Sunday, November 4, 2018

Yosemite National Park's El Capitan


On and off for years my desktop background was of Tunnel View from Yosemite National Park with a fantastic view El Capitan the amazing granite cliff.  I was trilled to finally see it in person.  My kids were curious about how it formed, talking about how it looked like a giant axe was used to split the rocks in half.  I informed that this particular cliff was a type of igeous rock and it originally formed deep under the earth where it was “lava” hot.  This was not the same as lava because it cooled off over a long time and then the shifting earth pushed it high up from the ground and towards the sky.  My middle son then asked me how I could possibly know how it cooled off?  I told them it is because of the rock composition.  I can see that the rock is granite, not only because of the light color, but also because of the coarse-grain or large crystalline structure.  It was site worth seeing and even better to share with my family.

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