Granite 101--Veteran Memorial--Earthcache EarthCache
Granite 101--Veteran Memorial--Earthcache
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This is an earthcache, so there is NOT a container to 'find', but you will learn something about granite. This earthcache features a Veteran's Memorial which is a very large slab of granite. The purpose of this earthcache is to introduce only the basics about granite, thus the name Granite 101. The main lessons to be learned will be about the formation of granite and especially why some granite crystals are large and why some granite crystals are small.
This granite Veterans Memorial was taken from a quarry in Mt Airy, NC, the world's largest open-faced granite quarry. The quarry is so large that it can be seen from the Space Station as it covers more than 60 acres. That of course is only the part you can see, the entire granite 'rock' is 7 miles long, 1 mile wide and 8,000 feet deep. This formation began about 20 miles beneath the earth's surface where molten magma began to move towards the earth's surface where it cooled and harden into igneous rock.
Granite is one of the hardest types of rock and is crystaline in nature. Granite is made up mostly of quartz and feldspar which are the lighter colors, the whites and the pinks, that you see when you look at a piece of granite.
As mentioned before, granite begins as a molten liquid state that solidifies as it cools. The texture is now determined by the rate in which it cools. The large mineral crystals in granite are evidence that it cooled slowly from molten rock. That slow cooling occurred beneath the earth's surface and required a long period of time. Granite which cools closer to the earth's surface as when it is exposed to air or water, cools more rapidly and the result is a granite with crystals that are smaller.
Granite comes in a wide variety of colors--greens, blues, reds, browns, pinks, yellows, black, white and grey. The most common are white, pink and grey. The classic granite has a 'salt and pepper' look, the pepper being the black mica.
Questions that require your answer--
1- Granite weighs about 165 pounds per cubic foot. What is the approximate weight of the large rectangle shaped portion of this Veteran's Memorial? HeightXlengthXWith(round to nearest foot)X 165--Round off to the nearest ton.
2-Were the crystals formed quickly or over a long period of time? (small crystals are about 1/8 in or less & large crystals are usually about 1/2 inch or so)
3- What is the dominate color of this granite Veteran's Memorial? Is there black mica too?
PLEASE submit your answers to my personal profile!! DO NOT DELAY!!--THANKs
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