Breaking Rocks - Arizona Martial Arts Instructor, Geologist & Author Loves to Teach

Gilbert geologist and author, has had his share of breaking rocks with his bare hands, or with a rock hammer while searching for gold, diamonds, or colored (fancy) gemstones. 

He found dozens of deposits (sapphire, peridot, diamond, garnet, diopside, opal, the largest known iolite gems in the world, and possibly the largest iolite deposit in the world. He still thinks about that one gem he left in a rock outcrop in Wyoming: estimated to be the size of a smart car! Imagine wearing that on a necklace.

In-between mapping old mines, and a few hundred square-miles of complex geological terrain, the Arizona scientist published more than 1,000 professional papers, magazine articles, books, blogs, abstracts and geological maps. Being an author takes considerable time, and leaves him with little time to do anything else: well, not actually. He's a workaholic. In the past, he was a professional musician, artist, astronomer, and public speaker. In recent years, miracles have attracted his attention, and now he delves into Biblical archaeology and explores the science behind artifacts in the Bible. 

Back to breaking rocks! When teaching students to break rocks in martial arts classes and clinics, he also educates them in rock identification. 

When not breaking rocks with a rock hammer, Soke
uses his hands to break rocks at the Arizona
Hombu dojo in Mesa

Nearly two dozen Halls-of-Fame inducted him in the past and he is a Who's Who in Martial Arts. But he is not a fighter! Instead, he is a martial arts teacher. 

As a teacher, he taught hundreds of students at ASU, UNM, U of U, and University of Wyoming. Even though he accomplished a lot in his life in human terms, he thanks God for all of his blessings and for God's grace.

Teaching students to break rocks in front of the geology
department at the University
of Wyoming.

Demonstrating body hardening at a basketball game halftime with third
degree black belt Donnette Gillispie.

Ouch! Sensei Hausel

demonstrates body hardening (Juko Ryu

jujutsu) at halftime at the University

of Wyoming before a sellout crowd.

Arizona Karate Instructor Nominated for Top Scientist

It's not everyday a Hall-of-Fame Grandmaster and instructor of Karate and Kobudo is considered as a Top Scientist. That's right, it just never happens! Well, almost never. But, why a top scientist? Is karate now a science?

Soke Hausel, an Arizona martial arts instructor, is also a Hall-of-Fame geologist as well as a Hall-of-Fame Martial Arts Instructor. Combining these skills helps him select rocks for his students. No, he doesn't try to convert them to rockhounds, instead he teaches them a little about the toughness of various rocks so they can break them with their hands (and sometimes with their heads). For instance, a friable sandstone is the easiest to break (but will leave grains of sand stuck in your head or hand) and along with this type of sandstone, there are shales that are relatively easy to break - but he tells his students to avoid shale simply because it often breaks with a conchoidal fracture similar to glass and potentially can severely cut the student. But if you are from certain parts of Canada or Colorado, you may be stuck with oil shale. It smells, but what the heck!

Then there are other rocks. Soke Hausel likes to break limestone, recrystallized or lithified sandstone, dolomite or quartzite as these provide excellent resistance. Limestone is basically mother nature's concrete. But in the Phoenix Valley in Arizona, such rocks are not easy to come by because of all of the past volcanism. The valley is filled with rocks like rhyolite, andesite and basalt. Some of these are very, very hard. For instance, rhyolite is the fine-grained equivalent of granite - and we all know how hard granite is.

After working at the Wyoming Geological Survey and the University of Wyoming as a research geologist, consulting geologist and martial arts instructor, Soke Hausel got to know a lot of difficult rocks. For instance, he mapped more than 1,000 km2 of complex Precambrian terrain covered with metamorphic rocks: metamorphic rocks, like volcanic or igneous rocks, are very, very uncooperative. He doesn't recommend schist or gneiss as they have a fabric, much like plywood that will tend to resist breaking. And Wyoming - the Jade State, of course has some jade deposits - don't even consider jade - it is one tough gemstone.

Governor Mike Sullivan congratulates Soke Hausel

Soke Hausel is also an author and wrote many books and papers on geology and rocks. So, if you want more information, have a look at some of his books. And if you decide to try breaking rocks with your hands or head - remember, you should have professional training first - by someone who has done this before, otherwise you will break your hand - rocks do not cooperate like boards.

Finally, back to the Top Scientists. In a letter from Nicholas Law, Director General with the International Biographical Centre, Cambridge, England to Soke Hausel, he writes: "You are to be congratulated. As a noted and eminent professional in the field of science you have now been considered and nominated for recognition by the IBC. Of the many thousands of biographies from a wide variety of sources investigated by the research and editorial departments of IBC, a select few are those of individuals who, in our belief, have made a significant enough contributions in their field to engender influence on a local national or international basis. Ratification of your nomination by the Awards board is now complete and it is therefore my great honour to name you as a member of the IBC Top 100 Scientists - 2016. As a holder of this distinction ....."

So what makes Soke Hausel unique as a scientist - all of the gemstone, gold, mineral and rock discoveries. These can only be matched by a handful of people in history. But will he accept this award? Probably not. "It is always nice to be recognize for my work, but I don't need awards anymore - I have plenty buried in my closet".  "When I left the University of Wyoming, I also dumped a bunch of them on a shelf, as there were too many to transport to Arizona".

One of the greatest achievements - discovery of a
giant, world-class gold deposit

Soke Hausel inducted into two Halls of Fame at the same time - one for geology, the other for martial arts.