Welcome to War Memorial Park! This is one of three Earthcaches I listed in the park – as such, there is no physical cache container. Instead you will partake in a geology lesson by making observations and answering 4 questions about the stone outcrops at the posted coordinates. These outcrops are located in War Memorial Park and the park grounds are open daily from dawn to dusk.

I grew up further east in the Coastal Plan. There it’s predominantly flat, with orange clay dirt, with lots of big round stones it. So you can imagine my excitement when I saw these beautiful pointy outcrops here in the fields of War Memorial Park. Curious I thought What is that rock? In my gut I was confident it was LIMESTONE, but just to confirm it I checked with folks who run the park.

Limestone is kind of big deal here, as, “the largest limestone development in West Virginia is here in the eastern panhandle. Martinsburg has some of the purest limestone in the country, with silica under 1 ½ percent, and carbonate of the lime 98% or better."

Martinsburg’s location made it easily to sell and move its limestone due to being near the C&O Canal, and later the B&O Railroad. The Limestone quarried from Berkeley County was used for all sorts of various purposes. A 1921 article that I read said it was great for furnace, flux, building lime, fertilizer, Portland cement. It can also be used as chemical lime in the manufacturing of sugar, leather, soap, soda, bleaching powder, smelting, carbide glass, electric, and steel. Many of these items where produced locally right here in town:

Limestone is sedimentary rock made up of fossils. When small marine animals die, their shells and skeletons build up on the ocean floor. What? Did you say marine Animals? But West Virginia is not even near a giant sea? Well, that is true today, but about 500 million years ago during the Cambrian period, West Virginia was almost completely covered by a shallow sea. This sea was inhabited by sorts of graptolites, worms, stromatolites, and other organisms.

Many of these creatures used calcium ions and carbon dioxide in the ocean to manufacture shells and skeletons of Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3), just as clams, oysters, and corals still do today. When these animals died, their shells sunk down, and settled on the sea floor. Over time, more and more layers built up, and were squished together under the wait of the seas and layers.

Eventually, with enough pressure, the layers were cemented into rock through a process called lithification. Millions of years went by, those ancient shallow seas have gone, mountain building pushed those limestone deposits up, and here you are today at War Memorial Park looking at them. If you look at the limestone you will see some well-defined layers, or bedding, which can be horizontal or inclined.

On the Geological Map I looked up War Memorial Park, three different formations popped up. The Concocheague, Elbrook, and Rockdale Run Formations all have one thing in common, they all predominantly have limestone and dolomite in common. Both Limestone and Dolomite are a sedimentary rocks that share the same marine origin, and they look pretty similar. The one big difference is that while under that shallow ocean, seawater slowly flowed through the pores of the limestone, added magnesium, and transformed the limestone into dolomite.

If a sedimentary rock consists of at least 90% of the mineral dolomite, it is called dolomite rock. If the proportion of the mineral is less than this, it is called dolomitic limestone. The rocks here in front of you that make up all these pointy outcrops are mix interlaminated white limestone (CaCO3) and gray dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2).

The dolomite mineral is a calcium magnesium carbonate mineral with a calcite content of less than 5%. The higher the magnesium content is in the stone, the darker the color of the rock. However, limestone is a calcium carbonate mineral made of calcinate (CaCO3), the more calcium carbonate the whiter the stone. There are physical and chemical tests that can be done to prove which one is which, but we do not want to damage the stones in this park. Limestone is easily weathered, soluble in water, and has impurities such as sand, clay and silt are commonly found in it. Dolomite is harder and more resistant to weathering than limestone, and it has a shinier surface.

All materials that are exposed to the outdoor environment are subject to degradation caused by natural weathering processes. Marble is particularly sensitive to degradation by acid chemicals and to weathering.

Chemical weathering is the process that breaks down rock through chemical changes. The most common agents of chemical weathering include water, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and living organisms. Chemical weathering creates holes or soft spots in rock, so the rock breaks apart more easily. Acid rains are one of the main degradation agents for marble artifacts. When carbonic acid flows through the cracks, it chemically reacts with the stone causing some of it to dissolve. Carbonic acid is especially reactive with Calcium Carbonate.

Mechanical weathering is the process of breaking big rocks into little ones. The movement of wind, water, and ice erode the surface and cause cracks. Plant roots also push into the rocks and break them apart. People and Animals can also speed up mechanical weathering by various activities.

Chemical and mechanical weathering often go hand in hand with mechanical weathering cracking open and exposing more surface area for chemical weathering to eat away at.

LOGGING REQUIREMENTS:

To log this Earthcache: Read the geology lesson above. Answer all four questions posted below. Answers can be sent via e-mail or messenger contacts on my Geocaching profile within a reasonable time. Group answers are fine, but please include the members of the group you are with.

QUESTION 1. Name one of the various industrial purposes that limestone from Martinsburg is used to for?

QUESTION 2. It is hard to tell without running scientific tests, but from what you have read and from what you observe, do you believe some of these stones here are Dolomite? Why is that?

QUESTION 3. How has weathering effected the stone near the tree and tree stump around?

QUESTION 4. What other types of weathering did you notice while at these outcrops?

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

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REFERENCES:
1. Largest Limestone Developments in State Near Here, Martinsburg Evening Journal, June 20, 1921, Page 4, newspaper, newspapers.com
2. The Geologic History, Martinsburg Herald, August 3, 1901, page 3, newspaper, newspapers.com
3. 5 Facts About Dolomite You Might Be Confused, Jordan, March 20, 2023, website, journal-news.net