Category: News

The Tualatin Valley Rock and Gem Club likes to keep members informed on the news in our industry about earth sciences, club activities, community activities, and news we can use for our hearts made of stone – melted by our passion for rocks and gems.

This category features such newsworthy items.

If you are a member of our club and would like to submit newsworthy bits to this site or the newsletter, please let us know at our regular meetings or contact us.
For more information on Tualatin Valley Rock and Gem activities, check out our events category and calendar. If you would like more information on rock collecting, identification, and resources, check out our Education page and Earth Sciences topics.

If you would like to become a member, please join us. If you have any questions or need more information, please contact us so we may help.

Upcoming Club Meetings

The Club will now resume in person meetings at the Forest Grove Senior Center with the use of CDC guidelines, this includes masks and social distancing for all meetings. The senior center will be checking vaccination cards if you wish to not use the mask, So bring your vaccination cards or proof of vaccination

Our first meeting on June 10th at 7:30pm will be in person at the senior center (presenter to be projected on a screen by our tvgc host) or you can still view it online at your home through zoom by using the link below.

Our Topic for this presentation will be:

How We Use Minerals to Learn About Magmas in the Columbia River Basin Presented by Martin Streck

To Join Zoom Meeting from home:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7622599108?pwd=TlN6QUpQeWVYdWRNUEhEZGI5ZDhTQT09

Our 4th Thursday of the month meeting is June 24th – 7pm (social meeting) will resume in person only at the Forest Grove senior center with CDC guidelines (facial coverings) and will continue to meet every 4th Thursday in person.

The Board meetings:

Board meeting for June will still be on Wednesday June 9th at 7pm over zoom (please give us notification if you wish to attend).

However, starting in July, the board meetings will resume in person at the Forest Grove senior center at 6:30pm just before the general meeting on the second Thursday of the month.

In Memory And Recognition

As some of you may already know Carl Weaver passed away on April 27, 2021. He was a huge active supporter of the club and long term member, having served on the TVGC Board and volunteering at club functions over the years. His knowledge of turquoise (and other rocks and minerals) and silversmithing benefitted the club with the free silversmithing instructions he gave to club members and the lapidary displays he had at our shows. We will miss his kindness, Generosity and smiling face. 🕊

In Memory and Recognition

Long term tvgc member, Rose Tacholsky Jackson passed away recently after a long battle with cancer. She fought long and hard and kept positive in the face of difficulty. Even in the midst of her worst days, she was still amazed by the beauty of creation around her. She was caring and proud of her husband, kids, and grandkids. She loved her family and friends and always had something wonderful to say about them and enjoyed her many memories of time spent with them. Her love of all things rocks was infectious. She and her husband Tom, would spend many days and miles traveling to rock shows and meeting up with old friends and making new ones.

We, along with her family, will miss Rose’s contributions, strength, loyalty, perseverance, joyfulness, love of beauty, and life. You will be missed! 🕊

Our May 13th Meeting, at 7:30 pm on zoom

Join us and author Leslie Moclock, (many of you will remember her as former curator of the Rice NW Museum of Rocks and Minerals) as she talks about the subject of her new book Rocks, Minerals and Geology of the Pacific Northwest, a new field guide to the landscapes of Oregon and Washington. This book helps you learn to read the story of the rocks, from how to identify and name the things you see to understanding what those features signify in the fascinating geological history of our region. It covers geology at all scales, from mineral crystals to mountains, with hundreds of photographs and many illustrations and diagrams.

Author Leslie Moclock & Jacob Selandar

Leslie Moclock has an MS in geology from the University of California–Davis, where she taught field and laboratory geology. She held the position of curator at the Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals in Hillsboro, Oregon, for five years, where she enjoyed many opportunities to bring science to the public.

Join our meeting at the specified time by simply clicking the link provided below:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7622599108?pwd=TlN6QUpQeWVYdWRNUEhEZGI5ZDhTQT09

New Year Meetings Information

🎆Happy New Year to all!🎉 May 2021 be an extraordinarily good one (in health and happiness). We hope that everyone continues to grow in knowledge and come together as community in good faith.

As everyone knows, we will continue our meetings on zoom with our normal meeting times on the second Thursday until further notice. Members may wish to share the zoom link with friends also interested in rocks, fossils etc.. Also, share your favorite 2020 rock finds, stories, purchases and gifts at any of our meetings.

Join us on January 14th – For this meeting, you might also consider any fossil amber with insects or pictures of them to share. Our first meeting topic of the new year starts off with Author Dr. William Orr (who wrote “Oregon Fossils & Oregon Geology to name a few) with a presentation on Fossil Insects.

