This earthcache features the Arkansas Korean War Veterans Memorial Plaza: A 3 ft. tall Absolute Black granite pentagon bearing the emblems of the five military branches stands in the center of the front patio leading to the entryway. Several Absolute Black granite benches for quiet contemplation flank this patio area. A unique entryway leads to the Memorial Plaza. It contains the name of the monument and the following quote by President Calvin Coolidge: “The nation which forgets its defenders will itself be forgotten.” The entryway consists of two frosted gray granite support columns that are 30” wide x 14” thick x 8’8” in height. The cap is 11’10” wide x 14” thick and 28” tall. All pieces are epoxied and pinned with stainless steel dowel pins.
The black granite was quarried in Southern India. It is called India Black or more generically, Absolute Black. There are no quarries in the US that have a tight grain and none in the US that do not have some sort of movement or variegation. The granite was quarried in India. The blocks were shipped to Xiamen, China where they were finished out. The gray granite used for the portal was quarried in China. It is called Imperial Gray. It is very similar to two granites quarried in the US. Georgia Gray granite is quarried near Elberton, GA, and Barre Granite, quarried in Barre, Vermont are domestic gray granites. Imperial Gray was chosen to consolidate production to one finishing plant, and due to the size of the blocks needed.
The purpose of this earthcache is to introduce only the basics about granite. 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.
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.
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 to log this earthcache:
1: Granite weighs about 165 pounds per cubic foot. What is the approximate weight of the large gray entryway portion of this Memorial Plaza?
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?
PLEASE email your answers through my personal profile, not in your log!!
NOTE: You will earn a souvenir from groundspeak if you find this earthcache on October 11, 2015!