Dr. C’s Blog about Exploring the Herkimer Mining District
Best Website for Herkimer Diamond Information - Made Possible by Collector Donations
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.
Welcome to the New Herkimer Diamond Story!
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Dr. C’s notes and personal reflections on his exploration of the Herkimer Mining District, and the collaborative research project, presented in a casual
conversational format.
What’s New!
Blog note, April 2016: The Need for Detailed Microscope Studies
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Small, 3mm, quartz sphere from TCR
with circular faces (labeled C)
C
C
In 2009 the owners of TCR discovered small quartz spheres encased in black hydrocarbon. On the left
is one that I found (with permission of the mine owner). It is also a photo taken recently with the new
research microscope I have added to my research efforts. Shortly after the sphere discovery I
published an explanation of the glassy circular features - they were crystal faces, at least an attempt by
the sphere to make crystal faces. The roundness of the sphere is caused by quartz filling in a bubble
void in the black hydrocarbon - probably like a gas bubble trapped in thick tar. Following this discovery
many other interesting tiny crystal objects were found at TCR and it became impossible to photograph
them with even a high quality digital Nikon camera. For a while I traveled 2 hrs to the State museum in
Albany to use their microscope, and some of the images posted on the website are from that time. But
the influx of donated specimens, and also the ease of being able to photograph at home, required me to
invest in a high quality industrial microscope.
The quartz sphere leads us to an obvious conclusion - the quartz changes form when it comes in
contact with the hydrocarbon. But the largest sphere is only a centimeter in diameter, and most are
smaller. Second conclusion: if more spheres, or other shapes yet to be discovered, are to be seen and
photographed, then a quality microscope is needed. The microscope was ordered in January of 2016
but not fully assembled and working until April due to some communication problems with the supplier.
Here is the basic premise:
If there was oil/hydrocarbon present in the rock while the Herkimer diamonds were being made then
there should be evidence left behind of the interaction between the two (evidence at the quartz-hydrocarbon boundary).
Some of these new features are showing up on the website under “New Discoveries”. There will be many more presented at the July 2016 talk in
Herkimer NY. These new features are so outstanding that they need to be presented publicly first, before being put on the website. It’s a process of
presenting information in front of one’s peers before publishing - just to make sure one is not seeing things that are not really there.
The new theory on how Herkimer diamonds were formed is called “The Oil and Seed Crystal Theory”. Some of the influences of oil on quartz form are
presented on the web. The seed crystal evidence did greatly benefit from having a high quality microscope and new images can also be found there.
But the scope also helped provide evidence for another part of the theory - vertical flow along cracks in the rock leaving behind vein features.
I expect to be photographing with the microscope right up to the week of the July talk - always looking for the best possible examples of the features I
am seeing in the rocks. Come to the talk to see these new discoveries, and make sure I am not on some mind altering substance because some of
these crystal forms look like I just fell through the rabbit hole.
Updated - 03/09/2019
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Thank you Shannon Haley
Wilbur for the donation of 30
samples from the Fonda
region.1/05/2019 and 3/2/2019
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