This earthscience study is found at the front of the Bandera Frontier Museum. Established in 1927 and built from locally sourced building materials. Your credit for this earth cache will be the following after studying the materials locally sourced rock and fossils represented here at ground zero.... consider it a legend of the different materials found in this county......use the information provided here in this description for this study.
Geological and fossil samples here can be represented within these choices listed numerically below.
1. Your job will be to identify examples that are viewed at this location and email me your observations of which examples you have identified. Once you have identified the specific ones you will need to describe them and explain why you think this is the type based on your observations at ground zero. Your answer that you send should include more than 6.
2. There are 2 on this list not represented in this location can you identify which 2 these are?
3. Please post a photo of you at the location as part of the requirements inclusive to answering #1 and #2.
A true treasure hunt if you will .... Enjoy!!!
1. Bivalve fossil - These are formed when the surrounding soils and sediments where they are buried hardens into rock.Lots of times the impression made organism remains as the fossil rather than the organism themselves.
2. Petrified wood - this forms when any plant material is covered with soils and sediment and protected from deterioration due to oxygen and organisms.underground water rich in dissolved solids flows through the soils and sediment. The dissolved soilids replace original plant material creating the pattern of the original wood but this time much harder in the form of stone.
3. Quartz- for the most part this forms in either igneous rocks. In igneous rocks this rock forms as magma cools. It is very similar to when water turns into ice, silicon dioxide will crystallize as the magma cools. When the temperature or pressure drops, the solution becomes saturated, so quartz will form sometimes in the form of very defined crystals and at other times wide bands of crystals formed together in bands.
4. Botryoidal stone- This form of stone is a mineralization when alot of specks of sand, dust, or other particles are present.Almost like a mineral habitat if you will.... Spheres are created around small centrally located centers. Geodes are commonly formed this way and this type of stone is another name for smaller formations together in stones that you will see in Texas in many places. Commonly these spheres are very close and group together tightly and can be of varying sizes as well.
5.Chert - This is formed when silicon dioxide expands in soft soils and sediments. This becomes limestone or chalk. This rock formed in this manner is a chemical sedimentary rock.
6. Feldspar- These are found in many types of sedimentary rocks. These are rich in tectosilicate minerals and make up more than 40% of the earths continents crust by weight.
7. Banded Shale- Banded shale is thought to have created as the result of oxygen production by photosynthetic cyanobacteria in the sea. The oxygen combined with dissolved minerals in oceans to create a thin layer on the ocean floor often many thin layers with different minerals.
8. Coquina- This is created by the deposits and further cementation of mineral or organic pieces on the floor of oceans or other bodies of water. In other words, this rock is formed by the accumulation of sediments. This is a type of sedimentary rock, specifically limestone,
9. Gastropod fossil. The same as Number 1
10 Ammonite The same as Number 1
11. Trilobite - The same as Number 1
12. Fish/ Plant fossil - The same as Number 1
Thank you for taking the time to do this earthcache and learning about the geology of this area of Texas. A photo of you and your Personal gps with the frontier museum sign would be wonderful.