Geology Rocks

I had a Geology Field Trip today, so I thought I'd take some cool pictures. This first picture is Instructor Berner. I love that he looks like Prospector Pete. He's telling us about the Minnesota river valley. Here's the Minnesota River meeting up with the Mississippi. You can see Fort Snelling off top-right. The Minnesota River has a wider valley than the Mississippi even though its a smaller river. Thats because the Minnesota River Valley used to have a different river running through it. It was a Glacial River called Warren River, it originated from glaciers. The Minnesota headwaters cut in much later.

Heres a really cool feature. This is a Sandstone outcropping. the sand in the sandstone is pure white quartz. under our feet it was like a beach. Apparently 350 million years ago, or maybe billion I can't remember, Minnesota was part of a tropical coastline. Wind blew the fine quartz grains behind the beach into sand dunes which later turned to sandstone.