WeiKang, Wong
11.7.2012
English 250
Ms. White
Research Paper – The Almighty Rocks
Our living planet, Earth underwent many changes from the moment where the Earth had
formed. The big bang theory explains Earth is originated from dust and soil before it came
together and formed a planet. As we all know, the world had experienced different type of
revolutions, such as dinosaur age, the Golden Age, World War I & II, and human evolution. But,
the rock also underwent much revolution since the Earth was formed. These rocks are formed by
several factors, such as weathering, erosion, earthquakes, compression, and others. Eventually,
these rocks will appear to be pure wilderness because it does not involve any man-made actions.
However, nowadays the world is full of many manmade actions, perhaps some of these wild rocks are
already polluted and altered its properties. So, it is
hard to find a pure wilderness object in this modern
world. There is a building in Iowa State University
which has a contrast between man-made and wild.
The building is Science Hall I. There are many
rocks and minerals displayed in the building, hence,
it is a very good chance to explore these wild rocks
and find the connection between man-made and
wild.
Science Hall I has two major departments, which are geology and biology. Geology
department is at the right side after I entered the entrance. The lab instructor, Nick Hamden told
me that most of the buildings in ISU are made up from limestone. Limestone is a sedimentary
rock which mainly from calcium carbonate and it forms from accumulation of dead
microorganism, algal, and shell. The reason why choose limestone as building materials because
its hardness is low and easy to form shape when applied compression force. Besides, limestone
can be easily obtained from marine sea. However, limestone will react to acidic substance, such
as lemon and orange. When they contact with each other, the limestone will start to decompose
and turns to carbon dioxide and water (*see the picture
at the right hand side, it has “sizzling” sound when I put
dilute hydrochloric acid). It does not seem as a risk if
we do not pour the acidic substance to the building, but
the weather do. Nowadays, the weather is changed due
to
our
man-made
consequences;
one
of
these
consequences is the acid rain. When acid rain comes,
the buildings in ISU are slowly acidized and destroying
from time to time. I realize that even humans able to
advance the technology, but they still cannot fight over
with the power of natural when it has arrives.
However, in the man-made building, I found out that there are still many wild rocks exist
in this world. Some of these minerals have at least more than 30,000 or above years old. These
rocks are not formed by humans or human’s actions, but it forms itself by natural factors. For
example, halite is very commonly used by humans. In other words, halite can be defined as table
salt, the most important seasoning in food serving. I feel it is super amazing because this type of
rock can be used in our daily food consume! Meanwhile, I feel that Mother Nature has done such
a great job to have these valuable resources, while compares to humans work nowadays.
Suddenly, I notice that there is one mineral has a crystalline surface, which is quartz. Quartz has
many types due to its different color, such as amethyst (purple),
citrine (yellow), rose quartz (pinky), and milky quartz (cloudy
white). These quartz are usually used to make gemstone and
jewelry and they undergo through many process, such as high
temperature heating, volcanism, compression, and chemical
reaction. It shows that the natural has such a great power to
produce these sources without
any help from humans.
There is an object, which caught me a very great attention, which is a huge fossil rock
specimen at the entrance door. You can see that there
are many average size of small animal on the rock,
and the rock age is about approximately 520 million
years ago. These animals were existed during
dinosaur age, which is the period where humans still
not existed in the world. This is completely wild
object and a great discovery to human! For your
information, these small animals on rock are actually
marine life and it was the first animal species appears
in Earth. There is still a chance that these fossils are still alive and breathing. I feel it is incredible
because it only be done under the power of natural. Even humans have a very high advance, but
we cannot turn an object or living life into fossil. When I looked at this fossil rock, I can imagine
that these small marine animals were moving and feel the wild life back to 520 million years ago.
In addition, outside the Science Hall I, there is a huge rock with two different kinds of rock (pale
black and pale reddish). For me, it can be called as a rock within a rock (as shown). According
from Nick, this rock is a very good example of differential weathering, which means when there
are two different types of rock expose to same environment, such as erosion, sun exposing, or
raining, the degree of discoloration is varies from rocks
to rocks. For example, the pale reddish on the rock has
a very high degree of discoloration because the total
amount of that particular rock is very small compare to
the pale black rock. The process of differential
weathering is depending on the properties of the rocks,
it may takes about one year, five years, or even more
than 100 years. Therefore, the artwork of natural
power is proven from this wild object again and it is a
good example to describe the wilderness of the nature.
They are originated “born” from the wild itself.
In conclusion, these rocks are the contrast between man-made and wild-made. A manmade object is made from wild resources and humans change the physical and chemical
properties of the resources to convenience themselves. However, it has the limit age and it
cannot be last longer if there is no maintenance. While, the wild-made object such as the fossil
rock and a mixed rock are made originally from the surrounding and nature themselves. For
instance, the fossil rock is a very good example to show that it is still last longer after it went
through a ton of million years. During this fieldtrip, I learn about how the natural helps us to
develop our human world, and yet it shows human that how natural has done thing that humans
are not able to do it. If the world has time traveler, I wish I could go back to 520 million years
ago to experience the wild life which has been disappeared forever from this world.
Work Cited
Science Hall I – Iowa State University Facilities Planning and management Buildings and
Grounds Records, RS 4/8/4, Special Collections Department, Iowa State University
Library.
H. Summerfield Day (1859-1979). The Iowa State University Campus and Its Building. Science
Hall (pp. 406-407). Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University
Handem, Nick Connor, Geology Lab Instructor. Science Hall I, Iowa State University. October
23, 2012. Lecture.
King, Hobart. Limestone: What is limestone and How It Used? Hobart King. 2005-2012. Web.
November 11, 2012.
United States Geological Survey. Quartz. USGS, July 17, 2002. Web. November 7, 2012.
Excellent work, as usual, Kenneth.
Grade: A