Academic Quad-East Academic Quad-West Baker Institute Herring Hall Shepherd, RMC Cohen House and Allen Center Engineering Quad Hamman Hall, Herman Brown, and Mudd President's House Residential Colleges Science Buildings Main Page Contact		Academic Quad - West Anderson Hall | Fondren Library | Razor Hall Anderson Hall Anderson Hall is the home of one of the most famous stones on the Rice campus, the Frogwall. This limestone, which is full of tiny fossils, surrounds the quad-side East entrance. What is unique about this limestone is how it was cut. The small round holes you see above make a frog noise as you run your finger down them, making the Frogwall a popular wall to visit and perhaps the most polished stone on campus! This marble appears on the same entrance as the Frogwall. The stone's greenish tint adds a wonderful accent to the already decorated doorway. The brown and white markings are fluid inclusions--water and clay which seeped into cracks in the rock and solidified into the carbonate swirls you see above. Back to top   Library Some of the most familiar stones on campus appear on Fondren Library, as well as most other buildings in the Academic Quad. This off-white and pinkish stone may appear nondescript from a distance, but up close it has evidence of millions of years of geologic history. Limestone is a type of calcium carbonate rock, usually organic in nature. Limestone is usually associated with many different fossils that were deposited as a result of moving tides and changing water levels. A B The two photos above show travertine from the Library. A is from the front steps of the Library, which is a popular place for many students to hang out. Because of the traffic over these steps, this travertine has been worn down and is very dirty. B is from walls inside the stairwell. This travertine is very polished and not very well lit. Both pictures show the grooves and holes in the stone, which are created by water.    Travertine makes up the floors and walls just inside the library doors. It is a sedimentary rock also made up of CaCO3. Travertine forms in caves as stalactites and stalagmites and around hot springs as carbonate-saturated groundwater is exposed to air. Even though the travertine and the limestone on the Library are both made up of CaCO3, they appear very different from each other. Back to top   Razor Hall This picture shows the easternmost wall of Razor Hall and the marble that decorates its windows. Marble is metamorphosed limestone, and the heat or pressure that alters the limestone creates distinct features in the marble, such as the "stripes" and swirls shown here. Razor Hall, which was completed in 1962, contains Granox Broshell Pink Marble and Texas Pink Granite. back to top Academic Quad-East Academic Quad-West Baker Institute, Herring Hall, Shepherd and RMC Cohen House and Allen Center Engineering Quad Hamman Hall, Herman Brown, and Mudd President's House Residential Colleges Science Buildings Main Page Department of Geology and Geophysics, Rice University, Houston.