MY SUMMER VACATION (by Howard Green 08/28/02)

Being 49 years old and growing up in the Franklin area, I have certainly experienced efficient fluorescent collecting. But growing tired of the current predominance of "silver-pick" collecting, I decided to plan an adventure. My twenty-year old son, Danny, "owes" me two days of muscle annually, but I was pleasantly surprised when he "couldn’t pass up a collecting trip to Greenland, especially via Copenhagen, where all the girls are blond and they sell beer in the soda machines."

We set up our trip with the guidance of Mark Cole of Minershop.com. We left NY JFK on August 1, bound for Copenhagen, spent a few days there, and continued via an Air Greenland 757 bound for Narsarsuaq Airport in southern Greenland. In addition to the usual knapsacks, hammer and chisels, disposable cameras, and our trusty Superbright (allowed as carry-on with an identifying brochure) with battery pack and the new Europlug adapter, we had to make sure to be prepared for local conditions. The forecast was for temperatures in the high forties and potentially severe winds, twenty hours of bright sunlight, swarms of Arctic mosquitoes resembling "small birds with fur", and erratic food supplies. Thus we brought multiple layers of clothing, hiking boots and windbreakers, mosquito-net hats and 95% DEET, and plenty of food. We also brought an opaque black plastic barbecue grill cover to use as a portable tent for daylight UV viewing. Plans began to unravel when fog over southern Greenland prevented landing and we were forced to travel to Kangerlussuaq Airport at an abandoned US Air force base above the Arctic Circle. The airline put us up at a "conference center", but we were soothed by dinner at an actual first-class European-style restaurant, where Danny had reindeer and I had salmon and halibut for dinner (and of course Tuborg and Carlsburg).

We were able to fly out and land the next day but as our ferry connection was missed, our guide Peter Lindberg picked us up in his six-passenger motorboat for the one hour trip to his home and our home base for the next week, Narsaq. Despite predictions, we experienced a heat wave with daily temperatures in the seventies, no wind, no fog, no rain, and very demure mosquitoes. Narsaq is a population 2000 shore town fully stocked with computers and DVD players, cell phones, modern supermarkets, a hospital and a heliport. The fjords are a deep blue color, the icebergs bright bluish white, the sky bright blue, the town grassy, and all the one or two story buildings very brightly painted colors. We found the people in general and our guide Peter, his family and friends particularly hospitable. Their English is much better than our Danish ( I knew that salmon is "laks", and Danny knew that timetable is "fartplan") or Greenlandic, and more than adequate for all purposes except knowing the English names of the various fish we ate. Transportation to neighboring towns is by boat. The only road out of town leads to nowhere but the famous Illimaussaq mineral complex.

The March 1993 issue of the Mineralological Record offers the definitive geologic description of the Illimaussaq district. Technically great similarities exist between Illimaussaq minerals and those of the Kola Peninsula in Russia, and of Mt St Hillaire and the Kipawa complex in Quebec. In brief, Illimaussaq is a semicircular area on two separate islands separated by the Tunuliarfik Fjord, and is near where Eric the Red settled over a millenium ago. The mountain Illimaussaq is at the head of a valley several miles northeast of Narsaq. Arising on either side of the valley is the Tarsaq slope to the east and the famous Kvanefjeld peak on the west. On the shore of the fjord northeast of Narsaq is the original tugtupite site type locality. On the island east of Narsaq is another collecting site at the head of the Kangerluarsuk fjord. We would travel by boat or truck as far as possible and then hike up the mountains. Beautifully scenic mountains with snowy tops, separated by cold mountain streams with waterfalls and actual green vegetation belied the difficulty of the climbs, the actual soil being quite friable. Hikes uphill would take one or two hours, and downhill laden with rocks took just as long. With moderate caution, at no time was there any danger.

Upon arrival our first night we immediately went up the Tasaq slope for night UV collecting, waiting until 11 PM for darkness. There was enough light for accurate footing during our 2 AM descent. We found abundant quantities of massive yellow translucent sodalite fluorescing brilliant orange LW, less brilliant SW, intermingled with a bright green SW fluorescing mineral, possibly berylite. The sodalite fluorecsence is dramatically brighter and more beautiful than any Canadian, Russian, or Afganistan hackmanite or sodalite that I've seen, and is massive in basketball-sized boulders. There was plenty of tugtupite, white or pink rather than gemmy red in natural light but with the beautiful characteristic fluorescence of red SW and orange LW. This was the original site for the discovery of eudialyte, and there was plenty with large aerigine crystals, but the dull opaqueness of the eudialyte makes it inferior to the gemmy specimens from Kola and Quebec. We also found nonfluorescing analcime crystal arrays, with opaque but well-formed white golf ball sized crystal clusters. Mark’s website, www.minershop.com has great photos in both natural and UV light.

