Sioux City Sioux (Quartzite) EarthCache
SEAM Smiley: This has been a very family friendly EarthCache and also allowed for some learning of local history. Unfortunately, with this moving to private property we have not had an agreement on making this a secure place to visit as an EarthCache. Thanks for the memories!
Sioux City Sioux (Quartzite)
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The coordinates will take you to the site of the Sioux City Public Museum. This building was built in 1891 for John Pierce. In 1961 it opened to the public as a museum.
This astounding feature to the landscape of Sioux City is made from sioux quartzite, a quartzite that owes its feature color to iron oxide.
Quartzite is a metamorphic rock deriving from sand that was deposited during the Precambrian approximately 1.6 billion years ago. The sands were changed to quartzite near the end of Wisconsin Ice Age roughly 12-14,000 years ago.
Quartzites are highly resistant rock materials, thus providing excellent building materials as well as railroad bed ballast. Quartzite can be distinguished from its parent sandstone by noting if the fracture is across or through rather than around the grains. A hardness test could also be performed.
For information on the history of this historic building visit: www.siouxcitymuseum.org/public_museum_2.asp
To gain credit for this EarthCache please complete the following task: Touch the surface of the building and describe it in an email to the cache owner.
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