It is difficult to describe how cool I find rocks. Yes, rocks. Those (seemingly) innocuous, hard, typically grey and brown things that make up a good portion of the ground. But, for all of their benign commonness, rocks are possibly both Earth’s greatest storyteller and vivid historian.

The Cascadilla Gorge Hike was effectively broken into two themes: The modern history of the gorge, or, how the gorge has changed ecologically and structurally over the last century or so, made up about half of our tour. However I was mostly there for the second half – the Geological history of the Gorge. Last year I went into Fall Creek Gorge to collect fossils, sparking a deep fascination with the geological history of the area. Here’s a quick rundown:

During the Devonian, approximately 415 to 350 million years ago, much of the midwest United States was not only under ocean, but also on the equator. In fossil ranges stretching from here to Ohio, we find brachiopods (bivalves), corals, trilobites, and other strange but perhaps oddly familiar organisms. Of note here is that we were under a sea, and with mountains in what is now upstate New York, this was a sea constantly being filled with sediment. It is that sediment which concerns us – As it deposited, it was compacted alongside marine life into limestone, shale, sandstone, and other slate like rocks. Fast forward to a few million years ago, as this rock is being exposed, carved, and fractured by the glaciers of the last ice age. As the glaciers retreated, they left behind pools of water. However, this water naturally wanted to fall back towards the ocean and other lower bodies of water. Taking the path of least resistance, they trickled into the aforementioned fractures in the old Devonian rock. This rock is soft, and was eroded quickly by the waterflow, eventually creating the massive gorge structures this area of New York is known for.

What astonishes me the most, is what we know all of this from the rock – its softness, its layered deposition, and the fossils they contain (also made of rock) work in conjunction to not only paint the picture I gave above, but to craft IMMENSE detail about the history of the gorges over time spans we cannot even begin to comprehend. The Tour Guide gave us great detail and a lot to think about, such as why the Gorge makes a 90 degree turn, and almost immediately corrects course thereafter, or about how the subtle differences in the rock between Cascadilla Gorge, Fall Creek, and the other areas lead to the differences in the end appearance of the Gorge. In conclusion, of our civilizations and achievements, in enough time, all that will be left of them too will be the rock, and what the rock preserves for future civilizations, our descendants or otherwise, to discover.