| Dictionary: co·qui·na |
[Spanish, cockle, probably diminutive of concha, shell, from Latin, mussel. See conch.]
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A calcarenite or clastic limestone whose detrital particles are chiefly fossils, whole or fragmented. The term is most frequently used for an aggregate of large shells more or less cemented by calcite. If the rock consists of fine-sized shell debris, it is called a microcoquina. Some coquinas show little evidence of any transportation by currents. See also Limestone.
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A soft limestone formed primarily of broken shells and coral; cut into blocks and used in construction.
| Wikipedia: Coquina |
Coquina (Spanish, "cockle"; pronounced /koʊˈkiːnə/) is an incompletely consolidated sedimentary rock. Coquina was formed in association with marine reefs and is a variety of "coral rag", technically a subset of limestone.
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Coquina is mainly composed of mineral calcite, often including some phosphate, in the form of seashells or coral. It is found in surface exposures along the east coast of Florida from St. Johns County to Palm Beach County. It may occur up to 20 miles inland from the coast in the sub-surface. It is found as far north as Fort Fisher, North Carolina. It has also been formed in the South Island of New Zealand, where it outcrops in a disused quarry near Oamaru. The Oligocene deposits here are composed primarily of very well preserved brachiopod shells, in a matrix of brachiopod, echinoid, and bryozoan detritus and foraminifera.
Occasionally quarried or mined and used as a building stone in Florida for over 400 years, coquina forms the walls of the Castillo de San Marcos, Saint Augustine. The stone makes a very good material for forts, particularly those built during the period of heavy cannon use. Because of coquina's softness, cannon balls would sink into, rather than shatter or puncture, the walls of the Castillo de San Marcos.
When first quarried, coquina is extremely soft. This softness makes it very easy to remove from the quarry and cut into shape. However, the stone is also at first much too soft to be used for building. In order to be used as a building material, the stone is left out to dry for approximately one to three years, which causes the stone to harden into a usable, but still comparatively soft, form.
Coquina has also been used as a source of paving material. It is usually poorly cemented and easily breaks into component shell or coral fragments, which can be substituted for gravel or crushed harder rocks. Large pieces of coquina of unusual shape are sometimes used as landscape decoration.
Because coquina often includes a component of phosphate, it is sometimes mined for use as fertilizer.
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Sci-Tech Encyclopedia. McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. Copyright © 2005 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Architecture. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Coquina". Read more |
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