Twelve Months of LFD (2016)

I'm doing the year-end meme wherein I compile the first sentence of the first post of every month. Meme rules are as follows, as per DrugMonkey:

Post the link and first sentence from the first blog entry for each month of the past year.

I also add the first photo from the same first post. Previous takes on this Twelve Month meme at LFD were posted for 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2015.

Aaand...here's the year 2016 for LFD:

January:

I've gathered up a collection of rocks to see which ones will float and which ones will sink.

February:

After checking out the southern route to Mineral Ridge while on my 1976 thesis quest, I headed north out of Silver Peak on then Highway 47 (now S.R. 265), carefully measuring the miles to the left-hand turnoff.

March:

With Mineral Ridge in my rear-view mirror, I stopped briefly at the basalt cinder cone, The Crater, which is located right on the side of the road just a few miles north of Silver Peak.

April:

From the vantage point of the end of the last post, a little southwest of Luning, Nevada, I turned around and pointed my camera northeast across Soda Spring Valley ... and paused to think back to the late 1980s, when we in the Western District of Former Mining Company had finally taken over exploration of the Walker Lane, which until then had been a mostly unexplored part of the Nevada District.

May:
I'm not sure how I got started on checking different words and concepts on Google Books Ngram Viewer yesterday, although my "History" tab suggests to me that it might have been related to some reading I was doing on science fiction.

June:

I collected this hand sample from the Original Bullfrog mine, Nye County, Nevada, sometime back in the mid to late 1980s when doing recon in the area, then cut and polished it—probably with a company saw and grinding wheel.

July:

We're now about two thirds of the way up the hill toward Red Pass on the Titus Canyon road, a one-way road that runs approximately east to west from Nevada into California, starting not far south of the ghost town of Rhyolite.

August:

There I was, preparing a few photos for posting in the ongoing Death Valley Trip – Titus Canyon series, doing my usual thing of marking up photos in MS Paint (I'm too cheap to buy any real photo programs), when I figured that I must have something around the house that might work better than either dragging the cursor across the screen with my trackpad or dragging my finger across the computer's touch screen.

September:

Now we'll leave the parking area near the Leadfield sign and, as I promised last time, we’ll walk out to what I’ve been referring to as the “far west cabin," although maybe that should really be "far northwest cabin."

October:

At the end of our last post—the one about the non-fold—we came into Titus Canyon proper and were looking at this view, down the canyon and to the west

November:

Just a bit of stibnite for your #MineralMonday.

December:

When I drove to the area on the south side of the Whipple Mountains where I ended up camping amidst downpours and nearby lightning, I thought I'd grab a few photos of the Colorado River Aqueduct, which passes through just north of CA Highway 62 on its way to the greater L.A. area, but an RVer was camped just beyond the aqueduct overpass, so I blew it off until I left.

A Few Geologic Words and Concepts Through Time (via Google Books Ngram Viewer)

I'm not sure how I got started on checking different words and concepts on Google Books Ngram Viewer yesterday, although my "History" tab suggests to me that it might have been related to some reading I was doing on science fiction. As for geology and geologic concepts, we'll first take a quick look our main concept, geology:

We see an upsurge in the word "geology" in the early 1800s, coinciding with the rise of active geology in Britain and elsewhere, with fairly steady overall use of the word since then. And this is what Google does when I click the "case insensitive" box:

The recent drop off in "geology," which began in 1980 or 1981, no doubt resulted in part from the changes at many colleges and universities in department names from departments or schools of Geology to departments or schools of Geosciences, Earth Sciences, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Earth and Environmental Sciences, and others. Andrew Alden has a bit more to say about "geology" v. "Earth science" v. "geoscience" here.

But it looks like that doesn't explain the decrease in "geology" entirely:

Any speculations?

And, for what it's worth, "geologist" began to decline in 1970:

As did "geologists":

As for other geologic concepts and words, I'll just show a couple more right now, and maybe get into some others later. (The Ngram Viewer is fascinating, and it's easy to just keep going on seemingly forever.)

This next set explains itself:

"Subduction" v. "plate tectonics" v. "continental drift" v. "geosyncline."

There's an interesting little blip in "subduction" from 1953 to 1959; not sure if this relates to anything real in the history of plate tectonics or is related to something else. Surely "subduction" prior to 1900 is unrelated.

I look for and find small to large areas on and under the ground...

I look for and find small to large areas on and under the ground: lands and rocks that have something we want, something that we will mine if we can make enough money.

First, we drive or fly into an area of great promise, so we can put small and large rocks into bags. These rocks in bags are sent away so we can find out what they are made of, so we can see what the numbers will tell us. If we like what the numbers say, then we walk around the area of interest making notes and drawing lines in our field books and on large pieces of paper, and searching, always searching for the right signs. After that, if the signs are good and the numbers from the rocks are even better, we push long, round, empty spaces into the ground and pull out rocks to place in bags or boxes, all so we can continue to find out what the rocks are made of.

