Sir Charles Morgan EarthCache
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You are standing by a statute of Sir Charles Morgan (1760-1846) who was M.P. for Brecon (1787-96) and for Monmouthshire (1796-1831). He was a major local landowner and well-known agriculturalist as well as a benefactor to local schools, institutions and to Newport's industrial development in the first half of the nineteenth century. Both pedestal and statue are signed by John Evan Thomas, sculptor, dated 1848. It was unveiled in 1850 and Grade II listed in 1980.
The pedestal is of granite which was formed when the magma from deep inside the earth formed a new rock as the molten rock cooled and crystallised. Its structure contains many crystals visible to the naked eye. If you look closely you will see different minerals making up the stone. There are also some dark marks on the inscribed right hand side, these are bits of other rocks which did not melt when they fell into the magma as it pushed its way up through the rocks. When the magma cooled these dark patches were all that was left of these rocks and are called xenoliths.
Granite is a common intrusive plutonic igneous rock. Intrusive means that it has moved into other rocks by force coming up from the mantle. Plutonic means that it is magma that does not reach the surface of the earth and so cools very slowly underground. Igneous (derived from the Latin word ignis meaning fire) is one of the three main rock types, the others being sedimentary and metamorphic. Igneous rock is formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or lava. Because it cools slowly crystals have time to form. Its name comes from the Latin word granum which means “a grain” for the coarse grain crystalline structure of the rock. Individual crystals are visible to the naked eye in all types of granite. It is made up of quartz, mica, and feldspar. It comes in a wide variety of colours including reds, browns, and many shades of grey from almost black to nearly all white.
There are different types of granite. The type of granite a particular specimen is, depends upon the percentages of minerals that make up the rock, especially quartz (Greyish colour), K-feldspar (Redish colour), Na-feldspar (White) and biotite or hornblende (Black).
To claim this earthcache, please send the answers to the questions below to us by email or message centre - do not post in your online log. Your log may be deleted if this criteria is not met. Educational guidelines for Earthcaches are set by Geocaching.com and GeoSociety.org (Earthcache) and have to be adhered to.
1 What colour is the granite of the pedestal and what mineral do you think makes up the highest percentage in the granite?
2 Looking closely, how many different types of crystal do you see?
Find the largest single crystal you can, measure (or estimate) how long you think it is.
3 Rub your hand over the granite facing. Describe the texture how it feels. Is it rough, smooth, or polished, does it leave any residue on your hand?
4 Look at the xenolith under the L in the word “Deplore” on the bottom line of the inscription, Is the shape of it rounded or angular. Can you give a reason for its shape?
We hope you have enjoyed your visit.
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