Earth Science Week - Friday

Happy Earth Science Week!

One of really interesting things to me about Earth Science is that from our point of view many things remain the same, but on a geologic time scale they are undergoing great changes.

Water cuts down through rock forming gorges and canyons.

Watkins Glen, NY

Canyon Falls, Sturgeon River, MI

Rocks crack and tumble becoming smaller and smaller.

Acadia National Park, ME

Acadia National Park, ME

Muskallonge Lake State Park, MI

Sediments build up, forming layers.  Given enough time and pressure those layers turn into rock.

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, MI

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, MI

Tectonic forces cause those layers to tilt and solid rock to bend.

Bonanza Falls, MI

LeMoyne State Park, ME

Glaciers carve valleys out of solid rock.

Lake of the Clouds, MI

Through it all, the seasons change.
 

Laingsburg, MI

Isabella County, MI

Mt. Pleasant, MI

 

Mission Creek Woodland Park, Mt. Pleasant, MI

Living things complete their annual cycles.
 

Mt. Peasant, MI

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, MI

And the sun rises and sets daily.

Old Mission Point, near Traverse City, MI

We observe these many changes, but our sense of time is different than that of the Earth and sky.  Earth Science looks at that long view and helps us understand how the many small things that we observe fit into the larger scale of geologic time.