🇬🇧 The Indian Mutiny General..... EarthCache

Trafalgar Square has many statues, which record the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire. This EarthCache takes you to one of them, to the statue of Sir Henry Havelock. He served in India during the Indian Mutiny of 1857, and is remembered for his part in crushing the rebellion and recapturing Cawnpore. He later died at Lucknow of illness. 

We are here to look at the granite plinth that his statue stands upon. The stone was quarried near Aberdeen in Scotland, and is what is known as an igneous rock. It was formed by the cooling of magma (liquid rock) under the surface of the earth. Granite is commonly formed of quartz, mica and feldspar.  

◻️ Quartz. This is a clear or greyish mineral, and is the most common mineral found on the surface of the earth.

◻️ Mica. This is a black or sivery mineral, which looklike flakes. 

◻️Feldspar. This comes in a range of colours. Pink or white feldspar is known as as orthoclase, whilst grey is known as plagioclase. The pink colour, comes from K-Spar, which is also known as potassium feldspar. 

🤔 Feldspar. 

Feldspar is often the component in granite that influences  its colour, as feldspar can be white, pink and red. Its crystals, as shown in the below  image, can be blocky, elongated or rectangular. 

Feldspar Crystal shapes. 

Feldspar can have a variety of shapes and geology uses a number of terms to describe this. 

Prismatic: These are elongated. 

Tabular: These appear flattened. 

Blocky: These appear short, and blocky. Imagine a brick, it is blocky. 

Bladed: These appear to have blades, basically thin linear crystals.

Crystals that have defined edges are known as Euhedral, whilst those without defined edges are known as Anhedral. 

This being an EarthCache, in order to log it, I ask that you complete the below  tasks. Please send the answers  to me, and do not include them in your log. You can send them to me by using the message facility or email, both of which can be found by looking at my profile.

1. Please look around the plinth, would you describe the feldspar crystals as being euhedral or anhedral?

2. Using the above information, please describe the feldspar crystal shapes you can find.

3. What has caused the feldspar crystals to be the colour that they are?

4. Please have your photograph taken, or that of your device with Sir Henry Havelock in the rear.