Kevin D La Paz

For this week's travel journal, I decided to take my wife to see the largest mountain range in the world, the Andes mountains. I had been looking for an excuse to travel to South America for years, so the Andes seemed fitting. We traveled to a pretty large town in Bolivia called La Paz. We could see the Andes from our hotel, but it was even more breathtaking on our tour the next day. When we got to the top, I picked up a piece of sandstone, which I explained to my wife was a sedimentary rock. When I told her about how sedimentary rock is found at the bottom of the ocean, she immediately asked: “Then how did it get here?” I explained how when the South American Plate and the Nazca Plate collide, one rises, and the other sinks. This results in a process called folding, eventually lifting the materials of the sinking plate. This compression creates a lifting force, as the rock naturally moves to the area of least resistance, creating the Andes. This was a prime example of a deposited sedimentary rock. We were on the lookout for some waving lines in the rock, indicating the rock had been deformed, but I didn't see any. Overall, it was a very fascinating trip.

 La Paz and the Andes.
https://suitcasemag.com/travel/explore/destination-inspiration-la-paz-bolivia/

The sandstone on the Andes. https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-mountains-rock-argentina-chile-sandstone-south-america-geology-andes-131709088.html