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A Monumental Task [Mount Rushmore]
Advanced Imaging Magazine ^ | September 2010 | Lee J. Nelson

Posted on 11/02/2014 8:06:38 PM PST by SunkenCiv

An imaging project is designed to help save the iconic Mount Rushmore from the effects of weather, physical erosion and more...

I always have been fascinated by the Mount Rushmore National Memorial (Keystone, S.D.); ever since noted New York Times Magazine photographer Sam Falk gave me an image he took of Gutzon Borglum’s sculpture. When Falk presented me with his photograph in the 1960s, little did anyone realize that the effects of erosion—although not yet readily apparent—already had taken hold.

Carving of the monument actually began in 1927 and finally was completed in 1941. Although jurisdiction over Mount Rushmore was ceded to the Department of the Interior’s National Park Service in 1933, nearly 50 years passed before general acknowledgment of the necessity for preservative action.

Weathering breaks down rock. While granite is fairly resistant, outcroppings constantly are subjected to the elements; causing gradual chemical and physical changes. Carbon dioxide and oxygen from runoff attrite substance. Physical erosion occurs when water, lodged in cracks, turns to ice and expands. Annual freeze/thaw cycles additionally force apart fractured edges. Tree roots produce a similar result which, ultimately, causes rock to disintegrate into clay and sand.

To safeguard the statues, experts would need to predict which of the granite blocks were most prone to shifting. In 1989, Respec Engineering, Inc. (Rapid City, S.D.) conducted a high-tech checkup that included photogrammetry and three-dimensional AutoCAD (AutoDesk, Inc., San Rafael, Calif.) modeling. Using precision cameras mounted aboard fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, the survey comprised some 300 photographs. From those images, a computer created 3D projections of the monument’s internal fracture system. It was part of a sprucing up for the Memorial’s impending 50th anniversary.

(Excerpt) Read more at advancedimagingpro.com ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: godsgravesglyphs; mountrushmore
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To: SunkenCiv

I hope they have more luck at preserving it than they had at the Old Man of the Mountain in NH.


21 posted on 11/03/2014 3:25:44 PM PST by Blood of Tyrants (The cure has become worse than the disease. Support an end to the WOD now.)
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To: SunkenCiv; All
completed in 1941

Technically, it wasn't completed. Construction was stopped because of lack of funding.

The final version was supposed to look like this model:


22 posted on 11/03/2014 4:35:49 PM PST by EveningStar
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To: afraidfortherepublic; JennysCool; SunkenCiv

That movie is my favorite Hitchcock. Just as good today as when it was made. Love this line: “That’s funny, that plane’s dustin’ crops where there ain’t no crops.”


23 posted on 11/06/2014 2:04:11 PM PST by colorado tanker
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To: SunkenCiv

I didn’t know about the hall of records. Interesting.


24 posted on 11/06/2014 2:04:50 PM PST by colorado tanker
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To: colorado tanker

Somewhere I have a docu on it — the sculptor first pitched the idea of the Confed monument at Stone Mountain, joined the Klan, the whole works; he got pissed off about something, quit the Klan, and conceived the Rushmore project. He wanted a museum about the US in that Hall of Records, and including a copy of the Declaration of the Independence, or the Constitution, or both, I forget. Fascinating guy. One of his rock cutters branched out and started that unfinished Crazy Horse monument.


25 posted on 11/06/2014 4:30:24 PM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_______________________Celebrate the Polls, Ignore the Trolls)
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To: EveningStar

Thanks ES.


26 posted on 11/06/2014 4:30:51 PM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_______________________Celebrate the Polls, Ignore the Trolls)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

Hitch?


27 posted on 11/06/2014 4:32:11 PM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_______________________Celebrate the Polls, Ignore the Trolls)
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To: Calvin Locke

:’) I wonder if he worked barefoot?


28 posted on 11/06/2014 4:32:44 PM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_______________________Celebrate the Polls, Ignore the Trolls)
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To: SunkenCiv

I wonder if the producers of the National Treasure sequel were aware of that when they decided to place their treasure there.


29 posted on 11/06/2014 4:51:24 PM PST by colorado tanker
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To: colorado tanker

I’m not sure they were aware of anything but the pager number for their drug dealer when they wrote that sorry-assed script.


30 posted on 11/06/2014 5:21:53 PM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_______________________Celebrate the Polls, Ignore the Trolls)
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