Site 3: Boulder and Tree

At this site we discuss how limestone, a rock very resistant to physical weathering, is very easily weathered by chemical means. Acids from naturally occurring and man-made acid rain, as well as natural acids from the decomposition of leaf litter contributed to the solution channels we see across the top of this boulder.














Along the the side, there are several chert nodules that show differential weathering. Chert is a variety of quartz which is very resistant to physical and chemical weathering. Since it weathers more slowly, it sticks out.








At the very bottom of this boulder, we find a very interesting fossil of a cephalopod. This was a creature that looked much like a squid, but had a conical external shell. Cephalopods lived in warm, shallow tropical oceans. How is it that this area of NYS was once warm shallow tropical ocean? Plate Tectonics!



Across the stream we investigate a tree that appears to be growing out of the side of the cliff. Closer inspection reveals flattened roots that were shaped as they grew in cracks of the bedrock. As the roots grew, the wedged the rock apart, it was then eroded away by the stream.