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After we consider Ohio’s wealthy range of pure sources, most of our minds usually shift to ideas of bushes, birds, bugs, fish, or flowers. In different phrases – dwelling issues. This week, nevertheless, is Earth Science Week in Ohio and the main focus of this celebration is to assist residents uncover or additional examine the non-biological points of the environment corresponding to rocks, minerals, soils, fossils, and landforms that could be discovered all through the state.
For a lot of kids, earth science gives a strategy to pique their exploration of the outside. I’d wager many studying this column had some type of a rock assortment throughout their youth. Rocks and minerals present a comparatively protected and motionless supply of leisure and whereas a father or mother won’t respect a handful of soiled stones making their manner into the laundry, it positive beats the choice of getting an unknown bug or reptile inadvertently launched into the home. As soon as they’re positioned in a field or displayed, these geological wonders require no feeding or watering, no litterbox to be emptied, and solely a light-weight dusting for fundamental hygiene.
Earth science can also be not restricted by seasonal fluctuations. Spring wildflowers could solely be in bloom for a couple of weeks, however you’ll be able to discover geological formations or scour a stream financial institution for fossils and gem stones twelve months a yr. I discover myself doing this subconsciously anytime I’m spending time within the discipline for different causes and, because the rock-laden window ledge beside me as I kind this may attest, I not often come again to the workplace with out some new little bit of quartz, sandstone, or fossilized reminder of Ohio’s prehistorical previous.
When speaking about Ohio’s native minerals and rocks, one of many first questions each pupil asks is that if they will go panning for gold or mine diamonds, emeralds, or different valuable gem stones of their backyards. Sadly, we aren’t in a hotspot for pure occurrences of those gaudier jewels, however Ohio is legendary for large deposits of extra utilitarian sedimentary rocks and minerals – remnants of the seas that when inundated this space hundreds of thousands of years in the past.
Limestone makes up a big part of Ohio’s bedrock and was shaped from the calcium-rich stays of historic marine life together with corals and brachiopods. Ohio is a number one provider of this stone which is used within the crushed type as driveway gravel and concrete or could be processed for such merchandise as agricultural lime, chalk, and even toothpaste.
The mineral halite, extra generally generally known as salt, was left behind in big portions as prehistoric seas evaporated. A number of the largest rock salt mines in america could be present in Ohio. Most of those mines are positioned below Lake Erie. Sure, you learn the appropriately. The entrances to the mines are positioned close to the shoreline, however the huge excavated tunnels and caverns prolong for a number of miles northward and a number of other hundred toes below the waters of the Nice Lake. These mines place Ohio within the top-five states for annual salt manufacturing, though most of our salt is used for deicing roadways, in water softening methods, or for livestock dietary supplements.
Maybe Ohio’s most influential mineral product is one whose use has largely been misplaced to technological advances. Flint, which can also be Ohio’s official State Gemstone, was an important useful resource as the primary human inhabitants moved into North America. This gem’s capacity to be labored into razor-sharp slicing instruments and projectile factors enabled our ancestors to hunt, pores and skin, and course of sport in addition to create quite a few woodworking and stitching instruments. Flint collected from the famed Flint Ridge space in present-day Licking and Muskingum counties has been present in archaeological websites all through the continent and it’s estimated the commerce of Ohio flint offered important economical boons for native Native American tribes.
I’m positive I will probably be celebrating Earth Science Week by including one other piece to my ever-growing window ledge assortment and would love to listen to tales of any uncommon or particular rocks readers have discovered over time.
Tommy Springer is the wildlife and training specialist for the Fairfield Soil and Water Conservation District. He could be reached at 740-653-8154 or at [email protected]
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