After looking at several areas, we eventually find exactly what we are trying to find--rocks that can make us some money (the numbers, some computers, and men and women that study numbers and work with computers tell us how it all came out; they *never* let us just go with our best guess). Then we put in a mine by using picks and other, larger and louder things, to go as deep under the ground as needed. After that, we take the money we made--while finding the good rocks or while working at the mine--to a bar, where we drink out of large glasses or bottles filled with something we like (fill in the ____ ). :-)

Then we go back out into new areas to look for more rocks that can make us some money (or rocks that we at least like, because we all like rocks, except maybe for the men and women who really like numbers and computers).

Permalink for this description of what I do as a mineral exploration geologist at The Up-Goer Five Text Editor.

Meme directive from Ann and Chris at Highly Allochthonous: Go to the Up Goer 5 text editor and explain your research or discipline in the 10 hundred most common words.

Ten Hundred Words of Science: a compilation of many of these descriptions.

Twitter: #upgoerfive #upgoer5

A Favorite Word: Detachment

While working every day for the past 17 or 18 days, whatever, I've been thinking on and off about what my favorite geological word might be, while also writing up an internal report that includes a large number of definitions. I was having a hard time writing anything at all for the blog, being thoroughly overloaded by words and definitions, and couldn't focus well on more words, favorite or otherwise.

Finally, though, I thought of one! (Well, actually I though of two others, but I won't digress... ha! Oh, and at least two other great words have already been used: mylonite and welded tuff.)

The word: Detachment, more specifically Detachment Fault. The entire post envisioned a couple nights ago, "Detachment: See header photo." (That's the one up there, above this blog post.)

I have gone a little beyond that short, terse post, but won't really get into a definition, which would involve a low-angle normal fault of regional extent, probably created by, or during a period of, what is sometimes known as "extreme extension."

Official AGI definition for detachment fault.

Detachment Fault: a good geological mystery book.

A number of Detachment Quotes.

My posts labeled "detachment" (there are only 20 so far, including this one).

Detachment fault on Facebook (it has no friends!)

The Northern Snake Range décollement or detachment fault as seen from Great Basin National Park.

This post has been submitted to Accretionary Wedge #35: What's Your Favorite Geology Word?

The xkcd Wikipedia meme

(via VWXYNot? and Drug Monkey)

“Click on the first link not in parentheses in any Wikipedia entry. Keep doing this and eventually, you end up at Philosophy." Also see xkcd Wikipedia steps to philosophy.

Starting at Ore, which is what I work on:

1. Ore
2. rock (goes to Rock (Geology))
3. geology
4. science
5. knowledge
6. information
7. sequence
8. mathematics
9. quantity
10. property (goes to Property (Philosophy))
11. modern philosophy
12. Philosophy

Starting at Basin and Range Province (which is where I am). [Aside: "Basin and Range" goes to Geology, and we already know where that leads.]

1. Basin and Range Province
2. physiographic region (goes to United States physiographic region)
3. continental United States (goes to Contiguous states)
4. U.S. States (redirects to U.S. State)
5. federated states
6. consitutional (goes to Constitution)
7. state (goes to State(polity))
8. social sciences
9. fields (goes to List of academic disciplines)
10. academic (goes to Academia)
11. community
12. living
13. life
14. objects (goes to Physical body)
15. physics
16. natural science
17. naturalistic (goes to Naturalism (philosophy))
18. philosophical (goes to Philosophy)

Starting with Beer, which is something to have after work, whether you are in the Basin and Range Province or not:

1. Beer
2. alcoholic beverages
3. drink
4. liquid
5. states of matter
6. phase (goes to Phase (matter))
7. physical sciences (goes to Outline of physical science)
8. natural science
9. naturalistic (goes to Naturalism (philosophy))
10. philosophical (goes to Philosophy)

Wherein we have learned that Beer is closer to Philosophy than either Ore or the Basin and Range Province. But we already knew that, didn't we?

Like caterpillars, crawling or marching...

...northward out of or toward Mexico.

On Christmas Day, I went hunting for the source of the widely quoted description of the Basin and Range, starting with my easy-to-find reference in Bill Fiero's Geology of the Great Basin. He said that a long time ago a geologist had compared the mountain ranges of the Basin and Range to "dark fuzzy caterpillars crawling northward" [his words]. He didn't reference the geologist, so I got to wondering and went online. Well, I was already online, but I went farther, into that great Google machine, starting with "basin and range caterpillars," which got me the Wikipedia Basin and Range page and The Basin and Range Province (Coulter, 2005). Both pages state that it was Clarence Dutton who made the analogy, quoting him as saying "army of caterpillars marching toward Mexico" and "an army of caterpillars crawling northward out of Mexico," respectively. You'll immediately notice the double discord: marching v. crawling and toward v. out of.

I was inclined to go with the second quote, because it partly agreed with what Fiero had said, and because at least Coulter (2005) had given a reference, namely to King (1977). Going back to Google with basin and range "army of caterpillars" dutton, I found another reference to "an army of caterpillars crawling northward out of Mexico" by Mac and others (1998), who again cited King (1977), with Dutton being the quotee; and I also found this article (Jensen and Platts, 1990), which quotes Dutton (1880) as saying "army of caterpillars marching to Mexico," reinforcing the quote confusion, but providing the alleged source: Dutton (1880).

