• Specimen Number

  9

• Description

  Cut slab of granite dimension stone inscribed with the name "Stone Mountain Georgia."  Published descriptions of the rock indicating that it's dominated by quartz, microcline and muscovite match the appearance of the stone.

• Classification

  Igneous. Plutonic.  Granitic. Quartz Monzonite.

• Location & Occurrence

  Though usually called a granite, this plutonic rock from the Blue Ridge Mountains is technically a quartz monzonite. Similar rock is said to underlie half of Georgia.  One report suggested it intruded and cooled at depth of 16 km, meaning that much rock has been denuded since.  The result is a rounded, generally smooth exfoliation dome, also called a bornhardt or monadnock.

• Geological Age

  Carboniferous Period around 300-350 million years ago.

• Geoheritage

  Stone Mountain is Georgia's #1 tourist site.  It is also the "largest high-relief sculpture in the world." a three-acre carving larger than Mount Rushmore.  Importantly, this carving is a Confederate memorial featuring President Jefferson Davis, General Robert E. Lee , and General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson. Confederate memorials are being removed throughout the nation.  Will this one be removed?   The specimen was collected in the 1930s during the peak years of Jim Crow south at a time when the memorial was under construction. It was finally finished in 1972.

• Links

  Link to State Geological Map from USGS.  Link to Geological Survey of Georgia.  Link to memorial.

• Other

  Described as "Pale Granite" by Hartford Courant. The fonts of the letters E and A on the inscription are very similar in size and shape to those of Delaware, possibly suggesting that the collector carved them.

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