Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Wednesday search challenge (3/20/13): What came from the mine?


I was giving a talk at UC Berkeley yesterday in the Hearst Mining Building  when I happened to glance through the window at the mountain ridge rising behind campus.  It was a beautiful green, with trees blanketing the landscape, with rocky crags and outcrops that needed investigation.  I had another couple of hours to go, but I knew that when I really wanted to do late that afternoon was go for a walk and explore the hills near by.

I drove for a few miles and started out.  After a bit of walking, I came across the following surprise:  a labyrinth, tucked way down into a small valley that had obviously once been some kind of quarry.  (Yes, that black thing on the left side of the photo is a cow.  Moo.)  


Naturally, being a sort of curious fellow, I wondered:

     When the quarry was opened?  
     And, what kind of rock or material was extracted from this place?  

Can you help me out here?  

As usual, please let us know HOW you found the answer, and about how long it took you to discover it.  

Based on earlier blogposts, you should be able to find the location of the labyrinth rather easily.  The next step—figuring out what kind of quarry was here and what they mined—might be a little more difficult.  

Search on!

26 comments:

  1. Using the data (longitude/latitude) from the picture, I was able to approximate the location of the labyrinth (37.853053,-122.190451). I zoomed out and saw that it was part of the Robert Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve. Nice.

    Next, I tried a couple different searches and found the information I needed using this one [sibley california rock quarry]. The 5th hit was for a site called Rock Quarries and Beyond and brought me to ones in Alameda County (http://quarriesandbeyond.org/states/ca/quarry_photo/ca-alameda_photos.html).

    At the bottom was what I was looking for, this blurb: Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve, Alameda County, California - Basalt Lava Rock Quarry (Basalt) (photographs and description) The Preserve is a part of the East Bay Regional Park District. Along the hiking trail, you can see one of the labyrinths in the park on the floor of the rock quarry. A few of the photos that you can see online of the labyrinth are available on Flickr (Photo 1) (Photo 2) and learn more about the quarry that the labyrinth in: “Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve: Labyrinths Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve: Labyrinths a draw at the bottom of an old quarry,” by Gail Todd, Special to The Chronicle, March 31, 2011 (Page 1 & Page 2 of the article).

    Okay, so now I know what was mined: Basalt. Now to find when the quarry was opened. Difficult!

    I tried a bunch of different searches but was coming up blank until I tried: [Sibley quarry history california]. Browsing through sites, nothing. Then on the second page, there was a link to Exploring Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve | KQED QUEST (http://science.kqed.org/quest/science-hike/sibley-volcanic-regional-preserve-exploration/) Clicked on The Quarry and learned that the company was dug by Kaiser Sand and Gravel. Okay, another clue.

    30 minutes pass...

    Okay, I give up. I can't find when the quarry was opened. Fail.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Picking up where you left off, a book search for [kaiser volcano quarry sibley] led me to http://goo.gl/lK0Yl, which states on page 131 that mining operations were from the 1930s to the 1960s. I haven't been able to refine "1930s" so far.

      General google searches led me to http://goo.gl/RvKCz, which says that a "San Francisco newspaper" explored the phenomenon of the labyrinths in 1999. I have been unable to find this newspaper article, which may be useful. Did anyone else come across this?

      Other useful information is that the labyrinth is sometimes called the "Bardic Maze":
      http://susa-morgan-black.net/uploads/Files/Articles/Sibley%20Maze.pdf

      Delete
    2. The fact that Dan has been quiet and not posted the answer makes me think that it is...UNANSWERABLE!

