Geology students explore Upper Peninsula

In June, students enrolled in Tari Mattox’s Historical Geology course had the opportunity to explore Michigan’s ancient history. An eight-hour drive took students two billion years into the past. Some of the oldest rocks on Earth are exposed in the Upper Peninsula and are evidence of our continent’s tumultuous beginning. Students put their geology skills to good use identifying and interpreting rocks from a vast array of outcrops. They moved from the “sea to the shore” as they identified submarine lava flows, beach sands now tilted to a near-vertical angle, ancient lifeforms called stromatolites, and stacked beds of pure iron ore that fueled Michigan’s automobile industry.

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