What is a building stone? Well, any type of dense, massive rock suitable for use in construction can be defined as a building stone. This Earthcache highlights a specific type of building stone, its origin, and an example of its use.
The Mansfield Formation was originally named for rocks exposed at Mansfield, Parke County, Ind. The Mansfield Formation includes all the rocks between the base of the Pennsylvanian System and the base of the Lower Block Coal Member. The formation may contains shale and thin beds of coal, clay, and limestone. The Mansfield Formation lies in a belt some 5 to 20 miles wide extending from Cannelton on the Ohio River nearly to the Illinois State line a few miles northwest of Attica. The area of outcrop is approximately 1,700 square miles. The northern 300 square miles lies beneath drift of the younger Wisconsin ice sheet (110,000 to 10,000 years ago), and in the central 500 square miles underlies drift of the older Illinoian ice sheet (2 million to 500,000 years ago). In the remaining area of 900 square miles, in southern Indiana, Mansfield rocks crop out or lie just beneath a rather thin soil cover.
About three-fifths of the rocks in the Mansfield Formation are very durable sandstones; these rocks are resistant to weathering, and therefore the outcrop area of the Mansfield is marked by a range of hills. Along the Ohio River just above Cannelton these hills loom as high as 400 feet above the river.
Coarse clastic (fragment) rocks make up 60 percent of the Mansfield Formation,
fine clastics account for 38 percent, and
nonclastic rocks constitute only 2 percent of the formation. The sandstone can range from
thinly stratified fine-grained "muddy" sandstones to
cross-stratified medium-grained sandstones to
nonstratified. Coloration varies from
light (quartz) to
grays (calcite) to
black (pyrite) to
red (hematite).
The EC is located next to the Louisville Water Company Water Tower. Take I-71 to exit 2. Turn north onto Zorn Avennue. The Smokestack/Water Tower's drive begins at the intersection of Zorn Avenue and River Road.
1. Earthcache is developed on Louisville VisualArts Association property with permission.
2. It is illegal to climb on the formations, as well as removing or vandalizing any portion of the formations. Leave them as found so others can enjoy this EC.
3. It is the visitors responsibility or orient themselves with policies and rules pertaining to this managed site.
IN ORDER TO LOG THIS FIND YOU MUST:
A. Click on my profile and e-mail the answers for the following tasks. Do not post your answers when you log in your find. Logs which do not meet the requirements to claim the find will be deleted.
1. What are the size of the sandstone blocks at the base of the stack (length and height)
?
2. Describe the feeling of the sandstone when you touch the blocks. Is the sanstone coarse clastic, fine clastic, or non clastic?
3. Look closely at the sandstone blocks. Is there evidence of stratification? If so, are they thinly stratified, cross-stratified, or nonstratified?
4. Estimate the height of the sandstone smokestack.
B. (Optional, though greatly appreciated) Take and log a picture of you (and your group) standing near the Sandstone Smokestack.