Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Week 2 Igneous Rocks

While living out in Southern California is was not uncommon to be driving around and see Intrusive Igneous Rock formations.  One of the most famous in the areas where we live was the Joshua Tree National Park.  My wife and I before we had kids would go climbing and hiking all the time.  Within this park was the famous Joshua Tree Rock and it is really fun to climb.


This park is amazing in the fact that in this place two different deserts meet.  The Mojave and the Colorado meet in the park.   Within the park the oldest rock formation Joshua Tree Augen Gneiss was previously granite, an igneous rock.  This granite had been put through extremely high temperatures and pressures that cause the minerals wishing the rock to migrate in to bands.  This caused eye shaped structures to form within the rock called augens along the mineral bands.


During our adventures there I explained to my wife that the different types of rock formations started as intrusions of magma.  This intrusions and the land formation is caused by the San Andreas Fault System that runs through the area.  California is home to many different Geological formations and the Joshua Tree Rock is just one of them.

Robbie

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