Granite Headstone

Graveyards are places of the deceased and have character because of the gravestones and decorations people add to it. People pick out headstones for their loved ones and engrave decorations and phrases that they remember them as. Some headstones can become very expensive depending on what kind of stone you get and what you put on it. The most common rocks used to make headstones are granite, marble, and sandstone. Granite is an “igneous rock made of mostly quartz and feldspar with some mica, and amphiboles” (Granite, 2017). Granite has a granular texture. Granite forms from magma slowly crystalizing below the surface of the Earth. The magma then cools down before reaching the Earth’s surface and forms large crystals. Granite is an igneous
Marble is most commonly white and has a sugary texture but it can change when limestone recrystallizes. Marble forms when limestone is under heat and pressure from the metamorphic process. Magma from up above closer to the Earth’s surface activates the metamorphism of limestone. Sandstone is a “sedimentary rock made of sand sized grains of mineral, rock, and other organic material” (Sandstone, 2017). Sandstone has a rough, granular texture. Sandstone is made of layers of sediment, so it can be easily identifiable by looking for layers of sediment. Sedimentary rocks are made from broken pieces of other rocks and then cemented together to form a new rock. Sandstone has grain-sized particles from broken, older rocks and minerals. The grains gather and the pressure from the sediments above and the movement of water push the grains together and becomes
The granite headstones had many different colors. The older headstones decorations were a little more weathered and the edges of the gravestones were chipped or worn down. You could tell some were older just by looking at them because the corners were not as sharp as if they were new and the decorations were not as deep or clear as others. The more recent headstones have sharp edges and corners and the decorations were very clear. Although the older gravestones’ lettering was not as deep, the granite headstones seemed to last the longest in terms of weathering and staying together and not having the letters worn down, it seemed to be a tougher rock. You could tell the sandstone rocks were weathering away a lot more, such as the edges were more rounded because of the weathering process, while the granite ones had sharper edges even from the same time frame. The decorations on the granite headstones seemed to chip off or be more easily rubbed away from hard or long periods of weather. Some of the weathering processes that seemed to be the most important in weathering the gravestones were rain, snow, and hail. The gravestones sit in water from the rain and melting snow for long periods of time and the acid in the rain can make the rock decompose faster. Lots of hard rain or hail could knock off corners or wear down edges and make little chips in the headstones. Other