This is Spring Break, but my geology class met today for a geology walk in Frick Park. It was a little gray and cold, and a lot muddy, but a great experience. This is the park I walk through fairly often. Today was completely different. I always look at the trees, the birds, the flowers. I’ve noticed the rocks, but never given them much thought. So, it was almost magical when Al Kollar,
from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, showed us the evidence of how this area was under water, at least twice, and how the sandstone eroded to create the hollows and ravines in the park.

I was amazed to learn that the stones in the path were formed somewhere else two million years ago and deposited by the water.
Huge boulders I had walked past many times had fossils from sea water creatures. Still hard to see, but who knew! Alongside the path there was a fast moving stream–never there in summer or fall. It was almost like I was in a different park. Here’s an island beginning to form from the sediment in the stream.

There was lots of mud.
You can see all the traffic: bikes, dogs and people. The red mud is from the Pittsburgh red beds. Everything has a name.

Here are my muddy shoes. I haven’t had so much mud on my shoes since I was a kid.