1. GEOLOGY 3:
LAB/FIELD
ASSIGNMENT
Benitoite mine and Los Gatos
Creek in Coalinga, California.

2. Late October
• It took quite some time for me to decide where I wanted to head
out to so I could do this Lab/Field assignment. I finally decided on
going just a few miles out of Coalinga to go to two different places.
• The California State Gem Mine
• Los Gatos Creek
• The California State Gem Mine is luckily co-owned by one of my best
friends so he walked me through some of the camp, the history of
the mine and camp, and showed me rocks such as Shist (aka
Crossite) , Neptunite, and lastly, Benitoite.
• Los Gatos Creek is a recreational camp site roughly half an hour out
of Coalinga. When I visited the camp site, the creek wasn’t as filled
as it is at times, but there were quite as few trees that I was able to
get pictures of.

3. Los Gatos Creek and Surrounding Areas
• Los Gatos Creek in located in the Diablo Range just outside of Coalinga.
• Although it was quite challenging to find geological history of the creek, I did
manage to find out Los Gatos Creek/Canyon was originally named Arroyo Pasajero.
• The Arroyo Pasajero was occupied by Native Americans called the Chane, and was
later settled by Spanish and, then, Mexicans.
Los Gatos
Creek

4. Angus Scientific
Classification
• Kingdom: Animalia
The Livestock • Phylum: Chordata
 Coalinga and its outskirts is
• Class: Mammalia
known for having many • Order: Artiodactyla
open spaces that is used for • Family: Bovidae
either farming or livestock.
• Subfamily: Bovinae
 These cows seem to be
Angus considering their
color, lack of horns, and
habitat.
 Originally, this type of
cattle came from Northern
Scotland and have
apparently existed there
before recorded history.
 All cattle are believed to
have evolved from Aurochs,
an extinct breed which used
to reside in Europe, the
middle East, India, and
North Africa.
Image Source Page:
Image Source Page:
http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/12300/12371/aurochs_12371.htm http://www.freeworldmaps.net/europe/united-
kingdom/scotland/map.html

5. Livestock continued
• Going up to Los Gatos Creek (also
referred to as the canyon for places
before or past the creek) there are
mainly cattle and horses roaming around,
so next I stopped to take a couple
pictures of the horses.
Horse Scientific Classification
• When researching what type of breed these • Kingdom: Animalia
two horses could be, I came upon a difficult • Phylum: Chordata
fact: there are many types of breeds which • Class: Mammalia
• Order: Perissodactyla
could be black in color—many of which only • Family: Equidae
have slight differences. • Genus: Equus
• The origins of the black breeds varies from
Russia, France, Czech Republic, and Italy.
• The earliest known horse is the
Hyracotherium, which lived about 55 million
years ago in the woodlands of the Northern
Hemisphere.
Image Source Page: http://nmfossils.org/Select_2O.asp

6. Wild Tarantulas
 On an earlier date before I
had began my lab, I was
once again on the road
out to the canyon when
something caught my eye
on the road. Tarantula Scientific
 There were about three Classification
wild Tarantulas on and on • Kingdom: Animalia
the side of the road.
• Phylum: Arthropoda
 These Tarantulas look to • Class: Arachnida
be the Hairy Tarantulas. • Order: Araneae
 The evolution of spiders in • Superfamily:
general is not well known, Theraphosoidea
but there has been only
• Family: Theraphosidae
two specimens of
mygalomorph spiders that
can be linked to the
Tarantulas.

7. The California State Gem Mine
The California State Gem Mine was founded in 1907 by
James Couch, but R.W. Dallas reigned control over the
mine.
During the years 1912-1920, the mine was no longer being
worked on.
Over the next decades, the mine was leased out to many
owners until it was sold to Dave Schreiner in 2005.
From then on, they mine one of they rarest gems,
Benitoite, and other gems.
CA State Gem Mine

8. Benitoite, Shist (aka Crossite) , and Neptunite.
• Benitoite is one of the rarest
and expensive gems, and is also
the state gem. Sizes of the gem
are usually small but are
hexagonal. They are most
common a sapphire blue or
white, and very slimly pink. On
the hardness scale the Benitoite
is a 6-61/2. It’s fracture is Crossite
conchoidal and glows
underneath an UV light. Neptunite
• The Benitoite is found within
the rock Shist, but better
known as Crossite. It’s a rock
that is rough in texture and has
many fractures in which the
Benitoite and Neptunite are
found. Benitoite
• Neptunite is black in color and
opaque. It is brittle and the
fracture is also conchoidal.

9. Los Gatos Creek trees.

10. Classifying the Trees
• The first tree on the • The following tree • The last tree looks to be
previous slide I believe seems to look like an a pine tree. The
is a maple tree. The oak three. Its scientific classification
scientific classification scientific for the pine tree is:
for the maple tree is: classification is: • Kingdom: Plantae
• Kingdom: Plantae • Kindgom: Plantae • Division: Pinophyta
• Angiosperms • Class: Pinopsida
• Angiosperms
• Eudicots • Order: Pinales
• Eudicots
• Rosids
• Family: Pinaceae
• Rosids
• Genus: Pinus
• Order: Sapindales • Order: Fagales
• Family: Sapindaceae • Family: Fagaceae
• Subfamily: • Genus: Quercus
Hippocastanoideae
• Genus: Acer

11. THE CALIFORNIA
STATE GEM MINE &
LOS GATOS CREEK

12. Bibliography
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November 4, 2011 from
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Cattle?oldid=852142.
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13. Bibliography Continued…
• Horse Classification, History and Taxonomy. (n.d.). Information on all horse breeds
from A to Z. Retrieved December 5, 2011, from
http://www.allhorsebreeds.info/horse-classification.html
• Intensity(I/I. (n.d.). Benitoite Mineral Data. Mineralogy Database. Retrieved
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(n.d.). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved December 5, 2011, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Gatos_Creek_(Fresno_County,_California)
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(n.d.). Mineralogy Database - Mineral Collecting, Localities, Mineral Photos and Data.
Retrieved November 15, 2011, from http://www.mindat.org
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14. Bibliography Continued…
• bovid (mammal) :: Evolution and diversification -- Britannica Online
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volution-and-diversification