Fun fossil facts – Oldest known fossil of an insect dates back to 400 million years. One of the insects with the largest wingspan was the Meganeura (actually classified as a Griffinflies) with a wingspan of over 27 inches from about 300 million years ago that looked like a dragonfly. Discovered in France and England.

Very tiny mystery insect – Photo By C. Yablok

Other upcoming meeting topics include:

February 11th @ 7:30pm – Global Glacial change, given by Andrew Fountain

March 11th @ 7:30pm – Hunt for Iceberg Erratics, given by Rick Thompson.

Mr. Thompson is President of the Lower Columbia Chapter of the Ice Age
Floods Institute which holds monthly public educational meetings in
Tualatin. He was instrumental in identifying and scripting signage for
several significant glacial erratics in Washington County; has been
interviewed for a number of newspaper articles and was twice featured on
Grant McOmie’s “Grant’s Getaway” television program. His website is: http://www.GigaFlood.com.

If you would like to learn more join us on Zoom by clicking the link below.

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7622599108?pwd=TlN6QUpQeWVYdWRNUEhEZGI5ZDhTQT09

April 8th @ 7:30pm – The Crooked River Caldera a geologic and historical account of the area near Prineville OR., Given by Carrie Gordon

Virtual meeting for December 10th at 7:30pm

Our meeting topics include installation of officers for the new year of 2021 and A presentation given by Matthew Gould.

Matthew is an accomplished sphere maker, A wonderfully enthusiastic individual who has built very strong connections in the rock community other than just the fact that he has fascinating tips for the lapidary work.

So bring a drink and some snacks (or even a dinner) to the zoom meeting as you meet our new officers of the board or bring questions for Matthew Gould and learn about his work.

Virtual online zoom November 12th meeting

The presentation for this Thursday, November 12, 2020. Will be done by Bob O’Black. He has a great presentation on fluorescents in rocks and minerals.

We will also be having our election of officers just following. Here are the current candidates:
President – Casey Truman, Vice President – Richelle Borlaug, Treasurer – Linda Harvey, Secretary – Bill Harvey, Board Member – Casey Sessions, Board Member (Alternate) – Brett Cooper.

Bob Oblack is a retired electrical engineer from Tektronix. He has attended Dr. Bill Orr’s geology classes at Chemeketa Community College…to better understand the science that underlies our rockhounding hobby.
Bob has been a Rockhound ever since he was able to walk on the beach looking for agates. It’s “The Thrill of the Hunt” that drives his passion for Rockhounding. He joined the NARG fossil club and the Fluorescent Mineral Society to add breadth and depth to “The Thrill of the Hunt”.
Bob lives near the Molalla River and with support from the Molalla Culture and Art Committee created two videos about the Columbia River Basalt (CRB) flows and geologic points of interest within the Wild and Scenic Molalla River Corridor and traced the CRB flows from the Molalla River Corridor to the pacific ocean. These videos can be viewed on the Welcome Molalla YouTube channel.
Here are the links:
https://youtu.be/MzxqWmtgKPY
https://youtu.be/uC84I15Qnxk
Bob volunteers his time to help the Clackamette club promote their annual rock show. He shares his knowledge of Molalla Are Geology and Fluorescent Minerals with others via Home-Schooled-Children Field Trips and presentations like this.

Calcite under long wave uv light

Virtual Meeting Presentations for October

The following meetings for October will be held virtually through Zoom.com on your computer.

One way to do this is 1) go to zoom.com on your computer. 2) On the opening page click at the top “join a meeting” (You do not need a zoom account or to register to join the meeting! But, have your meeting ID and the password ready to be entered which is sent to you through the membership email before the meeting).

The easier way – From the email sent to you from the club under “Join Zoom Meeting” click the underlined link. (this already has the meeting id and password embedded in the link).

Now zoom will prompt you with an “open link” click this.

After you click “open link”, next click “join with video” and then click “join with audio”.

You may also join the meeting on an apple device or on your mobile device by the downloaded zoom app just enter the meeting id and password. Or after you have the app loaded on your phone go to the email that was sent to you and click the underlined link under the words “Join zoom Meeting“.

October 8th, at 7:30 pm

Topic is “Dynamic Geologic History of the National Parks of the Pacific Northwest” presented by Scott Burns.

7910B49C-A228-4699-87AA-01A4FC732BA8
Mt. Hood, Photo by C. Yablok

For more on geology, fossils and minerals check out our membership Sharing page