Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 07/18/2011 - 08:09
Forums
High Arctic Change 2011

Mr. Goldner, how can the rocks form into such weird and unusual shapes? It just seems so strange to have stretched forms, especially the “side of valley” image.

Wed, 07/20/2011 - 23:30

Mark Goldner

Hi Tomas! Great to hear from you. It is really quite amazing to see the power of tectonic forces - that is, the forces that move pieces of the Earth's crust around. If pieces of the crust are pushed into one another, or apart from one another, the rocks can literally stretch out, compress, bend, you name it! The image of the side of the valley is so interesting because you can see how the layers of rock, which were once horizontal, have become bent, or "folded" by these forces. I'll have to do some reading to find out exactly when and how that particular rock formation got folded, and I'll get back to you on that. The other thing that is neat about that picture is that the rock folding happened hundreds of millions of years ago. But at the bottom of the valley are ridges of gravel and sand called Moraines. The moraines are stuff that was left behind within the past few hundred years. So you can see in that picture the really really ancient geology and some really recent geology in the same place.