Anna Kingsbury

GEO 201
Grand Ledge Reflection
October 9th, 2015

On this field trip, we visited three different outcrops in Grand Ledge as well as
a cemetery. We used the outcrops to identify different rocks, find evidence of past
geological formations, and tried to determine what the area might have looked like
when the rocks were formed. At the cemetery, we analyzed the weathering of
different headstones and used them to analyze which types of rocks weathered
faster.
At the first outcrop we visited (which was actually pre stop 1), we saw a
meter tall layer on the bottom made up of very fine grained rock that was darker
but transitioned to a lighter color as you went up the layer. We identified this as a
silt or shale and in some places in contained fossilized leaves. This layer was very
weathered. Above this layer there was a layer of coal about 20 cm thick, which was
also very weathered. Above the coal were layers of sandstone that varied in size
that extended to the top of the outcrop. We identified this as sandstone because it
was medium grained, light in color, and had identifiable quartz crystals in it.
The second outcrop we visited (stop 1) was composed of a lot of the same
materials as the first stop, but was more exposed and therefore they were easier to
see. There was a layer about 1 m thick of white shale, with a 40 cm thick layer of
coal on top of it. We discussed that when the coal formed the environment around
the rock was mostly likely and oxygen poor swampy area. On top of the coal were
layers of yellow sandstone. The bottom layers of which were very thick with
concretions in them which are organic and form when the chemistry is right. On top
of the thicker layers of sandstone were many thinner layers of more sandstone in
varying colors. These layers were not perfectly horizontal, but had evidence of
ripple patterns, and above these was more thick layers of sandstone that were
heavily eroded.

Our next stop, technically number 2, was above a quarry so we did not climb
down to see the actual outcrop. However we did get a rock out of the outcrop that
contained some lingula fossils which evidence that that area would have been
covered in shallow marine environment at the time the fossils formed.
The last stop we went to in Grand Ledge was a 40-50 ft outcrop made almost
entirely of the same type of sandstone that we saw at the other locations. This
outcrop showed lots of layers of varying sizes and also at slightly different angles at
some points, suggesting a possible shift or slide in the past. We also discovered that
some of the ground below this outcrop was particularly mucky and wet, suggesting
that water is able to flow through the sand stone, but then must hit something less
permeable (like the shale from before) and so begins to travel horizontally out into
the dirt. At this location we also skimmed the river water for macroinvertebrates in
locations of varying energy. We discussed how varying amount of energy/speed in a
river can account for different types of macroinvertebrates as well as different
particle sizes.
At the cemetery, we looked at the different types of rock that headstones
were made of, how long they had been there, and how much weathering had
occurred. This helped us to discover which types of rocks weather faster or more
easily than others.