The next day we toured the capital of South Greenland, Qaqortoq, which was an hour boat ride from Narsaq. We then sailed past icebergs and seals to the head of the Kangerluarsuk Fjord, where we made our greatest finds of sodalite. The sodalite is either gemmy green or magenta, massive, and constituting the entire bulk of basketball-sized boulders. It is tenebrescent, turning magenta upon exposure to SW UV and staying that color until exposed to bright white light, which turns it back to its original color. This transformation doesn’t extinguish, or effect the fluorescent properties. Other intermingled fluorescents were albite F SW magenta, and green and blue unknowns.

Peter’s son, Ulrik, and Danny then informed us that the next day’s activity would be fishing instead of rock collecting. Thus, we spent the morning catching sea trout from the shore of a cove in the fjord, very similar to fly fishing in a river. These trout are actually what we call Arctic char here. Peter’s wife Judithe cooked our fish after the boys gutted them. My contribution was cooking the great Greenlandic delicacy kasha varnishkes, which we had brought with us.

Wednesday we made the most difficult climb to historic Kvanefjeld. The nearly vertical climb was almost too hard for me physically, and in my opinion impossible without an experienced guide. Gemmy tugtupite, (the Greenlandic name is tuttipit, meaning reindeer blood) was the goal here, but only achieved by picking someone else’s tailings or being a local expert. Peter is such an expert, his main profession being cutting tugtupite in cabs and setting it into beautiful necklaces and bracelets (I didn’t see any tugtupite Western string ties, thank goodness). I suggest visiting his website at www.greenlandstones.com. His method for finding tugtupite is to find a white vein in the traprock, drill into the vein, and if red smoke emerges, develop that vein. Needless to say this was beyond the scope of our collecting. We found adequate tugtupite with minor sorensite. I did manage to pick up a fist-sized piece of solid gemmy Kvanefjeld tugtupite from the local town mineral shop owner, Borge, who spoke no English, for an incredible $7. I also picked up a nice cryolite/siderite/galena specimen from him for the same price. The type locality for this is Ivigut, on Greenland’s southeast coast. He fooled me though (language barrier, not deceit) when I pointed to the willemite of the Mineralologic Record species list and he sold me villiaumite (not fluorescent and not comparable to that from Kola).

Thursday’s boat trip was along the fjord and required the seafaring expertise of Peter’s friend, Harry. Harry is a 75 year-old Norwegian who is an indescribably colorful character. Our first stop was close to town, up a steep and friable cliff where we found green and red sodalite, and associated ussingite. The altitude where the ussingite is found is almost inaccessible. Ussingite is a beautiful translucent lilac color, but doesn’t fluoresce like that from Kola, which fluoresces green SW. Incidentally, the red sodalite is a stable natural color and not the result of a photochromic transformation, even though it is the same color as green sodalite turned red by SW UV. We next visited the original historic site of the first tugtupite find. It is right on the shore but at a tricky landing, so Peter and I collected while Harry and Danny stayed on the boat. When Harry went after a seal, Danny diverted him from his goal by asking to be taught how to shoot the rifle. Danny avoided aiming at the seal, merely attempting to avenge the Titanic by aiming at icebergs. This collecting site was the most fascinating of all for me. The rock is solid fibrous white intermixed with solid, harder clear material. I gathered too little, not being guided by my UV light, which was left on the now "seal-hunting" boat. The LW fluorescence was standard sodalite bright orange, but the SW was a pinkish-peach color unfamiliar to me and the most pleasant I've experienced. The natural light appearance of this material is most reminiscent of tugtupite, and perhaps sodalite and tugtupite should be thought of as a series. This material is now being analyzed for identification by Josef Vajdek of Pequa Minerals.

Friday was a wild-card day, and I chose to go back to the Tasaq slope in pursuit to tugtupite. We located our quarry easily, but much hard work was needed to collect our fill. The quality of the specimens is excellent under UV but bland in natural light.

By Saturday we were packed and aboard a 25 seat helicopter to return to Narsarsuaq airport. We were able to meet Mark Cole, who was arriving that day, and share the enthusiasm of our trip. We arrived back in New York via Copenhagen by Sunday night, still excited and surprisingly fresh. It was in every detail the most amazing experience. One minor regret was not taking full advantage of the heat wave and doing more night collecting, especially at Kvanefjeld. Overall the opportunity to take this adventurous trip with my son was the most special aspect of all. I absolutely encourage all to consider making this trip, and welcome anyone to contact me for details at Royal53@worldnet.att.net.

Howie Green