So, hence to Dutton's 1880 tome, Geology of the high plateaus of Utah, which is searchable online by various methods, including visual scanning. The quote, if present in that volume in any form, would have to be hidden on a map included in the Atlas (which I also viewed and eliminated), or in the footnotes, many of which I scanned. Searching for "caterpillars" or "Mexico" does not yield the quote; searching for all occurrences of "north" does not yield the quote. I didn't try all occurrences of "out of" or "toward," but did scan all seemingly relevant chapters and sections more than once without results. The problem with search methods other than reading or visual scanning, is that the original is old, so some words don't search properly or have been changed by the various methods of acquisition (e.g., digital scanning) to other words or nonsense words. Also, a word like northward can be broken at the end of a line into "north-" and followed in the next line by "ward." The quote might still be in there somewhere, but I doubt it.

Photo by Ron Schott of Ron Schott's Geology Home Companion Blog

Then, tyring to get some help via Twitter, I was led by @rschott to the above picture, which is from Dante's View at Death Valley National Park. The sign quotes Dutton (1880) as saying, "...like an army of caterpillars crawling toward Mexico...." Darn, there for a minute I thought the caterpillars crawled when going north, and marched when going south!

Ron Schott also found an old reference to the quote, wherein Keyes (1920) said that Dutton "likens [the ranges] on the map to an army of caterpillars crawling northward out of Old Mexico." This is the oldest reference (so far), perhaps giving credence to the northward crawling aspect of the alleged Basin and Range quote. Additionally, at least one reference (Udall, 1998) has Dutton "quipping," suggesting that Dutton might have been speaking at a meeting rather than writing a report.

Another tidbit in this intensive reference hunt: I found one endnote (in Goin and Starrs, 2005) that states:

"army of caterpillars" is without a doubt Clarence Dutton's comment, but exact attribution is impossible – although everyone knows he wrote or said it, chapter and verse are undocumented in our experience, but it is quoted by John McPhee in Basin and Range (1981).

I couldn't find the quote or a reference to Dutton in Basin and Range.

Basins and ranges in central Nevada

And then things got interesting.

This search led to a more detailed quote from Dutton: "composed of many short, abrupt ranges looking upon the map like an army of caterpillars crawling northward. At length the army divides into two columns...." I couldn't, however, search farther in that book (Anderson, 1977), or find where Dutton said that. Later, on Boxing Day, I used this search confining the timing to 1879 to 1921, and found this long reference to Dutton's description of the desert mountains or arid ranges of the west (Keyes, 1909), though it isn't explicitly a quote:

Upon the map Dutton has likened them to an army of caterpillars crawling northward out of Mexico, dividing as it enters the United States, the main body turning westward and then northward again until it passes into the British possessions.

I was pretty sure at this point that we had narrowed it down to, more or less, "an army of caterpillars crawling northward out of Mexico," but I still couldn't find the reference!

I then went a little farther, using this search to reveal even more of the Dutton quote, still with no viewable reference (Anderson, 1977):

"...composed of many short abrupt ranges looking upon the map like an army of caterpillars crawling northward. At length the army divides into two columns, one marching northwest, the other north-north east."

Anderson (1977) then goes on to say, "Hence the Great Basin's ranges, and the Rockies...," implying that the quote refers to the entire west, not just the Basin and Range.

By this time, I was ready to finish up this blog post and move on, so I grabbed another view of the west from Google Earth...
And then, late in the afternoon, another link came in from Twitter, this time from @microecos, who blogs here. It's the full and entire quote, with the source! Dutton (1886) says:

The great belt of Cordilleras coming up through Mexico and crossing into United States territory is depicted as being composed of many short, abrupt ranges or ridges, looking upon the map like an army of caterpillars crawling northward. At length, about 150 miles north of the Mexican boundary, this army divides into two columns, one marching northwest, the other north-northeast The former branch becomes the system of mountain ridges spread over the southern and western portions of Arizona, the whole of Nevada and the western portion of Utah and extending into Oregon and Idaho.

What he goes on to say from there, makes it clear that the western army going to the northwest (to begin with) is the Basin and Range of Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Oregon, and Idaho, and the eastern army, going to the north-northeast (to begin with) is the Rocky Mountains.

Check it out for yourself, right here!

How many times has Dutton been misquoted? Not sure, but I'd say tens of times—or more! I own at least two such misquotes, myself (the caterpillars crawling or marching to or toward Mexico rather than crawling northward). Surprisingly, the misquoting began as early as 1915!

Some References:
Anderson, R.S., 1977, A biography of Clarence Edward Dutton (1841-1912), nineteenth century geologist and geographer: Stanford University, 252 pp.

Coulter, Poppy, 2005, The Basin and Range Province: Volcanoes of the Eastern Sierra Nevada,: Geology and Natural Heritage of the Long Valley Caldera, at Indiana University Geological Sciences (a field course website).

Dutton, C.E., 1880, Geology of the high plateaus of Utah: U.S. Geographical and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region, vol. 32, 307 pp, with Atlas.

Review of Dutton's 1880 monograph at Magma Cum Laude

Dutton, C.E., 1886, Mount Taylor and the Zuni Plateau, p. 105-198 in Volume III of Report of the Secretary of the Interior; being part of the Message and Documents Communicated to the Two Houses of Congress at the Beginning of the First Session of the Forty Ninth Congress in Five Volumes: Washington, Government Printing Office.

