Elephant Rock!
Good morning, Midland Hikers!
In our household, Deb tends to be the "night person" who stays up later and then arises later in the morning. Caitlin works on "China time" so she's up until 2am every work day. I'm a "morning person," cursed with the tendency for my eyes to pop open at 5am; returning to sleep is generally not an option.
I'm starting to take an early morning walk across the river from our house, looping Midland trails together in a wandering way.
This morning, I thought you might enjoy finding out about the rocks we walk on when we hike across the river. Midland Hill, Sleeping Indian Mountain, most of the 4-mile area, and up along the Vitamin B trail consists of Elephant Rock Granite.
Elephant Rock Granite is about 1.4 billion years old. Rock formations are usually named after where they were first described and studied. In this case, Elephant Rock Granite is named for the beautiful rock outcropping just past the tunnels on the River Road north of BV.
In its weathered state, it looks like this:
The tan/brown color on the granite is a result of weathering of the minerals in the rock, producing an iron oxide called hematite.
If you look at a fresh surface, it looks different, like this:
Looking closely, the primary minerals in the rock are quartz (clear or milky gray), plagioclase feldspar (white), potassium feldspar (light pinkish) and biotite mica (black).
From place to place, you'll see intrusions of younger igneous rock through the granite:
Take a minute and look across the valley...you'll see Mt. Princeton spreading its ridges over the valley. The rocks there are totally different than Elephant Rock; they are a "monzogranite" that is only about 35 million years old! A monzogranite is just a cousin of granite with less quartz in it. And, the "chalk cliffs" aren't chalk!! They are just fractured, hydrothermally weathered monzogranite!
It's a brave new world out there. Since we don't know how long this "reboot" will last, I'm hoping you are still finding sources of happiness and meaning in your contracted lives.
Hike on...!
Best,
M
In our household, Deb tends to be the "night person" who stays up later and then arises later in the morning. Caitlin works on "China time" so she's up until 2am every work day. I'm a "morning person," cursed with the tendency for my eyes to pop open at 5am; returning to sleep is generally not an option.
I'm starting to take an early morning walk across the river from our house, looping Midland trails together in a wandering way.
This morning, I thought you might enjoy finding out about the rocks we walk on when we hike across the river. Midland Hill, Sleeping Indian Mountain, most of the 4-mile area, and up along the Vitamin B trail consists of Elephant Rock Granite.
Elephant Rock Granite is about 1.4 billion years old. Rock formations are usually named after where they were first described and studied. In this case, Elephant Rock Granite is named for the beautiful rock outcropping just past the tunnels on the River Road north of BV.
In its weathered state, it looks like this:
The tan/brown color on the granite is a result of weathering of the minerals in the rock, producing an iron oxide called hematite.
If you look at a fresh surface, it looks different, like this:
Looking closely, the primary minerals in the rock are quartz (clear or milky gray), plagioclase feldspar (white), potassium feldspar (light pinkish) and biotite mica (black).
From place to place, you'll see intrusions of younger igneous rock through the granite:
Take a minute and look across the valley...you'll see Mt. Princeton spreading its ridges over the valley. The rocks there are totally different than Elephant Rock; they are a "monzogranite" that is only about 35 million years old! A monzogranite is just a cousin of granite with less quartz in it. And, the "chalk cliffs" aren't chalk!! They are just fractured, hydrothermally weathered monzogranite!
It's a brave new world out there. Since we don't know how long this "reboot" will last, I'm hoping you are still finding sources of happiness and meaning in your contracted lives.
Hike on...!
Best,
M
Thank you so much! Love these tours & re-inspired looks at where we get to live!!!!
ReplyDeleteWow! So interesting! Thanks for posting, Michael
ReplyDeleteNice blog.
ReplyDelete