A hiker stands on an knob of gneiss just north of the parking lot at Beartooth Pass in Shoshone National Forest, Wyoming. The lighter rock is granodiorite that intruded into the gneiss. The hiker at the top of the knob stands at about 11,000 feet above sea level. The rocks exposed here are part of an Archean metamorphic-igneous complex and are between 3.6 and 2.7 billion years ago. These rocks represent a time when Wyoming was a separate microcontinent called the Wyoming Craton which existed 500 million years before the North American Continent formed.

Spiegelsee, Steiermark, Austria. While metamorphic rocks dominate this side of the Enns river, the massif on the nothern side, is build up of carbonate rocks.

Stones of Callanish (Callanish I) is a late Neolithic stone circle (~2900-2600 BC) containing 13 standing stones composed of Precambrian metamorphic rocks. I photographed them on a rainy early morning, Callanish, Lewis Island, Scotland. In 'Outlander', the stones were used as a model for a fictional stone circle near Culloden called Craigh na Dun.

16/02/2023 www.allenfotowild.com

Below the Dam the Shoshone River runs across and around large boulders of igneous and metamorphic rocks that are about 2,5 billion years old. The Dam lies in Shoshone Canyon 6miles west of Cody Wyoming.

A small rocky lake lies on the Beartooth Plateau at an elevation of about 10,000 feet. The lake, in a depression plucked out of the Archean granite and gneiss by glaciers, lies along the Beartooth Highway (US 212) that crosses the Shoshone National Forest in northwest Wyoming

Granite and amphibolite can be seen in ths outcrop of crystalline basement rock in Shoshone Canyon west of Cody Wyoming. The metamorphic and Igneous rocks exposed here date to around 2.6 billion years ago. Geologist call that time period during the Precambrian the Archean Eon. These rocks represent a time when Wyoming was a separate microcontinent called the Wyoming Craton which existed 500 million years before the North American Continent formed.

A view down the old road that ran through Shoshone Canyon west of Cody Wyoming. Originally it was the only way through the Canyon on the way to Yellowstone. It was also the route that all the supplies and men needed to build the Buffalo Bill Dam traveled. Today it still provides access to the dam and some of the power plants. It is also used as a walking trail. The canyon walls in this area are made up of metamorphic and Igneous rocks that date to around 2.6 billion years ago. Geologist call this time period during the Precambrian the Archean Eon. These rocks represent a time when Wyoming was a separate microcontinent called the Wyoming Craton which existed 500 million years before the North American Continent formed. The layered gneissic complex in Shoshone Canyon consists of hornblende mica schist cut by granodiorite and granite pegmatites.

A stump with roots of a dead white bark pine ( Pinus albicaulis) is exposed in a roadcut along the Beartooth Highway in the Shoshone National Forest, Wyoming. The stump overlies amphibolite that has beem cut by veins of granite pegmatite.the underlying granitic rocks along the Beartooth Highway in Shoshone National Forest, Wyoming.

The towering cliffs of hard metamorphic rocks sit above the sculpted granodiorite in this pristine gorge. Masons Quarry includes drillholes, large abraded gnammas, and polished surfaces because some distance upstream the creek cuts through Tertiary granites which load this stream in floodtime with ample tools to polish this granodiorite. The foreground section of Masons Quarry is quite a deep and attractive rock pool.

There is much to see and much to explore and ponder here. Birdlife, crustaceans, eels, and macropods, echidnas and a diversity of birds including the Top Knot pigeons feeding in the forest canopies, scrub turkeys scratching their huge nests on the forest floor, and blue cranes catching and feeding on the bivalves and blue-claw yabbies in the pools. Then there are the huge wasps nests, the big fossils and around it all the variety, the changing light and moods of the stream, and the awesome cliffs and thrust faults, and the torment of floods.

When the air is still the pools are like broken mirrors; when the afternoon sea breeze arrives the ruffled surfaces are a kaleidoscope of reflecting fragments of colour.

