1 The famed Stillwater Complex. These are nearly the oldest rocks in North America and date back to the Archean Eon some 3.4 BILLION years ago. The rocks formed in the mantle (7.5 miles down!) and were uplifted and exposed on the surface during the Laramide Orogeny about 70 million years ago. The rocks are also a great ore body for chrome, platinum, palladium and other rare-earth minerals. One current hypothesis as to how these rocks got close enough to the crust to be uplifted was a huge meteorite impact during the early formation of the Earth. These rocks would have been the ejected particles blasted out of the crater.
2 Notice the large crystals of this gabbro-like rock, showing us that these rocks cooled off slowly underground. The slower the cooling, the bigger the crystal size. Geologists term this texture as phaneritic - crystals large enough to be visible with the naked eye.
3 Gerry gives us the lowdown on the amazing rocks.
4 Lest you believe these rare-earth minerals are going untapped, have no fear. A very large mine is currently processing this ore (these are the tailings).
5 Who would have guessed so many college kids would go nuts for rare rocks?
6 A neat lillte intrusion rich in what I believe to be a chrome ore.
7 Here's a close-up of the intrusion. Note the bling on it.
8 This was my facvorite rock from the trip. I'll need to consult my notes as to the name of the rock... when I can find them!
9 So here's a case of when sexism can work-out favorably. Several of the gals on the trip happened to flag down a mine pick-up truck to inquire about the rocks they were finding. The miners, probably thinking it was awesome gals found them interesting, gave them several samples of ore palladium ore. Lucky, lucky, girls. The bronze-looking stuff is the palladium ore.
10 Just outside of Red Lodge, MT we encountered a sweet thunderstorm that displayed amazing hail shafts. The hail shafts are easy to see because they look so much whiter than the surrounding rain shafts. We didn't get into the hail, however.
11 The Beartooth HWY: The most beautiful road in the country? Look at the amazingly-carved glacial valleys.
12 Steve takes a pinch of air with him.
13 The lookout at 9000' provided us a great view of the cumulonimbus cloud producing severe weather near Red Lodge.
14 The sneaky squirrel-feeder makes a quick exit as everyone tries to determine the culprit.
15 Steve does another good job of getting us in the shot.
16 I thought this view was striking.
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18 Just a little furter up the road the higher country was still an iced-over wonderland.
19 We all marveled at the colors in the ice.
20 The bowl-shaped depression is a cirque, completely filled with snow and ice.
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