      Delete
  2. After looking at the EXIF data for the picture, I found the location as being in Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve. I had to search on variations of "Sibley Round Top quarry" for a while until I found a Bay Nature article that identified the quarry as belonging to the Kaiser Sand and Gravel company. They extracted basalt from the quarry to use in roads. They sold the quarry to the park in the 1970s. I can't find when it opened, but it was probably in the 30s or 40s, judging by other Kaiser quarries in the area.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Since i knew you took the picture at California. I search "california labyrinth" using double quotes. I check the top link on the result: http://home.earthlink.net/~friendsofthelabyrinth/ . When i go through, i compare the (longitude/latitude) date from the picture which is approximately Longitude: (-122.19043) Latitude: ( 37.85304). From the link, i find out

    The Labyrinth know as mazzariello's maze was built, during the spring equinox in 1990, by Helena Mazzariello, in an area that she routinely took her goats to graze. Labyrinths are described by how many concentric circuits or paths they contain, and the first turn in this labyrinth is to the left. Unlike a maze (and even some labyrinths), a classical labyrinth has a single, well-defined path that leads to the center with no dead ends, no loops and no forks. All classical labyrinths share the basic features of an entrance, a single circuitous path and a center (aka cairn, altar, eye, fire pit, or shrine).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. +Bello -- That's interesting, but were you able to find out anything about the quarry?

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    2. The labyrinth is located well off the beaten track to allow for quiet contemplation and communing with the forces of nature. The labyrinth is situated in a natural vortex of energy in the hopes that it will serve as a catalyst for personal spiritual transformation. Some visitors participate in, or simply observe with fascination, ritual ceremonies and mystical events at the Labyrinth. Basalt are extracted from the quarry

      Delete
  4. How about Leona Rock Quarries opened in 1909 , mined basalt lava?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. +Barbara -- And how did you find this? Can you share your search queries and the URL where you found this?

      Delete
  5. Did almost the exact search strategies that Drop the Gloves did. Got the same results and also couldn't find the exact date. Got the first answer Basalt very quickly so thought we'd have no trouble (or at least not much) finding the other answer. Spent close to an hour trying to find. We did a time limit, searched books and could find nothing.
    Can't wait to see how the answer is found!

    ReplyDelete
  6. My search was a little haphazard. I jumped around a little -- my husband was waiting for me to post plow checks so he could go to the bank (and I snuck in some searches when he wasn't looking) -- As best as I remember, I searched for labyrinths near Berkeley. At the top of the results was a Yelp.com review of Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve. Information about that park on the ebparks.org site told me that indeed there was once a quarry there for basalt lava, but didn't have any date information. So then I searched for oakland basalt quarry and found the "quarriesandbeyond" site for Alameda County. About half way down the page I found the Leona Quarries (Basalt) listing. It said it was near Merritt College, which was in the right area -- so not a real exact search, but I think I got the right result??

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You have to be a little careful here--note that the quarries we're talking about are in Conta Costa county, not Alameda county! (The county line is on Skyline Blvd, just to the west of the quarries.)

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  7. http://quarriesandbeyond.org/states/ca/quarry_photo/ca-alameda_photos.html

    sorry, here's the final url

    ReplyDelete
  8. Good Day, Dr. Russell.

    I used Exif Data
    Latitud: 37.85 N Longitud 122.1899 W
    Robert Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve

    Used Drope the Gloves information.

    [Sibley quarry intext:california ~origins 1900..1936]
    http://www.bahiker.com/eastbayhikes/sibley.htm

    l confirmed it is Basalt
    [Sibley volcanic reserve quarry

    intext:california ~origins 1900..1936]to find:
    http://geology.about.com/library/bl/peaks/blroundtop.htm

    [Round Top basalt quarry ~history]
    http://baynature.org/articles/voice-of-the-volcano/

    ["kaiser sand and gravel" quarry california]
    http://www.mindat.org/loc-76625.html

    [California Division of Mines and Geology] Nothing here.

    ["Round Top" intext:quarry] in Google Books
    http://books.google.com/books?id=0XJlSiY0LZcC&lpg=PA83&dq=%22Round%20Top%22%20intext%3Aquarry&pg=PA83#v=onepage&q=%22Round%20Top%22%20intext:quarry&f=false


    After using a lot of queries for the quarry. Here I believe the answers.

    When the quarry was opened?
    A:1930s

    what kind of rock or material was extracted from this place?
    A: Basalt

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is very, very nice. Excellent job! (Great use of advanced operators.)

