So here’s a rock type I get very excited about, not because it’s fantastically beautiful, but because I find it fascinating. Travertine! I loves travertine. Travertine is a type of limestone, but it forms from solution rather than critters, and it’s got all sorts of weird voids and textures, and it can form from so many things – hot springs! Cold springs! Lakes! Streams! Ponds! Seeps! Basically, if there’s water full of the stuff limestone is made of, it can precipitate out travertine. Evelyn can tell you why travertine’s important.
Now we’re going to tear ourselves away from the travertine here, and go round the other side of the building to
Stop 8. Gleeson Hall 2
Here’s a nice transitional shot: we’re still looking at travertine (and note how the portions that bear the brunt of the weather show it!), but our eyes are also drawn by the big pink steps…
Those stairs are wild, people. Pink porphyritic granite, with enormous phenocrysts. Megacrysts? Could be!
Right. That brings us to the end of Phase II. Phase III will include some marble halls, and some extremely creative photo editing as I struggle to overcome the limitations of photographing subtle gray patterns in gray stone in gray twilight…
Ah, my favorite kind of granite. I’m not sure if the black mineral is hornblende or augite; hornblende is chemically more likely, but it usually forms more acicular (long, skinny) crystals.
Yep, that’s travertine (Latvian national rock, actually). And red granite on the bottom. The lady is done in copper, which is why she turns green all the time.
I read Evelyn’s post on travertine, so now I can enjoy a deeper, geological connection to this monument. :) Also to travertine everywhere.
It’s so odd when you come across the same word (or nearly the same) in wildly different contexts.
#1 I first came across the name “Porphyria” in the poem “Porphyria’s Lover” by Robert Browning, a weird and disturbing little poem that starts off like one of those 1950s songs about the lower-class boy in love with the upper-class girl, but then takes a detour into psycho-land when he strangles her with her own hair so she won’t ever leave him. Last line: “And yet God has not said a word!”
#2 I was doing research on what a real-life disease might be that could cause something akin to vampirism, and I came across another porphyria which involves a body unable to produce or absorb heme, with symptoms like aversion to sunlight, hair in unusual places, receding gums, etc.
Now this. The word porphyria or porphyric is one seriously messed-up word!
“Porphyra” is apparently the Greek word for the murex snail and the purple dye (Tyrian purple) produced from it. The word “purple” derives from it via Latin. It’s therefore not all that surprising that it gets attached to anything that involves pinkish or purple-ish colours, whether relating to blood or stone :-)
Yes, apparently the dye ranges from pinkish to scarlet to “actual” purple. I know this because my undergraduate Latin professors were SO EXCITED when the HBO series “Rome” showed bright red trim on the Roman senators’ togas instead of violet. (And whenever we encountered the word “purpureus” in a text, we were supposed to translate it as “scarlet”.)
Dana, can you recommend an introductory geology book for poor old me who just thinks rocks are pretty? I like learning stuff from the internet, but I’m also a book person.
Anything by Tarbuck & Lutgens is likely to be good. I have a 1997 edition of their Earth Science text that would take you a long way. I’m sure that you can find something used for a reasonable price.
Also, while it is not an instructional text, John McPhee’s Annals of the Former World is a must-read for anyone interested in the geology of North America.
Wow. I’ve been doing a bunch of research on the Phoenicians (the original purple people) for a different project, but I hadn’t come across that info. Thanks!
Ah, my favorite kind of granite. I’m not sure if the black mineral is hornblende or augite; hornblende is chemically more likely, but it usually forms more acicular (long, skinny) crystals.
Don’t know about naming the twinning crystals, but definitely a wonderful find!
Also, if you love the combination on this building, check out the Latvian Statue of Liberty (usually known as the Freedom Monument):
http://lv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brīvības_piemineklis
And lots of limestone fun here:
http://www.citariga.lv/lat/rigas-apskates-vietas/pareja-riga/bralu-kapi/
Yep, that’s travertine (Latvian national rock, actually). And red granite on the bottom. The lady is done in copper, which is why she turns green all the time.
I read Evelyn’s post on travertine, so now I can enjoy a deeper, geological connection to this monument. :) Also to travertine everywhere.
I believe the proper term is ‘really big rock’.
No?
Huh.
It’s so odd when you come across the same word (or nearly the same) in wildly different contexts.
#1 I first came across the name “Porphyria” in the poem “Porphyria’s Lover” by Robert Browning, a weird and disturbing little poem that starts off like one of those 1950s songs about the lower-class boy in love with the upper-class girl, but then takes a detour into psycho-land when he strangles her with her own hair so she won’t ever leave him. Last line: “And yet God has not said a word!”
#2 I was doing research on what a real-life disease might be that could cause something akin to vampirism, and I came across another porphyria which involves a body unable to produce or absorb heme, with symptoms like aversion to sunlight, hair in unusual places, receding gums, etc.
Now this. The word porphyria or porphyric is one seriously messed-up word!
“Porphyra” is apparently the Greek word for the murex snail and the purple dye (Tyrian purple) produced from it. The word “purple” derives from it via Latin. It’s therefore not all that surprising that it gets attached to anything that involves pinkish or purple-ish colours, whether relating to blood or stone :-)
Yes, apparently the dye ranges from pinkish to scarlet to “actual” purple. I know this because my undergraduate Latin professors were SO EXCITED when the HBO series “Rome” showed bright red trim on the Roman senators’ togas instead of violet. (And whenever we encountered the word “purpureus” in a text, we were supposed to translate it as “scarlet”.)
Dana, can you recommend an introductory geology book for poor old me who just thinks rocks are pretty? I like learning stuff from the internet, but I’m also a book person.
Anything by Tarbuck & Lutgens is likely to be good. I have a 1997 edition of their Earth Science text that would take you a long way. I’m sure that you can find something used for a reasonable price.
Also, while it is not an instructional text, John McPhee’s Annals of the Former World is a must-read for anyone interested in the geology of North America.
Wow. I’ve been doing a bunch of research on the Phoenicians (the original purple people) for a different project, but I hadn’t come across that info. Thanks!
Thanks – I’ll make sure to look them up.
Working on a list! Got sidetracked by Halloween. Argh.