This is my world to value and protect, to appreciate and seek to understand.

This is a glimpse of an area that few knew about and fewer ever explored. Since retiring, we have set about exploring it and building the bank of scientific knowledge of the area, in order to advocate for its protection and inclusion in the protected areas estate. Our efforts have been successful, so now it is time to create the wealth of artistic and photographic record of the area. It is a big area with several gorges and many waterfalls, some majestic ones. And here, the flooding water armed with abrasive granite sand from upstream and sculpted, drilled and polished this "quarry-like" section in the gorge. We love it as sunlight highlights, shadows mystify, water reflects and breezes create shimmers on the pool - all delighting the senses yet home to a myriad of wildlife.

Long Lake sits beside the Beartooth Highway in Wyoming. The lake is one of the hundreds of glacial lakes on the Beartooth Plateau which were the result of Pleistocene glaciation.

Beautiful eastern tiger swallowtails have been relatively scarce in my garden thus far this year.

Swallowtail butterflies often symbolize transformation, hope, and new beginnings due to their metamorphic life cycle. In various cultures, they are seen as symbols of beauty, grace, and the transient nature of life.

Lankin Dome (7684’ rises above the floor of Nolen Pocket in the Granite Mountains of Wyoming. An adjacent granite dome, Moonstone is visible over the ridge on the left side of the photo. The peaks are located in the Sweewater Rocks near Jeffery City, Wyoming. Geologically, these granite knobs are located in the Archean-age Sweetwater subprovince of the Wyoming Craton. These rocks represent a time when Wyoming was a separate microcontinent called the Wyoming Craton which existed 500 million years before the North American Continent formed. The Sweetwater subprovince has an east-west tectonic grain which is caused by a shear zone between the Sweetwater and Southern Accredited Terrane subprovinces along the southern edge of the Wyoming microcontinent.

This is the view of the Beartooth Plateau Ridge and Hell Roaring Plateau looking across Rovk Creek Canyon from The Beartooth Highway. The pullout, from which the photo was taken, is located in Wyoming while most of the peaks in the photo lie in Montana. The features in the photo are from left to right; Glacier Lake, Mount Metcalf, Shelf Lake, Spirit Mountain, Beartooth Mountain, Bear Tooth, Thunder Mountain, Mount Reargaurd; Hellroaring Plateau. The rocks exposed here are part of an Archean metamorphic-igneous complex. They range in age between 3.6 and 2.7 billion years. These old rocks represent a time when Wyoming was a separate microcontinent called the Wyoming Craton which existed 500 million years before the North American Continent formed. The current topography was carved by glaciers that covered the plateaus and flowed down valleys during the Pleistocene. The Bears Tooth is a glacial horn that formed in between several downcutting glaciers. The Bears Tooth is a popular destination for local mountain climbers.

Walls of the Sunlight Canyon as seen fron the High Bridge that spans the canyon on the Chief Joseph Highway in the Sunlight Basin The granitic gneiss that make up the walls are part of a metamorphic-igneous rock complex of Precambrian age which has been dated radiometrically as between 2.8 and 2.6 billion years old.

First travel day on our drive back home to Vancouver

Castle Mountain is a mountain located within Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies, approximately halfway between Banff and Lake Louise. It is the easternmost mountain of the Main Ranges in the Bow Valley and sits astride the Castle Mountain Fault which has thrust older sedimentary and metamorphic rocks forming the upper part of the mountain over the younger rocks forming its base. The mountain's castellated, or castle-like, appearance is a result of erosive processes acting at different rates on the peak's alternating layers of softer shale and harder limestone, dolomite and quartzite.

The mountain was named in 1858 by James Hector for its castle-like appearance. From 1946 to 1979 it was known as Mount Eisenhower in honour of the World War II general Dwight D. Eisenhower. Public pressure caused its original name to be restored, but a pinnacle on the southeastern side of the mountain was named Eisenhower Tower. Located nearby are the remains of Silver City, a 19th-century mining settlement, and the Castle Mountain Internment Camp in which persons deemed enemy aliens and suspected enemy sympathizers were confined during World War I.