      Delete
  9. I now remember to check the EXIF data. Used http://exifdata.com/
    The picture was taken at:
    37.850318 degrees N, 122.189998 degrees W
    Plugging that into Google Maps (without the word degrees)
    The picture is at Round Top Loop Trail and one of the images on Google maps says it is Labyrinth at Silbey Volcanic Regional Park.

    Searched for [Silbey Volcanic Regional Park]
    Lots of good stuff.
    The Labyrinth itself from http://home.earthlink.net/~friendsofthelabyrinth/
    Is Mazzariello’s Maze
    From the above site:
    “Created by Helena Mazzariello, a Montclair sculptor and psychic, as "a gift to the world…" the Mazzariello Labyrinth, commonly known as "Mazzariello's Maze," was originally laid out in the form of a classical labyrinth.

    Located in Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve, in the East Bay Regional Park District, in the hills above Oakland, California, the Mazzariello Labyrinth (also dubbed the "Volcanic Witch Project") is in a remote location, ideally suited as a place of serenity and contemplation. “

    From the site http://www.ebparks.org/parks/sibley.htm
    We find more about the park.
    “East Bay residents have a volcano in their backyard at Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve. Originally called Round Top Park . . .”
    And we also find:
    “Round Top, one of the area's highest peaks, is made up of lava and volcanic debris left over from a 10-million-year-old volcano.”
    As well as,
    “In addition, quarrying in the north half of the preserve has revealed cross sections of the bedrock geology, providing an unsurpassed outdoor laboratory for studying volcanism in the Central Coast Ranges.”

    At http://www.ebparks.org/Asset2718.aspx found a map and trail guide that says “This pit was made by quarry operations in which huge amounts of massive basalt lava were removed”
    So we have one answer. The quarry mined basalt lava.

    From http://www.everytrail.com/guide/sibley-volcanic-regional-preserve-exploration
    found that the quarry was a Kaiser Sand and Gravel Company quarry and the basalt was used to make roads, and that there are two quarry pits. The area is rich with geological features.
    At this point I have to quit for the day. Stuff happens. Don’t have date of opening of mine. Would hazard a guess that Henry J Kaiser opened it in the 1920’s
    Spent about 2 hours reading a lot about the park and geology and searching for mining records. Good search fun.

    ReplyDelete
  10. First I got the EXIF data by usual means and located your labyrinth, then
    [labyrinth abandoned mine Berkeley] which got me to home.earthlink.net which confirmed the EXIF and gave lots of detail about the quarry and gave exact directions.
    THen [Sibley valley regional preserve] which led to quarries and beyond which had pix exactly like yours but which IMAGES had been unable to find.
    There was a mention of Kaiser Sand & Gravel being here.
    More searching to find when KS&G started. Archive.org says it started in California 1923.
    http://piedmont.patch.com/articles/walk-about-volcanos-and-labyrinths#photo-9295660 says your area was underway by 1930.

    started 1925-1930
    extracted volcanic rock including but not limited to basalt

    Time ? I spent way too long on this reading and reading about this nifty area - I'm a student of geology

    This was, I think, way more fun than last week's challenge !

    jon

    ReplyDelete
  11. Exif data:
    https://maps.google.com/maps?q=37.850318,-122.189998&z=15
    Round Top Loop Trail

    ‪Oakland, CA 94611‬

    We're in the ‪Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve‬

    Then I searched the pic on google images and added the location to it [jpg oakland ca 94611]

    Found they quarried: basalt.

