The Study of Rocks...for my young friend

This one is for an eight-year-old boy I know, the son of an old school friend of mine...who lives across the ocean, and with whom I occasionally have conversations. The latest of which on his bunny which applied lotion on his bed, of naps as punishments and his latest rock acquisition, a conichalchite. Seems it's related to copper arsenates...something like that. His rock knowledge is definitely more comprehensive than mine. Here's a pic of it..at least I know how it looks like now. 8) His mummy and I share a friendship that goes back to our childhood days!

But anyway, these few days, quite a few articles on rocks have come my way. It seems they have just discovered the oldest rock on Earth in Canada and it's 4.28 billion years old in the Nuvvuagittuq greenstone belt on the eastern shore of Hudson Bay in Northern Quebec. It contains amphibolite (volcanic deposits). (I don't know whether that is in your collection, E! Ask your mummy to read up and tell you more)

In another article, it seems that studying erratic boulders or big rocks is also one way of getting better statistics on mega-tsunamis. They found such rocks in the Krakatau tsunami of 1883 and the latest biggies lining the western shore of Tonga. From those rocks, scientists could estimate the height of the tsunami waves. Imagine a rock one million kg being hurled by the waves! The Krakatau tsunami waves were estimated to have been 35 metres high while the Tonga tsunami was believed to have hit eons ago as it is part of their folklore. See, I am getting more interested as I go along, my young friend. 8) Ask your mummy to read up more on the Tongan discovery and here...it's quite fascinating.

And in the Midwest, scientists are using the white stalagmites as a reference in their effort to predict the next big volcanic eruption. They are hoping to chronicle the history of the New Madrid Seismic Zone via the stalagmites. Such scientists are called isotope geochemists and they use really sophisticated techniques and equipment. You must be good in chemistry, though! Know your Periodic Table well..etc..

There you have...how an 8-year-old sparked some interest in me to read up on rocks. And I must say...they're actually quite interesting. Rocks have many stories to tell; if we know where to look for them and how to study them....pretty much like people, I should say. So today, I dedicate this to my young inquisitive friend....whose little bunny squished lotion all over his bed. 8)