St Peter's Church, Finsthwaite
Built in 1874, the church of St Peter replaced an earlier chapel constructed in 1724-5. It was designed by Paley and Austin, the well known Lancaster firm of architects, and won a prize in a competition to design a church suitable for an alpine area. It is a grade II* listed building. A lych gate was added in 1914. The parish clock, which is situated in the tower, was installed in 1918 as a monument to the Fallen of the parish. It was completely renovated and electrified by public subscription in 2005. A set of tubular bells is housed in the tower, and these were refurbished and computerized in 2012.
Compulsory tasks In order to log a find against this EarthCache, you will need to visit GZ and make some observations and then answer some questions and send answers to me via my Geocaching profile or through the Messenger Centre.
Please describe the sandstone that make up the arches around the door and windows.
1. Sandstone can come in different colours. Describe the colours can you see in the stone?? What impurities are present in some of the stone blocks (in the below listing for the information on sandstone colours and impurities)
2. Sedimentary rocks are often deposited in layers and there is clear layering in some of the blocks. Some of the blocks contain cross bedded layers (refer to text on cross bedding). A=Approximately what angle in degrees do the layers appear in the stone? B=What thickness are the bands, are they all the same and uniform or are some thicker than others.
3. Given your answer to no 2, have the sediment layers been layed down in a variable or steady water flow.
4. Also: Include in your log a photograph of you, your GPS or another identifiable item near GZ, taking care not to include anything in the photo that may give away your answers.
Sandstone
Sandstone forms over the course of centuries, as deposits of sand accumulate in rivers, lakes or on the ocean floor, and the sand blends with calcite or quarts and then undergoes compression. As time goes by, the pressure pushes all of these elements together to create sandstone. Not all sand is identical this creates a variety of colours and grain textures, each formation has a unique appearance.
Some archaeologists have studied the formation of sandstone to determine how different layers of colour ended up in the same sandstone. The most common theory is that a mixture of various sand types split into layers as the sand accumulated centuries or even millions of years ago. A similar process takes place in avalanches as the chaos of movement ensures that no two layers contain the same type of material.
Varying thicknesses of rock deposits are possible. The thickness of each layer of rock depends upon the flow of water and the way in which it has been deposited. If the same type of material is washed down with steady water flow the depth of the sedimentary rock can be quite constant creating smooth rock with strong bonds. This type of rock is suitable for building because both the bedding planes and vertical strengths are good.
If the water flow is variable into the sea or lake, different amounts and types of material can be washed down creating thin layers of sediment with weak layers of rock. Thin layers of rock generally have weak vertical strength too meaning that it is unlikely that this rock would be suitable for building.
Geology of cross bedding
In geology, the sedimentary structures known as cross-bedding are the (near-) horizontal units that are internally composed of inclined layers. This is a case in geology in which the origional depositional layering is tilted, and the tilting is not a result of post-depositional deformation. Cross-beds or "sets" are the groups of inclined layers, and the inclined layers are known as cross strata.
Cross bedding forms during deposition on the inclined surfaces of bedforms such as ripples and dunes, and indicates that the depositional environment contained a flowing medium (typically water or wind). Examples of these bedforms are ripples, dunes, anti-dunes, sand waves, hummocks, bars, and delta slopes. Cross-bedding is widespread in many environments. Environments in which water movement is fast enough and deep enough to develop large-scale bed forms fall into three natural groupings: rivers, tide-dominated coastal and marine settings.
COLOURS OF SANDSTONE
The colour of a sandstone depends on its detrital grains and bonding material.
- An abundance of potassium feldspar often gives a pink colour.
- Fine-grained, dark-coloured rock fragments, such as pieces of slate, chert, or andesite, however, give a salt-and-pepper appearance to a sandstone.
- Iron oxide cement imparts tones of yellow, orange, brown, or red.
- Calcite cement imparts a grey colour.
- A sandstone consisting almost wholly of quartz grains cemented by quartz may be glassy and white.
- A chloritic clay matrix results in a greenish black colour.
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For full information on how you can expand the Church Micro series by sadexploration please read the Place your own Church Micro page before you contact him at churchmicro.co.uk
See also the Church Micro Statistics and Home pages for further information about the series.
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