Fiero, Bill, 1986, Geology of the Great Basin: University of Nevada Press, 198 pp.

Goin, Peter, and Starrs, P.F., 2005, Black Rock, Volume 2004: University of Nevada Press, 273 pp.

Jensen, S.E., and Platts, W.S., 1990, Restoration of degraded riverine/riparian habitat in the Great Basin and Snake River Regions, p. 367-404 in J.A. Kusler and M.E. Kentula (eds.) Wetland Creation and Restoration: The Status of the Science. Island Press, Washington, D.C. 591 pp.

Keyes, C.R., 1909, Lineaments of the desert: Popular Science Monthly, v. 74, p. 19-30.

Keyes, Charles, 1920, Paleozoic Diastrophics of the Northern Mexican Tableland: The Journal of Geology, vol. 28, no. 1, p. 75-83.

King, P.B., 1977, The Evolution of North America: Princeton University Press, 216 pp.

Mac, M. J., Opler, P. A., Puckett Haecker, C. E., and Doran, P. D., 1998, Great Basin—Mojave Desert Region in Status and trends of the nation’s biological resources Vol. 2: U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA, p. 437-964.

McPhee, John, 1981, Basin and Range: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 215 pp.

Rice, W.N., Adams, F.D., Coleman, A.P., Walcott, C.D., Lindgren, Waldemar, Ransome, F.L., and Matthew, W.D., 1915, Problems of American geology: a series of lectures dealing with some of the problems of the Canadian shield and of the Cordilleras: Yale University Press, 505 pp.

Udall, S.L., 1998, The myths of August: a personal exploration of our tragic Cold War affair with the atom: Rutgers University Press, 412 pp.

A Few Google Book Searches:
clarence dutton caterpillars
dutton caterpillars crawling (1879-1921)
dutton caterpillars crawling northward divides northeast
abrupt ranges looking upon the map like an army of caterpillars

What Is a Road Song?

For those of you who may not know, I have a series (or at least a tag and a page) about road songs. The road songs are often posted as videos, sometimes with lyrics or links to lyrics, usually without much fanfare. Occasionally, I attach a story, or weave the road song into a story or blog post in some way. You might wonder, though, looking through my list, what exactly qualifies a song as a road song?

Road songs began back in the mid-1980s, when a colleague of mine in the Denver office of Former Mining Company made a tape or two containing a bunch of road songs. That year — it would have had to have been 1988 — I was traveling to other districts, going from project to project, visiting other geologists' properties and projects in a kind of geologist-exchange program. It was educational for me, and the idea was to foster communication and exchange of ideas between districts, and also to foster camaraderie. The districts I'm speaking of here aren't mining districts, which are fairly small geographically, but rather districts making up the company. FORMINCO(Former Mining Company), like many other mining companies including the earlier and now totally defunct Northern Exploration Company (NEC), was organized into districts that were tightly to loosely based on geographic territories. At FORMINCO, we had four districts defined by state lines. The offices of two districts were in Reno, offices of the other two were in Denver.

So one day, I'm in the passenger seat of some other geo's truck, being driven from place to place through thick trees and over rutted and roily dirt roads somewhere in central Idaho, in search of particularly fascinating outcrops — any outcrops would do, given the number of trees and lack of visibility — and JS, the geo-type whose projects I was visiting, pulled two of his newly made road tapes out of the glove box. The tapes, filled with road songs, were meant to be played while on the road, any road. Brainstorming while we listened, all the while watching for outcrops, we came up with a million more road songs, and a rather loose definition.

A road song must contain a word pertaining to roads — road, highway, freeway, byway, street, interstate — or it can instead contain words pertaining to cars, trucks, semis, and railroads or railway cars. Travel songs without mentioning the roads or railroads or the vehicles don't count, and airplane or boat songs are generally out. Exceptions to these rules may exist, but I can't think of any.

The broad definition leaves a lot of room for inclusion, which is why a song like Pancho and Lefty — mostly not about roads or travel, but mentioning "the road" in the opening lines — can be considered a road song, and a classic one at that, because it initially refers to the life of living on the road.

After being inspired by the two JS tapes, I went home and immediately began making 90-minute tapes of my own. I think I made three. I no longer have these tapes, but I sent copies to JS way back when, and he eventually put them on a media more permanent than casette tapes. Then, sometime last year, while talking about old stories at some geological meeting, he mentioned that he still had the songs as originally taped, and he cut me a CD and sent it in the mail. The CD has two of my original three tapes, two or three of his, one or two of someone else's, and several audio cuts from movies that relate to roads, travel, gold, discovery, or the west in general.

And that's the way road songs began: way back when, on a back road in central Idaho, on a mining property I barely remember and would never be able to find again.

Photo: Old Highway 50 (formerly S.R. 2, now S.R. 722) in Smith Creek Valley, looking due east toward the Shoshone Range, with Bunker Hill of the Toiyabe Range in the background (MSRMaps location).

How Do You Write?