While looking nearly impenetrable from the Trans-Canada Highway, the peak can be ascended from the backside on the northeastern slopes. Wikipedia

Bow Fiddle Rock is a natural sea arch near Portknockie on the north-eastern coast of Scotland. It is so called because it resembles the tip of a fiddle bow. It is composed of Quartzite, a metamorphic rock which was originally quartz sandstone.

This rock is part of the Cullen Quartzite formation which is seen along the coast between Buckie and Cullen. The formation is some 2,400m thick and dates from the Neoproterozoic Era, 1,000 to 541 million years ago.

Bow Fiddle Rock is a natural sea arch near Portknockie on the north-eastern coast of Scotland. It is so called because it resembles the tip of a fiddle bow. It is composed of Quartzite, a metamorphic rock which was originally quartz sandstone.

This rock is part of the Cullen Quartzite formation which is seen along the coast between Buckie and Cullen. The formation is some 2,400m thick and dates from the Neoproterozoic Era, 1,000 to 541 million years ago.

Black Mountain looks like one of those mountains I used to draw as a child, jagged; craggy, with a lookout posted on the highest point. This 9485 foot (2891 metres) peak overlooks a good portion of the northern Bighorn Mountains in Wyoming. Though far shorter than the range’s highest peaks, the fire look out, built in 1939-40s by the CCC, has a sweeping view of a large swath of the forest. The current outlook replaced an earlier fire tower. The present fire tower is no longer in use and is very run down. The tower can reached by a steep hiking trail that brings the hiker to scenic vistas of the mountains. The tower itself is not assessable.

Fractured granitic rocks make up the peaks and erode into rounded spires. Geologically, the core of the Bighorn Range is composed of a igneous-metamorphic rock complex of Archean age which has been dated radiometrically at around than 2.6 billion years old. These rocks represent a time when Wyoming was a separate microcontinent called the Wyoming Craton which existed 500 million years before the North American Continent formed.

Cinque Terre, Italy

Water cascading from layers of metamorphic rock in the Shenango River of Pymatuning State Park, PA.

Layers maded up of Granite pegmatite and Granodiorite layers dominate this cliff in Shoshone canyon west of Cody Wyoming. Some back mica horneblend schist can be seen in the lower right of the photo. These metamorphic and Igneous rocks date to around 2.6 billion years ago. Geologist call that time period during the Precambrian the Archean Eon. These rocks represent a time when Wyoming was a separate microcontinent called the Wyoming Craton which existed 500 million years before the North American Continent formed.

The Cooney and South Cooney Hills rise above the Wheatland Flats southwest of Wheatland in Platte County, Wyoming. The Wheatland Flats are composed of Pleistocene–Quaternary gravel stream terraces resting on an irregular surface of fine-grained Tertiary sediments.

The hills themselves are built of Archean metamorphic rocks. These include supracrustal greenstones and amphibolites—metamorphosed basaltic lavas—layered with chlorite and hornblende schists, micaceous quartzite, and thin beds of calc-silicate and iron formation. Later granitic intrusions, also Archean in age, were metamorphosed to gneiss. Sheared zones in the complex contain quartz-chlorite veins along with graphite, magnetite, epidote, and minor accessory minerals.

Bow Fiddle Rock is a natural sea arch near Portknockie on the north-eastern coast of Scotland. It is so called because it resembles the tip of a fiddle bow. It is composed of Quartzite, a metamorphic rock which was originally quartz sandstone.

This rock is part of the Cullen Quartzite formation which is seen along the coast between Buckie and Cullen. The formation is some 2,400m thick and dates from the Neoproterozoic Era, 1,000 to 541 million years ago.

The Beartooth Plateau rises above the Clarks Fork Valley along The Chief Joseph Highway (WY 296) northwest of Cody Wyoming. The photo shows U-shaped, glacially-carved valleys in the Canyon Creek drainage on the west side of the plateau.

