Page 25 - visitorGuide

First Floor Exhibits

■ Stone Tablet
As you enter the building, on your left you will see a tablet made of Spar-
tan Pink granite from Georgia. This memorial, which carries the inscription “A
generation comes, a generation goes, the Earth remains forever”, Ecclesiastes
(1:4), was a gift from Mrs. Barbara Campbell to her husband, Arthur B. Camp-
bell, a GSA Fellow.
Stonework was crafted by Milton Erickson, Erickson Memorial Co., Denver, Colorado.

■ River-Sculptured Granite Boulder, aka “Big Al”
Walk inside and into the lobby atrium and you can’t miss it—a 3 m (9 ft)-high,
8-ton boulder from the Big Thompson River, which flows out of the Rocky
Mountains just west of Fort Collins, Colorado. Known affectionately by staff as
“Big Al,” this giant piece of Silver Plume granite, carved and polished by sand
and gravel carried by the BigThompson and its predecessors, epitomizes the
enduring nature of our Society, our science, and our Earth through its massive
appearance.
Found by Fred Handy. Donated by Mrs. Robert Danielson, on behalf of her father, Charles Webb.

■ Shaler and Penrose Busts
If you look behind you, on either side of the front door you will see busts of
GSA’s founding fathers, Nathaniel Southgate Shaler and Richard A.F. Penrose,
Jr. Penrose’s recreated office is to the left of the front atrium.
Bronze busts by sculptor Robert Aitken.

■ Orbicular Biotite Syenodiorite
On the walls adjacent to each bust are specimens of orbicular biotite syeno-
diorite. This type of rock typically forms deep in Earth’s crust in quartz-poor
zones near the edges of large granitic magma bodies.

The centers of the eye-like orbicules are pieces of rock that fell into the mag-
ma. The rings around them are minerals that precipitated one layer at a time
as the magma slowly cooled and gradually changed in composition. The in-
ner rings formed first and tend to be composed of darker, higher-temperature
minerals than the outer rings, but certain conditions, such as partial melting
of the trapped rock fragments, led to the precipitation of some light-colored
inner rings.

Florence Koopman noticed this unusual rock in a 5-ft-wide dike that cuts
through Precambrian granites and schists near Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her
husband, geologist Francis G. Koopman, cut these slabs with a home-made
wire saw.
Gift from Francis G. and Florence Koopman.

■ Miserite with Wollastonite
To the left of the Shaler bust and orbicular biotite specimen is a specimen
of miserite with wollastonite. The pink mineral portion of this specimen is
miserite, an uncommon silicate containing the rare earth element cesium.The
grayish white mineral is wollastonite. It commonly forms fibrous masses of
elongate brittle crystals that break with a splintery fracture. Wollastonite forms
in metamorphosed impure limestones. It is used in ceramics and as a filler in
paints, rubber, and plastics. Miserite was named in honor of longtime GSA
Fellow Hugh D. Miser.
From the Union Carbide Vanadium Mine in Potash Springs,Arkansas. Gift from Charles Milton of George Washington University
and the U.S. Geological Survey.

15FIRST FLOOR EXHIBITS