Dr. C’s Blog about the Herkimer Mining District
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Every year something new is discovered
within the Herkimer Mining District. You
can find these under New Discoveries
The information, and photography, on this website is copyright protected
by W. David Hoisington, Ph. D. unless another author/photographer is cited.
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New Discovery to be Announced on Saturday, by a Nervous Dr. C.
It is the week of the “scientific discovery” talk on Saturday, July 16, in Herkimer, NY. I am using that term in the broadest sense. I consider
scientific discovery to mean a new observed phenomenon which can be consistently seen and which changes the way the natural world is
described. In addition, it should have the potential to have impact to knowledge domains outside the domain in which it was originally
discovered. Phew! Lots of science talk, and it basically means the discovery has the potential to make a difference, stimulate a change.
Not very many people have an opportunity in lifetime to make such a presentation. Perhaps it is normal to be nervous and to find my mind
thinking about nothing else. I took over 1500 photographs in order to have the very best images in the talk. There are 133 slide for the talk and it
runs for about 75 minutes, if there are no audience question (which never happens, and don’t want it to change). Out of those 133 images, 60 are
images tied directly to this new discovery.
It is not talking in front of people which make me nervous about this presentation. I’m a retired college professor and it was my job. But this
presentation is different. This is about something people have probably never seen. I have been around minerals since I was a lad of ten years,
and I have never seen anything like it. My best high school friend is Jeff Scovil – yeah, right, the mineral photography guy – so I have seen a lot
of mineral photos, and I have never seen crystal structures like these. Therein lies my nervousness. Am I really seeing something here?
I believe I am, but I need to show this discovery to an audience of people, filled with those who have seen many Herkimer diamonds, and to get
their wise views. This will happen on Saturday.
Since the last talk on the origin of Herkimer diamonds, given last July in Herkimer, NY, the research has focused on the quartz - hydrocarbon
boundary. A call went out for samples that had both hydrocarbon and quartz. In addition a microscope was purchased to aid in this research (see
earlier blog entry). Over the course of the research a few new discoveries were made and a “discovery page” (button upper right) was added to the
website to describe these. The public was invited to share their discoveries.
As the months went by, and the number of microscope photos approached 1500, it became clear that there was something quite amazing occurring in
the Herkimer Diamond Mining District. Something that would change how we think about the origin of Herkimer Diamonds. The discovery is so
beautiful and astounding that I did not feel comfortable publishing it on the website. It needed to be presented in front of an audience first. It is
common for a scientist to do this, to present orally first before putting a new find into writing. This new discovery in particular warrants this because
of the potential broad scope impact on our understanding of both Herkimer diamonds and the oil - quartz natural system. See you at the talk!!
New Discovery to be Announced - July 16 & 17, 2016
Thanks to Stephen Sheets I have been able to photograph some crystal frost from Alaska - seems apropos (frost from Alaska). I was going to wait
till the July talk in Herkimer to announce this, but the crystal is so remarkable that it is now the lead in photo on the crystal frost page. The photo
shows the two main forms of crystal frost - the arch form and the flat form. These two forms have also been photographed by this author in
connection to “Pakidiamonds” I will show these comparisons at the July talk in Herkimer (in addition to results from the spheres research).
The photo also shows the base contact point with the crystal frost which presumably was once on matrix - marked C on the photo. Note the tiny
groves at the crystal tip. From these groves, extending upward into the crystal, you can see stacked crystal frost arches - faint, but visible. I
think that the evidence will show us this is an important part of how Herkimer diamonds grow.
“Alaska Diamonds” very similar to Herkimer Diamonds
Updated - 03/09/2019
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Thank you Shannon Haley
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region.1/05/2019 and 3/2/2019
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