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Dr. C’s Blog about Exploring 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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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.
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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 Check out her Facebook.
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