Appalachian Plateau

Today in the Appalachian Plateau we visited Rock City.  Rock City is located on the border of Tennessee and Georgia atop Lookout Mountain.  You can see SEVEN states from Rock City.  There was limestone everywhere! I also saw rocks such as sandstone and dolostone. Read more to find out about these rocks.  Guess I know why they named this place ROCK CITY-Rocks everywhere!

http://www.seerockcity.com/plan-your-visit 

Rock City is in the Appalachian Plateau.  This is an area located in the extreme northwest corner of Georgia.  It forms part of the western boundary of the Appalachian Mountains. Only a small part of the Appalachian Mountains are in Georgia, but they are some of the best scenery of the mountains.  The rocks that form these mountains are sedimentary. The mountains were formed by the continents running into each other and the pressure made the ground go up.  This happened during the Paleozoic Era.  This was approximately 250 million years ago.  Wow! That must have been really cool as it happened!

http://eatrio.net/pangea-maps

Now Rock City is really different!  Rock City is near Chattanooga, Tennessee.  You can visit the caves, gardens and walking trails to see the beautiful rocks.  They have gardens and attractions to make the visit cool.  You can even buy fudge in the store when you leave!

Some of the rocks that are found in Rock City are listed below. 

Limestone is very common in Rock City.  Limestone is a SEDIMENTARY rock.  This means the rock has formed over a very long period.  It is layers and layers of sediments or items left behind from skeletal fragments such as coral.  The limestone is dark gray and brown with evidence of fossils and layers.  Limestone is in the midrange of the Mohs hardness scale.

http://geology.com/rocks/limestone.shtml

Sandstone is also seen in Rock City.  Sandstone is another SEDIMENTARY rock.  It is made up of mostly sand-sized mineral or rock grains.  Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust.

http://www.minimegeology.com/blog/2011/10/19/what-would-you-do-with-a-sandstone-rock/

Dolostone is another SEDIMENTARY rock that is found in Rock City.  Dolostone is light gray in color.  It has small to medium sized crystals and it was formed in ancient seabeds.  Now you might wonder why rocks from seabeds are found in the mountains of Georgia?  Georgia was covered in water millions of years ago.  This rock is often the most common rock in your neighborhood.  It is used for gravel in roads, paths, and driveways.

http://geohistory.valdosta.edu/basics/basic_dolo.html

Sources

Appalachian Plateau Geologic Province, http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/science-medicine/appalachian-plateau-geologic-province, October 6, 2006, Timothy Chowns.

Limestone-What is it and how is it used?, http://geology.com/rocks/limestone.shtml, 2005-2015, Hobart King.

See Rock City, http://www.seerockcity.com/, 2015.