I write like
Arthur Conan Doyle

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Where it all Began

I write like
Isaac Asimov

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Serpentine: A Group of Minerals, with long list of links.

I write like
Johathan Swift

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Serpentine post without the long link list.

I write like
Edgar Allan Poe

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Finding a Thesis: Battle Mtn to Austin to Gabbs

I write like
Ian Fleming

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Finding a Thesis: Pole Line Road

I write like
Vladimir Nabokov

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Mt. St. Helens Field Trip

I write like
Douglas Adams

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Finding a Thesis: Pole Line to Belmont

I write like
Chuck Palahniuk

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Friday from the Road: The Road to Gabbs

I write like
Douglas Adams

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Why Highway 8A?

I write like
Chuck Palahniuk

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Drilling Stories: Getting Started at Northumberland

I write like
Edgar Allan Poe

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Here's to you, Geological Heroes

I write like
William Shakespeare

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

The Unlikely Gradational Stratigraphy
(Was it in Iambic Pentameter??)

I write like
Arthur Conan Doyle

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

What is Continuity?

Summary:Arthur Conan Doyle: Where it all Began & What is Continuity?
Edgar Allan Poe: Battle Mtn-Austin-Gabbs & Geological Heroes
Douglas Adams: Pole Line-Belmont & Why Highway 8A
Chuck Palahniuk: Road to Gabbs & Getting Started at Northumberland

How do I write? Eclectically? Heterogeneously? Multifariously?

I have no idea what it all means...
(From a meme going around on Twitter.)

Serpentine: A Group of Minerals

Last updated 28Apr2013 at 6:35 a.m. PDT

As a property owner in California, and as a geologist, I'm annoyed about the recent BS (SB 624) the state legislature is up to in trying to delete serpentine as the state rock. First of all, as many have pointed out, serpentine is not a rock, it's a mineral group: the Serpentine Group, AKA the Kaolinite-Serpentine Group according to mindat.org (shall we outlaw clay, also?). It is serpentinite (sometimes called serpentine or serpentine rock) that is a rock, the state rock of California – see Serpentine and Serpentinite from the USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory.

Serpentinite, the rock, is commonly formed of antigorite, lizardite, and chrysotile – all of which are Serpentine Group minerals – and other non-serpentine-group minerals such as talc, chlorite, magnetite, magnesite, brucite, chromite, sometimes relict olivine or pyroxene, and sometimes quartz and calcite (usually as later veins). Other mineral associations (for example at New Idria) include montmorillonite, coalingite, hydromagnesite, nepouite, pecoraite, and trace amounts of tremolite. Besides being host to a unique flora that can survive the plant-harsh conditions of high Mg, Fe, Co, Cr, and Ni (along with relatively low amounts of plant nutrients like calcium and potassium), serpentinite bodies in California have been host to most of the state's mineral deposits of chromite, magnesite, and cinnabar, and possibly some of the state's nickel occurrences. Other trace element associations can include minor copper and platinum. Chromium is of the non-hexavalent type (USGS Open-file Report 95-831, Chapter 5).

Asbestos is not a single mineral, and in fact isn't the name of any defined mineral at all. Asbestiform is a particular mineralogical habit that some minerals take: long fibers often in veins or masses. Asbestiform and fibrous, as crystal forms, are similar, with asbestiform being a more extreme version of fibrous. More minerals have a fibrous habit (for example, siderite, malachite, gypsum, celestite, chalcedony) than have an asbestiform habit.

The word "asbestos" comes from the Latin and Greek asbestos, meaning "unquenchable" or "inextinguishable" – also see more about the etymology of asbestos at the Online Etymology Dictionary, at Asbestos: Changing the Name of a Quebec Town, and at Merriam-Webster Online. According to my mineralogy book – the Manual of Mineralogy (after James D. Dana), 21st Edition by Cornelis Klein and Cornelius S. Hurlbut, Jr., 1993 – asbestos minerals in natural form have a length to width ratio greater than 100:1. Also, the book defines the term "asbestiform" as referring to "minerals that are mined for asbestos and possess fibrousity typical of asbestos—that is with small fiber thickness, flexibility, and separability." Not just any old mineral can be called asbestos or be described as asbestiform.

This is what the EPA has to say about asbestos:

Asbestos is the name given to a number of naturally occurring fibrous minerals with high tensile strength, the ability to be woven, and resistance to heat and most chemicals. Because of these properties, asbestos fibers have been used in a wide range of manufactured goods, including roofing shingles, ceiling and floor tiles, paper and cement products, textiles, coatings, and friction products such as automobile clutch, brake and transmission parts. The Toxic Substances Control Act defines asbestos as the asbestiform varieties of: chrysotile (serpentine); crocidolite (riebeckite); amosite (cummingtonite/grunerite); anthophyllite; tremolite; and actinolite.

