Rocks can be movie stars too
- Dr. Alison Graettinger I still remember my first geology class as a freshman in college. I was so certain geology was for me that I was ready to declare my major before I even got to campus (very few geology majors start this way). It didn’t matter that I’d never had an Earth Science class or knew the first thing about rocks, but I knew geology was the gateway to movie-worthy jobs like Paleontology and Volcanology. The first time I was given a tray of rocks and they asked me to figure out how they were different. I didn’t have a clue beyond ‘sparkly vs. not sparkly.’ But telling rocks apart isn’t some innate skill, it is the result of observation. Anyone can do it, if you take the time to look at a rock for its parts, not just the whole. With the right push from my lab instructor it didn’t take long to start seeing all the differences that I now take for granted when looking at rocks. The size and shape of crystals, the weight, the way they break etc. I then learned how ...