    Checked to be sure.

    total time: 15 minutes in which i learned the fascinating story of the labyrinth.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Went to Jeffery's Exif Viewer to find the location http://regex.info/exif.cgi?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fdmrussell.net%2Fimages%2Flabyrinth.jpg

    Located Round Top Loop Trail and Volcanic Trail and Quarry Trail https://maps.google.com/maps?ll=37.853886,-122.192339&spn=0.004164,0.008234&t=h&key=ABQIAAAAfak-0zW7uDDgfyDBzdP3mhTtWyG39CQbObTNdEnkbp5p4E3hFxQTYOsixjJ2LEGMxzNEiZOq43vbvg&mapclient=jsapi&z=18

    Searched [ "round top loop trail" "volcanic trail" ] to http://www.ebparks.org/parks/sibley.htm

    Searched [ "Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve" mine ] to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Sibley_Volcanic_Regional_Preserve and http://www.bahiker.com/eastbayhikes/sibley.html

    Searched [ Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve Quarry ] to http://www.sfgate.com/outdoors/urbanoutings/article/Sibley-Volcanic-Regional-Preserve-Labyrinths-2377228.php and http://oaklandnorth.net/2011/07/22/sibley-regional-preserve-a-walk-on-oaklands-wild-and-volcanic-side/

    also http://www.home.earthlink.net/~friendsofthelabyrinth/ Side note: saw this as to how old the site was beside the earthlink url "Please allow 2 minutes for this webpage to load if using a standard 56K modem." Ahh the olden days.


    Searched [ "East Bay Municipal Utility District" "East Bay Regional Park District" sibley landfill ]

    Searched [ sibley volcanic quarry ] to http://www.everytrail.com/guide/sibley-volcanic-regional-preserve-exploration

    Point #4 menions Kaiser Sand and Gravel quarry

    Searched [ "Kaiser Sand and Gravel" sibley ] Actually tried that search in News archives and books. Got this http://books.google.com/books?id=HKgHSrsqAosC&lpg=PA332&dq=%22Kaiser%20Sand%20and%20Gravel%22%20history&pg=PA332#v=onepage&q=%22Kaiser%20Sand%20and%20Gravel%22%20history&f=false

    Book "Big Dams and Other Dreams: The Six Companies Story" Didn't find anything regarding that quarry but from doing the reading I assume that Kaiser somewhere teamed with Permanente and formed what is now my healthcare provider Kaiser Permanente. Not helpful but interesting.

    What I can piece together from all of the searches.

    What was quarried - basalt and other materials for road construction

    The quarry was sold to the preserve around late1977.

    I was not able to find the opening date.

    ReplyDelete
  13. What do we know?
    Location, Park details, Quarry,
    Useful terms
    Part 1- quarry, geology, volcano,mining, pits
    Part 2 -labyrinth, circles, mase
    Query Image metadata
    037.850318, -122.189998
    Query [ Maps/robert sibley volcanic regional preserve]
    http://www.ebparks.org/parks/sibley
    East Bay Regional Park District | Embrace Life! > Parks > Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve
    Originally called Round Top Park, Sibley shares with Temescal and Tilden the distinction of being one of the East Bay Regional Park District's original parks. The preserve was later named in honor of Robert Sibley. The Orinda Formation eroded away, exposing the Round Top volcano. In addition, quarrying in the north half of the preserve has revealed cross sections of the bedrock geology, providing an unsurpassed outdoor laboratory for studying volcanism in the Central Coast Ranges.
    Query [round top park]
    Results http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ external link
    http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=gnispq:3:1150116477244301::NO::P3_FID:231972
    http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/blog/archives/1981
    Underlying the beautiful rolling hills are terrestrial deposits of the Miocene. The oldest of these deposits are the Claremont Formation then Moraga Formation overlies the Orinda Formation. This basaltic flow erupted from a volcano at Round Top in the Robert Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve, just south of the Caldecott Tunnel, about 9-10 million years ago.
    Query [history robert sibley volcano preserve "quarry"]
    http://www.trails.com/tcatalog_trail.aspx?trailid=HGS461-024
    Result -Kaiser Sand and Gravel quarry sites
    Query [books round top quarry]
    http://books.google.ca/books?id=0XJlSiY0LZcC&pg=PA83&lpg=PA83&dq=round+top+quarry&source=bl&ots=o7movxKgEO&sig=s6fKQaSXOw2qeMRVHkIstnn1Ylc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=nBpKUcHxL4rDygGB7IHwCQ&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAzgK
    Result-- East Bay Trails 2/E: Hiking Trails in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties By David Weintraub