Five of the minerals listed above that have asbestiform versions are amphiboles: riebeckite, cummingtonite/grunerite, anthophyllite, tremolite, and actinolite. The sixth mineral, chrysotile, is one of the Serpentine Group minerals. The asbestiform version of riebeckite is crocidolite, that of cummingtonite/grunerite is amosite. Anthophyllite is often but not always fibrous, and it is not always asbestiform. The EPA, nevertheless lists the mineral as "asbestos." The same is true for the minerals tremolite and actinolite (two end members of the tremolite-actinolite solid solution series, and to complicate things more mineralogically, both minerals form solid solution series with ferro-actinolite: tremolite–ferro-actinolite and actinolite–ferro-actinolite). Both tremolite and actinolite are commonly found in non-asbestiform habits, and consequently the asbestiform versions are sometimes referred to as "tremolite asbestos" and "actinolite asbestos," which seems to imply, incorrectly, that both minerals are entirely asbestiform.

Are we now going to take all samples of serpentine group minerals and any asbestiform minerals out of circulation, out of all teaching and personal rock and mineral collections? What?? Why? As Lab Lemming says (after pointing out that serpentine can be used for CO2 sequestration and that it prevents earthquakes by allowing faults to creep):

There are 20 forms of serpentine, only one of which is an asbestos mineral. The very dangerous amphibole asbestos minerals specifically mentioned in the bill are completely unrelated to serpentine.

The uproar about serpentinite, the rock, needs to die down: the legislature needs to back off. Otherwise one might think that the legislature was getting ready to fund the state of California (and themselves?) through litigation, rather than by any legitimate means.


GeoBlogosphere - Blogosphere Reports and Photos:
Photo of serpentinite (About.com: Geology - Metamorphic Rock Types gallery)

Monday Mineral: Serpentine (Outside the Interzone, January 19, 2009)

The Other California: Geology and our State Symbols (Geotripper, December 2, 2009)

Rock 365 : Day 74 : Serpentine #365photos (hypocentre's posterous, March 16, 2010)

The Other California: A Journey to the Center of the Earth (kind of...) (Geotripper, March 31)

Dire Threat to Benign State Rock (Updated) (About.com: Geology, June 19)

Unreasoned Fear of Serpents? We Geologists Need to Be Heard (Geotripper, June 24)

Losing Serpentine as the State Symbol of California? Why not educate instead? (Teaching the Earth Sciences, June 24)

CA SB 624 - Senator Gloria Romero's Bill based on BAD SCIENCE (Justin Zzyzx at The-Vug.com, unknown date)

Serpentinite Under Attack, Part 2 (About.com: Geology, June 30)

Libby and the Serpentine Killers (About.com: Geology, July 2)

Hiking up Big Rock Ridge (Literrata, July 2)

Something Doesn't Feel Right About This: The Serpentine Issue in California (Geotripper, July 2)

In defense of serpentine (Lounge of the Lab Lemming, July 3)

More on the asbestos dust-up (Lounge of the Lab Lemming, July 4)

Throwing the Baby Out with the Bathwater: The Serpentine Issue in California (Geotripper, July 5)

Serpentine – SB 624, Senator Gloria Romero and ADAO (FakeMinerals.com, July 5)

Politics, California and serpentine (Eruptions, July 6)

Save Our State Rock...Serpentine Gets A Bad Rep! (AFMS- American Federation of Mineralogical Societies blog, July 6)

Down with serpentine; or, clueless in California (The Volcanism Blog, July 6)

Fear and Ignorance winning out over Education and Knowledge: Serpentine Bill Sailing on through Legislature (Geotripper, July 7)

First Of All, California, It’s Your State Rock And It’s Called Serpentinite (Maitri's VatulBlog, July 7)

California Senate to drop Serpentine as state rock because of asbestos ties (Halfway to Concord, July 8)

Throwing the Baby Out with the Bathwater: The Serpentine Issue in California (Geotripper at Daily Kos, July 9)

A Letter to Governor Schwarzenegger and the California Legislature...About Serpentine!?! (Geotripper, July 9)

Wow...If I had a press secretary, would my assemblyperson call me? Update on the serpentinite issue in California (Geotripper, July 11)

Speak up for serpentine (Oakland Geology, July 11)

California's Unique Serpentinite Landscapes 1 (Geotripper, July 11)

California's Unique Serpentinite Landscapes 2 - And How Education is a Better Choice than a Press Secretary (Geotripper, July 12)

The Law Against Serpentine: The Attorneys' Arena (Andrew Alden, About.com: Geology, July 12)

In praise of green rocks (Active Margin, July 12)

California's Unique Serpentinite Landscapes 3 - Finding Beauty (Geotripper, July 13)

Save our serpentine! (California Dreaming - and the Reality, July 13)

California's Unique Serpentinite Landscapes 4: What can our state rock tell us about geologic processes on Mars? (Geotripper, July 14)

Geology Fail: California Moves to Disown State Rock (Discover Magazine, Discoblog, July 14)

An Introduction to Asbestos, clicks through to the next article (Andrew Alden, About.com: Geology, July 14)

Asbestos in a Nutshell: This miracle material has taught us some lessons (Andrew Alden, About.com: Geology, July 14)

Standing up for serpentinite (Highly Allochthonous, July 15)

A Serpentine-Inspired Rant (Haronic Tremors, July 15)

Serpentine Collecting Spots around California (map by Justin Zzyzx, July 15)

Unscientific California: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Serpentine and Biodiversity (Discover Magazine, The Intersection, Sheril Kirshenbaum, July 15, 2010)

