GC423QB The Rose Rocks of Oklahoma (Earthcache) in Oklahoma, United States created by Benchmark Blasterz

This cache has been archived.

Benchmark Blasterz: Museum is closed and the collection has been sold. We wish Mr. & Mrs. Stine (owners and operators of this quirky museum) a long and happy retirement. Thanks for providing a place that became a very poular earthcache, and taught a lot of people interesting lessons about Oklahoma’s famous Barite Rose Rocks. — BMB

GC423QB ▼

A cache by Benchmark Blasterz Message this owner

Hidden : 11/27/2012

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Geocache Description:

The coordinates will have you standing outside a museum dedicated to the Barite Rose Rock. If you are here during the museum’s open hours, be sure to go on in – admission is free! They have some amazing examples of this rare geologic wonder on display, and some for sale too!

Welcome to Noble, Oklahoma, the Barite Rose Rock Capital of the World! The Barite Rose is the official State Rock of Oklahoma. The vast majority of Rose Rocks (and best specimens) are found around Noble.

The rose rock is unique to Oklahoma, occurring only in an L-shaped strip of Red Permian Garber sandstone deposited millions of years ago from Frederick OK to near Blackwell OK. Most barite roses are found in the Garber sandstone that runs roughly from Pauls Valley OK northward to near Guthrie. Garber sandstones (like other Red Permian sandstones) are extremely common throughout the world, but barite roses are extremely rare. A very few barite roses have been found in Kansas, Morocco, and Australia, which also have deposits of red Garber sandstone. No one really knows why barite roses are rarely found elsewhere except for in the narrow Garber sandstone band east of Oklahoma City, but because of their prevalence there and rarity elsewhere, it was easy for the Oklahoma State Legislature to decree the Barite Rose the official Oklahoma state rock in 1968.

Barite roses occur singly, in pairs, or in clusters. One of their unique features is the disc-shaped barite crystals that form the “petals.” Most barite crystals are tabular or bladed in shape, but those of the Rose Rock are flatter, rounder and thicker disks made of a blend of barite and the Garber sandstone the crystals grow in. The chemical composition of each “petal” of a barite rose is barite crystal (BaSO₄) and quartz sand (SiO₂). A small amount of hematite (Fe₂O₃) in the sandstone gives these uniquely-shaped barite crystals their red color.

Exactly how the roses form is still a mystery, but one theory proposes that roses form when groundwater containing barium and sulfides migrated through fissures, fractures, and porous areas of the Garber sandstone. When the groundwater came into contact with air trapped within the sandstone rock, the sulfur in the water oxidized, causing the dissolved barite to precipitate out, and form crystals that grew to become a rose rock.

Another theory hypothesizes that at some point two sources of water, one rich in barium and another rich in sulfur mixed as they flowed through the porous Garber sandstone. When these two sources mixed, a chemical reaction caused the roses to be deposited inside the sandstone.

We relied on publications from the University of Oklahoma School of Geology and Geophysics and from the Oklahoma Geological Survey for the earth science research as we prepared this Earthcache. We thank those institutions for their scholarship on these unique rocks.

A third theory comes from Cherokee Indian legend surrounding the “Trail of Tears,” the forced removal of the Cherokees from their historic homelands in the southeastern United States to the newly-designated Oklahoma Indian Territory in 1833: From the website http://www.syix.com/toad/LEGENDOFROSE.HTM comes this telling of the Legend of the Cherokee Rose:

“When gold was found in Georgia, the government forgot its treaties and drove the Cherokees to Oklahoma. One fourth of them died on the journey west. But God, looking down from heaven, decided to commemorate the brave Cherokees and so, as the blood of the braves and the tears of the maidens dropped to the ground, he turned them into stone in the shape of a Cherokee Rose. This is why they are so plentiful in Oklahoma, the end of the Trail of Tears." [end]

Logging requirements: To log this cache, send us an e-mail with (1) the average size of the rosettes (don’t need to measure them all – maybe 5 or 6) that are most prevalent in the rock in front of you. Then (2) give us your best guess as to which of the three theories you believe most accurately explains the formation of the rose rock in the Garber Sandstone.

Optional Bonus requirement: Look for an accessible outcrop of Garber Sandstone on public land or along road rights-of-way and hunt for your very own rose rock. If you find one, please upload a picture!

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This cache has been archived.

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The Rose Rocks of Oklahoma EarthCache

This cache has been archived.

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Geocache Description:

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