Rock and Mineral Treasure Trove on Campus

I am currently taking a geology lab course at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Last Wednesday, our class walked around campus to identify different rocks using the knowledge that we had accumulated so far… and the occasional guidance of our instructor. :) I really enjoyed the tour, so at the end of the week I decided to spend more time on campus to sketch several of the rocks we looked at. I became so engrossed in the scenes that I ended up sketching for 3 hours.

I first sketched the Pacific Ocean Sciences and Technology Building where I have my class.

Then I went to the Hawaii Peace Memorial near Kennedy Theatre, which seems to be made of Granodiorite, an intrusive igneous rock (solidifies from magma).

My last stop was the Campus Center. At the Campus Drive entrance, there is a sculpture called Hina-O Na Lani (Mother of the Universe). The figure and its base are both made of popular rocks used for kitchen countertops: Granite and Anorthosite. The courtyard of the Campus Center is tiled with fairly smooth and flat rocks which, unlike the others I mentioned, are metamorphic (unmelted rock transformed by high temperature and pressure) – possibly Phyllite. Anyway, I’m getting carried away talking about rocks and what I’ve been learning!

I am unexpectedly pleased with the close-up sketches of the minerals in the rock… and would even say that they look better than the rest of the sketch. Crayon turned out to be an excellent choice of medium because of its waxy and gritty look. The colors of the minerals were great to see, and definitely something new to sketch.

I hope to sketch more of campus in the future, whether that is on my own or during an Urban Sketchers O‘ahu event!