California's Unique Serpentinite Landscapes 5: Doing What I Like to Do, and An Invitation! (Geotripper, July 16)

Calling on Californians: West Coast Represent! (Discover Magazine, The Intersection, Sheril Kirshenbaum, July 18, 2010)

California's Unique Serpentinite Landscapes: Eldridge Moores and California's State Rock (Geotripper, July 18)

What California most needs right now -- a defrocking campaign! (Classical Values, July 23)

Serpentinite Adored (Andrew Alden, About.com: Geology, July 23)
SB 624 Senator Romero’s Lies (and more lying liars that tell them) (FakeMinerals.com, July 24)

Fighting For California's State Rock: What's Wrong With Senate Bill 624? (Geotripper, July 25)

Fighting For California's State Rock: What's Right With Serpentine? (Geotripper, July 25)

At home with serpentine (Oakland Geology, July 27)

My Serpentine Letter (Oakland Geology, July 28)

Rock in the limelight: serpentinite (Angelina Souren's Earth Blog, July 29)

My letter opposing SB 624: Serpentin(it)e (Perrykid's Posts, July 29)

An Update on the State Rock Debate in California (Geotripper, August 1)

San Francisco suiseki (Oakland Geology, August 1)

Serpentinite - California's State Rock (Gigapan by Ron Schott, August 1)

The Power of Words: The Debate over Serpentine in California (Geotripper, August 2)

Snaky Words like Serpentinite and Ophiocalcite (Olelog, August 3)

A #CAserpentine photo (Ron Schott, taken May 24, uploaded August 3; click #CAserpentine tag for more photos)

Learn the Facts About Serpentinite Before It’s Removed as California’s State Rock (KQED's Quest Science Blog, Brian Romans, August 5)

Serpentine, Science, and the politics of fear (Talkin' Rocks, August 8)

Save California's State Rock: CGF opposes SB 624 (CGF, Committee for Green Foothills, Greenfeet, August 9)

Standing on a Rock: Why the California Legislature Needs to Hear From Educators, Students and Scientists (Geotripper, August 10)

California Serpentine: To Assembly Member Lieu - A Question of Openness and Fairness (Geotripper, August 12)

Home Sweet Serpentine (KQED's Quest Science Blog, Jennifer Skene, August 16)

The California Serpentine Fight Goes On (Andrew Alden, About.com: Geology, August 19)

Politics of a rock (California's Islands, August 23)

Ding, Dong, SB624 Is Dead (Andrew Alden, About.com: Geology, September 2, 2010)

Erionite and Cancer in Cappadocia, Turkey (Olelog, November 5, 2010)

Serpentinite and mélange (Mountain Beltway, December 25, 2010)

Guest Post - Naturally Harmful Metals and Minerals (The Geology P.A.G.E., December 29, 2010)

Concerns over erionite dust as cancer source (Arizona Geology, January 5, 2011)

Mineralogical Society of America proposes a position statement on Asbestos (Lounge of the Lab Lemming, March 1, 2011)

Asbestos (Hudson Valley Geologist, March 9, 2011)

Maligned Minerals and Serpentinite in Sun (En Tequila Es Verdad, July 31, 2011)

My state’s official rock is a mineral! (En Tequila Es Verdad, Karen Locke, January 11, 2013)

Chrysotile (Sandatlas, March 3, 2013)


More about Serpentine, Serpentinite, and Related Topics:
A Serpentine Haiku: Peter B. Moyle, unknown date.

California State Rock: Serpentine: State Symbols USA.

Klamath-Siskiyou Wilderness Wild and Rugged Sanctuary: California Academy of Sciences – about flora and fauna and serpentinite (among other things).

California Floristic Project: Centres of Plant Diversity, Smithsonian Institution.

North American Serpentine Flora, U.S.A. and Canada: Centres of Plant Diversity, Smithsonian Institution.

Day, D., 2005, Rugged Plants Struggle to Survive on Barren Serpentine Soil: Northern California Geological Society Newsletter, February 2005 [also reprinted here].

Hotz, P. E., 1964, Nickeliferous laterites in southwestern Oregon and northwestern California: Economic Geology, v. 59, no. 3, p. 355-396 [abstract].

Rinaudo, Caterina, Gastaldi, Daniela, and Belluso, Elena, 2003, Characterization of chrysotile, antigorite, and lizardite by FT-Raman spectroscopy: The Canadian Mineralogist, vol. 41, p. 883-890.

Wrucke, C. T., 1995, Serpentine- and carbonate-hosted asbestos deposits, in USGS Open-file Report 95-831.


