Current Geology Related Research Projects

North Florida Heavy Mineral Mining:  I have lived in Jacksonville on and off since 1965.  During that period, I noticed on many occasions that the gray colored sand was the result of dark colored miinerals mixed in with the quartz.  I also noticed that in some areas of the beach the darker minerals are concentrated due to dissimilar current flow.  Examination of the sand under the microscope revealed that the sand consisted of mostly quartz particles; mostly colorless and milky but with some amethyst and citrine.  There were also red particles, possibly garnet and ruby and smaller particles of very dark, mostly opaque, particles. I learned that the beach sands were mined in Ponte Vedre Beach in the 40s.  Street names in the vicinity of the exclusive Ponte Vedra Inn and Club are named after heavy minerals; Rutile Place, Ilmenite Court etc.  During 2003,  I became interested in increasing my reseach effort and I discovered that "heavy minerals" were being actively mined in northeast Florida.  I visited the Dupont mining and processing locations near Starke, Florida and the ILUKA mining and processing locations south of Green Cove Springs, Florida.  I incorporated my research of heavy mineral mining in northeast Florida into my Project Geo program at UNF as student research topics.
Check out the Project Geo Website for the following student projects:
Fall 2004; "Study of the Mineral Characteristics of Northeast Florida Beach sand"- The Sand Pirates
Spring 2005; "Isolation of Heavy MInerals from Northeast Florida Beach Sand"- The Miscievous Miner
Fall 2006; :DuPont Titanium Mining

Spruce Pine Pegmatite Mining District:  The Spruce Pine Mining District (pegmatite) is an area of about 10 miles (east-west) by 25 miles (north-south) in the area north and south of Route 19E in Yancey (Burnsville), Mitchell (Spruce Pine), and western Avery counties. The area is the world's primary producer of high quality silica (quartz) for use in electronics hardware (ie: computer chips) , and high quality feldspar used primarily in the United States for building materials (sheet rock).  The mica in the area was an important resource in the first half of the 20th century.  Associated minerals; emerald, aquamarine, and garnet are of high interest to mineral collectors.

In June, 2006, I attended the Asheville Gem and Mineral Show with a teaching friend from Terry Parker, Mike Hall.  After the show, we stayed at the Richmond Inn in Spruce Pine and collected minerals from local mines for about 10 days.  We used Rick Jaquett's book about rock collecting in western North Carolina and Lowell Presnell's book,  "Mines, Miners and Minerals of Western North Carolina" as our references for the trip.  We were fortunate to meet both authors at the Asheville show.  After the trip, I was able to add an activity in the Project Geo Program where the students "cobbed" (separated) the quartz, feldspar, and mica minerals just as the women did during the 1940s war years. Check out the Project Geo Website the Fall 2006 project "Spruce Pine Pegnmatites" (The Spruce Pine Girls) to read about the student project where the girl's "cobbed" the pegmatite material.  After the 2006 trip, I joined MAGMA (Mountain Area Gem and Mineral Association) and made a return trip the next summer 2007 (after I retired from teaching); this time for the Spruce Pine Gem and Mineral Show and the Grassy Creek Gem and Mineral Show. I had to skip the Spruce Pine mineral shows in August 2008 because I was marrried to Diana on August 16th.  But, we stopped by Spruce Pine and stayed at the Richmond Inn in the fall.  I found out that Diana liked to go "mining" and she also loved the mountains so we used the opportunity to look at cabins.  We returned in December 2008 and purchased a cabin in Micaville which is in the middle of the pegmatite area. Diana and I attended both the Spruce Pine and Grassy Creek Mineral Shows this past August 2009.  We went on a night collecting trip sponsored by KT Feldspar at their Pine Mountain Quarry where we collected excellent specimens of the uranium mineral Autunite which fluoresces bright green.  I have been working from the cabin on the research for a book and will be documenting my progress on front page of the website.

It seems that I have been involved in teaching in one form or another throughout both my military and public school careers.  As a flight instructor in the Navy and Air Force and in almost every aspect of my Navy experience, training and modeling were essesntial factors in learning success.  I taught Earth/Space Science, Oceanography, and Environmental Science during my sixteen year career in public school teaching. After my experience as an Earth Science Course Lab Instructor at UNF, I developed and taught Earth/Space Science Honors  in several forms for the last ten years at Terry Parker; initially  as a high level fourth science course, and for my last four years of teaching as part of Terry Parker's innovative Freshman Honors Academy.  I particularly enjoyed participating an extension activities such as:

Project GEO- Prioject GEO was a collaboration between myself and Dr. Nick Hudyma, a professor of geotechnical engineering at the University of North Florida (UNF). This program was intended to enable a highly motivated group of my students  interested in a career in science or engineering to get a taste of pure science research or solving an engineering related problem in a university lab setting.
Click on the Project GEO website for more information.

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