With Love From Italy EarthCache
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
An easy to get to Earthcache with a terrific view and nearby playground for the kids.
In 1963, a West Vancouver couple, Remo and Joan Gambioli travelled to Italy where they visited the Carrara Marble quarry where Michelangelo got the stone to build his famous sculpture called David. The couple chose 10 pieces of marble from the quarry and shipped them back to their home in West Vancouver.
It was there that Joan, a stone sculptor, set out to carve the pieces she had brought back, finishing four of the pieces before she passed away in 1985. The remaining 10 tons of marble Joan had planned to work on sat in their back yard, untouched for several years. When their daughter Nora, a Councillor for the Municipality of West Vancouver, joined the district’s Public Art Advisory Committee in 2015, she informed the group about the collection of Carrara marble, and, needless to say, the Committee was delighted to accept Nora’s offer.
The stones you see before you came from the famous Carrara quarries that have been worked for over 2,000 years. Carrara is a city and commune in north western Tuscany, Italy. Experts who have examined the mountains of marble in this area, have stated that the quality of high-grade material yet to be excavated is so great that Carrara promises to supply the present rate of demand for its marbles for centuries to come.
Carrara Marble is a metamorphic rock made from microscopically small calcium carbonate crystals. This rock was formed by metamorphosis, that means that the former rock has got a complete new crystalline structure due to high pressure and/or variations in temperature, so one could say the rock has been changed. In the particular case of Carrara Marble, the original rock was similar to the present lime soil of the big coral reefs in tropical oceans. The transformation took place during the arly Jurassic (190 million years ago), when big parts of today’s North Tuscany were flooded; lime sediment deposited on the sea bottom and then formed a carboniferous platform.
When Nature created this section of the Apuan Alps, she formed a storehouse of marble that is truly marvelous in extent, for beds of the finest quality of the Carrara grade are known to exist as high as 5,500 feet above the level of the sea. White Carrara Marble is characteristically homogenous, with a white to grey ground colour, shining grains and smoky grey veins, which run irregularly through the stone. The different quality of this stone depends on its ground colour. Basically, there are two marble types: Bianco di Carrara C (lighter ground colour) and Bianco di Carrara CD (darker ground colour). This material brightens gradually, when the marble is losing water that is stored in its pores.
The different ground colours and veins of the marble in the area of Carrara make this material spectacular. If the ground colour is light, the Carrara marble seems to be all white; a marble with grey veins or little veins is called Statuario, it’s the famous marble used by Michelangelo that makes up only about 5% of the stone mining. If the ground tone is ivory-coloured and if there are veins showing up as stripes in shades of grey to yellow or rather green, it is called Calacatta.
Carrara Marble is mainly used for stairs, but it ‘s also suitable for kitchen tops and working surfaces or covering and is also used in tombstone art. During the Renaissance, Michelangelo personally chose blocks from these quarries for his sculptures. His “David” statue is the most well-known example of his use of Carrera marble. Stone from the quarry was also used to build the Marble Arch in London and the Pantheon in Rome, among other notable monuments and buildings around the world.
In order to log this Earthcache you must provide answers to the following questions:
1. At the site there is a grouping of three marble stones. What type of marble is the stone on the east side of the grouping?
2. How many holes are there in the back side of the middle stone in the grouping of three. Estimate the size of the hole. What do you think its purpose was?
3. (Optional) Use your imagination and take a picture incorporating the stone that has been sculpted.
Please provide your answers for these questions in a timely manner, either via email or messaging. Any logs not accompanied by correct answers will be deleted.
Thanks for visiting this Earthcache!
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)
Treasures
You'll collect a digital Treasure from one of these collections when you find and log this geocache:
Loading Treasures