Dolostone in the field

Today we looked at an outcrop of dolostone. We call it dolostone because it is a big chunk of dolomite. What's really cool about dolomite is that it reacts with acid which makes it easy to identify if you have an acid bottle in the field. The way to make the rock react is to grind it down a little so that it is in the form of tiny grains. It will not usually react if you just apply the acid. If it does react when you just apply the acid without grinding it down then it could be calcite. With calcite the reaction is much stronger. When I am talking about a reaction I am talking about some form of fizzing. These rocks have also been tilted as you can see from the photo. Lets just say hypothetically the north was straight up. Then the rocks would be pointed north-east.

In this picture of the dolostone there are tiny streaks of another rock that we call veins. These veins are usually of different composition. While the actually rock is dolomite I think that the veins could either be quartz or even calcite.

I also got to see a train go by which I thought was pretty cool. What an engineering feat to be able to pull that much weight.