    Answer #1 "Quarried from 1930s-1960s"

    Query [round top volcano]
    Resulthttp://science.kqed.org/quest/science-hike/sibley-volcanic-regional-preserve-exploration/

    For decades, Kaiser Sand and Gravel Co. quarried the hills near Sibley for basalt, a hard volcanic rock used for road beds, before selling their land to the park district in 1977.
    The result exposed cross sections of the inner crater that once spanned several hundred, perhaps 1,000, feet."This is the best place in California to see the anatomy of a volcano," said Steve Edwards, a regional park scientist.

    Answer #2 quote "#4 Quarry provided the basalt for making roads."

    Query [round top quarry] < to confirm>

    Result--http://www.ncgeolsoc.org/Field%20Trips/2002%20-%202003/ClearLakeFT03A%20Clear%20Lake%20Afternoon.htm/
    The Round Top lava is an olivine-bearing basaltic andesite with a Sr87/Sr86ratio only slightly higher than these primitive basalts.

    Query [labyrinth robert sibley volcanic preserve]
    Result --http://www.sfgate.com/outdoors/urbanoutings/article/Sibley-Volcanic-Regional-Preserve-Labyrinths-2377228.php
    The largest and most elaborate of the labyrinths is visible from the peak, and it's the only one that we know for sure was not made by extraterrestrials. It is the Mazzariello labyrinth, created by East Bay resident Helena Mazzariello in 1989 as a gift to the world. It is a true labyrinth, meaning it has only one path to the center rather than a maze.

    Answer #3 Query [Mazzariello labyrinth]
    Result -- http://www.sfgate.com/outdoors/urbanoutings/article/Sibley-Volcanic-Regional-Preserve-Labyrinths-2377228.php

    Constructed 1989
    Result - http://sanfrancisco.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=sanfrancisco&cdn=citiestowns&tm=29&f=20&tt=3&bt=0&bts=0&zu=http%3A//www.home.earthlink.net/%7Efriendsofthelabyrinth/
    Friends of the labyrinth-- built during the spring equinox 1990 by Helena Mazzariello

    ReplyDelete
  14. (Yes, that black thing on the left side of the photo is a cow. Moo.) ... and would the other black thing on the right, in the labyrinth, be a cow also?? and would that make the pair a "Moo Moo"¿
    I agree this was a more entertaining search - everyone seemed to do a pretty good job searching the Bay-centric question.
    Pretty informative geological video here:
    Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve - Round Top
    Regarding the start of the quarry - this seemed to be the tough part. The best I could do was come up with a window for operations.
    If Unknown is right about Kaiser starting in CA. in 1923, it appears that the quarry would have been closed by 1931-34 because that is when the East Bay Regional Park District was established (proposed in 1930) and I doubt that they operated after the formation? start date: 1924-25.
    EBRPD established
    Given the vistas from Sibley, it would be a pretty spectacular/sublime place to view this:
    Bay Bridge lights
    another hole in your neighborhood:
    Cupertino
    Lesson taken from this search: need to stay focused on the questions - too many interesting side topics in the Berkeley hills.
    favorite misguided search find

    ReplyDelete
  15. I'm from an earlier class and was checking SearchResearch blog. Intrigued by labyrinths, I took up your challenge.

    Many comments show that others took a similar path, but here are my serendipitous findings, mostly from using Google Maps to explore the region:

    My simple query: "quarries with labyrinths near UC Berkeley" led me to this site:

    And buried in that site among information about Druids, was this photo:


    Compare that with this more recent photo:


    Following the trail to the Sibley Preserve:

    I decided to watch the Movie Clip: KQED Quest, a link on that site, featuring Steve Edwards, the director of the Botanical Gardens at Sibley.

    The clip is a 6:52-minute geological guide to the preserve containing two pertinent sections for anyone taking the Google Searcher challenge. Almost bypassed at about the 1:20 mark is a scanning of the labyrinth; at about the 5:55 mark, the narrator gives an almost offhanded explanation of how the gravel company mined the basalt for roadbuilding.

