Rocks Rock: A Geology Field Trip

I had to wake up this morning bright and early for a geology field trip. We were doing a rock tour of Central PA and spending four hours driving around looking at different rocks in the area. Before this class that would have sounded like the most boring field trip in the world to me but I have a great professor and a cool class that makes learning about rocks really fun! I’m so glad I took this class for my science lab elective. We saw some cool rock formations so I thought I’d share some of the pictures I took with you guys. They were snapped on my phone so I apologize for them not being the best quality.

I ran over to Starbucks to pick up a grande white chocolate mocha with skim milk and no whip before we hit the road for a caffeine buzz. Sidenote: I am so glad I wore boots! It was a muddy mess out there in the dirt that would have destroyed shoes without a thick sole.

We were looking at limestone on the side of a quarry when the guy who owned the place invited us to see the bottom of the quarry. I found out the reason the water is green is because of the limestone sediment. I thought that would make the water more acidic than regular water but the limestone actually nuetralizes the water giving it a balanced Ph.

I’ve never been inside a quarry before. It was pretty cool!

After leaving the quarry we went to go check out this sink hole. Its way down at the bottom of a hill and formed a cave next to it where the water pushed in. It looked like the perfect spot for a secluded picnic, its so pretty! If only you didn’t have to risk your life climbing down there to reach it!

We checked out a mountain made of shale. It was so cool because as the mountain erodes it goes from big pieces of shale up top to the tiny pieces that make up the bottom of the mountain. I thought the folds looked so pretty.

We concluded our trip with a stop rich with fossils. Nearly every piece of rock you pick up has some kind of fossil in it. Check out this awesome one of a shell. I thought it was really cool!

And that was our fun little field trip! I wish more college classes did field trips, I love interactive learning. It feels like being back in elementary school! 😀

I’m typing this up from the computer lab at school. I just finished up my Microsoft  Excel midterm and am getting ready to head home, finish packing up my stuff, and then head for State College. Josh and I leave tomorrow at 9am for New Haven. I can’t wait! Because of the travel and being on Spring Break my posts wont be on any regular schedule until I get home. I’ll be posting here and there as I have time. To stay up to date on my posts you can either follow my RSS feed through the link at the top of the page or follow me on Twitter as I link to every post on there.

If your Spring Break is starting soon I hope you enjoy it! If its just a regular week for you I hope its going wonderful!

Question of the Day: What was the best fieldtrip you went on in school? Mine would be the trip my school took after senior year to Atlanta, Georgia. I got to room with my best friends and had an absolute blast.