Gravestones (a.k.a. headstones / tombstones) in modern American cemeteries are usually made of "granite" - a term in the retail trade for any hard stone that will take a fine polish. Geologically, some are granites and some are not. In the 1800s, many gravestones were made of marble, a crystalline-textured metamorphic rock composed of calcite (calcium carbonate, CaCO3). Rainwater is naturally acidic (slightly), with carbonic acid - H2CO3. Over time, marble will slowly dissolve in rainwater. Older marble gravestones typically have poorly legible carvings.
The old marble tablet gravestone seen here was originally oriented upright. Gravestones can become tilted by: 1) differential loading of the soil by the weight of the stone over time; 2) creep - the slow migratin of rock or soil due to gravity; or 3) tree root growth.
This gravestone was tilted and pushed upward by the growth of one or more shallow subsurface roots from the tree at right.
Locality: Cedar Hill Cemetery, Newark, Licking County, east-central Ohio, USA
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