Flight Lieutenant Dickie Reynell was repeatedly hit during fierce fighting at the height of The Battle of Britain in September 1940. He was being chased by two German Messerschmitt fighters and despite receiving what would become fatal injuries, he managed to steer his stricken craft away from a nearby school and convent. He was just 28 years old.
The memorial has been created as part of the Shoreham Aircraft Museum's RAF Memorials Project, which aims to honour every fallen Battle of Britain pilot within the area they fell.
The memorial rock is granite, originating 300 million years ago in the Carboniferous Period, a time of active mountain-building as the supercontinent Pangaea came together. This example is considered a “coarse-grained granite”, due to the large size of the crystalline structure of the stone.
Granite is an “igneous” rock, formed from molten magma. As the magma cools and solidifies, a type of rock called igneous rock forms containing randomly arranged interlocking crystals. The size of the crystals depends on how quickly the molten magma solidified. The more slowly the magma cools, the bigger the crystals. If the magma cools quickly, small crystals form in the rock. This can happen if the magma erupts from a volcano. Obsidian and basalt are examples of this type of rock. If the magma cools slowly, large crystals form in the rock. This can happen if the magma cools deep underground. Granite is an example of this type of rock, but can look slightly different depending on its chemical composition and how quickly it cools.
Examples of various types of Granite
Unlike sedimentary rocks, igneous rocks do not contain any fossils. This is because any fossils in the original rock will have melted when the magma formed.
The word "granite" comes from the Latin “granum”, grain, in reference to the structure of such a holocrystalline rock. Granite mainly consists of lighter coloured feldspar and quartz, with smaller amounts of darker mica and amphibole minerals. These form an interlocking somewhat equigranular matrix of feldspar and quartz with scattered darker biotite mica and amphibole peppering the lighter colour minerals.
Granite is nearly always massive (lacking any internal structures), hard and tough, and therefore it has gained widespread use throughout humanity as a construction stone. The average density of granite is between 2.65 and 2.75 g/cm3, with a melting temperature of 1215–1260 °C.
To log this Earthcache, please consider the rock from which the memorial is created. Please answer the following questions to qualify for a find, and e-mail the answers to me via my profile; all logs not supported by an email WILL be deleted. In the message, please include the name of this geocache, the date you visited and your Caching name.
1. Describe the rock in detail, the size of the grains, and the colours
2. Based upon the grain size, would you say this granite cooled quickly or slowly?
3. (RESEARCH REQUIRED) Based upon the colours of the rock, which minerals do you think are present in this rock?
4. Measure the rock and estimate its volume. Based upon the average density numbers above, estimate its mass.
5. Logging a photo of yourself (or your GPS) at the location of the memorial rock would be great, but is entirely optional!
That’s all you have to do. You do not need to wait for a reply. Log the cache as soon as you have sent the message, and I will respond.
Please do not give away any of the required information on either your logs or photos.
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