And Some Other News-Type Items:
Recreation Wrongly Targeted in Clear Creek Closure (Blueribbon Coalition, May 1, 2008)

Several Sierra trails are toxic, group says (San Francisco Chronicle, SFGate, June 23, 2010)

California's state rock raked over the coals (San Francisco Chronicle, SFGate, June 24, 2010)

Why rock this boat? Decertifying the California state rock, serpentine, because it contains asbestos won't alleviate the cancer that the substance causes. (Los Angeles Times, July 28, 2010)

Should California's state rock be stripped of its title because it contains asbestos? (Los Angeles Times, July 2, 2010)

Lawmakers have serpentine rocks in their heads (San Francisco Chronicle, SFGate, July 3, 2010)

Letters to the Editor (San Francisco Chronicle, SFGate, July 3, 2010)

California Looks to Shun State Rock Over Asbestos Content (DailyTech, July 6, 2010)

Is Mother Nature Really Out To Get Us? (Carnegie Forever, July 6, 2010)

Serpentine Politics (Burrito Justice, July 6, 2010)

Dan Walters: California state-rock bill has serpentine agenda (Fresno Bee, July 9, 2010)

What's Underneath the State Rock Bill? More Lawsuit Abuse! (California Civil Justice Blog, July 9, 2010)

Throwing the Baby Out with the Bathwater: The Serpentine Issue in California (Geotripper at Daily Kos, July 9)

Rock stuck in a hard place (San Francisco Examiner, July 10, 2010)

Personal Injury Lawyers Between a Rock and a Hard Place - Lawsuit Industry Picks a Fight With Geologists and Friends (California Justice Association of California - CJAC, July 12, 2010)

State rock debate rocks Twitter The Sacramento Bee, CapitolAlert, July 13, 2010)

Lawmakers want to get state rock off the books (The Oakland Tribune, InsideBayArea.com, Political Blotter, July 13, 2010)

Outcry as State Rock Toppled (The Bay Citizen, July 13, 2010)

California May Drop Rock, and Geologists Feel the Pain (New York Times, July 13, 2010)

California May Drop Its Official State Rock (New York Times, July 13, 2010)

The battle over the California state rock (CalCoastNews, July 14, 2010)

Geology Fail: California Moves to Disown State Rock (Discover Magazine, Discoblog, July 14, 2010)

Calif may dump 'state rock' that contains asbestos (AP, Yahoo! News, July 15, 2010)

Unscientific California: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Serpentine and Biodiversity (Discover Magazine, The Intersection, Sheril Kirshenbaum, July 15, 2010)

Geologists take to Twitter to save beloved rock (Mother Nature Network, July 15, 2010)

Lawmakers Look To Change Cancer-Causing State Rock (The Huffington Post, July 15, 2010)

NYTimes, Calif. Press, twitterers too: Big ruckus over state rock serpentine, asbestos activists, and demonization of a stone (Knight Science Journalism Tracker, July 15, 2010)

Geologists protest bill to remove state rock (San Francisco Chronicle, SFGate, July 16, 2010)

Cut and thrust election online (The Sydney Morning Herald, smh.com.au, July 16, 2010)

Wait, they're going after the state rock? (FresnoBee.com News Blog, July 16, 2010)

Political call to 'defrock the rock' (The New Zealand Herald, nzherald.co.nz, July 17)

Lawmaker seeks to defrock 'toxic' official state rock (BBC News, July 17, 2010)

My Word: Rocky stance on serpentine status as state rock (Eureka Times-Standard, July 17, 2010)

My Word: Rocky stance on serpentine status as state rock (The Ukiah Daily Journal, July 17, 2010)

Our Opinion: Between a rock and a hard place (Imperial Valley Press, ivpressonline.com, July 18, 2010)

Calling on Californians: West Coast Represent! (Discover Magazine, The Intersection, Sheril Kirshenbaum, July 18, 2010)

A serpentine approach toward more asbestos litigation (PointofLaw.com, July 18, 2010)

Serpentine rocks on as CO2 vacuum (San Francisco Business Times, July 23, 2010)

Between a rock and a hard place: California’s rock debate (89.3 KPCC, Southern California Public Radio, podcast with Garry Hayes and Brian Wernicke, July 23, 2010)

'Serpentine, Shelly, Serpentine' (El Defensor Chieftan, July 24, 2010)

Geologists Revolt Over Proposal to Change California State Rock (Gawker, July 24, 2010)

Natural Wonders: California state rock in danger of demotion (Chico Enterprise-Record, ChicoER.com, July 24, 2010)

Hamlin: Don't laugh -- this is really important legislative stuff (The Reporter (Vacaville), July 25, 2010)

Californians Debate Fate of Official State Rock (Voice of America, VOANews.com, July 26, 2010)

The irrational fear of our state rock (Los Angeles Times Opinion, July 27, 2010)

Caught between the state rock and a hard place (Stockton Record, Recordnet.com, August 2, 2010)

Ashton: MJC teacher on a mission to vindicate state rock (The Modesto Bee, August 2, 2010)

Why California is between a rock and a hard place (Manteca Bulletin, August 5, 2010)

Serpentine to Avoid Flying Serpentine! (OCWeekly, August 5, 2010)

‘Save the rock’ or ‘Drop the rock’? (The Orange County Register, August 12, 2010)

Editorial: Stop ridiculous debate over state rock (The Oakland Tribune, InsideBayArea, August 13, 2010)

State rock controversy enters new phase (The Sacramento Bee, Dan Walters, August 18, 2010)


Finally:
Signs: "Warning Unsafe To Enter" and "Everything Outside Might Be Dangerous"

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NOTE:

I will be updating the Geoblogosphere and news links as more posts and articles are written.