Read the rock.
The rock cycle, strata, fossils, and hardness — how to read a stone the way a geologist does.
The rock cycle
Igneous → sedimentary → metamorphic. Stone is a process, not a thing.
3 familiesReading strata
Every layer is a page; every bed a season that settled and stayed.
beds & bedsFossils in stone
What the limestone remembers — the dead that became the rock.
index fossilsMohs hardness
The ten-point scratch test that orders the mineral world.
talc 1 → diamond 1002
Where stone comes from
Every slab is a slice of the earth's own history, cut perpendicular to time.
010 m
Topsoil
loose and living
022 m
Sandstone
desert dunes, fused
0340 m
Limestone
an old sea floor
04200 m
Shale
compressed mud
051 km
Granite
frozen magma
064 km
Bedrock
the base of it all
surfaceyou are here · pickaxe ↓
0 m1 m10 m100 m500 m2 km
Topsoilloam · roots · worms●●○○
Sandstonequartz grains, cemented●●●○
Limestonecalcite · fossils · caves●●●○
Shaleclay · mica · laminations●●●●
Granitefeldspar · quartz · mica●●●●
Bedrockthe unweathered base●●●●●