A year ago, I started a new job, driving. Just what I wanted, too! Getting paid to geocache!!!!! Yes, I figured it out. During my first week, I drove by so many spots, mainly cemeteries, that could hold a new geocache or two, so I started carrying containers. This is the part in the series of "Back to Work I GO". Yes, I failed at retirement.
Doing this earthcache gets me back to my love of geology and my previous job of teaching science.
Requirements:
Send the Answers to questions 1-3 via message.
1. Describe the particles that make up this sedimetary rock/boulder. (Include color, shape, size of particles)
2. How would you classify this sedimetary boulder based on your answer to question 1?
3. What kind of sedimetary rock is this boulder?
4. Take a picture of you or your gps with the cemetery sign, but do not include this boulder and include it in your log.
This is at the edge of the cemetery, so do not visit at night.
Lesson:
Sedimentary rocks are formed from deposits of sediment or parts of organism that build up on the surface of the earth. Over time this sediment gets burried and if buried enough, it will compact and cement together, forming sedimentary rock. Sedimentary rocks are classified into three groups: Clastic, Biologic, and Chemical.
Clastic:
Clastic sedimentary rocks are made up of pieces of pre-existing rocks loosened by weathering. These rocks have particles ranging in size from microscopic clay to huge boulders; their names are determined by the clast or grain size. The smallest grains are called clay, then silt, then sand. Grains larger than 2 millimeters are called pebbles. Examples include, Conglomerate (includes large rounded gravel size materials and/or larger), Breccia (includes large angular gravel size materials and/or larger), Sandstone(includes sand), Siltstone(Silt size particles), Shale(fine grained materials)
Biologic:
Biologic sedimentary rocks form when living organisms die, pile up, and are then compressed and cemented together. Types of biologic sedimentary rock include coal (accumulated plant material that is carbon-rich), or limestone and coquina (rocks made of marine organisms).
Chemical:
Chemical sedimentary rocks form by chemical precipitation that begins when water traveling through rock dissolves some of the minerals. These minerals are carried away from their source and eventually redeposited, or precipitated, when the water evaporates away. Gypsum, Salt, Dolomite, Chert are examples.