Osage Rock & Mineral Club

08/19/2026

A little recognition for our club. For our donations to the American Federation of Mineralogical Societies Scholarship Fund.

07/17/2026

Congratulations to our OMRC 2026 show Grand Prize winners:

Grand Prize, Adults:
Bruce Allison, Camdenton, MO.

Grand Prize, Kids
Shasta Taylor, Macks Creek, MO

06/26/2026

Come on dawn to the Osage Rock and Mineral Club show. Today from 2-6 pm. Pictures are from Rhonda's Rocks and relics, a new vendor for this year.

06/26/2026

Come on down to the Osage Rock and Mineral Club Annual Show for a chance to win this beautiful piece of tourmaline with mica as our grand prize. Today from 2-6. Tomorrow from 9-6. Sunday from 9-3.

06/09/2026

Mark your calendars! This promises to be an exciting show with several new vendors.

04/25/2026

Lapis lazuli has one of the longest, most geographically expansive histories of any gemstone. The oldest known mines, Sar‑e‑Sang in Badakhshan, Afghanistan, were already active by the 7th millennium BC, supplying a deep blue stone so rare that Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures treated it as sacred.
From these mountains, lapis traveled astonishing distances: to the Indus Valley, where beads appear in early burials; to Mesopotamia, where it entered elite ritual objects as early as the Ubaid period (c. 4900–4000 BC); and to Egypt, where it symbolized the heavens and resurrection and was embedded in amulets and royal regalia, including the mask of Tutankhamun.
Its scarcity, intense color, and association with the divine made it more valuable than gold in many ancient societies.
By the mid‑ to late Bronze Age (c. 2000–1000 BC), lapis lazuli had become a cornerstone of long‑distance trade linking Central Asia, the Near East, and North Africa. Caravans carried it westward along land routes through Iran and Mesopotamia, while later maritime routes expanded its reach.
Afghan lapis dominated the ancient world because of its unmatched quality, and its movement across continents reflected shifting political alliances, trade networks, and religious symbolism. By the Middle Ages, Europe imported lapis to grind into ultramarine, the most prized blue pigment of Renaissance art, further extending its cultural legacy.

03/29/2026

Mark your Calendars!

03/10/2026

01/31/2026

These odd sandy patches are the fingerprints of some of the largest earthquakes in U.S. history. 🧐😲

Pale patches of sand stand out like scars against the deep greens and browns of the fields. To most people, they're insignificant. But to anyone familiar with the history of this landscape, they're lingering reminders of a cataclysm that shook the region over 200 years ago.

These are the remnants of sand blows caused by the 1811–1812 New Madrid earthquakes, a sequence of three massive magnitude 7–8 events that tore through what is now northeastern Arkansas, southeastern Missouri, northwestern Tennessee, and southwestern Kentucky.

During those violent months, the shaking destroyed river settlements, triggered landslides, and even made the Mississippi River appear to reverse its flow.

The tremors were felt more than a thousand miles (1,600 km) away—in places as far-flung as Connecticut, South Carolina, and Louisiana.

One of the most dramatic consequences was liquefaction, when saturated ground behaves like a fluid. Under the intense shaking, pressurized water and sand erupted onto the surface, forming sand blows and fissures that covered more than 4,000 square miles (10,400 km²).

Ranging from a few inches to several feet across, sand blows often resemble miniature volcanic cones.

The sandy patches near New Madrid, Missouri are the enduring remnants of these dramatic sand blows, still imprinted into the landscape more than two centuries later.

Today, the New Madrid Seismic Zone remains one of the most closely monitored geologic regions in the United States. Studies estimate a 25–40% chance of a magnitude 6.0 or greater earthquake in the next 50 years, with a 7–10% chance of a repeat of the 1811–1812 events.

For nearby major cities like Memphis and St. Louis, the risks to infrastructure, real estate, and regional finance remain significant.

For travelers, residents, and anyone curious about Earth’s hidden forces, these sandy patches offer a rare chance to read history directly from the ground. They are a striking reminder that the fingerprints of some of the most powerful events in American geologic history are still etched into the landscape all around us. 🌎

Source: usgs[dot]gov/programs/earthquake-hazards/new-madrid-seismic-zone