Geologically, the core of the Beartooth Plateau is composed of a igneous-metamorphic rock complex of Archean age which has been dated radiometrically at around than 2.6 billion years old. These rocks represent a time when Wyoming was a separate microcontinent called the Wyoming Craton which existed 500 million years before the North American Continent formed.

This panorama was created from 4 separate images.

Bow Fiddle Rock is a natural sea arch near Portknockie on the north-eastern coast of Scotland. It is so called because it resembles the tip of a fiddle bow. It is composed of Quartzite, a metamorphic rock which was originally quartz sandstone.

This rock is part of the Cullen Quartzite formation which is seen along the coast between Buckie and Cullen. The formation is some 2,400m thick and dates from the Neoproterozoic Era, 1,000 to 541 million years ago.

Lauze is a type of rock used for roofing. Sedimentary rocks are widely used in southwestern and central France, particularly limestone and sandstone, while metamorphic rocks are preferred in mountainous regions.

Tavaillon tiles are based on the traditional technique of using ancelles (60 cm to 1 m long oak or spruce boards 2 cm thick) as roof tiles in the Middle Ages. it follows the same principles, with nails used to secure the tiles and an edge-to-edge installation with vertical overlap. Tavillon, on the other hand, is installed with a double overlap and a lateral overlap, which is more suitable for curved roofs.

It became widespread in the French mountains from the 15th century onwards.

Le Tavaillon est issu du savoir-faire des ancelles (plaques de chêne ou d’épicéa de 60 cm à 1 m pour 2 cm d’épaisseur) utilisées comme des tuiles pour la couverture des toits au Moyen-Âge) : il en reprend les principes, avec une fixation clouée et une pose bord à bord à recouvrement vertical. Le tavillon, quant à lui, est posé avec un double recouvrement, avec un chevauchement latéral, plus adapté aux toits courbes.

Il se répand dans les montagnes Françaises à partir du XVe siècle.

La Lauze est une roche utilisée pour la couverture des toitures. Les roches sédimentaires sont très utilisées dans le Sud-Ouest et le Centre de la France, et notamment le calcaire ou le grès, alors que les roches métamorphiques remportent la préférence des régions de montagne.

La cascade des Brochaux est une chute d'eau du massif du Chablais, située en Haute-Savoie (France).

Black Mountain looks like one of those mountains I used to draw as a child, jagged; craggy, with a lookout posted on the highest point. This 9485 foot (2891 metres) peak overlooks a good portion of the northern Bighorn Mountains in Wyoming. Though far shorter than the range’s highest peaks, the fire look out, built in 1939-40s by the CCC, has a sweeping view of a large swath of the forest. The current outlook replaced an earlier fire tower. The present fire tower is no longer in use and is very run down. The tower can reached by a steep hiking trail that brings the hiker to scenic vistas of the mountains. The tower itself is not assessable.

Fractured granitic rocks make up the peaks and erode into rounded spires. Geologically, the core of the Bighorn Range is composed of a igneous-metamorphic rock complex of Archean age which has been dated radiometrically at around than 2.6 billion years old. These rocks represent a time when Wyoming was a separate microcontinent called the Wyoming Craton which existed 500 million years before the North American Continent formed.

Standing on the side of Henderson Mountain near the Homestake Mine, we could see The Beartooth Plateau on other side od Fisher Creek Valley. The Beartooth Plateau is composed of Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rocks that have been dated at around 2.6 billion years old. The mines on Henderson lie with in the New World Mining District near Cooke City Montana very close to the Wyoming Line. Most of the Beartooth Plateau, shown in this photo, is the Wyoming portion.

