Vermont Marble EarthCache
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This earth cache, located at the Vermont Marble Museum, in Proctor
Vermont, is designed to teach you a bit about the history of
Vermont Marble and its use.
Vermont is made up of several Geo-physiographic provinces. These include Taconic Mountains Province, Champlain Low Lands and Vermont Valley Provinces, Green Mountain Province, Connecticut Valley Gaspe´ Province , and Bronson Hill Province. The narrow Vermont Valley Province with the Taconic Mountain Province to the west, Green Mountain Province to the east and Champlain Low Lands to the north includes most of the famous Vermont Marble quarries including the Sutherland Falls Quarry where the Vermont Marble museum and cache is located.
Marble is a metamorphic rock produced from limestone by pressure and heat in the earth’s crust do to geological processes. The plate-tectonic paradigm has helped us understand this process giving us a better understanding of the history of the rocks and minerals found in Vermont.
A simple explanation of the plate-tectonic paradigm is to imagine two large land masses crashing into each other over a long period of time. As the crash, or as geologist call it convergence, took place here in Vermont large masses of rocks were folded into nappes and pushed from east to west. Nappes are large plates of rocks that are folded back onto each other. To get a better understanding of this think of a 9 X 12 rug folded lengthwise into thirds. Obviously the rock plates are many miles in length and width and include the entire Appalachian Chain. This major convergence event in the Appalachians is referred to as the Acadian orogeny. It was the heat, pressure, and melting this event created that brought about the folding and metamorphism which produced the granite, slate and marble Vermont is known for.
The pressures and temperatures essential to produce marble generally eliminate the fossils that exist in the initial rock. Impurities in the limestone affect the marble’s mineral composition. Marble is available in various colors due to the variety of minerals present in the marble like clay, sand and silt.
The earth surface also plays a big part to determine the streaking of colors in marble. Marble is a very soft stone and when being produced in the earth's surface many impurities can evolve. This is when veining through the marble is produced. The most common color of marble is pure white streaked with a mix of colors ranging from dusty pink, sage green, rusty red, gray and mountain blue
Vermont has long been known for its marble and this famous marble is now found in products around the world. As early as 1785 headstones were being made from the outcroppings of the marble near Proctor. The first quarry in Vermont was opened in Dorset, Vermont and is thought to be the first marble quarry in North America.
The Sutherland Falls Quarry, where the cache is located opened in 1836 and after some financial ups and downs Colonel Proctor took over the operation and created The Vermont Marble Company in 1880. Eventually the Company acquired rights to all the marble deposits in Vermont, as well as Colorado and Alaska. By 1885 the volume of marble quarried was enough to make this company a giant of industry for a century.
Marble from this state has been used in many famous buildings, but marble is used in more ways then just buildings, floors and countertops. Ground marble, CaCO3, a by product of quarrying and finishing marble, is used in many things, from paint to hockey pucks. It can also be placed on lawns, ponds and gardens to reverse the effects of acid rain.
To Claim this cache you will need to:
!. Post a picture of you or your GPS at the stacked marble entrance to the
Vermont Marble Museum.
2. Post a picture of you or your GPS at the Sutherland Falls Quarry site, about an
1/8 of a mile walk/ride from the museum. (Coordinates N 43 39.838 W 073 02.497)
3. Email me the answers to the following questions:
a. What is the name of the convergence event that supplied the heat and pressure to form the marble located at the Sutherland Falls Quarry
b. Name three notable structures/buildings constructed with the use of Vermont Marble and listed on the historical marker in front of the museum
c. What is the chemical formula for Marble and when ground what can it be used for?
d. This marble wall is part of a fold in the earth's surface. Estimate the height of the marble wall at the Suthrland Quarry.
e. What colors of marble and veining did you see at the quarry and museum?
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