This is an Earthcache – as such, there is no physical cache. Instead after examining the "granites" of the Manatee County War Memorial at the posted coordinates, you will answer 4 questions and message me the answers. This memorial is located in Veterans' Monument Park and is only open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.

Manatee County War Memorial

The Manatee County War Memorial was designed by Jeanne Jackson, a Bradenton local, who had no experience with sculpture and memorial design. Her husband, Wilbur, was a chairman in the memorial committee, who spent months looking at different veteran memorial designs that were used all over the country. One night after a meeting, frustrated, he mentioned to her that they had full funding, but still did not have a design for the memorial.

Jeanne had an idea. She was inspired by memories of Roosevelt and Churchill holding up their fingers in the V for victory sign during World War II. She knew nothing of stone sculpture or memorial design, but she was inspired. As a hobby she fashioned dollhouse miniatures, so she went to her studio and created a small red, white, and blue model that ultimately ended up winning over the memorial committee. They especially loved that large granite “V” was a great representation of Valor, Victory, and Veterans.

Funding for this memorial came from the approximately 26,000 veterans who lived in Bradenton. It was built by the Central Granite Company of Elberton, Georgia. Three commercial granites from around the United States were chosen to capture the red, white, and blue appearance of the memorial.

Colorado Red Granite: The red granite that makes up the diamond was quarried from the Rocky Mountains near Estes Park, Colorado. This coarse grained rock gets its reddish color from the pink feldspars and iron stains derived from the weathering of its biotite.

Mount Airy Granite: The white “V” was sculpted from a North Carolina stone, which comes from the largest open face granite quarry in the world. It is described as light gray, nearly white biotite granite of medium texture composed of orthoclase, plagioclase, quartz, biotite, and minor amounts of apatite, zircon, chlorite, muscovite, and epidote.

Monarch Blue Granite: This base of this memorial was quarried from Elberton, Georgia, a city that is also known as the Granite Capital of the World! It is the biotite that gives this stone it’s light blue gray colors.

Due to the size of this memorial (it is 13.8 inches high and weighs in at a whopping 20,000 lbs.), it’s design (blending of the three granites), and engineering it was one of the most complex jobs ever taken on by the Central Granite Company.

Taken for Granite

You might be surprised to learn that one of these "granites" is actually not a granite. You see, commercial granite dealers lump a wide variety of rock types under a broad category called "granite." Basically, to a commercial granite dealer, any crystalline rock that is harder than marble with large mineral grains is a granite. See figure below.

Geologist see rocks in a way different way. They would take the composition, texture, structure into account. They would also ponder on how this stoned occurred, or how it was distributed upon the landscape. They would be curious to know what physicochemical conditions it was in, and what geologic processes it endured over time.

Geologist know that granite is an igneous plutonic rock that began in a molten liquid state, that solidified when it cooled at a great depth.

Plutonic is just another way of saying that it is an intrusive rock. Geologist already know that that granite can be either INTRUSIVE or EXTRUSIVE depending on where it cooled. Extrusive igneous rocks form from LAVA that cooled above the Earth’s surface. Intrusive igneous rocks form from MAGMA that cooled below the Earth’s surface. You see, the length of time it takes for lava to cool above the surface is relatively short compared to magma deep underground. Even though lava and magma may have the same chemical structure, the rock that is formed when they cool has very different properties.

In granite the different propetries are usually a quartz makes up between 20 and 50 percent of the felsic components, Alkali feldspar (containing either Potassium or Sodium) accounts for 65 to 90 percent of the total feldspar content, and Biotite makes up about 10 percent. Below is a close up of Pink Texas Granite just so you can see an example of how to distinguish these minerals in granite.

One of these three "granites" is actually a Granodiorite, which is a coarse-grained intrusive igneous rock similar to granite, but containing more plagioclase feldspar than orthoclase feldspar. The big difference between orthoclase and plagioclase is that orthoclase appears is identified by its non-metallic, vitreous luster and having a white, pink, or blue-green color, while plagioclase appears in white color.

LOGGING REQUIREMENTS:

To log this Earthcache: Read the geology lesson above. Answer all four questions posted below. Answers for 1-4 can be sent via e-mail or messenger contacts on my Geocaching profile. Group answers are fine, just make sure to note who is in your group.

QUESTION 1. Does granite form from MAGMA or LAVA??

QUESTION 2. What gives the Colorado Red Granie it's red color?
A) Biotite
B) Orthoclase Feldspar
C) Quartz

QUESTION 3. Which of the three granites appears to have the most black biotite "peppered" throughout the stone?

QUESTION 4. The Colorado Red Diamond is Granite. Which one of the remaining two does not have the chemicle make up of a true granite and is classified as being a granodiorite?
A) Mount Airy Granite
B) Monarch Blue Granite

OPTIONAL PHOTO: Posting a photo that readily indicates that you (and anyone else logging the find) are at the location.

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