The New World Mining District lies on the western edge of the Beartooth Uplift along a feature geologist refer to as the Cooke City structural zone. The zone is a northwest-trending structure zone formed during Precambrian and deformed the igneous and metamorphic rocks of the Beartooth uplift. During the Eocene volcanism this zone of weakness permitted calc-alkaline magmas to ascend through the crust and to form intrusive stocks, some of which became mineralized centers. The stocks of the Cooke City area (New World mining district) represent one of several mineralized centers of Eocene intrusive activity associated with the extensive Eocene Absaroka volcanic field in northwestern Wyoming and southwestern Montana.

Reference: pubs.usgs.gov/pp/1717/downloads/pdf/p1717M.pdf

A Burlington Northern Santa Fe freight train comes out of one of 5 train tunnels that cut through Archean (Precambrian) age metamorphic and igneous rocks in Wind River Canyon between Shoshoni and Thermopolis, Wyoming, These rocks form the core of the Owl Creek Mountains which are dissected by the canyon. Most of the Precambrian rocks started out as sediments and basalts deposited in a trough on the margins of the Wyoming Craton during the Archean, about 2.9 bya. Metamorphism of these rocks occurred around 2.7 bya which resulted in black schists and amphibolites that was later intruded by white to pinkish gray quartz monzonite (Granite). Dikes of the granite intrusive can be see on the canyon wall in this photo. These rocks, some of the oldest in Wyoming, represent a time when Wyoming was a separate microcontinent (the Wyoming Craton) which existed 500 million years before the North American Continent formed.

Metamorphic conglomerate, 1.805 million years (Ma). The pebbles in the conglomerate are flattened and elongatedby the pressure as this sedimentary rock was subducted deep into the crust. The red clast is banded iron deposit (red is hematite). Size of specimen is 6" across

Bow Fiddle Rock is a natural sea arch near Portknockie on the north-eastern coast of Scotland. It is so called because it resembles the tip of a fiddle bow. It is composed of Quartzite, a metamorphic rock which was originally quartz sandstone.

This rock is part of the Cullen Quartzite formation which is seen along the coast between Buckie and Cullen. The formation is some 2,400m thick and dates from the Neoproterozoic Era, 1,000 to 541 million years ago.

I believe this to be about the finest picture I've ever taken, and it's because I noticed the subject, at low water.

Slate is fine-grained metamorphic rock. It easily splits into smooth, flat pieces.

Cornish Slate has been used as a building material for some 800 years. Slate has been continuously quarried in Cornwall since the early 17th century.

HMM!

Macro Mondays: Rock

Fresh snow covers white bark pine ( Pinus albicaulis) and the underlying granitic rocks along the Beartooth Highway in Shoshone National Forest, Wyoming. The whitebark pine grows at high evelavations near the treeline. This photo was taken near a benchmark reading 10,040’ along the road just below the timberline on the Beartooth Plateau. The rocks exposed here belong to a igneous-metamorphic rock complex of Archean age which has been dated radiometrically at around than 2.6 billion years old. These rocks represent a time when Wyoming was a separate microcontinent called the Wyoming Craton which existed 500 million years before the North American Continent formed.

i believe this is an example of Mica Schist with Garnet - it is classified as a metamorphic rock. i found this in Colorado

"Algonquin is almost entirely underlain by the Precambrian-era metamorphic and igneous rock of the Canadian Shield. Quartz-feldspar gneiss and granite are among the most common types. More mafic rock such as hornblende-biotite gneiss and gabbro are occasionally found. The Brent Crater has Ordovician-era sedimentary rock, chiefly limestone and sandstone. Glaciation during the Pleistocene era left a mantle of glacial till plus sandy and gravelly outwash deposits.

Soils in the park are mostly coarse-textured and of poor quality, typical of the Canadian Shield. The hilly western side (which includes all of the Highway 60 Corridor) has a stony fine sandy loam glacial till which holds water better than the very coarse outwash soils which dominate the eastern side. The dominant soil classification on well drained forest soils is Orthic Humo-Ferric Podzol. The most common soil series on till upland is Monteagle, while Wendigo dominates the outwash area."

(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algonquin_Provincial_Park#Geology_a...)

