of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and David Fillmore, a former Kutztown student. “These are some of the oldest body imprints of land-living amphibians,” said Lucas, one of the nation’s foremost fossil experts. “They show the shape of the body, and even what the texture of the skin is like.” David Fillmore happened upon a plaster cast of the fossilized imprints of three salamander-like tetrapods, or four-legged creatures, two years ago while cataloging the museum’s extensive fossil collection. David is a 62-year-old retired computer programmer who went back to college to earn a degree in geology, was working on his senior research project when he made the discovery. |
| April 8th Meeting Topic: French Creek Mines / Jones Mine presented by YOU!! No this isn’t a typo or a mistake. You, the club member, are to gather information about these classic collecting places. This info can include history, photos, stories, experiences, about these sites. Bring mineral specimens to show off. With the information you have gathered, I would like to have a discussion about what was found as our presentation. Please write or type your info you want to share about these locations onto a sheet of paper. I would like to possibly do an article for the GEODE with your info (its like homework for class, hehe). |
| Our May 13th meeting will be "TimeWalk - The Building of a Continent" presented by Jeri Jones. This presentation will be a sampling of the recently published book “TimeWalk – A Journey through Time in Adams, Lancaster and York Counties, Pennsylvania.” Authored by Jeri Jones of Jones Geological Services in Spring Grove with illustrations by Tenna Byerts of Dover, the book is written for the novice reader. The 120-page book starts out with introducing some geologic principles that are needed throughout the book. Then, the reader starts to be introduced to the local landscapes and geology. Throughout the geologic history chapters, the reader will learn much about our landscape and the numerous events that took place here over the past one billion years. Rocks in the three-county area represent two continental collisions and breakups; an ocean and beach environment; a chain of volcanic islands off of the coast of ancient North America and severe erosion and weathering including the Ice Age. Interestingly, at one time, southeastern Pennsylvania just about became a part of northwestern Africa. Chapters included in the book are as follows: Chapter 1. Let’s Get down to Earth Chapter 2. The First Super Continent Chapter 3. Anyone For the Beach? Chapter 4. Taconic Orogeny – The First Collision – Get the Hard Hats! Chapter 5. The Building of Pangaea – Not Another Wreck? Chapter 6. A Time to Rest in the Swamp Chapter 7. The Cenozoic Era – Do You Have that worn Down Feeling? Chapter 8. Fossils Forever Chapter 9. Minerals and Ores – What would We Do Without Them? Chapter 10. Those Who Left Footprints Here Chapter 11. Everyone Can Be Aware of our Surroundings References Photographs of “Where Can I See Some Examples” Sites Copies of the book will be available at our meeting for $20.00. |