I'm Allergic to Rocks Hitting Me in the Face!

“I'm allergic to rocks hitting me in the face.” ― Mike Rowe

Soke Hausel is prepared to use his bare hands
or his rock hammer!

Recent research at Jeffrey City University, Rock U, and Home on the Range Community College indicate rock hounds, prospectors, and geologists, could all benefit from karate training, particularly if they forget to take a rock hammer to the field. But imagine the benefits of rock hammer! One or two?

Next time you are in the field, or outback, and forget your rock hammer, you can use your hands. Just take a geology or karate class with rock hounds and martial artists.

The benefit of rock hounds taking karate was discovered in the Australian outback in 1986. In that year, Soke (before he became a grandmaster, and was still known as sensei) traveled to Western Australia from the University of Wyoming to look for diamonds, crocodiles, gold, iron ore, lamproite, komatiite, beer, sheep, roos, emu and strange speaking people. It was just like Wyoming where diamonds, gold, beer, strange speaking people, sheep, lamproite, komatiite, kimberlite all occur, but rabbits were considerably smaller and did not carry Joey's in a pocket. Arizona has similarities - funny-speaking people, sheep, beer, gold and emu, but most everything else is missing.

In 1986, geologists, rock hounds and prospectors from many countries attended the International Kimberlite Field Conference to examine a brand-spanking new Argyle diamond mine and its incredible fancy diamonds. We also toured the Noonkanboh and Ellendale lamproite fields, and visited the locals at Geikie and Windjana gorges. 

Unfortunately, we missed the Merlin diamond mine because it had not been discovered until some years later. Our group included a couple of Australian and Japanese black belts, a sifu from China - so a challenge was issued and a contest began. Should we break rocks with rock hammers, or should we display testosterone and break them with our bare hands? To be sure the research was thorough, we tried both the testosterone enhanced method and the rock hammer method. The results were conclusive - termite mounds in Western Australia are hard as rock, and in some cases - harder! I don't know what those termites eat for breakfast, but they are a heck of a lot tougher than ants in Arizona and Wyoming.

Foreground shows termite mound and in the background is a hill formed of Ellendale lamproite, 
Ellendale diamond field, Western Australia.

Many termite (ant) mounds stood as high as a person. Most display peaked tops making them perfect for horizontal shuto uchi (open knife hand strike) - so why would any black belt pass them up? We didn't! The Aussie, American and Japanese black belts successfully broke 85% of the mound peaks with their hands, and about 90% with rock hammers, while the Chinese sifu watched with puzzled expressions. The group also periodically came across rock outcrops and we broke rocks to examine fresh rock surfaces for any strange and unusual minerals that would attract interest of the rock hound, diamond prospector and diamond geologist. Yes, some rocs we broke with our hands, others we left to hammers.

Above photo shows a termite mound ready to provide entertainment for geologists in the outback. In the background is an outcrop of lamproite (a very rare rock). Photo taken in the Ellendale diamond field of Western Australia by the author.

Swimming in the Fitzroy River at Geikie Gorge in Western Australia, can be a bit hazardous. But it
was so hot, that our entire group decided to get to know the locals - photo by the author.

Break Rocks! Don't Fix Them

"""Break rocks! Don't fix them" - Neil ArmstrongI 

Isotope geochemists have a saying, "Rocks remember where they've been!" 

Looking for gold in Arizona with my field assistant.

Almost became an isotope geochemist after spending much of my early after college life working as a economic geologist (a geologist who searches for minable mineral deposits). After working for the Wyoming Geological Survey at the University of Wyoming, I met a geochemist from the Colorado School of Mines while planning the upcoming International Archean field conference. Nobody liked this guy because he was so demanding, but everyone respected him because of his research. I wasn't too sure about him as he spent much time telling my former employee (who later joined the CSU faculty)

what to do and how to do it. Seems like everyone listened to him since he was a well-known in his field. Personally, I was mildly interested until he told me to do something - I immediately put him in his place! After that, he and I became good friends. 

Dr. Goldlich was impressed by my work on diamondiferous kimberlites in the Colorado-Wyoming diamond province. However, very little had been done on isotope geochemistry (basically, using unstable isotopes to determine the age of host rocks). He asked me if I would be interested in setting up a few sessions at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden to learn isotope geochemistry and apply it to my samples - I had already completed mapping three kimberlite districts, a lamproite field, found hundreds of anomalies, conducted ground geophysical surveys over the kimberlites, examined numerous samples with petrographic microscopes, search the US for diamondiferous kimberlite, lamproite and even unconventional diamond deposits for a number of companies as a consultant and wrote a couple of books about diamond deposits in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, the US, and the world. 

Then there was all of the other information I had access to, such as airborne IMPUT surveys, rock chemistry, etc. Dr. Sam asked me to stop in at the the School of Mines for a couple of weeks and run the samples, and then compile everything I had with the geochemistry. I guess he was disappointed when I told him "thanks, but no thanks". I told him I was very busy compiling data for UW and had projects mapping Archean Cratons and gold districts in Wyoming, and just didn't have time to take on another project (besides, isotope geochemistry was just not my thing). Nope, I loved getting outside in the outback and breaking rocks!!! We later had the Field Conference with people from all over the world - it was quite interesting.

After I retired moved to Arizon, my wife sent me out front to trim cactus. Luckily, no one called the cops when I walked out with a katana (samurai sword) and traditional hakama, but you could hear all of the neighbors gossip for years. In one slice, the cactus was lying decapitated on the ground begging for mercy. When I was a small boy, I remember my teacher asking "what do you want to do when you grow up?" 

"Break rocks", I answered.

Basic Geology 101 for Karate practitioners at the University of Wyoming. After teaching my students
about rocks, rock types, heft and specific gravity, we then took on those rocks with our bare hands.
If I remember correctly, ever student was able to break a rock after a few attempts.

I sensed she misinterpreted my ambition. She probably visualized me wearing stripes with a ball and chain strapped to an ankle while breaking rocks with a sledge, especially after I buried her 45 RPM records in the sand pile. But what the heck - teachers should know how to take a joke.

As a brand new teen, I signed up for karate classes - and yes, we even learned to break rocks with our hands. At the time, I started playing in an rock n' roll band, but few people in the early 60s respected long hair, so our entire band took part in the karate lessons at the local Kyokushin Kai dojo in Sugarhouse. Later, I graduated from high school, and went on to the local university. Got a job as an astronomy lecturer at the Hansen Planetarium and while in grad school, the Apollo astronauts brought me back some rocks to conduct mineralogical and geochemical studies. These rocks were out of this world! So, I had all kinds of contact with rocks.

On a trip to the outback of Australia, members of an international diamond conference were impressed by how most termite mounds were solid and silicified such that even the biggest rock hammers were turned away with a loud "clang" as the sledge bounced off the mound. Those little suckers are serious engineers! We had some Japanese black belt geologists attending the Aussie conference, so a challenge was issued. Who could take the top off these termite mounds with a shuto? A shuto, is the classic, bare hand, karate chop.

Now this was fun. Being a lifelong martial artist, I got a "kick" out of this. The termite engineers provided many mounds for the contest. We were up to the challenge: we broke off as many mound tops with our karate chops than other geologists broke with their mighty hammers. So we proved the adage, 'the hand is mightier than the hammer". And yes, I still practice geology, karate, kobudo and samurai arts to this very day.