We are going to be exploring some National Parks – virtually!
Through our time-travel journeys, we’ll be learning about geologic processes that created (and are creating) the various features in our National Parks. You’ll learn how caves, reefs, coasts, and complex mountains are formed and how plate tectonics, glaciers, and volcanoes impact the landscape.
Before we start our journey through deep time, we need to understand a few things about Geology.
Geology. A word that strikes fear in the hearts of some people. For others, geology means a story. Sometimes that story is hard to understand. Sometimes that story is missing parts. But it is a story of the history of Earth. Or the moon. Or Mars. Or, in our case, US National Parks.
To understand the story, we must start with the rocks. In general, there are three rock types. These types give us an indication of what the environment was like when they were formed.
Igneous rock? Melted rock that cooled and crystallized either deep under the surface (intrusive igneous) or on the surface (extrusive igneous). That means we had magma moving and cooling below the surface or magma that reached the surface (now called lava) before it cooled.
Sedimentary rock? Bits and pieces of rock that have been weathered (broken down), eroded (moved by wind, ice, or water), deposited, buried (compacted), and cemented into sedimentary rock.
Metamorphic rock? A rock that has been under intense heat and pressure (or modified by liquids), enough for the minerals in the rock to reform into a new rock.
Minerals also help tell the story because they are the building blocks of rocks. Looking at what minerals are in rocks helps us understand the story more.
But this is all very simplified so let’s dig in deeper.
