Pacific Sun Weekly 02.10.2012 - Section 1

Page 15

›› GOING GREEN

It’s sedimentary, my dear children!

NEW SHIPMENT OF FRESH PRODUCT

rockÆowerpaper company store’s

Wholesale Warehouse Sale Self Care: Your Key to

Vibrant Health

Rocks have secrets to tell—and here’s one woman who isn’t stone deaf... by Joanne Williams

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rock is just a rock to most of us, but the California deserts; and metamorphic to scientists, rocks hold secrets that (marble, quartzite, schist and slate), comare important to everything we do. monly found in the Coast Ranges, the SiThere are 35 different minerals in a televi- erra and the California deserts. sion set, for instance, and 15 different ones “On ďŹ eld trips we talk about geological in the average automobile; they are in lip- hazards—volcanoes, earthquakes, landstick, cake our, kitty litter and linoleum slides and tsunamis—how to be aware tiles. Minerals are and protect everywhere in the yourself, how rocks around us— to protect the and they talk to geland, the marshes ologist Pam Polite and mountains Fisco. through sustainThey reveal that able use practicsome are useful, es, and personal some dangerous safety,â€? she said. and some quite “We test rocks valuable. Rocks tell for their propertheir genealog y, ties. Serpentine, their history, their which is found in geography, Polite Marin, weathFisco says, and ers to a very soft she is passing on state and sometheir message to times forms in elementary school asbestos crystals, Polite Fisco, further icing her knowledge of the Earth at Fox kids in Marin. which can be a Glacier in New Zealand. When Polite hazard if crumFisco was a little bled and inhaled. girl she would rush to her mother with Dateable rocks and fossils help to tell us each new rock she found, exclaiming, “’To- the age of different regions and what the nies, ’tonies! I found rocks, Mom!â€? Today, land was like when these rocks formed— Polite Fisco teaches all about rocks and ocean, beach, valley or volcano. We learn minerals to students as a visiting scientist how the continents on the surface of the in local schools. “Like me, kids love rocks,â€? Earth have moved over the eons from the she said. shifting of the tectonic plates. She totes her personal library of rocks— “As we learned from the meteorites that from gemstones and fossils to granites, recently fell to Earth from Mars, the unisandstones and volcanic rocks—to give verse is very old—those meteorites may fourth-graders a solid education about the have started falling this way a billion years Earth around them. “They are especially ago.â€? Some meteorites are rocky and othinterested in minerals we ďŹ nd on ďŹ eld ers are very dense, made of heavy metallic trips and those around the house,â€? she minerals. said, “and they learn which of them might After studying rocks in the classroom, be hazardous if not handled carefully. kids take ďŹ eld trips to Ring Mountain, “That’s why I tell them ‘rocks talk,’â€? Po- where they may pick up rocks to examlite Fisco said. “They tell us how the Earth ine but they can’t leave with them. (Ring evolved, what it gives to us, how to manage Mountain is a preserve and rocks have to it carefully.â€? stay there.) “I encourage kids to start their What is the essential deďŹ nition of a rock? own rock collection with the samples I According to Polite Fisco, who has a mas- give them and to go on trails in other areas ter’s degree in geology from Rice Universi- to ďŹ nd their own specimens. Kids like to ty, it’s a solid made up of two or more min- ďŹ nd rocks and bring them in to identify. erals. There are three kinds: igneous (such The hardest to ďŹ nd are whole crystals and as granite, basalt and scoria or “lava rockâ€?), whole fossils. I have to buy most of the commonly found in mountainous areas like ones in my rock library,â€? she said. the Sierra Nevada, Klamath and Cascade Polite Fisco, a skilled cyclist and skier, is Ranges; sedimentary (such as sandstone, off to India soon. No doubt she’ll bring a shale and greywacke), commonly found in few rocks back with her. < the Central Valley, the Coast Ranges and Stone Joanne at ghwilliams6@gmail.com.

Our company store is selling a huge selection of totes, lacquer trays, kitchen textiles, espadrilles and more at wholesale prices. We just got a new shipment in from our warehouse this week, so come in and see what we have! Sale runs through end of February.

herbs and spices, vitamins, supplements fine teas & spices • organic skincare “do-it-yourselfâ€? supplies weekly workshops & classes integrative healthcare clinic

145 Tunstead Avenue (next to Jack’s Pharmacy)

228 Sir Francis Drake Blvd. • San Anselmo 415 524 8693 • gatheringthyme.com

San Anselmo • 415-462-0001* www.rockÆowerpaper.com

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