Developing a Rock Garden at Edith J. Carrier Arboretum, Harrisonburg VA (U.S.A.) as a Resource for Promoting Geotourism

Chiara Elmi,Gregory P Winchester,Amanda G Simal

doi:10.3390/geosciences10100415

Abstract

Virginia is a state in the Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States of America that offers spectacular sceneries and varied geologic history that covers about 1.5 billion years. A rock garden was developed at the Edith J. Carrier Arboretum in Harrisonburg, VA. The rock garden at the Edith J. Carrier Arboretum is a place where rocks look as they did when they were part of an outcrop on the side of a mountain or a creek in the Shenandoah National Park. Rock slabs were collected along the existing trails of the Arboretum and classified based on the mineralogy and physiographic province. The rock garden offers a place to observe Earth materials from Virginia without potentially travelling long distances. The goal is to educate the community on the local resources and promote sustainable geotourism. This paper illustrates a method for rapid and accurate quantitative mineralogical analysis of complex mixtures using X-ray powder diffraction. Correctly classifying a fine-grained sample such as a sedimentary rock using primarily the identification of minerals in a thin section or in hand specimens could not be accurate; thus, X-ray diffraction was used to confirm hand sample analyses. The samples are mostly sedimentary rocks from the Appalachian Mountains. Three different lithological types (dolostone, limestone, and shale) play the most important role in the geological context of the Rockingham county. The mineralogical features shown in this paper provide a detailed picture of the geological significance of the resources that shape the Appalachian Mountains in the Shenandoah National Park.

Highlights

Geoheritage is a part of geodiversity that is assessed as worthy of geoconservation [1].Geoheritage and geoconservation are concerned with the preservation of Earth Science features, and are important endeavors globally, as reflected in various international and intra-national bodies set up for conservation, with agreements, conventions, and inter-governmental initiatives [2]
Powder X-ray Diffraction (PXRD) was chosen for mineralogic analysis because of its inherent ability to analyze fine-grained and impure complex crystalline mixtures such as sedimentary rocks
PXRD analyses were intended to establish the presence of specific minerals and their percentage in weight (Figure 2)

Summary

Introduction

Geoheritage is a part of geodiversity that is assessed as worthy of geoconservation [1]. Geoheritage and geoconservation are concerned with the preservation of Earth Science features, and are important endeavors globally, as reflected in various international and intra-national bodies set up for conservation, with agreements, conventions, and inter-governmental initiatives [2]. Geological and geomorphological conservation (geoconservation) have a long history [3]. The United Kingdom is considered the birthplace of geology, geoheritage, and geoconservation; both endeavors are integral components of education, tourism, planning and environmental management [2,4]. The search for representative sites has been a guiding principle for conservation site selection in the United Kingdom since the Second World War, and can be detected as the basis for new site selection criteria in Ireland, the USA, and many other countries [1,4].

Methods

Results

Conclusion