    I love it that Google can lead us to answers with pictures!

    Allan Andrews
    Augusta, GA


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry, here are the missing URLs

      http://www.inplainsite.org/assets/images/Labyrinths_Sibley.jpg

      http://dmrussell.net/images/labyrinth.jpg

      http://www.ebparks.org/parks/sibley

      http://science.kqed.org/quest/science-hike/sibley-volcanic-regional-preserve-exploration/

      http://www.ebparks.org/parks/sibley#movie

      Delete
  16. Sorry for the blanks in my comment. Here's a resend:

    I'm from an earlier class and was checking SearchResearch blog. Intrigued by labyrinths, I took up your challenge.

    Many comments show that others took a similar path, but here are my serendipitous findings, mostly from using Google Maps to explore the region:

    My simple query: "quarries with labyrinths near UC Berkeley" led me to this site:
    http://www.inplainsite.org
    And buried in that site among information about Druids, was this photo:
    http://www.inplainsite.org/assets/images/Labyrinths_Sibley.jpg

    Compare that with this more recent photo:
    http://dmrussell.net/images/labyrinth.jpg

    Following the trail to the Sibley Preserve:
    http://www.ebparks.org/parks/sibley
    I decided to watch the Movie Clip: KQED Quest, a link -- http://www.ebparks.org/parks/sibley#movie -- on that site, featuring Steve Edwards, the director of the Botanical Gardens at Sibley.

    The clip is a 6:52-minute geological guide to the preserve containing two pertinent sections for anyone taking the Google Searcher challenge. Almost bypassed at about the 1:20 mark is a scanning of the labyrinth; at about the 5:55 mark, the narrator gives an almost offhanded explanation of how the gravel company mined the basalt for roadbuilding.

    I love it that Google can lead us to answers with pictures!

    Allan Andrews
    Augusta, GA

    ReplyDelete
  17. Not wanting to leave loose ends I went back and tried to get more specifics in regards to Kaiser Sand and Gravel as this seems to be the starting point for the quarry. The quarry may have been called the Round Top, Kaiser, Clayton, Hanson depending on the year. My conclusion is that for Henry Kaiser this represented a small division/subsidiary of his overall entreprenuerial endeavors and not well documented. The best article I found about Henry Kaiser and his companies is at

    http://academic.evergreen.edu/curricular/ageofirony/aoizine/dylan.html

    Now as for this search I had tried the USGS (U.S.Geological Survey) and California G.S. because I thought it woold have records of contracts/dates of operations/ownership etc. I wasn't able to get deep into these websites then I saw we had a geology student and if he didn't have this info I was probably not going to get far.

    Next I decided that I should pursue financial records such as company financial reports. I didn't get far which may be due to Kaiser being a private company or as the above link hints it may because he had 6/8 other companies he was associated when it came to government contracts and therefore again a deep pit :-) The fact that Kaiser was bought by Hanson PLC U.K. and it was acquired by Heidelberg Germany made me realize this was not going to be easy. So I stopped.

    Next I decided I should focus on the end product 'road building' and while I learned a lot about California roads,tunnels and bridges I wasn't getting good results. Okay lets see who documented the 'basalt' quarries of California in historical terms. Again results were too sketchy. So I have called it a day. I got as close to the answers given in my previous post.

    Lessons learned- Sometimes just leave a challenge and come back fresh.
    Accept that not all searches will lead you to your desired result.
    Odd sources may have good clues such as trail/hiking books that may include onsite info discovered on the trail.
    It is quite reasonable to build on others results.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Googled Image search: quarry trail berkeley
    Found these pics on this blog: http://trailingahead.blogspot.com/2012/06/sibley-volcanic-regional-preserve.html
    Googled Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve and found THIS: http://www.ebparks.org/parks/sibley Scroll down to trail map, and all the info is right there!

    I always start simple ;)

    ReplyDelete