Intro to rocks day : models represent something real

We have been give a rice Krispie treat, a piece of peanut brittle and a butterfinger to look at. Each one of these candies can be a model when looking at the rock cycle.

identifying a rock. the first step is to put it into one of the three major rock groups, igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic. Each group of rock has its own information chart to look at in more detail. You look at the rock and compare it to an information chart in order to identify characteristics of the rock. Something that would help with identification is if you add pictures in order to have a comparison to visually look at.

So the butterfinger represents a igneous rock because it has different textures inside of it. it also varies in color depending on what part of the candy you are looking at.

the peanut brittle represents a sedimentary rock. I say this because it has bits of pieces formed together to make one larger piece. The peanuts show the different bits.

the rice krispie shows a metamorphic rock. It is sort of layered and it was formed through heat, and pressure then cooling together.

Rock field trip

Marquette is filled with all sorts of beautiful rocks. I have always loved driving through town and seeing the beautiful rock formations. This week we went on a field trip to go an explore these rocks, and we talked about the history behind them. We went to three locations: Near the welcome center, tourist park, and finally presque isle.

At the rock wall across from the welcome center we climbed up to see a rock formation that proves there was ocean life as it is covered in fossils of cynael bacteria algae. We can do relative dating based on this evidence to tell how old the rock is approximately.
In the rocks were evidence of inclusion from the different colored rocks that were blended together

the second location we stopped was at tourist parks. at this location we saw evidence of glacier activity. there were different levels of rocks, and gouges through the rocks to prove the glacier activity. There were different color rocks showing at least two levels of rocks visible showing a different age to those rocks based on the law of superposition . The explanation I liked the most from this stop was the rocks acting a bit like a lava lamp- rocks moving up and solidifying after they cool down. We cant tell the exact age from these rocks because they are not igneous rocks, but again we can do approximate dating.

the third spot we stopped at was presque isle and we saw the sandstone on the beach one of the oldest rocks around here. unfortunately we didn't get to see the blackrocks this time around but they are also a great example of ages of rocks, based on how they ended up in their location. When looking at this location it was easy to spot when there was a different type of rock present because the sandstone was everywhere. However, there were still some samples of younger rocks such as the green stone, as well as some layering seen in the cliff-face.