GMS Junior Section Field Trip April 2025

GMS Junior Section Field Trip
Easter Egg Hunt and Kyanite in Georgia
Sunday, April 13, 2025

This is a much-anticipated and popular Junior Section field trip where juniors enjoy an Easter egg hunt GMS-style, and get to collect kyanite. GMS members, including some juniors, started by filling plastic Easter eggs with rocks and fossils. Jane Stone, GMS rock show chair, set aside many interesting rocks and fossils for us in labelled bags. During the egg-loading, members left one piece in each bag. Later, they hid the eggs and waited for the rest of the juniors to arrive. It was hard to hold them back, but once they got the signal to go, off they went!

One of the requirements for juniors is that they must bring a notebook and pencil, then write down what all of their Easter egg goodies are. Juniors used the labelled specimens to identify their goodies, and other members were on hand to help identify specimens as well.

After the Easter egg portion of the trip, juniors searched the area for kyanite. Unlike most kyanite that you might see at a rock show, the kyanite there is not blue. Rather, it is a blue-gray color due to the inclusion of graphite. In addition, one of our former juniors, Aaron Leatherwood, who is now working on his PhD, is studying some unusual twinning found there, so he was nearby digging more samples to test.

Diana Poppelreuter wire-wrapped Easter egg stones as well as kyanite that juniors had just found! Juniors proudly wore their pendants as they made friends with their fellow juniors. We had one more surprise for them. Specimens donated by GMS members for the Junior Section, as well as some specimens that Terrilynn Price brought that morning, were arranged on a table for juniors to see. Then, they drew numbers, lined up in numerical order, and enjoyed three rounds of door prizes!

But that’s not all, Jason Leatherwood gave a quick overview of Aaron’s kyanite study and explained how important field work is for learning about geology, minerals, and fossils. He told juniors that only a few years ago, Aaron was just like them, and now all of his years of rockhounding have led to his kyanite research. After hearing about the study, one of the juniors realized he might have found a specimen of the unusual twinning that day – and he did! He donated his piece for research, and was invited to be in the lab when Aaron runs some tests on it.

The trip ended with a group photo, then we all bid each other adieu – juniors thrilled with their rocks, fossils, kyanite, and wonderful experience – the rest of us, happy to have contributed to the day.

Many, many thanks to the property owner who lets us invade her tranquil property for a few frenzied hours of fun. Thank you to the volunteers who filled eggs, set up a tent and tables, put all of that stuff back, and were quick to help when the need arose. Thank you to Diana for wrapping so many beautiful pendants, Jane for setting aside labelled specimens for the eggs, Terrilynn for bringing awesome door prizes, and Jason for mineral ID and for telling us about Aaron’s research! Thanks as well to the parents and juniors who spent their day with us. And, as always, thank you to Charles for putting together another GMS Easter Egg hunt and field trip!

Note: Specific location information is not included in this report to respect the privacy of property owners.

Lori Carter on behalf of Charles Carter
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