Bow Fiddle Rock is a natural sea arch near Portknockie on the north-eastern coast of Scotland. It is so called because it resembles the tip of a fiddle bow. It is composed of Quartzite, a metamorphic rock which was originally quartz sandstone.

This rock is part of the Cullen Quartzite formation which is seen along the coast between Buckie and Cullen. The formation is some 2,400m thick and dates from the Neoproterozoic Era, 1,000 to 541 million years ago.

Bow Fiddle Rock is a natural sea arch near Portknockie on the north-eastern coast of Scotland. It is so called because it resembles the tip of a fiddle bow. It is composed of Quartzite, a metamorphic rock which was originally quartz sandstone.

This rock is part of the Cullen Quartzite formation which is seen along the coast between Buckie and Cullen. The formation is some 2,400m thick and dates from the Neoproterozoic Era, 1,000 to 541 million years ago.

From South Boulder Creek, between Rollinsville and Tolland, along the Joint BNSF-UPRR railroad line.

Thick rock layers of chocolate and vanilla on display in this peak rising out of California's Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Metamorphic rock showing compressed layers of sandstone with quartz intrusions. Anza Borrego State Park, California, US

Pilot Mountain, a metamorphic quartzite monadnock rising to a peak 2,421 feet above sea level, is one of the most distinctive natural features in the U.S. state of NC. It's a remnant of the ancient chain of Sauratown Mountains.

No idea why it is here. It had to have been in running water for thousands of years to become this smooth. There is no topographic evidence of a river nearby in modern times. The South Platte is about 2 miles away and 1000 feet lower in a narrow canyon.

Båtsfjord, Norway.

An interbedded multicoloured series of violet and green mudstone, grey and pink sandstone, yellow

grey dolomite and grey limestone is extensively ex

posed in coastal cliffs in the western part of the Pers

fjorden syncline. Crinkled (?)algal lamination, desiccation cracks, 'birds eve' structures,

intraformational breccias, ripple cross-lamination,

(?)tepee structures, etc. may be observed. Shrinkage

cracks deformed by compaction, and sealed with calcite, are a widespread structure.

These roof slates are old, thick, and heavy. The roof timbers must be very strong.

At this point, the metamorphic Amamoor beds have been intruded by granite and basalt, so all three geologies are seen here abutting. The last steep descent (pictured) of Taylors Yards Gully is over basalt. To the right the country rock is Amamoor beds whilst to the left and downstream the creek is eroding its way through granodiorite. The gravel beach reveals this diversity of rock types.

Most of the trees here are Lophostemon confertus (brush box) which is evidence of the past wildfires which have destroyed other species but induced the brush box to sucker back after the fire and then grow into mature trees. The tree on the right exhibits basal burn which indicates that a subsequent fire/s has been through the area, fires lit by lease-holding graziers of this state forest. This is a common management practice in this environment, though management practices are changing.

The middle of 3 tunnels cuts through Archean (Precambrian) age metamorphic and igneous rocks in Wind River Canyon between Shoshoni and Thermopolis, Wyoming, These rocks form the core of theOwl Creek Mountains which are dissected by the canyon. Most of the Precambrian rocks started out as sediments and basalts deposited in a trough on the margins of the Wyoming Craton during the Archean, about 2.9 bya. Metamorphism of these rocks occurred around 2.7 bya which resulted in black schists and amphibolites that was later intruded by white to pinkish gray quartz monzonite (Granite). A dike of the granite intrusive can be see on the opposite canyon wall in this photo. These rocks, some of the oldest in Wyoming, represent a time when Wyoming was a separate microcontinent (the Wyoming Craton) which existed 500 million years before the North American Continent formed.

The Tunnels in Wind River Canyon were dug when the road was first built through the Canyon in 1925. Before that time wagons then cars had to go over the top of the Owl Creek Mountains. In this nortward looking view, Tunnel #1 can be seen through tunnel #2. The railroad runs down the other side of the river. The railroad has 6 tunnels from the Dam through the Canyon.