A Rock Can Tell You a Story

By Gail Forsyth-Vail

Pile of huge rocks and boulders under dark grey sky - Stock image

What is the most solid thing you can imaging? Rock?

It never seems to change.

A boulder, a cliff, a mountain, a cave, or even the stone you found outdoors and keep on your windowsill … these are structures we can count on to stay the same, year after year after year.

Rocks have been here on this earth for billions of years. But this may surprise you: No matter how solid they seem, they move and change, very, very slowly, shaped by extraordinary physical forces and the steady passage of time.

Think about it. Where did rocks come from? How did they get to be what and where you find them? Your special rock or your special rocky place may have begun its story millions and billions of years before living creatures came along. Its story has drama: heat, pressure, motion, collision, breaking, melting, forming, and reforming. And its story has a message. It reminds us that changing from the inside and being changed from the outside happen to all things in our universe.

So what is the story of your special rock or outdoor rocky place? If you look closely, you will find clues. Examine a small rock for layers, bits of shiny material, or streaks of different colors and textures. A large rock surface may have wavy streaks that tell you the rock folded on itself a long time ago when one massive section of our earth bumped into another. How are the big stones arranged in your rocky place? It is possible that deep motions in the earth’s crust, perhaps an earthquake, cracked giant rocks and tossed them about. Your rocky place may show signs of scraping from long ago glaciers, or be worn smooth from the force of water rushing by. You may find a piece of rock with ancient fossils, or one that formed as lava cooled.

Explore your rocky place by sight and by touch. Solid? Unchangeable? Maybe for you in your lifetime, but changed and shaped over time, part of the long and wondrous history of our beloved planet.