Having done some travelling in other countries I've seen the benefits of Earthcaches above physical caches to take me to some amazing places, and as a native of Whitstable this brilliant geological example needs to be visited
LEST WE FORGET
Having done some travelling in other countries I've seen the benefits of EarthCaches above physical caches to take me to some amazing places, and as a native of Whitstable this geological example should to be visited
This memorial commemorates the residents of Whitstable who were killed in the Great War (World War I) and World War II
The memorial is made up of two types of granite, red and grey.
Granite is a common type of igneous rock. Igneous rock is one of the three main rock types , the others being sedimentary and metamorphic. Igneous rock is formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or lava. Igneous rock may form with or without crystallisation either below the surface as intrusive (plutonic) rocks or on the surface as extrusive (volcanic) rocks. Granite can be white, black, red, pink, blue, green or grey in colour, depending on their mineralogy. Granitic rocks mainly consist of feldspar, quartz, mica and amphibole minerals, which form an interlocking matrix of feldspar and quartz with scattered darker biotite mica and amphibole (often hornblende) peppering the lighter colour minerals.
There are many EarthCaches which look at granite in detail, we are here to look for Xenoliths.
So what is a Xenolith?
Xenoliths are odd shaped, which are a different colour than the bulk of the granite rock. Xenolith is greek for a foreign rock, bascially it is a piece of rock trapped in magma. As explained above, granite is an igneous rock, this is a type of rock formed through the cooling and solidification of magma. A xenolith is a rock embedded in magma while the magma was cooling. As the molten material rises, it tears off bits and pieces of the magma pipe, or roof / wall of a pluton in which it was travelling in which it is traveling. These bits and pieces, trapped in the magma but not melting into it, become xenoliths. Crystals that are torn from the sides of magma pipes are called xenocrysts. As the magma flows out on to the surface of the Earth, or remains as a body within the crust, it is cooled, and various types of igneous rocks could be formed. Xenoliths usually have a different colour and density when compared to the surrounding rock, they can be small or large.
To claim the cache, please answer the following questions, send them to me, but do not include them in your log, and post a photo of you or your GPS at the Memorial, at the same time as logging the cache, we will reply as soon as possible,
1) Please look around the monument, which colour of granite has the xenoliths in it ?
2) What type of rock is granite
3) How big is the largest xenolith and send it's approximate measurements
4) Compare the granite on the top of the square gabled plinth and the granite tablet and describe the differences
5) Optional, take a photo of yourself and/or your GPS in the general area of the War Memorial (but without revealing any of the answers)
Any logs not complying with the above will be deleted,
If anybody would like to expand to this series please do, I would just ask that you could let Just-Us-Two know first at justustwo1013@gmail.com so they can keep track of the memorial numbers and names to avoid any duplication.