Manila American Cemetery is located in the capital city of the Philippines. It is the largest of all American overseas military cemeteries, occupying over 150 acres on a prominent plateau with a breathtaking view of the Manila skyline. Here rest more than 17,000 American servicemen and women. Most lost their lives in the Philippines and New Guinea during World War II, but over a dozen campaigns across the Pacific are represented here. Among the war dead are twenty-nine Medal of Honor recipients. In twenty instances, two brothers lie side by side. Over 500 Philippine Scouts, who served with their American comrades in the Philippines, are buried here. A visitors’ center, almost entirely enclosed by glass, is located near the Memorial Court. The exhibit tells the story of the brutal combat and conditions experienced in the vast Pacific Theater. The chapel stands at the center of the burial grounds. On the face of the chapel, a large sculpture of St. George battles the dragon. Inside, a stunning blue-glass mosaic behind the altar depicts a Madonna offering flowers to the honored dead. In four map rooms, 25 mosaic maps describe campaigns in the Southwest Pacific and China, Burma, India Theaters. On the wide terrace, a limestone hemisphere contains an astonishing 36,000 names of those whose bodies were not found. The Manila American Cemetery tells an epic story of sacrifice and valor in the service of liberty.
There are 17 113 headstones where of 16 928 are latin crosses. Most are quarried and fabricated in Lasa and Carrara in Italy, but more than 100 are quarried and fabricated on the island of Romblon in the Philippines.
Carrara Marble
Carrara marble is a white to blue-grey marble popular for use in sculpture and building decor. It is quarried in the city of Carrara located in the province of Massa and Carrara in the Lunigiana, the northernmost tip of modern-day Tuscany, Italy.
The prize yield from Carrara quarries through millennia has been Statuario, a pure white marble (coloring in other marbles arises from intermixture with other minerals present in the limestone as it is converted to marble by heat or pressure). However, by the end of the 20th century, the known deposits of Statuario near Carrara are played out 2. The quarries continue to remove and ship up to a million tons/year of less-esteemed marble, mostly for export.
Marble is the result from the metamorphism of organic sedimentary carbonate rocks, most commonly limestone or dolomite, composed primarily of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) in the form of the mineral calcite. It commonly forms in clear, warm, shallow marine waters from the aggregation of shell, coral, algal and faecal debris. When subjected to extreme temperatures and pressures, without melting into magma, the calcite forming the original unmetamorphosed carbonate rock (protolith), recrystallises. The resulting marble is typically composed of an interlocking mosaic of equigranular carbonate crystals with primary sedimentary textures and structures of the protolith modified or destroyed.3
The limestone or dolomite protolith (and therefore marble) can contain a variety of impurities. These might include particles of other rocks, sand, mud, or other chemical compounds. These impurities can significantly change the appearance and colour of the marble. Veined, streaked and multi-coloured marble are the result. For instance, limonite and iron oxide in marble will create a yellow to brown hue. Graphite, iron oxides can result in grey/black. Iron and feldspar will create a pink to red hue. Serpentine, silica or magnesium impurities can result in a green hue. The presence of titanium and iron impurities in just the right amount and right crystal structure can cause a blue colour. Porphyry deposits will create a violet hue. If the marble was created of a very pure (silicate-poor) protolith and contained few impurities, it would be white.3
Being composed of calcite, marble has a hardness of three on the Mohs scale of hardness for rocks and minerals. As a result, marble is a comparatively soft stone that is easy to carve. It also has the ability to be polished to a high lustre after being sanded with progressively finer abrasives.3
How to claim this EarthCache?
Send the answers to the following questions in a message - do not write them in your log.
- What color has the marble headstones?
- Are all headstones same colour?
- Does the marble qualify as Statuario? Explain your answer.
- Explain the veins on the marble sculpture, why are they that colour?
- How do you see these headstones evolve in terms of weathering?
- Why were the materials, used to create these headstones, preferred?
Provide a photo of yourself or a personal item to prove you have visited the site.*
Congratulations to FMH1977 for the FTF
References
* Effective immediately from 10 June 2019, photo requirements are permitted on EarthCaches. This task is not optional, it is an addition to existing logging tasks! Logs that do not meet all requirements posed will no longer be accepted.
For additional information, visit; Geosociety.org, Geocaching.com Help Center and Geocaching.com Forum.
1 Wikipedia, Carrara marble (Retrieved 04/2019-02/2024). 2 Natural Stone Online, The history of Carrara marble. 3 Geocaching, Barnyard Dawg, Queen Victoria Fountain of Kuala Lumpur (GC7YAA0) and Melaka (GC7YAA1), (2018).
Finding the answers to an EarthCache can often be challenging, and many people tend to shy away from these caches because of this. However, it is my opinion that geocaching is also meant to be a fun family experience that simply aims to introduce interesting and unique locations such as this one. Flexibility on logging requirements, however, can only be applied if it can be established that you have actually taken the time to visit the site. For this reason, a proper log describing your adventure accompanied by a good number of photos would be much appreciated.